Notes from Petersburg

Life Coaching in Russia

2011-12-16T17:24:00.000+04:00

Periodically I need to write in more detail about some of what is happening here in one or more areas of ministry, and that is my task today.

My ministry in Russia is multifaceted, and though it all fits together, today I want to tell you more about the way God has allowed us to begin what we trust will become a large movement of Christian life coaching. But first I need to explain a little more about what life coaching is and why I consider it critical towards what I understand God to be calling me to accomplish in St. Petersburg and beyond.

Life coaching has both Christian and non-Christian schools, but of course I follow one of the former. In that context, the aim of coaching is to help a person discern God's work in his life, where and how to move forward, and set realistic goals and action steps to fulfill that call. It can be applied in personal growth, in relationships, and in a professional context, as the coach is an expert in the change process, rather than an expert in a given field. The process and the results can be powerful because:
transformation is primarily experiential, not informational;

God initiates transformation through real, everyday life experiences;
effective coaching flows out of mental, emotional and spiritual maturity;
each person is a uniquely designed individual whom God has entrusted with a stewardship over his or her own life;
authentic relationships are foundational to leadership growth and abundant living.

I had a private practice in Christian counseling in Virginia from 1997 until we moved to Russia in 2007. In 2006 I got certified in life coaching through Lifeforming Leadership Coaching. The impact on me was tremendous personally, and when I added it to my practice, the impact on my clients was also powerful. I realized that not only was coaching to be an integral part of my ministry in Russia, but that it was a key to re-building a culture of mentoring, discipling, and - my favorite term - spiritual fathering.

Russian soil was very fertile for just this concept. On the one hand, the concept of coaching generically speaking had just begun to penetrate the business world, and to a lesser extent the Christian world, so that the demand is there. On the other hand, there is almost no one who does coaching, and that primarily in Moscow. No one does Christian coaching.

We attend the church we do essentially because of the relationship I formed with Igor Sokolov, the pastor, while we were both getting certified at Lifeforming. I saw Igor as a forward-thinking, missions-minded man with a vision to use coaching as well as other creative approaches to reaching the city. He had already built a reputation as a leader in developing a small group movement nationwide. He had a track record, and he had already begun to translate the materials into Russian and to train his staff.

Working together as the only two Christian life coaches in Russia both inspired us and helped us move forward, since the task was so large. We began by continuing the translation process and the training of his staff, and we added in students (staff) from the Harbor. That original cohort is now about 2/3 of the way through the 40 week program, and we are just ahead of them in the translation process, which includes a host of audio files in addition to over 300 pages of written material. Igor and I have also begun a second group, this time consisting of students from my other trainings, many of whom are in orphan ministry.

As you can imagine, even with all the volunteer help we have had, to do this job professionally has required professional help, and we have gotten a generous grant from the Des Plains Foundation to help us get this far. It looks like we need about another $3000 to carry it through the final printing stage. We are also nearing agreement with the St. Petersburg Christian University to offer this training under their umbrella, which gives us both more credibility.

Eventually we see this movement growing out of the Christian community and into the business world as a great tool for evangelism. We also intend for the teaching to go nationwide. The potential is huge, but we are starting slowly and intentionally so that we lay a good foundation.

How do we know that God has His hand on this project? Take Nastya, for example. I have written about Nastya before, a key member of our Orphans Reaching Orphans project. Our main purpose in this ministry is to help orphans find their calling in Christ and to fulfill that with excellence, then to help others do the same. Coaching provides just the relational skills needed to do this. Nastya is one of my newer students, and I see her grow in her understanding and application of coaching every month. She recently told me about a young person named Lena whom she has been discipling for quite some time. Whereas in the past Nastya would have just given advise and told Lena what she needed, now she is using questions more and more to cause Lena to reflect on her own about why she does what she does, to consider taking ownership of her own growth (rather than put it off onto others), and to take seriously her allegiance to Christ. No one else is speaking into Lena's life this way, and Lena is responding. So much so that Lena has recently confessed to having suicidal thoughts. Nastya has helped her understand the need for counseling, and Lena will now be coming to me for deeper work. Just one way we team off of each other. Pray for Lena.

Inna, also a member of our Orphans Reaching Orphans team, also uses coaching regularly with the young adult orphans she mentors. As she puts it, "coaching is such a perfect fit alongside counseling as a way to come alongside these young people. The one helps them overcome the lies of the past. The other helps them forge a future with hope."

In fact, in Trinitarian fashion, I see coaching training as part of a larger framework for discipling leaders that God has given me:

Soul Care: counseling, about which I have written more here
Spirit Care: spiritual formation training for lifelong growth in intimacy with Christ
Body Care: life coaching, which is about effective application of God's word and call in real life.

TPM in Russia

2011-12-10T21:49:00.001+04:00

I had a private practice in Christian counseling and (later) life coaching in Virginia from 1997 until we moved to Russia in 2007. Although I had an Masters of Social Work which got my foot in the door to a group practice, from the very beginning I leaned not to my secular training but to training I had received in Richmond in Biblical counseling as the foundation for my work with clients. I considered my practice successful in the great majority of cases, because God is good to honor His Word when we choose to honor His Word.

In 2001 I was invited to get trained in Theophostic Prayer Ministry, which I had never heard of before, but because I respected the pastor who invited me, I attended. My practice would never be the same again. After only a day and a half of video lectures, I came back and started using what I had learned with astounding results. My very first client that Monday was a lady who was a compulsive shopper. In that first session, she found a root lie controlling her behavior, and God spoke His truth to her in a way that she was (either that day or soon thereafter) completely set free from her addiction.

In those days the founder, Dr. Ed Smith, did not teach as he does now, that practicing in a group setting for a whole year is the best way to master the ministry. God just gave me the grace for it to work immediately with me, since there was no group or other peers doing it. I consider that my background in Biblical counseling was a firm foundation, and I continue to teach its principles to this day. TPM does not teach us everything we need to know about how change happens in the soul, but I consider it a major tool that God has given to the Church in these days.

When I moved to Russia in 2007 with my family, I realized that I was not sent to have a counseling practice, but that I was to train others. The need for counseling in Russia is overwhelmingly large, to a great extent due to the national trauma it sustained during the Soviet years of atheism and of state terror. The atrocities of Stalin's day are very much an undercurrent to the state of the Russian soul today.

In fact, in Trinitarian fashion, I see counseling training as part of a larger framework for discipleship of leaders that God has given me:

Soul Care: counseling, with a special emphasis on TPM
Spirit Care: spiritual formation training for lifelong growth in intimacy with Christ
Body Care: life coaching, which is about effective application of God's word and call in real life.

I have other materials that I use in each area which I can share with those interested. The point is that I consider personal transformation to be dependent on how well we master each area. One is not sufficient. So my ministry in Russia at this stage is about empowering leaders in all three, because I am of the conviction that an exponential effect will result in them personally as well as in their circles of influence.

The heart of my work in all of this is a desire to see Russia overcome its "orphan spirit" and come to know God as Father. Therefore, I and my family have a significant ministry to orphans, particularly older ones graduated from the state system, and to ministries and leaders that serve orphans.

So now to the history and development of Theophostic Ministry in Russia. Even though TPM began in 1995 and exploded around the world, it is a baby in Russia.

When Dana Evans and other leaders in their church-plant in Ekaterinburg, Russia heard about TPM in 2006, they immediately felt it was an answer to prayer as an instrument in helping the Russian people deal with life's hurts. They began to study, and a team was soon formed to train facilitators for ministry. As the training continued, the need became evident to have the materials in the Russian language. Dana Evans and Douglas Davis contacted Dr. Ed Smith (founder) about this need, and he gave permission for the translations, which began in 2009.

I learned of the team in Ekaterinburg early after moving to Russia. As soon as the DVD's of the basic training were ready, I started my first group of trainees in the summer of 2010. Now after over a year of training and practice with each other, some of the original group are now helping me lead two new groups of trainees. These two groups include Christian psychologists and many volunteers from a well-known Christian prayer hot-line.

After a lot of volunteer help as well as donations for translating and editing, we are done with that phase of the project. Formatting and printing the book will cost $3,500, with about $900 left needed to complete the project. Many TPM trainees are waiting to get a copy of this book in their language in order to be more effective in this ministry.

How do we know that God has His hand on this project? I put out one notice when I started training last year, and everything has been word of mouth since. Since the training is about more than just knowledge, all students must receive and learn to give ministry to each other. I am constantly amazed at the power of God to change hearts, behavior patters, emotions, and heal relationships as a result of one encounter. Two recent examples:

Ludmilla had been attending sessions for several weeks when she offered to let me lead her in a session as a demonstration for the class. The pain that came out in that one hour was intense, and it was clear she had a life time of pain, abuse, broken relationships, and sin. She was not ready to face the real lies at the bottom that first day, but God gave a small measure of comfort and grace to come back a second time. That next week she discovered one such lie that controlled her - that she had to control others' reactions to her. God opened her eyes (for it's not only head knowledge that counts, but experiential knowledge that reaches the heart that does), and she radiated with joy at seeing how she had been deceived for so long. Not only did she start relating to others better, others have reported that she has a joy that that had never seen her have before. And a curious side-effect: a chronic sub-normal body temperature has now been healed.

The second example is not one I conducted. In fact I was even there and don't even know what the story was. I had to be gone from class recently to attend something else, but since I had two others whom I could count on to lead it (from my first group), I didn't mind. It's hard to relate the satisfaction it was for me to walk in at the end of class to see hugs and tears of joy at experiencing the Father's love and gift of Truth. I found out later that this woman appears to have had her diabetes healed at that moment, as her blood sugar is at a normal level for the first time in years. (I'm not an expert here, but she said that the rule is that if your blood sugar is normal for three weeks in a row, that is the confirmation.) The miracles never cease to amaze me.

Students now stay late after class (which itself lasts 2.5 hours) for another hour for tea and conversation. They are bonding, they are passionately engaging the material, and they are so excited about what they are experiencing and witnessing that they can't stop telling their friends. Everyone wants to know when the next group is.

If you are interested in giving, then the best way is to click here and make a note in the comment section that it is for the TPM translation project. We are hoping to go to print this month.

The power of mentoring

2011-11-11T21:09:00.001+04:00

Here is a letter I wrote to someone I've hardly thought about in over 10 years, but God brought him back to mind recently when I was giving Natasha (a young graduate from the Harbor) a testimony of God's work in my life and marriage. I've had to track him down, and I still haven't gotten confirmation that he has even received it.

John,
I'm hoping you will remember me from CCTC [Christian Counseling Training Center] in Richmond. You were a counselor in training when I was taking Biblical Problem Solving, and you got assigned to me. You came up spontaneously in a testimony I was giving to a young person I mentor recently, and I decided the Lord would have me track you down and tell you about it.
You see, personal discipleship has become a cornerstone of my ministry now. I went through two and a half years at CCTC myself and continued to use the principles I learned there in my own private counseling practice before leaving Richmond. Now that I have moved my family to Russia as missionaries, I have even taught BPS myself, but what is more important is that I have come to see that what was so transformational about that class for me was the personal mentoring that came with it.
Now I work with a number of leaders, pastors, counselors, and (most dear to my heart) orphan graduates, and my whole ministry focus is on those aspects of our faith walk that require the personal input of another, ideally in a learning community: counseling, coaching, and spiritual formation. So one of these orphans who has been coming to me for mentoring and to one of my groups for over a year was asking me the other day about some of my history, including about my marriage.
I related how difficult my marriage had been early on, and how BPS had been so helpful for me to learn how to see my own culpability in the problems we faced. But I then began sharing how the key ingredient had been my "grader" who had been so invested in me. I told her how he obviously could tell what a crisis I was in, and so he generously would pick me up from time to time in his pickup and I would sit in his mobile office while he would take me around nowhere in particular and let me pour out my heart. He patiently listened and gently pointed me back again and again to the lessons I was learning in class and in the revelations God was giving me through my "self-confrontation" homework. I don't remember any powerful new wisdom that came out of those times. What I remember was that he cared enough to invest in me.
All of a sudden it hit me that this was exactly what I am now doing with so many lives, and that you had modeled it to me so long ago, planting a seed, not only of my own marital transformation, but of my future calling, and I started to cry right there in front of this young person (which I'm not known for). It was an overwhelming sense of God's goodness to me and sovereign hand in my life, and it gave me a tremendous feeling of thanks and praise to Him.
So how could I not share that with you? In fact, when I told my wife about it, it turns out she had never heard about you either. She knew that that class had been a turning point in my life, but she didn't know about the secret weapon that God sent with the class. Thank you, brother, for your obedience to the Lord at that time. He used it more than you know. I trust that you have sown many more great seeds since then. I'd love to hear more about them.
Your brother in Christ,
Lyle

Nastya - before and after

2011-09-30T15:54:00.003+04:00

I have written several times about Nastya, but here is a short summary of our history with her and how she came to work with me in our new ministry: Orphans Reaching Orphans.

The Transformation of NastyaThe Nastya I met was right after we moved to Russia in 2007. She was already a few years out of the Harbor (a residential ministry for orphan graduates) at that time, and she had come back to take an English class that I had been asked to teach. Nastya stood out to me, and we got to know each other slowly. She struck me as extraordinarily thoughtful, hungry for growth, perceptive about people, and personally engaging.

Little did I know at that time that the other Nastya - the one whom the Harbor had inherited in 2004 - looked nothing like this person. She came to them from a “correctional” orphanage, which meant that she was considered mentally delayed. Once you get a diagnosis of any sort in a system like this, it's all over. You're stuck there for life, and no one tries to treat you any way except what your papers say you are. When she applied to the Harbor, she met none of the benchmarks that were needed to accept her into the Harbor (cognitively or otherwise), so the psychologist rejected her outright.

In the nearly four years I have known Nastya, she has always struck me as a person who is serious about her relationship with Christ, and the depth of that relationship has only grown. I find that in every question, what is most important for Nastya is, “what does God want?” Her faith is remarkable for someone of her age (26).

By contrast, the Nastya who came to the Harbor had little more than a vague sense that there was a God. She had a drive and dream to be somebody, and that was what told her that she wanted to move to the Harbor. When they rejected her application, she ended up living in a dorm for the first month of college, but she was so convinced she needed to be at the Harbor that she prayed, “God, if you exist, then make it work for me to come to the Harbor.” Two days later she got invited in.Nastya's true self was so hidden behind a wall of lies about who she was from years in an institution that no one at the Harbor could even recognize Nastya's potential. Harbor staff nonetheless invested countless hours in her until the real Nastya began to emerge. As Nastya has told me, she came with a completely closed heart, but it was impossible to keep it closed when the staff were so open and loving themselves. She opened up and blossomed despite her best efforts!Sometime in those two years, Nastya had to admit that God was real, that Jesus loved her and died for her, and that she owed Him everything in return. Nonetheless, she resisted baptism for a whole year after that, realizing that it was like getting married – the most serious commitment she would ever make.

We started inviting Nastya over to our place within a few months of meeting, and she quickly hit it off with our daughter Lydia. They would go on walks together; Nastya would take Lydia on outings around town; and they shared a love of clothing design. Besides just liking Lydia, Nastya wanted to give back to us for our hospitality by helping Lydia with her Russian. Nastya would stay late, and we'd talk about God, her place in life, and relationships. She seemed to have a natural bent and inclination in counseling, so she was fun for me to talk with. Her appetite for meaningful conversation is voracious.

Outside the Harbor, Nastya is the kind who gets along with most everyone, and many of her fellow graduates from the Harbor seem to turn to her for wisdom and guidance in life, relationships, and work. At least this was an area where she could function on her own. As one of the most senior graduates of the Harbor (founded in 2002), she has a large network now of young adults.

Now Nastya became the 1st member of a new team God has called me to start called Orphans Reaching Orphans. Our mission is to build bridges of relationship with Harbor and other orphan graduates that model the love of the Father, encouraging healing, growth, the pursuit of dreams, and generosity. Its a wonderfully organic ministry. I mentor and train Nastya and the others on the team, and they, in turn, reach out to orphans who are out on their own but often without the life skills, relationships, and purpose to help them see and fulfill God's purposes for their lives.

Details on Orphans Reaching Orphans are here.

To contribute to our ministry to orphan graduates, you can click here.

2011-09-30T15:34:00.001+04:00

Yuri - searching for home

2011-09-30T15:07:00.000+04:00

I have written several times about our relationship with Yuri, but I thought it would be helpful to summarize our history here in one place for you.

Yuriwas in the English class I taught at the Harbor (a residentialministry for orphan graduates) when we first moved here in 2007, andhe was so strong compared to the rest of the class, that he made itnear impossible to teach to the various levels. After a few months,we thought of a solution: send him over to our house for personaltutoring. To this day Yuri still speaks English with us much of thetime, but our times quickly became much more than tutoring.

Yuriate with us, played with the boys (rather awkwardly at first!), justhung out, and showed me a different side of the guy that wasapparently a lot of trouble for the Harbor. In this context, I couldsee that he was a young man hungry to learn and grow, and so Istarted to mentor him. What was even more impressive was the topic hechose to be mentored on: becoming a godly husband. And that isexactly what we talked about most every week for over two years,using a study I wrote for husbands based on Ephesians 5 as a basis.As Yuri explained it, “I have no model for a father or husband inmy life, so I need to learn what that looks like.”

Notonly does he learn from our conversations and my material, but he isan astute observer. He notices how we live, how we interact with oneanother, hears our tone of voice, and witnesses our love for eachother, how we discipline the kids, and the occasional marital spat.And the questions! He wants to understand it all, and he seems toreally appreciate having someone to help him process all thethoughts, questions, and doubts in his busy brain.

Beforecoming to the Harbor, Yuri had lived at the only Christian orphanagein St. Petersburg. Before that, he had been in and out of home withhis mother, who largely ignored him. He spend several months at onepoint living on the streets and begging for food at the trainstation.

When wemet Yuri he was living at a dorm while in school, but the remains ofhis childhood home became available to him soon, and he starteddreaming of fixing it up for him and his sister. I went with him oneday to help him fix it up. We peeled of about 8 layers of wall paper,and I found myself wondering how he would make it work, there was somuch to do. The three-room wooden structure was half of a duplex thathad been abandoned for 10 years due to a fire. Now it had noelectricity, water, or heat.

Througha gracious gift, our daughter Lydia decided to give him the money tofix up his wood stove, which he did. But rather than things gettingbetter from there, they got worse. The neighbors complained of thesmoke, the authorities forbad him from using it, and he abandoned theplace in despair, soon disappearing from our lives too.

Lydia'sgentle and frequent prodding through Facebook eventually brought himback after several months, and things looked up for a while. He had ajob and a new plan to fix up his home. After several more months ofwork, he found that the bureaucrats who could decide the fate of hislost utilities were not going to budge on what they claimed was aback-debt and fees for all those ten years of $3000 ($4000 if youwant them to speed things up, if you know what I mean). Then come therepairs themselves. Yuri abandoned hope again - and us - for a longtime.

When hefinally showed up again, I had to press him on this pattern, and heconfessed that he is ashamed to be around “successful” peoplewhen he is such a failure himself. The good news is that Yuri isstill coming now in the midst of a personal housing, job, andfinancial crisis that he can't figure out how to resolve. He told merecently that he appreciates my helping him sort through hisconfusion and think and pray through options.

AlthoughYuri still feels like a “bad example” of a Christian in his mind,he is an influence on his friends. I told him all this investment inhim was not just for his sake. So recently he even told me he's readyto disciple one of his friends if I can help him explain the gospelto the guy.

That'smoving in the right direction, if you ask me.

My best birthday card ever

2011-09-17T21:13:00.000+04:00

My birthday was yesterday, and the wife and kids treated me beautifully. Woke up to a Southern breakfast that included sausage gravy, which I never get around here. Came home at the end of the day to a wonderful cheese fondue dinner, and Yuri joined us for this and for some games the kids organized for us all. That's me in the middle rolling an egg. Much fun was had by all.

I just have to share Kerith's card, as I think it's the best I've ever gotten. [Note: I always take the kids to Waffle House or McDonald's on their birthday.] Here is what it said:

Happy Birthday, Dad!
This is a very special birthday because it involves great memories instead of presents. After a few months you will realize this birthday is impossible to forget. I personally did my hard work to show my thanks to you for loving and caring for me. Your kindness is beyond measure. You're the best dad a boy could ever have. Sometimes I can't decide which is better, you or Mom. And that's how I feel right now. I'm lucky to be your son. I mostly enjoy the times when you and me are alone. Having a good laugh and having a godly discussion is just great. I really enjoy those times and will for the rest of my life - he! Wouldn't it be a surprise if I took you to Waffle House or McDonald's sometime when you are in your 70's. I might.

Love,
Kerith

Towards God's heart for Russia

2011-09-04T13:55:00.000+04:00

Journaling has become a revolutionary way for me to get in touch with the heart of God for me, for circumstances, and for ministry. Here is a recent example that touches on the heart God is giving me for orphans in Russia. The context is work I was doing this summer on a broad vision statement for ministry.

Here is what I told God in prayer:

I really want the vision I run with to be from your heart, so I feel I should submit everything to you in journaling, so that you can tell me if and where I am off base. I am wiling to be very far off base so that your will be done. My intellect is nothing compared with your inspired thoughts and vision. So I lay down what I have written and ask you to fill the space.

Son, your vision is good and full of much that is on my heart. Just continue to work on it with your new insights from your new learning and lean to me more than ever before. The best part is in the details, and so there is still much that we can work on together in closer partnership that will give even more passion to the final result. There is more to come that you don't see yet, and I want to be your source for all of that. You have not yet begun to see the potential of this vision, and I want to fill you with such a sense of anticipation that it will drive you to do whatever you need to to see it happen. There is more to come, and I have a big heart for Russia. I love that country, and it is full of people with hearts that are crying out for me. They are full of such pain, and you have a piece of what I want to give to them.... Dwell with me in intimacy, and I will fill you with my heart that breaks for the Russian people. I love them, died for them, and I will see them raised up to a place of honor in the world. They have much left to contribute to the Kingdom, and they have not yet begun to realize that potential that is bound up in their hearts They are closed to me and my ways for now, but that will change. You can be a source in me of new hope for them. There is an entire army to be raised up that will show the way to this new future. This army will serve not with big ideas but with big hearts and they will show how to love sacrificially for the sake of building up others.... Show them how to love, and they will love even unto death. I have spoken, and I will cause it to come to pass. You must only come to me with all burdens and I will give you rest, direction, and hope. This of course too big for you, but I will cause it to be. This is for my whole Church to perform together. My children will hear my voice, and they will respond to this call for humility in service. There is a cry to go out through the land that our God is an awesome God, and he rules from heaven on earth. I will see my kingdom established in Russia, and it will amaze the peoples of the earth to see me really ruling in a place that was a laughingstock to the world. They pretend to be something, but I will tear that pretense down and build in it's place a sense of true calling and honor among the nations. Russia is a great nation. I love her, and I will see her come to her place. Yes, it is a good thing, and I will move in the hearts of men to see it pass. There is a dark side to Russia that will also be in operation at the same time. This dark side will grow in the hearts of men as well, and it will take over at some point, but I will see to it that my people, called by my name, will humble themselves and receive from me the kind of power and authority on high that will shake things in a way never seen before. I will cause the powers to see the authority that my Church has on earth. They may not bow to it, but they will not be able to deny it. This will be an awesome thing to behold.

Talk to me, Lord, about your heart for the family, biological and spiritual, and what you are doing to bring transformation.

Families are a mess, and it breaks my heart. Fathers are absent or worse, and I hate to see what it does it my children. How I want to grab them up into my arms and hold them so they can feel my love! There are way too many orphans in Russia. This is a travesty, and their leaders will answer for their treatment of these dear ones. My Church must rise to the occasion and not consider themselves limited to do anything. The orphan spirit is the single greatest threat to Russia at this moment. I see a day when the Body of Christ will see itself as the primary caretaker of families, where the Body will be come a family. Where churches are true families of faith. This is what must happen for there to be an end to the orphan spirit. Fathers must rise up, families must rise up, and families of faith must rise up to take their place at home and in society. Fathers are the key, but they are not where to begin. Fathers much be found and raised up to learn how to lead their homes with love and compassion. Mothers much be found who can learn to love, to trust, and to lean on me for their every breath. This will be the key to finding the fathers that will be raised up to father a new generation.

What does this have to do with churches, Lord?

It should have everything, but my church is not much of a family today. It is a clubhouse, and this must be broken. You are doing the right thing to want to create a parallel structure for raising up families. There must also be an outreach component in them to the churches to help educate them so they will develop an hunger for a true family.

How do we create that hunger, Lord?

I will create the hunger in them when they see your example. Your main job is merely to testify to what is happening in your groups as I show up and heal entire families through these fellowships. This is all you need - testimony.

Do we need to do something in churches, for the churches's sake?

No, your job is to create a place where healing can take place, and the church will be transformed into a loving family when they see what family can look like.

From France into Frenzy

2011-09-03T22:08:00.001+04:00

The blessings that came during our time of rest and refreshment in France were tremendous. It was an amazing time of total rest for a full month in a setting the could not have been more to our tastes and needs. The ins and outs of what we did are here, and some of the great spiritual blessings are recorded here.

We return to what seems to be an almost predictable battle. Nearly everything about our lives are in question:

Our washing machine has kicked the can;
Our internet has had numerous challenges, and two pieces of hardware died;
Our ability and desire to stay in our apartment is more in question than ever, given its increasing decay, the lack of support in fixing things from the owner, and her general distasteful attitude about things;
We have to start our residency process all over again now, which you may remember was a huge process three years ago. The good news is that, if we get it, it will give us stability for 5 more years;
We are changing our kids' school schedules, bringing Kerith home full time, and Simon will be down to 2 days a week in Russian school. Schedules and tutoring are not all nailed down.
I've been in prayer about where God wants me to focus this fall, because I have new opportunities and only want to go where He wants me;
Yuri disappeared and has re-appeared again, but he's in a real battle for a place to call home.
Our biggest battle, however, is surrounding the new Orphans Reaching Orphans project. My sense is that it is so potentially powerful that the Enemy could not leave it alone. Beyond a difficult funding atmosphere so far, the far greater concern is a relational breakdown on the American side that is wreaking havoc. Suffice it to say that it is painful, difficult, and chaotic, which God is not the author of. I have been in intense prayer over it, and I feel that God has given me good direction, which mainly has to do with walking in love and humility, but I need all the prayer I can get here. The project itself is off to a great start.

I hate socialism

2011-09-03T21:12:00.001+04:00

Yuri, our long-time former orphan graduate from the Harbor, turned up again after a few months absence. We have always had an open-door policy with him, and he usually comes once a week for mentoring and dinner. The kids were thrilled to see him. We were happy too, but we had to understand what was really going on.

His reason: life has been hard lately - no job, and a difficult living situation, and when things go poorly for him, he feels ashamed to be in the presence of "successful" people like us. He had told Natasha (the other Harbor graduate who comes here weekly for mentoring) that he felt bad about showing up until he could accomplish something to show for himself. He compared it to wanting to show his father that he was worthy. Wow. We have plenty to talk about. On the one hand, it's a bad theology and understanding of God and our own unconditional love. On the other, I am honored that he wants to please us and treat us well.

Yuri's living situation played a role in his disappearance last year for a few months. Lydia had been given some money to spend for ministry purposes as she wished, and she gave a lot of it to Yuri for fixing his wood stove. Long story short, it was fixed, but the neighbors complained of smoke, so the authorities forbid him from using it. So without heat, electricity, or water at home, he had to leave.

He's been working on getting electricity, water, and fix up his unlivable home that had been abandoned by his mother 10 years ago. The biggest task has been the electricity, which now after numerous attempts at pleading with the local bureaucrats has only gotten worse:

Since they don't have proof from him that the place was abandoned, even though no power was used, he has to pay back-due bills for that 10 years of about $1000, plus another $1000 for water, gas, and other utilities. To re-open an account and install a meter, he needs another $1000. Then he can begin the process of installing wiring to hook up a new electrical system. No matter that the authorities saw with their own eyes that there is no electricity flowing to the place, the bill continues to grow.

Oh, and if you want the process to take 2 weeks instead of 2 months, pay another $1000.

I can't stand this, and I'm on it.

Her eyes shone with joy

2011-09-03T21:05:00.000+04:00

Inna shared this testimony with me recently about a breakthrough in the life of one of the people she ministers to.

Kate is a young Christian woman, who lives most of the time in another country. She attended our church recently, and a friend advised her to contact me. After a serious illness she became debilitated. At an overseas hospital she received psychological and counseling help.

Kate has a very serious and responsible approach to our sessions and quickly grasped the principles of prayer ministry. Because of the nature of traumatic events in childhood, she often can get distracted or switch the topic to current events in her life during our sessions. Improper rearing and abuse as a child led to a relationship with her mother in which Kate felt like a little kid, though she is responsible as an adult.

During our first meeting, Kate said she was afraid of encounters with her mother during telephone conversations. But over time the Lord has consistently revealed the false beliefs associated with the relationship with her mother and replaced them with His truth. Now by her own testimony, Katie has more confidence in telephone conversations with her mother, and her mother has to reckon with Katya's beliefs. During the fifth session, Kate had an amazing revelation: she needed to ask the Lord to bless her into adulthood! After we prayed, her eyes simply shone with joy. I am grateful to God for the changes that are occurring in Katie's life and the chance to touch His glory!

Nastya about herself

2011-08-14T10:00:00.007+04:00

Our new program "Orphans Reaching Orphans," and our small team of three (me, Nastya, and Inna) is off to a good and promising start. Today I translate Nastya's first letter about what she is doing and why it is important. I think you will appreciate hearing it first hand.

What is my job?

Our focus is to help graduates from orphanages.

Why them?

Everyone thinks that children are released from orphanages and they live like normal children, and they have everything you need to live. No. They do not live; rather they survive. As bad as the children's home is, they learn to live there, but when it is time to be released, they face an unknown future.

Adults who work in the orphanages work there to earn money, no more. One orphanage may have 1 or 2 people who genuinely care about these kids, loving them like their own children, investing themselves fully into them.You see what a little percent? And what about all the kids who do not get that love?

I myself grew up in three children's homes, and trust me, I know what I'm writing about, and I understand what the problems with graduates are. If these questions are not addressed, then it will be reflected not only in the people around them, at work, and in society as a whole. Many Graduates do not know how to:

cook
wash clothes
care for themselves
clean at home
pay bills
work
manage their time
make a budget
buy food
keep their word
hold any moral principles
help and give to others
and much more

But the main thing is they need support, faith in them, love, and friendship.

The things I listed can be learned, but without someone to teach them to love, be a good friend, help others, believe in others, to trust, he will not live well, he will merely exist. They need someone they can come to, get advise from, to trust with any question, to share. With this kind of support we won't need to protect them against suicide or to visit them in prison. They need to know that there are people who need them, for whom they are important and valuable. Doing this is much more difficult and time consuming than learning those life skills above.

I'm not just talking hearsay; I live all of this; I understand how important this all is for them.

I have a girlfriend and one of them said to me, "If it weren't for you, then I would not know what to do." This she says just because I give her exactly what she really needs, in terms of friendship, relationship, love, fidelity, forgiveness, faith, accepting and valuing her as a person, and just time together. The best part is that this is how she acts with others. You see what can be done? What I do will be passed on to others, and it will be a huge help to orphan graduates as it spreads.At the outset I have 5 people who very much need this help, and thanks to you I can give them the maximum time possible. When I had my other job, I had no time, and I lost a favorite friend who died. It turned out she had needed a person who might respond to her at any time. Two other childhood friends of mine committed suicide because they were lonely and had too many problems that they couldn't resolve because they did not trust.

And there are many more like this.

They need us.

Learning to hear from God

2011-08-09T12:12:00.003+04:00

One of my main goals personally while on vacation in France this summer was work on an independent study project I've started to learn how to hear God's voice better. The material I am using comes from Communion with God Ministries, which I have known about and promoted for years, but never actually did their basic course all the way through for myself.

And too bad! It is turning out to be a personal revolution in my spiritual life to learn how to do tow-way journaling with God. The author, Mark Virkler, is wonderful at helping left-brain skeptics like me work through all the million questions, biblical basis, personal doubts, and frustrations that come up as you go. There are answers!

The bonus is that I decided to try it with my kids during our daily devotional time, and the results blew me and Diana away. Lydia is naturally gifted spiritually, but she was very encouraged by some time she spent with God struggling with some personal fears and sense of loneliness. Simon, as the youngest, did very little writing, but since G

od uses pictures more than we realize, he got some awesome things to draw that really spoke to his heart. One was a picture of God cracking an egg open, representing Him bringing Simon into life as a baby. Simon felt God was showing him how special He had made him.

Kerith was the one who has been the most impacted. He loved to journal on a ladder to be "closer to heaven" and he made himself a "prayer box" to go with him when he journals.

For example, he had been struggling with feeling unforgiven for his sins, and God wiped that away with one remark and a picture he got about Jesus on the cross. Another couple of examples:

K: Lord, what do you think about and care about me?

G: You are a wise, clever, and beyoutefull boy, and i care deeply about you.

K: Wont you ever get bored in hevans?

G: Inposibill!!

The most amazing time of all had to to with Kerith's fear of bees, which was near comical. We would be sittin

g around eating outside, and a bee would come around. All of us were calm, but he would get so upset he would have to leave.

This conversation was at his own initiative, however.

K: Lord, can you take away my fear of bees?

G: Close your eyes.

[Kerith then reported that he felt a sort of internal vibration through his body.]

G: Hey, a bee landed on your shoulder.

[Kerith opens his eyes and actually sees a bee on his shoulder. He has no reaction, and the bee flies away.]

From this point on, Kerith became totally calm around bees.

I'd say there is power in hearing God's voice!

Refreshment from France

2011-08-09T11:54:00.003+04:00

We had not taken a real and serious vacation since moving to Russia, so we were overdue. Ministry colleagues offered us a place of theirs in the small town of St. Aignan, France, so we took it, though not sure of all we were getting.

With no Internet, TV, or phone our lives were definitely different, but then change was welcome.

We lived in the top apartment of a 2-story house. The yard was perfect for us. Sun and shade with loads of fruit trees. Loads of bird activity, including a neighbor's chicken who took up residence for a couple of days. The kids named her Henny-Penny, and she seemed to enjoy the petting and attention.

Lyle had all 3 kids picking up fallen apples (small, hard green) and using them to practice their throwing arm in preparation for the baseball mitt use. Both boys have very good aim, and Kerith is proving quite accurate and fast. The long driveway was lined with high hedges and the property itself is quite secluded, as it seems all French residences are, so we felt like we were squirreled away from everything even though the neighbors were close by.
The big open porch on ground level housed a huge gas grill and large wooden table and chairs, which we had to take advantage of frequently.

Town life was simple. Store hours are very minimal, i.e. 4 hours/day for a local pub., so we wandered around armed with paper and pen to write down all the working hours of everyplace we need. The St. Aignan church and castle are impressive and the view of the Cher river beautiful. We walked about 13 min or so into town, but our main grocery was only about 5 minutes in the opposite direction.

Language: Diana picked up quite a bit, and the kids at the playground learned "Please, mister, would you push me?" (Lyle was swinging kids on a sort of maypole with handles.) There is very little English here, which has been only a minor hindrance. Armed with her Fr/Eng dictionary, she figured out practically everything. Of course expressing ourselves was another matter. We met our backdoor neighbors - Pierre + wife - who are g-parent age and friendly. We managed to communicate where we lived and how long we were to stay in town. Lots of smiles and nodding. They are avid gardeners, and our kitchen window overlooks their labors. Even gave us a huge zucchini as we were leaving and talked at us - amazingly friendly given our inability to talk back.

Outings: We really had very few: a big canoe trip one day and two days of visiting other towns and castles along the Cher river.

Really, this R &R is doing exactly what we needed -- to get away from Russian culture and give time to personal contemplation, prayer, and growth. We actively felt ourselves "healing up" and recharging our batteries.

Our spiritual growth individually and as a family was another blessing, which I will comment on in another post.

Retreat, Retrain, Regroup

2011-06-17T18:59:00.003+04:00

After a year (for many in our counseling training group) of learning, practicing, and growing together, we decided it was time to get really serious, so we took of for 3 days for some intensive practice in the specific method of prayer ministry that we have been learning - theophostic prayer. Although not strictly counseling, and not mere prayer, I have used this approach in my counseling practice for many years with astounding results. My students are seeing similar results, and so their interest is far from abating.

One of us owns a dacha, or summer home, about an hour from the city and offered to let us use it for the weekend. It, like most such places, is a very simple house, with no running water or toilet, but that makes it all the more fun. It was a family event, sharing in cooking, cleaning, and fighting mosquitoes. And since Diana and Lydia were gone, the boys tagged along.

More pics from this event here.

Other than the great practice everyone got helping each other pray through difficult issues in their lives - and breakthroughs! - we also got to dig into reconciliation in a deep way. I kept hearing little conflicts, but nothing being done about them. So I started suggesting that the best path might be to talk things through. It went nowhere. Eventually, it got worse, so I called the attention of the entire group to it. What was happening was that two people (at that point) were in conflict, and nobody was doing anything. In loose group settings, maybe that's ok. But we are a tight group who minister weekly to deep places in each others' lives. To ignore what is happening in the group is disaster.

I had to keep proding, but after a while, they began to see that the problem belonged to them as a whole. So then I led a group discussion/teaching on biblical principles of reconciliation. I find that Russians can be really teachable, and the impact was significant. One woman was so hurt that she almost left because she had been so ignored, but now the group made a choice to minister to her, and the healing that came for everyone was powerful.

We capped it all off with a communion service and worship. Beautiful. That's what I live for.

Love Russia on Wheels

2011-06-17T18:30:00.005+04:00

Through my work at MIR that I have often written about, I got to know a ministry out of England called Love Russia. Their heads, Alex and Jacqui Cooke, have been a real blessing to us in St. Petersburg through MIR, and more recently to our family. I'll tell you how.

Most of their work is about providing funds for specific purchases or physical projects at orphanages and other orphan related nonprofits or ministries. They are Christian, but often don't accent that in order to build relationships and favor. They had been working in the Ryazan region, south of Moscow for many years, but with the political climate changing, they have moved a lot of their emphasis to St. Petersburg, and our work here to orphans is the benificiary of their change. They don't have permanant staff on the ground, but rather come in periodically to find new projects to invest in, and to follow up on old ones. As such, MIR is a good partner organization, as it has the capacity to funnel funds, to build relationshiops with orphanage leadership, and to organize events and projects.

Our current project is a summer camp for orphans in foster care that MIR has organized for them, to take place in August in Estonia. ABout 50 Russian-speaking kids from Russia, as well as as many or more from Estonia and even Israel will be participating. Since Estonia is much more open to Christian ministry, the camp will be much more openly Christ-centered and evangelistic.

So what Love Russia does most of the time is raise funds for all these various projects, and hence the major bike trip that they organized recently, taking them from England, across Europe, all the way to Moscow. When the British Consulate here in St. Petersburg heard about it, they invited them and those associated with them to a tea at their consulate. The TV spot below takes place there, and you can see me in the yellow shirt. I'd never been but was impressed with the joint. It's like a little England in the midst of the city - clean, with English country gardens. The title of the spot, by the way, is "English bikers drink tea in Petersburg."

17:19 | 09.06.2011

Английские байкеры пьют чай в Петербурге

В эти минуты в саду Генерального Консульства Великобритании пьют чай байкеры из Англии. Они участвовали в благотворительном российско-британском мотопробеге.

Other pics from facebook on the event are here.

Alex and Jacqui are also the owners of the house that they have graciously offered to us for a summer vacation in France. We'll be there the whole month of July.

Neighborhood Clean-up

2011-06-10T10:14:00.009+04:00

Just as the weather starts to turn tollerable for being outdoors each year (late April) a Soviet-era tradition kicks in. It brings the city back to life after the ugliness of "muddy season" when winter is melting away, leaving the accumulation of months of littering behind. We've participated in the last two, and it's really the best chance to get to know neighbors that are mostly reclusive or inclined to hang with their own otherwise. "Subbotnik" starts with raking leaves, planting plants, and picking up garbage, and ends with a shishkebab barbeque and, of course, drinking.

I got the kids going working on trash. Others raked leaves. Others helped us by standing around, but hey, it's Saturday. The day started at 11am. Work lasted two hours at the most, after which began the shaslik (shish-kebab) and drinking, which lasted until 1am that night. In these kinds of companies, drinking is pretty much mandatory. A habit I learned way back from living in Central Asia was to just take the minimum sip.

We have two special neighbors that make our subbotnik unusual:

Nadya (in the purple) brings the beauty to our courtyard. Her gift of love to the community through constant care and planting of new plants and flowers is a rare blessing in a country where public spaces are nobody's, so no one cares about them. During the course of the day, in speaking with Nadya, I learned that her husband had died way back in December. That's how embarrasingly out of touch I was. This was the very Valery that was the neighborhood drunk, who had such a special relationship with Lydia. The problem is that people don't go out much in the winter, so you don't notice when someone is gone. I still felt bad, though.

Sasha is the professional photographer who took the two group shots you see here. His great input for the day was in organizing games for the men. They did this strange stick throwing game that I could never fully understand that boys used to play back in the good old USSR.

As a professional, he and his family seem to enjoy our company more than anyone else here. I don't even fully get it, but he really wants to build a relationship with me

(he is to my right below). I take it as the favor of God, and hope I can be a good friend. Incidentally, it is their boy that Lydia tutors in English. BTW, her comments on the day are here.

In Pservice of Psychologists

2011-03-30T15:35:00.002+04:00

Something big is starting to happen with the counseling training that I am teaching (two groups at present). Even from such small groups, God has given me access to people who in turn have access to new circles of influence. The personal transformation that they are experiencing and witnessing in others is so profound that word of mouth is traveling fast. One example is a Lutheran pastor whose wife has been attending. She has been in counseling for years, but, as she says, they usually end up telling her that that they can't help her. Now she is finding new freedom from fear that has gripped her her entire life. As a result, the pastor wants me to offer training for pastors on a national level. Now mind you there are barely 100 churches in this denomination, but to the extent that we can figure this out it expands the reach of this ministry dramatically.

More to the point, two of the women who have participated in our training are psychologists and asked me to speak to a group of Christian psychologists they are a part of. This is an inter-denominational group that meets monthly for - well, I don't really know what. One of them told me they just sit around and talk. So when they told them about me, apparently they all got very interested and told me to talk about anything I wanted to.

I chose to speak on "What is Christian psychology." It's a topic I've thought about for years, but the closer I got to having to put it all on paper, the more expansive and intimidating the subject got. Sometimes this can be an indication to me that I'm not going the right direction, but I felt assurance somehow from the Father that I was on the right path. I won't give you details, but I covered topics like:

is psychology a bad word (the whole subject gets really bad press in most churches)
stages in the historical development of Christian counseling
what is a biblical view of man, the source of our problems, and their resolution
worldview issues in secular methodologies
positive and negative aspects of various schools
how to speak to pastors about counseling
how to minister to non-Christians without offending, yet not watering down your goals

They gave me two hours, and I filled it exactly, to may amazement. I frequently asked if what I was presenting was useful and new, and relatively little of what I shared was known to them, yet they seemed to be highly impressed. One lady was bold enough to say, "I believe you are an answer to my prayers, because I have been looking for some way to train in specifically Christian methods of counseling people, and I have not know where to turn." Others were from a college called the Russian Christian Humanitarian Academy studying psychology, but, as they explained, what is meant by Christian psychology there is nothing more than the fact that Russia is historically a Christian country. There is no depth of analysis of what it would mean to actually practice with the values of the Kingdom in the forefront.

The long and short of it: they unanimously invited me back to present more specifically on the prayer ministry class I am now teaching. One lady did not understand my hesitation to give more details and accept the request. "Didn't you come here looking for some sort of response from us? We are responding, but we need to know to what." So I gave in, but explained my hesitation: "What if you like it? It takes most of a year to commit to learning it."

They're ready. Am I?

Just the Numbers: 2010 in review

2011-02-11T19:34:00.003+03:00

Here are some short ministry facts from 2010:

Coaching:

Personally got certified by Lifeforming Leadership Coaching as a Coach Trainer.
With Pastor Igor Sokolov, led training for three groups of students, one of which was for Indonesians (which included training on-site). This training included group seminars as well as one-on-one and one-on-two training sessions.
Supervised the translation project for our training materials, a very large project of about 330 pages of written material, plus a few dozen audio lectures.
Got a $2000 grant from the Des Plaines Foundation for this translation project.

Mentoring:

Meet weekly with Pastor Igor Sokolov to help him think through ministry and personal questions, sometimes as a coach, sometimes as a consultant, sometimes as a friend, sometimes as a ministry partner.
Meet mostly weekly with Yuri, a Harbor graduate, in our home
Met infrequently with two other Harbor graduates, Natasha and Nastya

Counseling:

Conducted counseling and counseling training (often the one led to the other) for several (I count 5) individuals
Started prayer counseling training in June with about 15 individuals, which continues to date. We have added new students on two occasions since, and the total number of participants remains about 12.

Meetings:

Met several new pastors this year, either individually or at a pastor conference
Met several new ministry leaders
Met weekly (until the summer) as a member of the leadership team of our local church, Harvest.
Attended monthly prayer meeting of leaders of ministries to orphans

MIR

Joined the board of directors in April (officially in June)
Met weekly with the executive director for personal and organizational coaching
created a new project for expansion of the hosting program into new regions
negotiated new programs with ministry partners

Misc.

Wrote a vision statement for the city of St. Petersburg which will be edited and added to by other missionaries and Christian leaders in the city.
Consulted with the leadership with the school the boys attend to restructure various aspects of the school and increase parental involvement
Recruited a new couple onto staff with CRM who want to deploy to SPB
Met with another couple who is coming on to staff with CRM to come to SPB

Need a little structure

2011-02-11T15:35:00.002+03:00

I've been asking myself the question lately in ministry whether I don't need to give more structure to some of the training I do with Russians. So often I run up against an inability (it seems) to manage giving assignments that are too open-ended (whether time-wise, or in terms of how to fulfill the requirement). This lesson got brought home to me the other day in parenting when I was giving an assignment to Kerith.

He and Simon were not getting along over something, and I decided I needed to step in. One of the tasks I assigned was for him to ask them to come up with an appropriate Bible verse to memorize, one "that would please me" (I've been drilling the idea of getting him to try to "catch my heart." He came up with Proverbs 7:18:

Come, let us go make love all night.

Diana's only comment was, "that sure would please you."

And his reasoning: that would be a good verse if people started protesting on the streets. (He had been hearing about Egypt.) I think we need a little more structure next time.

Two approaches to ministry

2011-01-11T22:31:00.004+03:00

I'm leading a leadership retreat for MIR this week, and I was looking for something like this online to use, but I couldn't find anything. So I made it up. Now someone else can find it online.

Need-based ministry vs. Purpose based ministry

Need-based Purpose-based

Motivation sympathy com-passion

Approach outreach withreach

Goal filling a need fulfilling dreams

Orientation project driven process driven

Complexity low high

View of person Maslow's hierarchy adoption into sonship

Action giving gleaning

Philosophy humanistic holistic

Process transactional relational

Time line short term long term

Honor among thieves

2010-12-16T13:21:00.002+03:00

For the third time in as many years, I was pick-pocketed this week.

The first time it was a band of guys who pushed their way onto the subway, causing a big ruckus and push so they could reach in my pocket and take my phone.
The second time someone reached into my man-purse as I was riding down the subway escalator.
This time I was in Coffee House with Pastor Igor, and someone managed to take my whole purse right off of the couch I was sitting on.

I was depressed, but both Diana and I weathered it much better than the last time. The bad news was that I had just taken a couple hundred dollars out of the ATM. The good news was that what was not in the purse were my phone, iPod, or passport. I had also just taken a bill out that had our address on it, which would have come in handy with the keys.

A few hours later, after I had had a little time to fight back in prayer by thanking God for the positives, and to affirm that He is in control, that He is good, and that I will rejoice in all things, I got a call. A bathroom cleaning lady at an upscale hotel across the river from where I had been had found the purse and a piece of paper with our number on it. Preserved were:

the keys
all my discount cards
all three credit cards (though we had already blocked two)
my pen

The nice thieves had stuffed everything, except the money, my metro card, and chewing gum, back nicely in the main pocket and put it in a trash can where it would be found. It was as though they didn't want to put me out too much.

You think I'm crazy? I was telling someone about what had happened the next day, and she said she knew of incidents where pick-pockets would call their victims by phone and tell them where to find their purse, like in a grocery store locker.

They say there is honor among thieves. The Bible says we have all been given a conscience to remind us of the universal laws that point us back to their Creator. C.S. Lewis even said that the universality of these principles and our universality of our agreement on them is evidence that they are built in to our hard drive by Someone.

But my chewing gum? . . .

The Lucky 13

2010-12-16T13:03:00.005+03:00

After over 6 months of incredible labor, with constant setbacks and pointless fights with government officials, MIR succeeded in getting 13 kids out of Russia and into the hands of Christian families in the U.S this week, out of the over 100 originally approved. This video tells the good news. I wish I could relate the behind-the-scenes work it took.

I met with Andrei Gvozdovsky on Monday, (who works for MIR on the hosting program) right after he and Masha (the director, his wife) had spend most of the night traveling around the city to pick up the kids and take them to the airport. The kids aged between 2 and 15, many of whom are handicapped. Andrei's heart went out to these kids, and he expressed hope that they would be adopted as a result of this experience. He related two short, but telling moments.

One little boy asked him, "When are we leaving?" - and the Russian word implied by car. Andrei pointed out that they would be flying. The child didn't understand.

"Like a bird," Andrei explained.

"That can't be. People can't do that."

The other case was of a little girl who called all caregivers "mama," whether men or women. As there are no men in her orphanage, and she apparently knew none at home, she has no idea what a father is.

That's the orphan spirit for you - not knowing your Father.

Our fifty hour fridge

2010-12-08T14:57:00.012+03:00

It's been cold here lately. I mean cold. It hit -9F before the end of November, which is cold even for Russia this time of year. Our windows look like this picture to the left. A few days later we lost our heating. What does that mean? Heating is centrally controlled here. We all have radiators that have hot water pumped from somewhere coming through them. So an accident happened a few blocks away, and it got cold.

The first night was tolerable.

The next day, we were living in the kitchen with the gas stove, and trying to heat another room with a small space heater. We all slept in the same room that night.

The next day was Kerith's birthday party. As you can see from the picture, they had to get under the blankets. They didn't mind; they were watching Empire Strikes Back.

That night it came back. And then we lost it the next day again before it had gotten normal. Looks like we are now finally doing ok. At least until the next issue....

Counseling training breakthrough

2010-11-22T16:08:00.005+03:00

Since early summer I have been meeting with a group every Monday evening in our home to go through some training that has just recently become available in Russian in prayer ministry. I like prayer ministry, though not to the exclusion of other kinds of counseling (which I also teach) because it is a way of allowing the Holy Spirit to directly speak to the issue a person is facing. It also can have a very quick and dramatic impact on the person for the same reason. More information about it is here.

The plan is to take a year to go through a video series, twice, and to practice together with each other to gain confidence and build the skills and sensitivity to God's leading as we go. Some of the students just started in October, but I decided we were already ready for some work in groups last week. I put them in sets of 3 to practice asking good questions of each other. What amazed me was that, in every group, they went beyond what I had asked or expected, and they started really ministering to each other with some wonderful results.

Here are the comments of one person taking the training, who is on staff at the Harbor:

Generally I am very glad that there is such a ministry! There is an opportunity to communicate with like-minded people!
1. It helps me better understand God and how He acts.
2. I'd become aware that people actually can help more often than we think
3. In some cases, I have the freedom to help myself [through prayer]
4. If I had small children, I could save them from many false beliefs that could have an adverse affect on them
5. In me was more understanding, compassion for others. I think more about how what you say or do can affect others.

Another long-time student of mine wrote this to me:

These classes helped me find inner peace, which helps me in ministering to people and understanding God. Spiritual Formation becomes more understandable when you take no responsibility for others' feelings. Pessimistic Christianity rejects feelings as not necessary and too elementary for spiritual life. In fact, the more you realize that God will heal, the more you want to serve Him. I realized that only God can enter into the past and heal wounds. This affects all spheres of life. I have become more confident, can understand people better, and hopefully cam help them learn more effectively. Thank you, Lyle, and the people who sponsor you, because we are able to understand better God's healing and His ministry to people. Thank you very much. God bless you!

The need for Russian adoptions

2010-11-12T19:41:00.002+03:00

It's too early to spill the beans, but MIR is about to undergo some big changes, and I am excited about the potential to take the ministry to another level of effectiveness and impact in the city. Meanwhile, I'll put out some teasers to seed vision for what is needed as we move forward with these changes.

This is a quote from a site about a ministry called Light of Love that I don't know but need to get to know soon. They are interested in the question of preparing Russian families for foster care and adoption. So is MIR - not directly, but in helping foster momentum, training, and networks to that end. Here are some data that support the need:

In January, 2007 the Russian government enacted a law that is significantly impacting orphans. It calls for overhauling the country’s child welfare system by shifting from an orphanage system to a foster care/adoption system. Ideally, this is a positive step because clearly it is better for orphans to be in families than in institutions. However, there are some key roadblocks:

1) The timing: the government plans on closing down 70% of orphanages in the next 3 years. There are over 800,000 orphans in institutions in Russia. It is not feasible to successfully place that number of children into families in such a short timeframe.

2) The lack of screening: The Russian government is doing very little to screen potential foster / adoptive families, and is instead offering a lump sum of money up front to anyone who will take in a child.

3) The lack of training: The Russian government is providing very little in the way of foster parent or pre-adoption training to interested families.

Additionally, as orphanages are being closed, international adoptions from Russia have virtually come to a halt. The combination of these two events puts Russian orphans in a desperate situation. It is critical that stable Russian families become equipped to adopt and foster orphans.

Mere MIR

2010-11-05T20:36:00.002+03:00

I should give you a better idea of what I am doing at MIR and at least a sense of what impact my efforts are having, although it is still early to see much fruit. I have been spending about a day a week there since April. My early history with MIR is recounted here. Recently, Masha, the executive director, wrote some about what she has appreciated about my service there:

-Lyle helped me to articulate my concers, suggestiona and conclusions better for the Board and our partners at the time I was under much stress and emotion-Lyle was there during a very difficult key conference phonecall with our partner's board, guiding and summing things up
-Lyle accompanied me to Estonia for a meeting with directors and officials who really needed to hear the truth about our program after much confusion
-Lyle put the services of MIR in a very clever chart and edited the current agreement of mutual cooperation form, so it corresponds with our current situation better
All of these as much as being stressful were also good learning experiences where I could see how to react in stressful situation, be able to see above the current conflict, invite God in at the rush of the moment.

I'm always looking forward to our visits even if I'm in a difficult state, because talking it through has potential for getting out of a deadend.

I'm still learning how to prioritize things, how to chose what to focus on, how to plan our training session topics ahead to make them more productive in shorter time and how to invite God into my life. Clearly Lyle has contributed to these areas of my growth.

MIR is in a unique position in the city as a hub for discussion and activity around care of at-risk children generally, and orphans particularly. Despite going through a tough season right now, I see a lot of potential for emerging from this time as an even stronger player who can serve in a key role between ministries, orphanages, churches, and Western organizations and volunteers. So the days ahead are a time for re-defining who MIR is -the mere MIR - and seeking God's path forward. To that end, pray with us.

A perfect trip

2010-09-05T21:18:00.005+04:00

Our recent CRM conference in Langkawi, Malaysia eludes a perfect description -- at least from me (Diana). But there is one aspect I will attempt to share with you, and this about "perfection."

When one travels, one should never, ever expect a perfect trip. Although most of us would include in our definition of travel perfection: no delays, comfortable seats, tasty food, no running through the airports, no hassles at the borders, and no lost luggage. Our forty-four hour nightmarish journey to the island of Langkawi only included the very last item, so by most definitions, our trip was far from perfect. Lyle blogged about the crazy details, and I encourage any reader to click on over to the nightmares coming and returning.

At every turn we faced a glaring lack of perfection, and I was finally brought to tears when our last, seemingly impossible

situation of making our connecting flight in Kuala Lampur actually worked in our favor. I felt utter, sold-out, beyond-words gratitude when we arrived safe and sound. I don't know if I would have felt that complete sense of gratitude without having the trials, and having been brought to that level of helplessness and hopelessness was part of a bigger plan by our perfect God to show me reliance on Him.

Perfection insight #1: I can't do it alone.

Our first afternoon I took a quiet stroll by myself on the beach enjoying the shell hunting and warm waves on my feet. My grandmother instilled the love of shells and their intricacies when I was very young, and, to my delight, I remembered every name of shell she ever taught me. As I smoothed the sand from one spiral shell in my palm, I realized I could not see the design very clearly. And, as is more common these days, I had to actually remove my glasses in order to see the awesome colors and patterns close up. Marveling at this tiny masterpiece that probably nobody else in the world will ever see, I heard one of God's lessons for me: "You must take off your idea of perfection (my glasses) in order to see my beauty and perfection." Whoa. I could have gone home after that revelation! No conference needed!

Perfection insight #2: My ideas of perfection are seriously flawed.

Lastly, one of my favorite moments of the conference was when some forty people representing the different countries where CRM serves (ex-pats and nationals) read scripture related to our conference theme. They processed one after the other up a center aisle to the microphone to read in their native language or the language of their host country. The scripture in English and their language was on the big screen. It was powerful! Sure, we hear dozens of foreign tongues just walking through the airports, but this was completely different. There was such beauty in the patchwork of languages, and to hear them all one after the other without pause was amazing in a way I had never experienced. Of course, this is just a taste of heaven when God's perfection is complete for us to enjoy.

Perfection insight #3: We have no clue what God's perfect plan will look like when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Lydia's plea

2010-08-29T23:43:00.003+04:00

Lydia started tearing up tonight as I put her to bed (when we always have our best conversations, though they drag on much too long!) as she began telling me about the plight of the little Christian school where they all attend part time. It suffers from two (no doubt) related matters: first, she and a friend once counted the number of children at the school without a father at home to be about a third of the entire body. Second, the one and only male teacher got married and moved away this summer.

What hurts her so much is not only missing the man, but more so feeling the pain of these other children in not having a male influence in their lives. There is such an orphan spirit on these kids, and she feels it. Weeping, she pleaded with me to pray about coming to teach at least one class there. "I know they would have the deepest respect for you, and you are such a cool guy and a great dad. They need that so much, Daddy." She went on to give all the reasons why it would fit within my mandate to raise up leaders, and I couldn't say a word in opposition. "Just because they are kids, doesn't mean you can't raise them up as leaders, right?"

The leaders of the school have already pleaded with me to teach a Bible class, and I told them what I told Lydia: I want to teach those who can teach them." Problem is, there are no such men. WHERE ARE THE MEN???

It's a question that eats at me often. Now the thought of my daughter's troubled plea will too.

Some notes on foster care and prevention

2010-08-29T22:51:00.002+04:00

While at Hope Children's Village yesterday, I got to talk with our hostess' neighbor Ira, who also has 7 children, some biological, and some under foster care. I asked the two of them some questions about the state of foster care in Russia, and they turned out to be a good source, as they teach a 6 week course for new foster families that this region (essentially a county, Gatchina) offers. Ira told me that when she and her husband started taking in children in 2004, they were the 2nd family in the entire county of 200,000 to have EVER done so!

We talked about why so few Russians do this kind of thing. Several opinions came out, including the obvious lack of concern for children that such a reality implies. But they also pointed out that, whereas in the West, it seems to be common knowledge that there are so many orphans in Russia and the former communist block, Russians themselves hardly knew a thing about it until just very recently. There weren't even so much as newspaper articles about the plight of abused and neglected children. And the progress? From 2 families in 2004 to now just under 60 foster families in 2010.

I asked about prevention? The government office supposedly over such matters, "Social Defense" actually does nothing of the sort. They just process paperwork. So, whereas in the states and other Western countries there is the not infrequent problem of taking children away from homes for spurious reasons (often related to homeschooling), in Russia children are not saved from dangerous homes until much later than should have been the case.

And what about efforts to rehabilitate families who have had children taken away? The rule is, when your kids get taken, it's not for good at first. It's for 6 months. You've got that long to prove yourself worthy to have them back. Does a social worker help you do that? Are you offered classes? Are you forced or even offered to do anything? Not at all. For an irresponsible family in a country that is plagued with passivity, it's like asking them to go get a doctorate in a foreign language. So it doesn't happen. And so the roles of orphans grow each year, and 90% of them are "social orphans" which means they actually have a family, as opposed to a real orphan.

The state is dead set on reversing this trend, though. Problem is, it doesn't know how. So in typical Russian style, they do clever things like this one (reported to me by Andrei, our man at MIR responsible for growing the U.S. hosting program): Novgorod has a beautiful and relatively new orphanage in the center of town. Trouble is, it's closed. I say trouble, because there are no fewer orphans. The administration just moved them out into three other orphanages in the country - facilities that are correspondingly spartan. But the great news is that Novgorod can now say that they have no more orphanages -the last one is closed! What brilliance! Thinking about the rewards they will reap in that Great Day just takes your breath away.

The other strategy is moving the kids into foster care. Sounds good, right? This is what other countries, most notably, the U.S. has done. There aren't any orphanages in the states. We take care of kids through foster care. And it is certainly far from a perfect system. My own mother worked as a social worker with families who had lost parental rights (but she helped them get them back!) and with foster families to help them succeed too. My mother has no counter part here, as near as I can tell.

Ira told me that not only so, but that of the 15 counties in the "state" (oblast) of Leningrad (which surrounds St. Petersburg), only three of them even offer this class to foster families that she teaches. Otherwise, they just have to fill out the paperwork and they are good to go. (So kudos to Gatchina, not only for seeing the need to teach this class, but also because they were the only region willing to give the land to Hope for the children's village. The others couldn't believe that in the motives of the group enough to consider helping.)

The results are predictable, though the extent is horrendous: 30,000 children in the last three years inside Russia were sent back to institutions by their adoptive, foster or guardianship families. Little Yulia that I wrote about meeting at Natasha's was a casualty of that statistic, but Yulia is as happy as can be. "Love covers a multitude of sins."

These are the kinds of things that force me to pray and work towards change at both the micro and macro levels. I'm asking the Lord for strategies to reach the family, particularly the husbands/men, and for access to the high places and the gates where decisions are made. Working at one or the other would be otherwise futile.

Hope Children's Village

2010-08-28T22:19:00.005+04:00

Today we visited a most unusual community, artificially created around a theme. If that weren't unusual enough here, the theme is even more so: foster care. Some rich Russians actually got together with a heart to do the right thing, and created a foundation, and this community is the result.

There are currently 10 families living in 5 duplexes along one street, all of whom have taken in at least 2 foster children. My friend and colleague Yan, who heads up a national prison ministry here, invited the family to go with his family to visit one of these families. To see some footage of the Hope Children's Village, you can see a TV report about it here. I regret not having had our camera with us. It was an hour by metro, then another hour by car to get there.

We were greeted by Yulia, the sweetest little 5 year old imaginable, especially considering that she had been in two other foster families and rejected by both. Immediately behind her were oodles of more children, and then mother Natasha. Talk about your dictionary definition of amazing; Natasha is it. She only started moving in the direction of foster care AFTER having 4 kids of her own, and AFTER her husband completely abandoned the family, including any form of child support.

Ironically, her three foster kids are either older or younger than the other four. Vanya, the 18 month old, is the most amazing story. Born to alcoholic parents, who had already become regular suppliers for the state orphanage system, Vanya came along a full three months premature. As such, he was actually considered a miscarriage, and the mother did not even have to sign any papers to relinquish him to the state. She and the hospital just left him to die.

A week later, having not died (!), the baby became a person legally (behold the power of the state to regulate life), and so all of a sudden had to be cared for. His medical issues were legion (Cerebral Palsy, or some such issue, fluid on the brain, a tumor on the skull, etc.), however, and so by even the time a few months later when Natasha took him, well-meaning staff told her it was pointless to take in a child that was soon to die anyway. The one issue he did not have, which the doctor said she had never seen in such cases, was Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Natasha took Vanya from the hospital straight to her church before coming home, where they prayed fervently for the child. And the result: Vanya is essentially 100% healed and normal.

How does she survive? The home was provided by the foundation for as long as she has foster children. It was furnished by church members and others whom God touched. She receives about $330 a month support from the state (essentially welfare) for her own kids, and each of the three foster kids bring in barely $200. Somehow, she makes it on less than $1000 a month.

The program, though private, is not Christian. Five of the 10 families are, however. This is most significant, considering a general population of less than 1% Christian. These 5 all gather weekly for prayer and mutual support. Some other friends of ours, Nadia and Yan, helped them organize this summer a mini camping experience as a Christian outreach to the other families. It was a powerful success with all the kids, and in helping build relationships among the children and the adults. It was amazing for me to learn that in a community of 10 families where they all had something as significant in common as this, they didn't even talk with each other before the camp. (But why should I be too surprised? I barely have been able to get to know my own neighbors after three years here.)

The event almost didn't take place, thanks to the fearless leadership of a certain member of that noble class of warriors, known as a bureaucrat. I forget the details that Nadia told me, but they worked it out at the last minute. But this Orthodox hero of the faith would not give up her pursuit of keeping Russia clean of infidels. She invited an Orthodox priest to come to a parent meeting and asked him to put these sectarians in their place. His response? He rebuked the bureaucrat for her concerns, said it would be a travesty to stop what the families are trying to do, and told her they are following in the same historic Christian faith as she supposedly does.

The group is now in partnership with this man of radical faith. They are also looking for someone to come be a pastor to the community. Any takers? The size of the community is set to double soon with the opening of several new homes being built.

P.S. Some ideas for short term teams:
1. Come help organize another, and possibly longer, summer camp for the kids.
2. Take the kids on field trips to the city or elsewhere. Public transportation for Natasha's family to the city (she can't afford a car) is about $50 round trip, not to mention whatever the event costs are.
3. Organize events, seminars, etc. for the parents or whole families.
4. The shared playground is very sparse and overrun with weeds. Someone, pleas, build them a real playground.
5. A friend of Natasha's drew her up a wonderful plan for landscaping her yard, to include fruit trees and a garden for the kids. It awaits labor and money. No doubt others have similar needs, but Natasha's are acute since there is no man to do it.

More on the broader issues of foster care in this post.

Translation work

2010-08-27T10:44:00.002+04:00

Russian is not hurting in the grand scheme of things as far as having access to a lot of good Christian literature. My problem is that much of what I see as critical for effective ministry here is not available. Part of the reason is that much of what I use in my discipleship and training of Russians here is fairly new, but also because I'm intentionally trying to fill gaps in ministry where I perceive the opportunity for high leverage tools for change.

The biggest current translation project is finalizing all of our coach training material for our strategic partner, Lifeforming Leadership Coaching. My local partner is Igor Sokolov, whom I met while we were both being trained by Lifeforming in 2006. Igor is a strategic leader in St. Petersburg and well beyond, with contacts and favor across nearly all denominational lines. Igor was given free tuition in exchange for a promise to translate the material (a vast notebook of several hundred pages plus numerous audio files) for use in Russia.

By the time we moved here in 2007, Igor had finished most of the work, but final details, edits, and getting it into a professional form hung over his head, and God used me to re-energize the process. Together in the fall of 2009 we led a group of pastors, missionaries, businessmen, and Harbor staff in the 1st third of Lifeforming's year-long certification process. The response has been more enthusiastic than we even expected, with most of the participants asking if they can continue the training.

We realized we needed to get more serious and systematic about our work, so we invited some of the participants to form a steering committee to the end of making a long-term strategy. Simultaneously, we entered into negotiations with the largest Christian school here, St. Petersburg Christian University. Their interest was also well beyond our expectations. We are looking at both offering our training under their official umbrella, as well as partnering with them to embed coaching training into their new Masters of Practical Theology and Leadership.

And then comes the question of money. We estimated that we still need about $5000 to finish all our work to get the material to a professional level. Through my contacts in Richmond, VA (where we moved from), God gave our project favor with a local foundation which has just given us $2000 to this end. This is exciting news, helping to confirm that God is pleased with this work to raise of transformational leaders across Russia who not only know the Word, but know how to incarnationally come alongside others to help draw out their God-given calling and potential.

For more information about other translation needs, click here.

A Kingdom Enterprise

2010-08-27T09:30:00.002+04:00

Dormant in my long list of dreams is the desire to start one or more businesses that would be a complement to the overall strategy of empowering Russian leaders toward a sustainable indigenous missions movement. My first run at this goal happened just one year into our new life here in Russia. God connected me with a local Christian business man with a heart to share his success with others in ministry to generate income for them to be less dependent on tent making (the story which I discuss here). That dream has not (yet!) become reality, but even if it doesn't, I beleive that some seeds were sown for the future, not the least of which was getting the attention of Enterprise International, our agency's division dedicated to starting and sustaining highly profitable ventures for CRM projects.

And the main reason that first project didn't get off the ground: lack of an Enterprise person here on the ground to manage it.

Fast forward 18 months. Chapter 2 of this story began this summer when we found out that Enterprise had begun serious negotiations with a man who is feeling a call on his life to use his business gifts and experience to serve orphans. Chris White and his wife, Jill, adopted a Russian boy last year, and the experience broke their hearts for the plight of the orphans left behind that they were NOT able to adopt. Since then, God has been moving on them to consider leaving the only home they have known (Birmingham) - where all their closest family and friends live, and making an international move to St. Petersburg.

Chris and Jill brought Luke (2 1/2) with them this past week for a visit to see if they were really hearing from God or not, to explore the city, learn more about the Harbor, and get to know their potential team members. It was exciting to talk possibilities with them, take them around the city, and have powerfull meetings with the staff of the Harbor about how a business could come alongside them, not only for the income, but also to benefit the residents directly, through job training and other such venues.

The process for them has just begun, so we don't know where and how this will end, but we got along well and are excited about what God has invested in them for "just such a time as this." Pray with us for God's leading, wisdom, and favor - for breakthoughs in Russia that will take His work to another level!

P.S. As further confirmation of God's intention to do something new here in St. Petersburg, the Whites are not the only ones considering a move to our team. There are several others who feel a call for Russia and/or the orphans that are either praying about their next steps, and some already in the process of raising money to move here. Please also pray for this larger process of building a strategic apostolic team here. I see this all as advance work for something big coming down the road.

Teaching in Indonesia

2010-08-19T23:21:00.003+04:00

If you have been thinking that all of our ministry is in Russia, then you may be surprised today. This summer Diana and I had a wonderful diversion from our normal work in Russia to serve a school in Indonesia. Let me tell you how God pulled that off for us to do something so out of the ordinary.

Through the school Diana teaches through online, Diana got to know one of the leaders of a classical Christian school in Bandung, who invited her last year to do some teacher training for most of the staff. The school is a very successful one, with (now) about 500 students, and all of the teachers and students have to speak in English, which is a second language in Indonesia.

So Diana spent about 10 days there last fall working (quite intensely) with them in her area of specialty – writing. They were so impressed that they asked her to come back. It so happened that she was already planning to come back, as our family had to travel to Malaysia this summer for our mission's once-every-four-year worldwide conference. Diana talked them into speaking with me too to see if there was anything I could offer of value. Turns out I could.

So we spent two weeks there as a family this summer – Diana doing more and deeper training with the teachers, and I leading some of the principals, teachers, and board members in Christian coaching training. The kids meanwhile did everything from play with the P.E. staff to helping out with the Kindergarten classes when their school year started.

To be honest, we all had a wonderful time (especially after these travel woes), loved the people we worked with, felt like we were able to be used in a way that had a real impact, and it was a great change of pace from the normal life we know in Russia. And yes, we got in some fun time too. And no, we aren't tempted to leave Russia.

Diana was excited to see how eager and teachable all the teachers were, how much they had implemented from the year before, and the varieties of applications they were making to the material. I was excited to see how quickly my students picked up on the values of coaching, how powerfully their lives were being impacted, and how they were able to pass these values on and impact others around them in school and at church through their small groups.

A few comments I got:

“It really encourages my spirit especially on leadership things!”
“Through this Coaching Training I have had the most significant learning experience i.e.: learning to hold my tongue and really listen what my peer said.”
“I LEARN MUCH ABOUT BEING AUTHENTIC & BE ACCOUNTABLE TO SOMEBODY. I REALIZED THAT MY PERSONALITY IS TEND TO BE INTROVERT, AND IT CHALLENGES ME TO BE TRANSFORMED AND OPEN MY LIFE MORE TO OTHERS, SO THAT ALL OF GOD’S WORKS IN MY LIFE SHOULD BECOME A BLESSING FOR OTHERS.”
“I believe this is the right way to built people and help other to grow.”

So, I guess you never know how and where God will use you. Thanks for being behind us to make these extra blessings possible.

To bribe, or not to bribe

2010-07-26T08:48:00.006+04:00

As if our troubles on the way to Malaysia this month weren't enough, our next leg of our Asia tour was even more fun.

We arrived in Jakarta Saturday night the 24th and had to pass through the same two hoops as a week earlier on our way through to Malaysia: buying a visa, and passport control. Since the lines had been so slow the last time, I sent Diana and the kids on ahead to the passport line while I got the visas. But there was a small problem with Kerith's passport - it had no more free pages in it that were usable for visas. The agent directed me to follow him to another agent, who led me into a holding room. I was too far away from Diana to explain what was going on, but I just told her, and I believed, that it was a minor matter that they just had to figure out how to resolve. I motioned for her to just stay in line, and let one person at a time go ahead of her so she would always be in front.

The officer (by the name of Rizky) came and sat with me and asked if I understood the situation. His next question set us on a bad start: was it OK if they just left Kerith outside Indonesia? Hardly, I explained; we're talking about a little boy, and we're talking about a 2 week visit.

The problem was that when Russian immigration officials had given him his residency permit (which is written by hand), they messed his up, and so they just wrote through it MISTAKE, and started over on another page. So he had fewer pages than the other kids. I carefully explained that he could just cover that page, or he was welcome to use another pages dedicated to endorsements (whatever that is) which we never use. Well, neither of those options suited him, as he could (apparently) get in big trouble for using the wrong page. Who would get him in trouble seemed to change. At first, it was Russia. I laughed at the thought and carefully explained that they would never look for a page that didn't need to exist. Then he said that the US could come back and complain (I knocked that one down too), but he settled on Indonesia as his final answer. He could get in trouble with them (who, his supervisors?) if they saw that he used the wrong page. And the fine for such a thing would be over $2500 (25,000,000RP).

I saw where this was going, so I started playing dumb and slowing things down as much as possible. Ironically, although Russia is considered among the most corrupt countries in the world, I have never experienced the option of solving my problems through bribery there, so I was flying by the seat of my pants.

Rizky: I am taking a big chance here, but I can help you if you help me.
Me: I sure don't want you to get in trouble. What can I do to help protect you?
Rizky: I can talk to my supervisor if you can give me some money.
Me: Money? I have no money.
R: We have an ATM.
Me: Maybe we can write a letter together?
R: Need money. Don't you understand?
Me: No, I don't. (I go into all the options for stamping the passport again.)
R: (slowly going through the passport again. I can tell he is wavering. This is becoming too much work, and I'm a pretty sad case. I pray feverishly for God to open that door wider) It's too risky.
Me: (wondering what happens to the risk in the presence of money) How much are we talking? You need $2500?
R: No, just enough to make agreement with my supervisor.
Me: How much?
R: You agree, and I go talk numbers with him.
Me: (starting to falter) Is $100 enough?
R: That's not even close.
Me: (looking pained, troubled, and confused)
R: You don't understand?
Me: No.
R: I don't understand either (implied: I don't understand why you are such an idiot that you don't get what I'm trying to do here.)
[Supervisor steps in.]
S: Is it our problem that you didn't check your passport before coming here?
Me: You changed your laws, and none of my contacts knew about it, so we had to get another visa last week for a 5 hour stay.
S: That's not my problem. Look, none of us will have any problems if we just let you all leave the country.
Me: Let me talk with my wife (I've kept her in line all this time, not wanting to have to stress her out over this, but I don't see an out yet.)
R: You need your wife's approval to spend money?
Me: We do everything by agreement.
R: You can't do this without her?
Me: No can do. Let me bring her in.
R: OK.

Diana decides to bring all the kids in and leave the line. She tells him about the person here to pick us up. He perks up at the knowledge that she is Indonesian, so he gives us his phone. We get Memey, our main contact person, on the phone, who starts to negotiate with Rizky. A ray of hope. They agree to have Lita, the one there to pick us up, come talk with him. Honestly, I don't think I could have done this without Diana's strength. She was amazingly placid and determined to see this through.

For some reason, this takes another 20 minutes. Meanwhile, Rizky has nothing better to do, and he starts playing Connect 4 with Simon. The Supervisor comes in and brings us all water and offers to buy us food. He comes back later with hot dogs and fries for all the kids. Bizarre. I step into the adjacent room to pray. Whereas the holding room we were in was small with chair railing covered in burns from cigarettes, this room is much larger, dim, and empty, except for a desk and portraits of the President and Vice-Presidents of Indonesia. My prayer was essentially this:

"All authority belongs to you, Lord, so these guys ultimately answer to you. I want to preserve integrity in this situation, rather than playing into their scheme, but I have no idea how, so I'll just rely on Your authority to resolve this."

The Presidents didn't seem to mind me there, but Lydia was afraid because I was praying loudly, and she didn't want any bugs to pick it up, so I agreed to take my prayers undercover.

Finally, Lita arrives. For some reason, she knows nothing of Memey's negotiations, so we are back to square one, and she doesn't get very far. Diana has the idea of calling the US Embassy, and not only does she have the number on her, but she actually gets a real person. It's Saturday at 9:30pm.

I explained to John, the on-duty guy, the situation, and he asked to speak to Rizky. The pohone changed hands several times, and along the way I found out that John actually had never heard of this happening and had no idea what to do. All he could say was, 'If this guy is trying to shake you down, then we have an issue here. I'll be sure to look him up on Monday." I eventually suggested that John give him the authority, from the US government, to put the visa on the endorsement page (which I have since learned doesn't have to be a big deal). John's response was, "hey, whatever I can do to be of help." I passed the phone one last time, and they struck a deal. Both took down each other's contact information to hold them accountable.

They took Diana and I into their war room and photographed and fingerprinted each of us. Rizky then gave us a warning about taking care of this problem and not doing this to them again. I responded graciously, adding, "That would be risky for Rizky, wouldn't it?" He smiled.

Yucky trip, hopeful trip

2010-07-16T17:10:00.004+04:00

We arrived today in Langkawi, Malaysia, for our missions once-every-four-years worldwide conference. There must be some great things in store, because I would hate to have experienced what we did to get here in vain:

5 flights over 44 hours
having to completely start over, rechecking all our luggage 4 of the 5 times
kids at times in tears from exhaustion
a crisis at almost every step:
the 1st flight was so delayed we feared we'd miss the connection
the 2nd flight was in jeopardy from the fact that we couldn't produce the credit card I used to buy the flight a few months ago before it was stolen. Finally a nice supervisor intervened.
after the 3rd flight we had to pay $125 for visas since we would be in the country for 5 hour, one hour longer than the maximum allowed without.
between getting visas and getting through passport control, it took us 2.5 hours to just get in the country (Indonesia), eating precious time out of our brief respite in a hotel (which a kind anonymous to us person paid for. We lay down at 1:15am, and had to get up at 3:45.
our 4th flight was tainted by the fear that we had just found out that we would likely not make our 5th flight, as the airline didn't think we had allowed enough time to transfer, even though booked it thinking that doing so between the same airline in the same terminal was safe in one hour. But no, they don't check the bags through. We'd have to get them all and start over.
when we arrived, with 55 minutes to spare, I sprinted ahead of the family, passing a couple hundred people walking to passport control and made it first in line. Then I ran to the other end of the terminal and checked into the next flight, hoping that they would hold on for the rest of the family since I was there. The lady was nice but told me that the computer would close down check-in automatically in 10 minutes - a half hour out from the flight. I ran all the way backwards through customs to baggage claim, where the rest of the family was waiting for the baggage (they had run past most of the 200 people too), just now starting to come out. I then sent all of them ahead to sprint to check-in, while I waited for the baggage. I then piled all 9 bags up on a cart and made the journey across the airport a 3rd time alone, literally threw all the bags through the electronic scanning machine, re-piled the cart, and ran across the hall with it to check-in, where the agent was waiting for me.

Jesus is good. We are here. We laughed; cried. And so expectations are high for this week. It's beautiful here. Pics later.

A local adoption woe

2010-07-09T15:47:00.002+04:00

I've had an amazing number of letters responding to my recent newsletter on the crisis in Russian adoptions. As I've written back sometimes, it's a blessing that God is bringing these issues to the surface so that His Body can cry out for a breakthrough.

Here is one of these letters, which I thought I would post, since it is from a family who actually adopted from the very orphanage that is near our apartment, where we all (especially Diana) have volunteered.

Thank you so much for writing these insights and your progress, as we so much appreciate it. We continue to pray for you. We, like so many, adopted our daughter from Orphanage 46 ten years ago. Sadly we have had the same issues and all the adoptive parents from our church have experienced similar issues. Ours recently ended with our daughter running away on her 18th birthday, just 7 weeks ago. We showered her with Godly love, with many late nights of crying and instruction, and many attempts toward Godly counseling. Our family was subjected to her daily lies, deceit, and she was more than just a strong willed child. We observed many dangerous and destructive behaviors. The sneaking around on the internet (outside of our home) and what she did on it was the biggest struggle. She could be anyone she wanted and seek attention. We love her so much, but now she is in a situation where the people she is staying with do not understand her behaviors, her distructive tendancies, and the daily communication and accountability she needs. Please pray for us. The terrible lies, the pictures we see of her that are not even close to being appropriate, and the many things she has done....is not nearly as hurtful as her comments such as, "It's okay they are not my real parents anyway...and I never really loved them anyways." We know God has a plan for our daughter, but we are struggling to see his purpose right now, as we believe she is in a unsafe situation, but the people she is staying with have cut off all communication with us. We are praying for her safety, that God would reveal Himself to her, and would show her the love that she needs so desparately in her life. Although there were so many ups and downs over the past 10 years with our daughter, we truly continue to love her. Please pray for her, us, and we will continue praying for your ministry and that the bondage of sin on these children will be broken.

If that doesn't motivate us to press on, then I don't know what will.

Renovating with Yuri

2010-06-03T22:08:00.002+04:00

I went with Yuri today to his house to finally see this place he has been so feverishly working on for the last several weeks. What's an orphan doing with a house, you ask? Don't be so hasty. This is the house (duplex) that he, his sister, and mother lived in before the family was broken up. It's been abandoned for 10 years, though, after a fire left it unlivable. Now his mother lives elsewhere, and after his hazing incident at the dorm, Yuri is keen to reclaim that territory for his own again.

The setting is really pleasant - well beyond the city limits, in a residential setting with single family homes with gardens and rolling hills. His home is wooden with 2 rooms and a kitchen (would that I had taken my camera), and it's a bad as you could imagine after being neglected for so long. Yuri has been a hero, putting in countless hours cleaning and fixing it up, but it's a huge job, and it was hard for me to be excited about it, since it's not like it's going to look all that great (given the poor quality it was built in) when it's done since he has so little to put into it.

On the way there we stopped at a trash heap where he often goes to look for glass for his windows and other goods. No luck today. Our time at the home was spent on spackling walls that have no prayer of ever being straight and Yuri putting wall paper over them. Russians hardly ever paint, and one reason is that they have so much to cover over that it would never look good to do so. The key is really thick wall paper, and he has done a nice job under the circumstances. In fact, I'm proud of him. Then we worked on the entrance way, taking off eight layers of former wall paper. Yuri estimates the age of the home at 40 years, and with 10 years empty, that's quite a track record!

He hopes to be able to move in in a month, but beyond the walls, there is no electricity, water, sinks, or toilets in there. But he's my hero for his tenacity and vision. I just wanted to give some moral support to my young mentee. It was good male bonding time.

Restoration House

2010-04-30T13:24:00.004+04:00

Something I've always liked doing is getting out in the community to meet new (to me) ministries. I don't do nearly enough, but I have extra motivation with my new role at MIR. Just Monday, I found out about a ministry well outside the city that serves much the same population as the Harbor - post orphanage graduates, yet not really the same kinds of kids at all. There are three levels of orphanage graduates.

High functioning kids take care of themselves (a tiny minority).
The Harbor targets the middle strata, able to function at a minimal level, with some motivation to thrive in life. These are the kids I have worked most with to date.
Restoration House goes for the kids who end up on the streets because they have failed to navigate the challenges of life after the orphanage.

We are talking about highly dysfunctional kids, who have NO independent living skills, who usually (maybe even always) live on the streets, and who usually are addicted to something, most likely sniffing, which causes permanent brain damage in a way that no other drug does.

I spent several hours with Olga (left) who founded Restoration House (pictured above) and runs it to this day. What was most encouraging about their work (beyond the incredible devotion and sacrifices the staff live out) is the openness they report these kids have to the gospel. In contrast to the average kid at the Harbor, these kids seem to have a greater sense of their need for God, for help, for transformation, and they seem to be more in touch with spiritual world.

Olga had two requests of me: they are desperately seeking a camp where they can take the kids this July when a team from Oklahoma is coming to help lead. There are a lot of camps around, but they are all booked or too expensive. Already I could help by putting them in touch with the contact person at MIR's Camp Elama, which she had never heard of.

Her second request was for a space in the city for kids to gather for a Bible study. I was frankly amazed to think that these youth would actually want to attend a Bible study, despite what she had explained above, but the other issue is their palpable need for relationship and love.

I'll get on that.

Dorm life ain't no party

2010-04-26T16:34:00.003+04:00

Yuri showed up for his weekly visit the other day. Only he didn't look well: two black eyes that proved a violent confrontation had befallen him. He had just that day come out of the hospital after nearly a week there! The reason: a couple of fellow students had come to pay him a visit and ask to play his guitar. When he refused, they put him in his place, as it were - beating him for an hour and a half! He didn't go to the hospital until the next day, and never called us!

Boy, was I in for an education. What Yuri experienced is called дедовщина (dyedovshina), a term normally reserved for the way new army recruits are hazed by the older cadets. It turns out it's also practiced (according to Luba at the Harbor) in 98% of all male dorms, and 97% of even female dorms. This from a research proposal I found online (through Google translation):

Dorms, to some extent, became the main feature of the "socialist way of life", they formed a special subculture, which has many varieties. It is not only criminal subculture gulag barracks, but also a subculture of communal dormitory and "great construction projects of communism", a subculture in a secure dorm limitchik urban subculture of military barracks, barracks for the temporary accommodation of agricultural seasonal workers, a subculture of student dormitory, etc. During the years of Soviet power grew, and brought up more than one generation of people who had no hearth and home, past and communal dormitories, having learned their language, customs, values, norms of behavior, the twisted psychology of interpersonal and intergroup relations.

Dorms have always been a zone of high crime rates, special kinds of immoral behavior (alcoholism, drug addiction, substance abuse, sexual promiscuity, profanity, etc.). This applies to vocational school dorms. With the crisis experienced by our society, the decline in the economy, with increasing migration, decline in living standards for people subculture hostel PTU (vocational schools) has a strong further advance in the direction of criminalization. Overcoming the effects of this particular subculture on the behavior of individuals and groups, its decriminalization, the formation of humanistic subculture of young people living in dormitories PTU - these are tasks that must be addressed.

So did Yuri go to the police? No way. He explained that since these guys had a record, they would be arrested, and then their friends (they are from the Caucuses where nationalist loyalties are really high) would come and possibly kill him. The dorm "commander" found out about the incident, but Yuri told her that everything is OK. She knew the deal, and told him not to be afraid. Somehow she has the bullies under threat without jeopardizing Yuri's safety either. Thankfully, she cared enough to intervene.

Luba told me that they had warned Yuri when he left the Harbor a year ago about this kind of thing. As a weak guy with no experience in defending himself (having grown up in a Christian orphanage), he was a rather poor candidate for going to such an environment. But he insisted. Wanted his independence and a free place to stay. I guess we should be amazed he lasted this long! Pray for his safety. If this continues, he will have to consider leaving not only the dorm, but school altogether, as he would have to go earn a living to pay for a place to stay. Diana and I would likely offer our place if there were no other options.

First day on the job

2010-04-23T10:47:00.004+04:00

As I reported recently, I've been asked to serve on the board of a local ministry, MIR, who serves other ministries in the city be providing administrative services, program help, and connections with Western volunteers. Here is a summary of my first day (April 20th) going in to see how I could help:

I met first with Tanya, the coordinator of a program that they do with a ministry called New Horizons to provide host families for orphans for a month in the states. I had no ideas initially what I wanted to know from Tanya, so I just asked questions and followed my curiosity. What came out was that getting permission from orphanage directors and the related organs of authority is getting more and more complicated, so she would love to see more help making those connections. OK. File that away.

I then met with the executive director, Masha Oshkina, to follow my curiosity some for the same purpose. It happened that one of the leaders of New Horizons was there in the office at the time, being in the country to adopt a child himself. She introduced us, and I started peppering him with questions about them and how they work, and what they need. Come to find out they could place more kids in host homes (done in the summer and the winter) if there were more kids available. "Could you front some of that money to free up staff to find more kids?" He wanted to know how much. I gave him a monthly figure, and he thought it was do-able. "Give us a proposal, and I'll check on it meanwhile," he answered.

Masha, Tanya, and I had ourselves a project. Now, this was not a complicated deal I made, but what I want to point out are a few key elements here:

For some reason, this had never occurred to anyone else.This is a gift of our American culture - thinking outside the box. Masha and her husband (who is developing this project and will run it) actually do think creatively, I might add. They are proving a delight to work with.
Even if they had thought of it, the idea of so aggressively putting it into a proposal like I did sometimes doesn't happen. Plus, as the recipients of such help, they can feel in the lower position (though Westerners don't want them to feel this way, and I'm not saying they did in this case).
Although this isn't that formal a process, the Americans need the proposal in a form that addresses their needs and concerns. Americans have a specific way they want proposals to look, and it just takes some learning. Masha and Tanya immediately went to work and put together some great reports, and then I helped them understand what is wanted from the other side. I have a lot of experience in grant writing and grant reviewing, so...
This was pretty much a God day, confirming that He has sent me in this direction.

CMU Russia?

2010-04-10T22:15:00.002+04:00

Out of the blue I got an email in the states asking me to join the board of a ministry in Petersburg that I have known about and respected since we got here. MIR, the Russian word for "peace" and also an acronym for "Mercy and Joy," is actually a lot like my old ministry in Richmond, Christian Ministries United. Both served as a link between ministries and the community at large, and churches in particular. Both sought to serve their partners, rather than do direct ministry. MIR, however, only works with ministries who are focused on orphans and children in need. MIR does a lot of work administratively for its partners, and it organizes a lot of short-term mission teams from the states to serve in orphanages and other ministries.

I told the director I wasn't interested in filling a slot, and he told me he is actually looking to step down soon and needs fresh vision and direction. That's my middle name. I'm just praying now for God to move me, rather than my own ideas, because I already have a million ideas of how I can serve these ministries and help them work together to bless the community.

Yep, I'm excited.

Now Horizons in Children's Ministry

2010-03-21T19:16:00.005+03:00

I wrote this praise report to my intercessory team this week:

I hope I can communicate to you the level of excitement I feel at this moment. First some background. While we were on furlough, I attended a conference. Picked up a book that looked good for my kids. Went to the web site for the author and had some questions, so I called. The author himself answered (Mike Seth). He got excited about our ministry and gave me the names of two women who had been to the Ukraine with an interest in doing some innovative ministry to orphans. All three of us seemed to feel an immediate connection. One of the two happened to live in GA and she and her husband invited us over for dinner.

We bonded instantly, and an idea came up immediately (I think it was Diana's) because we knew that our agency was scrambling to find a team to come serve our children during our worldwide conference this summer in Malaysia. Long story short - their team now has all but final (formal) approval to come serve our (about 150) missionary kids.

Why am I excited? First, as you see from the above, all these connections were too amazing to not see God's hand. Second, I can't remember when I have ever in my life proposed anything significant to my superiors that they adopted. I think my ideas have always been too radical. I guess this is a pat on the back from God, saying "you're not so crazy after all, son." And it affirms that I am a part of a great organization.

Third, and most importantly, the ministry itself is amazing. It's called "No More Crumbs" based on the premise that children's ministry does not have to be about merely giving them simple Bible stories, crafts, and Jesus Loves Me. They believe that kids can know God personally at an early age and relate to Him as a loving Father. They believe that kids can gain a deep sense of identity and purpose from God. They believe that kids can learn to pray and worship with depth and passion. They believe that you don't have to just tag along with your parents; you can be a part of God's team today! They believe that kids can minister powerfully to other kids out of this place of intimacy with the Father. Now that's what I'm talking about!

Therefore, fourth, my kids are going to have a great experience that could impact them for life. And fifth, all these other missionary kids are going to get powerfully ministered to. That, I believe, is high leverage ministry. When you minister to the ministers, you get to impact everyone they impact. When you help the kids survive in the mission field, the whole family survives. In a word, this news is a big setback for the kingdom of darkness.

Here is a teaching from one of the leaders, Jenni Means, who will be working with our kids in Malaysia:

Ключи к приобретению надежды и исцеления (Wisdom and Revelation; Keys to Hope and Healing) from CoMission for Children at Risk on Vimeo.

I say "New Horizons" because this kind of stuff gets me more interested in direct ministry with children than I have been in a long time. Before I moved to Virginia in 1994, I worked exclusively with kids, through everything from camp counseling and outdoor education to ESL teaching and working with delinquent youth. Is God pushing me back to pick up an old refrain?

The Orphan Spirit

2010-03-15T11:28:00.002+03:00

The following is a transcript of the message I gave to my home church in Georgia just before we left to return to Russia last month. It represents an important development in my thinking about why we are hear - not merely to minister to the orphans, but to the orphan spirit that drives it and so much else of what is wrong in Russia.

I want to try to make our ministry as plain and simple to you today as I possibly can, because on the surface we are involved in a number of different activities. Some people think we are just involved in ministry to orphans. This is actually not true. What we are doing is asking God to use us to reverse the orphan spirit which is so pervasive in Russia. What, you ask, is an orphan spirit? I’m glad you asked, and here is my working definition: An orphan spirit is type of a spirit of fear that comes from not knowing and trusting in the Father’s protection, provision, and direction.

What does this look like in Russia? Let me give you a few quotes from some research conducted back in the 1990's to help Christian workers from the West understand the Russian soul:

"Though the third millennium is on our threshold, our country still remains a teenager, compared to the countries of the West; and adolescent whose childhood and adolescence were devoid of most things essential for normal development and who stepped into his adulthood, messy, bloody, and distorted, inadequately prepared for his vital functions there."

"...many Russians approach life like adults who were abandoned or abused as children."

"Russians seem to experience shame (rather than guilt) as a core issue.... It's not just that I have failed or done something wrong in my life. I, myself, my whole being is irreparably flawed. I am hopelessly defective."

"On the whole, Russians surveyed in all age groups have shown that they look at God as an abstract concept. He appears unknowable, enigmatic, and mysterious. Most Russians tend to see him as remote and unwilling to intervene in the terrible events that have happened to them. His involvement is more that of a Celestial Judge who dispenses rewards and punishments to those below. They are like children who have been beaten and cover when approaching the master or parent, not knowing when the next blow will fall."

[from: An Introduction to the Russian Soul. Ennis and Rinehart]

It’s a spirit that affects all of us to some extent, but those with no biological fathers, and, worse, those with bad biological fathers, whether through abuse or neglect, are particularly susceptible. Some have questioned our patriotism, since I have been critical of the direction this country is taking. But I want to say to you that it doesn’t take long living in most any other country, but especially one like Russia, to see that the blessings that the United States enjoys because of its Christian roots is undeniable. On the whole, we take care of the fatherless in this country. In fact, there are essentially no orphanages here, because of the societal value we place on taking care of our children, and so we have foster homes instead. Not that we don’t have our share of problems with our system, but compared to other societies, we care.

In Russia, on the other hand, they don’t adopt, and they don’t even take kids into their homes in any significant numbers. It’s just not a cultural value, which means that the biblical value of caring for the “stranger, the widow, and the fatherless” has not penetrated their thinking.

And why should we be surprised? Only .9% of Russians are considered to have an evangelical faith, so even though they all got religion in the 1990’s when the Soviet Union fell, in most cases it only went skin deep. Compare that to 7% of evangelicals in the US. At first blush that may not seem like a huge difference, and it certainly is far from our glory days after the Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19thcenturies, but it only takes a 2% minority to change the course of the entire population.

So one of our key verses for our ministry is from Malachi: “He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse." The way I read that verse, the attitude of a father is so foundational to a society, that the land itself suffers when that relationship is broken. Moreover, God so cares for the ones ignored by their fathers, that He holds society responsible for it.

The number of real orphans are as high or higher in Russia than at any time wince WW2. Annually, 130,000 children become orphans, 90% of whom are not true orphans without parents, but social orphans – rejected or taken away from their parents for various reasons.

If we think about it, the real issue is not that these children don’t have parents to raise them. What’s more important than a parent? The answer is, a parent’s love. It’s the lack of love that comes from not having parents that damages these kids. So these kids learn an orphan spirit, because they are rejected. What comes with that spirit? A fear that they will not be protected, provided for, or guided in life. And the system puts out 10,000 “graduates” per year. Leaving high school 8500 of these fall into drug dealing, prostitution, other crimes, and homelessness. 500 commit suicide. That’s a 90% failure rate that the orphanages have in preparing these kids for life.

Now think about those issues from the perspective of the orphan. What is their thought process?
I have to be a criminal because no one loves me enough to provide for me.
I sell my body because no one values me for who I am.
I have to kill myself because no one thinks I am worthy of their time, care, or investment.

The system that generates such a result is from the pit of Hell and must be fought by every godly means possible. What that should look like deserves its own message, but my focus today is on the lie that these kids believe about who they are as a result of this rejection by society. For we know that there is One who loves them with a perfect, perpetual, and purposeful love. Receiving that love is so powerful, that it can literally wipe away the most damaging aspects of not having a parent who provides those values.

This is why ministry to orphans has any meaning at all. For if all we are about is feeding their physical needs while ignoring the cry of the heart to know the One to Whom they belong, then we are only prolonging the pain. (This one truth alone is enough to negate Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.) All our service to these dear ones must be an expression of the Father’s love seeking to adopt those who are lost into His family. Jesus said that “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father,” and our ministry is no less significant: we are to show the Father’s love in everything we do.

I want Diana to come up now to tell one story of a child she has spent a lot of time with to overcome his own sense of rejection as a orphan.

[Diana]

And so the Harbor is a ministry we work with to serve some of these kids coming out of the system so that they can be spared the fate of the 90% of graduates nationwide by giving them a home, people serving in place of parents who model the father’s love, and show them that they have a hope and a future because they are His children.

My training of the staff at the Harbor is meant to fight the orphan spirit, both in the residents, and in the staff themselves. A true father is not interested in right behavior. Vadim is a great commander. He knows how to get those kids in line, and he does it with the love of Christ. But he doesn’t know how to reach the hearts of the kids. What separates a commander from a father is the heart of the shepherd. Since Russia is plagued generally with an orphan spirit, a spirit of fear that comes from not knowing and trusting in the Father’s protection, provision, and direction, and
it affects even Christians. So my focus in working with the staff is helping them move from raising young adults with the right behavior to shepherding their hearts with the Father’s love, which means getting a true revelation of that love themselves.

Yuri is a young man we met through the Harbor who never knew his father. His mother completely neglected him, and he ended up for a season begging on the streets and at the train station before ending up in an orphanage. He comes to us to see a real family in action, warts in all, and God has given me access to his heart to help father him to become a good husband and father one day. He observes us carefully, and he asks good questions, especially in the context of his own relationships, so that he can learn and grow. Everyone needs a mentor like this. Think back on those who took the most personal interest in you, who really invested themselves in you. Weren’t they among the most important people in your life? Mentoring is virtually unheard of in Russia, though, because of fatherlessness, both spiritual and literal.

Likewise, my work in the community with pastors and other leaders (and potential leaders) is not about teaching them what they need to know to lead, or even teaching them how good leaders act, but rather teaching them what it means to have the heart of a leader, which is the heart of a father. For I believe that all organizations and all government ultimately derive their mandate from that of the family. Steward and shepherd the resources and the people in your care (it’s not one or the other) and God will provide the increase. This, too, is a huge subject worthy of attention.

At the church we attend, the leadership has given me the opportunity to speak into the life of the congregation, and my questions are always about how we care for and invest in the members so that they can connect with God’s heart for them and their calling in Christ. Whether I’m asking about how we follow up with visitors or how we train small group leaders, I’m always driving at the need to father people over a lifetime so that they grow continually and never fall through the cracks as spiritual orphans.

Leaders need fathering as much as do the rank and file. Our work with the leaders of the school our boys attend is a tremendously rewarding part of our ministry, because they are so hungry to be fed and nurtured in their ability to shepherd the kids in their care. I want Diana to come back and talk about Tanya, who is so thirsty for such attention that she has asked Diana to mentor her in any way and any direction that Diana chooses.

[Diana]

An orphan spirit can infect a person for life unless you come to Father God for a heart change. Drunkenness is a national epidemic that I believe is directly a reflection of an orphan spirit, and our kids got an early and harsh education in the reality of what alcohol can do to a person. One elderly man who lives in the house next door to us, named Valery, is someone we have had to see suffer the demonic effects of alcohol time and time again. And because the kids are outside so much, they have developed a relationship with him, and a burden for him. I want Lydia to come up now and share about how she has been given the Father’s heart for Valery.

[Lydia] - shared her experience with our neighbor Valery, and beautifully tied it in to the theme of the orphan spirit.

St. Frances says to preach the Gospel all the time, and sometimes use words. I hope you can picture Lydia hand in hand with Valery. She, who should be the daughter figure, can nonetheless represent the heart of God the Father to this man, but she prays often for an opportunity one day to share that love using words too.

Where do we want to go in the next season? We have some wonderful opportunities at our door: helping other ministries serve orphans, doing some direct work with orphans, training leaders in the city and across Russia who need to learn to lead with a father’s heart, and helping to train counselors to break the orphan spirit off of Russians. What will tie them all together is our commitment to learn how to serve more and more as a family, and to raise up fathers of fathers of fathers willing to let God use them to change a nation.

A new lesson for Dad

2010-03-14T17:42:00.003+03:00

Simon got up from nap yesterday crying. He sometimes does that when you get him up prematurely, but this was not the case. Moreover, he kept going, and going, and going. It wasn't pain; he just wanted to cry on my shoulder. Try as I might, he wouldn't tell me what was going on. So I just let him cry for a while. But when it still didn't stop, I thought, "why try to make him talk? Just speak to his spirit some generic encouragement." I started to tell him how much we love him and care about him. Immediately the crying got worse. I knew I had hit on something, so I kept going with other such words of affirmation and love. He was getting more worked up, so I knew that he was fighting receiving these truths at some level. So then I said, "Simon, whatever you are hearing, it's time for you to resist it. Don't give in to what you are thinking. We do love you and care about you no matter what." And what do you know? He calmed down.

Later, I found out the source of the pain: today, he wet the bed for the first time in several weeks. How cool that I could speak to his pain, even when he was too ashamed to talk about it.

This is one way God has been teaching me the heart of a real father lately by keeping a soft heart towards my real Father.

Meeting updates

2010-01-29T18:31:00.010+03:00

To our great regret, we have had to cancel both of this weekend's gatherings. Why?

Snow is coming yet again (this isn't the Richmond I remember), and even though it still may not be prohibitive,
Packing is upon us to get ready to leave the state on time, and Diana is feeling pretty overwhelmed and exhausted from all the moving around; time to be a good husband.
Simon is sick.
A situation has come up with Diana's family that we have to respond to.

Is this a spiritual attack? Yes. It seems to be an attempt to thwart connecting with people in Richmond, and to wear Diana out, and thus her capacity to serve long-term. I refuse to accept defeat, and we are not close by any means, but I don't want to tolerate even small victories by the enemy. We're feeling pretty taxed at this point and ready to get home in Russia. Prayers welcome.

Where is our ministry going long-term?

2009-12-21T18:53:00.002+03:00

We don't plan to leave Russia. I sometimes even tell Russians that we will die there (I'm in the states as I write on furlough). This really shocks them, since they are not used to missionaries being so committed to them. Of course God's will be done, but I really can't see having a significant impact in less than 10 years in any event. Why?

Russians are slow to trust you.
The problems are deep and entrenched.
Our ministry is not about getting quick decisions for Christ and once-for-all changes.
It has multiple phases:

Find those individuals, ministries, churches, and organizations (businesses?) that are hungry for transformational change - change that starts in the heart and affects everything
Invest deeply in them so until their strongholds have given way to the Lord, until their dreams align with His purposes, their relationship with Him is deep, abiding, and infectious, and until others are learning from them.
Gather these "fathers" together into teams who can dream God's dreams for the city and nation. Coach them into praying and thinking strategically together.

This step is really the beginning of where the potential comes. I could relish the thought of helping such a team implement these exciting large-scale dreams into reality. Yet this is where I could theoretically see us moving on should God so move us.

How do leadership development and orphans fit together?

2009-12-21T18:10:00.002+03:00

Sometimes I describe our work in Russia as a dual thrust: developing leaders and serving the needs of orphans. Although this is a true picture, I see the two coming together over time. Here is my present understanding of how God is working to that end:

We all know the story of the kid who saves the starfish washed up on the shore. Even though there are countless thousands of them that he can't save, he is content saving the ones he can. This is truly the heart of the Father, who will leave the 99 to go after the 1 lost sheep (Lk. 15:4). Yet, since we know that God is not willing that any should perish (2Pet. 3:9), we know that it is not an "either/or" dilemma with God. Our Father has given some of us a heart to rescue the lost, one precious soul at a time. Others he gives a burden to reach many at once or to help change the structures and systems that keep them in bondage.

My work in Richmond showed this tension: during our 10 years there (post graduate school) I served simultaneously as a family counselor and as the head of a ministry dedicated to bringing leaders together so that they could find one heart and mind for large-scale change in the city. At the time, I considered my leadership in this ministry to be my main calling. I now see it differently. My calling is to work with leaders and potential leaders one-on-one as a means of cultivating a team of leaders from all sectors of society who can work together to see the "whole Church bring the whole Gospel to the whole city."

Now to the connection with orphan ministry. I am beginning to think that the key concept here is fathering. Men are spiritually neutered in Russia (and in most of the world, but particularly here). Paul commanded Timothy to pass on what he had given Timothy "to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others" (2Tim. 2:2). This is spiritual fatherhood. Ideally, our biological fathers should be our main spiritual father as well, but this is sadly far from the case. I feel called to father those who can father others. Once this "spirit of adoption" returns to the Church, it will manifest itself in physical adoptions, which are quite rare among Russians (hence the Westerners take them). In the mean time, I will work with orphan ministries to teach the staff how to have this kind of father's (Father's) heart towards the kids.

Why orphans?

2009-12-21T17:55:00.002+03:00

Neither Diana nor I had ever done any work with orphans before moving to Russia. We had once, however, begun the process of adopting a child from the Ukraine after Lydia was born. But then when Kerith came along much sooner than expected, we abandoned that project (perhaps for another day?). We had both worked with kids. In addition to both of us having experience in camp counseling,
I had:

taught ESL for kids in the USSR and in the States
taught delinquent teens at an alternative school in Oregon

Diana had:

taught emotionally disturbed kids in Richmond
taught in the public schools for several years and online for 7 years and counting

We had each had our own ministry in Richmond, I leading a citywide ministry, and she teaching homeschooled kids through The Potter's School. What we wanted was to find an area where we were both interested. Orphan work was that place that brought tears to both our eyes when we considered the plight of these kids.

Even now we don't completely see how we fit together in this ministry, but the pieces are beginning to come together. Our work with Yuri and other kids from the Harbor is one example of direct ministry, but I see it evolving over time as we let God use our respective gifts in complementary ways for His glory.

Call an Ambulance - No, Don't!

2009-11-03T22:30:00.004+03:00

I woke up feeling quite normal that Friday recently in October, excited about the men's retreat I was at in a quiet suburb of the city (Father School, which originally came out of Korea). Normal wouldn't last long, though. Soon after I got to the morning prayer meeting the small of my back gave, and it suddenly hurt to just sit. I even needed help walking back to my room afterwards. By mid-morning, it was getting hard to sit still, and they got me a cot to lie on. I didn't tell Diana when she and I spoke that morning, because I figured she'd want me to come home or go to the doctor or something silly like that. I was on a retreat!

It took two guys to help me go to the bathroom though I could manage the act itself. By the end of lunch, I couldn't even walk with help, and so I knew I had to confess to Diana. Calling her was a watershed - literally. I just started to cry like a baby, not even sure why. Of course she was a wonderful encouragement, but I knew I had to leave and get help. The gu

ys gathered around my cot, all 50 or so of them, and they prayed for me through the pleas of a wise old Korean who was a father figure in this movement. I wept some more, still wondering why.

My ride arrived for me, but I couldn't even get up with help. So instead, six pall bearers took me to the van and did their best to transfer me in, but it was torture. I laugh at the memory of their pathetic but noble efforts.

The van was pastor Igor Sokolov's, which his wife Angela had brought for me, and they now were taking me back to the city. At first it seemed I would just go to a western clinic, but we started debating the options, particularly considering how much more expensive foreign hospitals are here than the local ones. I made calls, Angela made calls, and we settled on a plan that Angela's friend at [the Russian version of] 911 said would work:

We stopped near our apartment, but we couldn't go in (not only because I couldn't move, but because ambulance rules wouldn't allow) to call for an ambulance from the street. Despite the fact that there is a dispatch center literally across the street from our house, it was 15-20 minutes before one arrived, since the one closest to us doesn't serve our area. We couldn't not get am ambulance, as Russian hospitals won't take you from anything else. (!)

Now the team of 2, a man and woman, take their time trying to figure out how to transfer me to the ambulance while shivering from the cold is making my back tense up and send excruciating pain all around. They finally decided that drugs were their best bet, which cost me 5 more minutes while they waited for them to kick in. It was still torture to move me, which took them (the driver of course didn't care to help) as well as Igor and Angela and Diana. I protested that the drugs weren't working. The medic said the proof that they were was in the fact that I made it.

So now I freeze in the ambu

lance while they and Igor argue over where to take me and wait for directions from their superiors. My teammate, Bill, meanwhile, is also calling, pleading with me to not let them take me to a Russian hospital. I lost my cool at that point, unwilling to go back. My die was cast. A hospital was chosen, but not the one that the operator had promised that supposedly dealt with foreigners. So we finally left for a 45 minute putter through rush-hour traffic.

Once there I had a very nice impression of the ceilings, but Diana later told me that the rest of the interior caused the blood to leave her face. But lo and behold, almost immediately a doc came in and announced that they were transferring me to another hospital that would take my western insurance. Then another medic came in, transfered me yet again to another gurney and yet again into another ambulance, and we were off for another 45 minute ride to another part of town.

We had called for help about noon, and I finally settled into my final resting place by about 8pm that evening. But talk about a contrast: this was a super nice facility called EuroMed. I didn't get to experience the joys of Russian medical care, so everything went well from here out. It actually was a wonderful time for me. Except for my family visiting once, I was alone for the next two days, and I relished in the peace. I just prayed and relaxed, even after (on the 2nd day) I could start to move again.

Oh, and what was it? 2 herniated disks in my lower back. They stopped the pain and reduced the inflammation. Their recommendation: massage, swimming, and/or acupuncture. I think I'll try all three!

What is this strange feeling?

2009-10-05T11:34:00.002+04:00

When the kids all trooped out the door with backpacks at 7:45 a.m. one day this September I was left on our inside stairs staring at the closed door with a strange feeling. What was it? Oh, yes, I was alone -- with nobody to teach!! For the first time since the summer I was pregnant with Lydia I had nobody to teach. How did this happen?

We are planning our first furlough in November, and with just a couple months of the school year before we leave, Lyle, Lydia, and I had been discussing Lydia going to Russian school with the boys during this time. I considered it a "minimester" that so many colleges offer where students take a short course in between the regular semesters. This idea percolated over the summer, and we saw several benefits.

1. Language improvement. While Lydia speaks and understands very well, her formal writing and reading need work.
2. Safe environment. We know many of the staff and students from church, and the school is small.
3. A defined length of time before returning to the US and to homeschooling.
4. I was leading teacher training in Indonesia during the first two weeks of September. Having the kids all in school would give Lyle more time for our usual ministry events.
5. Lydia could cement some of her budding friendships with the kids who attend our church.

Lydia decided she wanted to give this experience a try. She was ready with backpack, notebooks, and, most importantly for a Russian student -- blue pens. (Seriously, they do everything in blue pen.) All the kids participated in the First Bell celebration, which is always September 1 throughout Russia. On September 2 I left for Indonesia -- the very first day of school! I checked-in with the kids from the airport awaiting my flight. What kind of a mother am I? Each night I got an update about the school day via Skype. It was rough going at first on a number of fronts, and I was pretty sure Lydia would opt to return to homeschooling when I returned. Even Lydia hinted that this experience might be short-lived.

Oh, I must also mention that I am taking a sabbatical year from teaching online for the Potter's School where I have taught for the past eight years! Our furlough travels would not allow for me to stay sane and continue that this year. I also did not renew my teaching at the orphanage down the street for the same reasons. The kids there need a consistency I can not provide this year.

So, I returned home from Indonesia expecting AT LEAST to be homeschool mom again. Suprise! Lydia decided to tough it out at school! We are thrilled with her maturity and realize the grace God has given her to face some steep adversity. This left me...alone. Even though we have our homeschool day on Monday, and Wednesday is my Russian lesson, I have 3 days where I do not have a long-standing commitment. It's weird. Really weird.

At first I actually felt PANIC. What do I do? I must be forgetting something! What should I prepare?
I felt irritated. I felt sad. I felt useless. All within the first few minutes of their departure. I headed to the bathroom.

From our bathroom basket of books, I picked up Hope Rising by Kim Meeder -- a compilation of vignettes about Crystal Peeks in Oregon -- a recovery ranch for hurt and neglected horses and for neglecting, hurting children coming there as a kind of therapy. As I cried my way through the first few chapters, I wondered why this book touched me so much. I realized the focus on healing emotional pains had struck a chord. But why? I'm not abused or neglected.

Ah, but God is so good and so gentle. He has led me into a time of reflection that I could not have had if there were kids to teach, lessons to plan, and papers to grade. It is a time for the Lord to teach me in these few quiet hours before the bedlam of furlough. No, I'm not abused or neglected by any person, but life in Russia takes its toll physically, emotionally, and mentally. Now I fight back the tasks that are creeping into my quiet times so that I can continue the lessons with the Lord as my ultimate teacher.

Raising up Husband leaders

2009-07-25T20:41:00.008+04:00

I had the joy of being able to start a "class" this summer for husbands, centered around a study I wrote a few years ago that I called, "On Becoming Mr. Ephesians." 25 men from 5 different churches came to participate. We started with a viewing of "Fireproof," which didn't fail to move the men to tears. From there, we broke into groups, where they discussed the first several (of 30 total) topics, all based on Eph. 5:25-32. By the end of the day, all were ready to commit to finishing the study by doing the work alone, with a partner, and in small groups.

Summer has complicated things for some, so I ask for prayers that they would all finish, but I got this from one wife recently:

"I love how he is changing. He has become a lot more attentive, soft, and caring. I think it's completely a result of the material he is covering."

My aim is to get a few guys finished by the fall who will become group leaders for a second round. Pray for God to raise them up!

Year two at the orphanage

2009-05-15T11:13:00.003+04:00

I (Diana) have gone from tutoring English one afternoon a week to two days this school year at the orphanage that is near our apartment. This year was about getting to know the kids and staff more and more. Building trust with anybody takes time, but Russians are wary by nature and slow to accept. Russian orphans have the double whammy of the cultural mistrust in addition to their abandonment. I knew I had to be as consistent as possible and show up even when I felt poorly.

Let's start at the door. The vachtas -- security -- are older ladies who guard the entry way for all their worth, and all know me by now enough to remember my name to write in the visitor's book. They even know I want the key to kabinet 202. We sometimes make small talk, and usually I get a smile out of them. My favorite is a sweet babushka with brightly-dyed red hair who reminds me of Beatrix Potter's Mrs. Tiggey-winkle. She bobs her head and shuffles around to get my key.

With key in hand, I head up to the 2nd floor passing several resident kids on the way. They all know me by now and practice saying "Hello". That's about as far as they can manage, but I always stop to ask about what they did that day. In fact, as a wait in my room for my "tutorees" to come, a few little boys have taken to stop in and chat. We usually talk about soccer. My heart has grown for these little guys, as they are child-like still and eagerly seeking attention. Whereas the older teens I tutor have no problem showing their contempt for English lessons and the inconvenience I bring to their ordered lives. One day I was hunting down 14-year-old Masha on her residence floor (I now have free reign to roam the halls), when a gaggle of boys gathered their courage to ask me if I was French. LOL. That was new to me. When I explained that I was American, they just stared. "Is that okay?, " I asked them. "Oh, yes, it's fine," they answered. Then they wanted to know about Lydia who shadows me. :)

Not only do the other residents know me, but the vaspitateli -- resident counselors or "moms" -- for each group now readily greet me. Okay, sometimes they are pretty gruff, but they accept my roaming the halls and do what they can to track down wayward students. So, where are my reluctant students? Off smoking somewhere usually.

Updates on 3 of my students -- Andrei, Masha, and Natasha:

Once Lydia and I settle into room 202, the kids start filtering through in 30-minute increments. Once I separated the girls into one-on-one sessions (they were beating each other up when together), the learning atmosphere improved greatly. The boys, Dima and Andrei, have always behaved well together, but 16-year-old Andrei tugs on my heartstrings the most. Dima is often ill, so Andrei and I play games and work on vocabulary associated with that game. His favorite activity was simply drawing cards on which I had written questions, such as "What is your favorite kind of music?" I was surprised how much he gravitated to this considering his language is very weak, and he's a hoodlum of sorts around the orphanage.

Masha, 14, has been with me for two years now. She has her mood swings from desparately seeking attention to snarling at me. I just smile and laugh to get her to crack a smile. Just when I think she's ready to bolt out the door when her lesson is over, she hangs on and on, so I know she appreciates the attention. Masha has taught me to press into a relationship to find the nuggets worth savoring. I have the tendency to "move on" when somebody is not immediately receptive to me, but I had to work at my relationship with Masha to build that trust. The reward is Masha actually attempting some English. Two years ago she refused to try.

Natasha, 15, is very unpredictable. Most days she growls at me until about half-way through the lesson when she decides to get to work and look me in the eyes. Like with Masha, I have know her for two years and must show her my tenacity by hunting her down for lessons and showing her that I'm not going anywhere. Trust me. At Easter I asked if she went to church service, she spat, "oh, lord, no!". And the "lord" was not used reverently. I fear for her future. She has little capacity to consider life outside her childish adolescence and has never understood that she has worth. I could describe most kids at the orphanage this way, but Natasha seems to carry a heavier burden than most.

These are 3 of my 6 regulars. They occupy a lot of my brain space and have taught me much about reaching across cultural, language, and relational barriers.

What about sharing the gospel with them? I don't yet have permission to go that far with the kids. But on the other hand, they haven't forbid anything either. After Easter, I asked 15-year-old Vika about the meaning of Easter when I learned that she had been to an Orthodox church, and she told me an interesting combination of truth and myth. I corrected her on the myths, but it didn't go much further. I don't have a lot of time with the kids, but I'm slowly building relationships and trust -- and in Russian orphan culture, that is foundational. Once, we invited Natasha and Masha over to our apartment during a break, and we hope to do more of that next school year, maybe in a group setting. Then we'll have more time and opportunity. I also know that the stress of life right now has me in a place to be cautious about new ventures, though. This is an item for prayer.

I hope to continue with them in the fall in any event. The assistant director, with whom I have the most contact, understands that the kids and I have found common ground. And what better to do with ground, but build on it.

Kicking in the Gates

2009-05-04T15:33:00.002+04:00

The madness leading up to our being able to turn in the paperwork for our application for temporary residence was stressful and taxing. As I reported here in detail, the whole three month ordeal took 60 hours of my time. I considered our first year of life a learning curve equivalent to a masters degree. This was a second one.

If they grant TR to us, however, it will all be worth it - three years of relative peace, without having to worry about visas, registrations, or leaving periodically. Beyond the practical lessons, however, was one God moment worth highlighting. Although it was only on the third visit to the Federal Immigration Service that they accepted our applications, the breakthrough came on the second visit:

Between the 1st and 2nd visits we had to have a miracle of speed - produce, among other things, authenticated birth certificates from Virginia in 15 days. What our $128 speedy delivery service said would take 15-19 days (plus international delivery)came down to the wire. I picked up the FedEx pakage the morning of our appointment, rushed it to the translation office, and then over to Immigration in time to meet Diana for our appointment at 2pm.

We stood there with the crowd outside the high sheet metal fence and gates around the compound, waiting for them to let us in. Right at 2pm, the guard started to open the gate, but it was stuck for some reason. He climbed up and stuck his head over the top and called out, asking if someone would kick it open. I was the nearest man, so I gave it a kick. (How I wish we had had a camera!) "Harder," some encouraged me. Again. "Even harder." I gave it a mighty blow, and it blew open. Immediately I thought of Jesus' words: "and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." I knew it was a sign that God was giving us access to Russia, probably at a more profound level than we know.

What I didn't think about was the fact that it took three blows. After our third and final appointment, I saw the connection. This caused me to reflect as well on my heart when I was actually trying to kick the gate in. The first time, I expected it to be easy. That was naive. The second time, I thought that extra energy would do the trick. That was foolish. The third time, I got an attitude towards the gate. That was God.

You see, I had felt that God had already given me an inner conviction that He was making the way for us, so I really should have taken this opportunity to make a bold declaration of God's intent to overrun the gates of the enemy's stronghold in Russia. How often do you have a government official asking you to "kick their gates in"? But God knew where my faith was, and yet He is still faithful.

Transformational Questions

2009-04-06T21:48:00.003+04:00

A former client sent me in the middle of letter a very kind testimony to how she was impacted by our time together several years ago:

A marked difference for me since we last met [5 years ago] ... it's totally normal for me to feel in constant prayer. Is this normal? I feel it is. And since [Paul] tells us to "pray without ceasing" I assume this is what it might look like? It's as though there's a running commentary with God going on all the time in this brain of mine. Because of this, it seems as though I'm able to ask quicker of God, think more, and look for clarity on an ongoing basis rather than at just specific times.

I asked this her to elaborate more on how questions were formative for her in that process.
Although her answer is more testimony, my point is not to point to my work with this client and how it impacted her. Rather, I want you to be encouraged to see the value of asking loving but penetrating questions in relationships with others is a critical component of discipleship. Ask yourself as you read this person's testimony, "to what extent do my conversations with others around me carry elements of these kinds of questions?"

1- of course questions were a significant part of the process for me. I feel as though questions were the process. Since you were willing to ask the tough questions and go past surface answers, I was able to do so as well. If questions of what God was doing, were/are we going in God's direction, etc. are not asked by trusted confidants, then how do we grow?

2- Because questions remain pivotal in my life today, I can ask them of myself and God. I'm willing and able, fully able to trust that when I ask a question like "God, I'm not sure what the next step is regarding needing to move out of our house. Do we try to stay? Do we sell everything? Do we just wait and sit on our hands?" And when God answers with something like, "You don't need this 'stuff'" I can't get upset with Him, I did ask after all. So learning how to ask questions, any question, and then taking the answer and acting-I've learned that's part of this whole life process, acting. You can be shown how to ask a question (that it's ok to do so) and I think that's something you modeled for me...asking specific questions about specific topics and not shying away from the toughness that is life. But I also learned that we'll get answers. And your guidance showed me that we are required to be obedient to those answers, whatever they are. We did ask after all.

3- Passing it onto others? Here we go, the first thing that pops into my head is a girl at a former church who I gave a ride home after every Girls' Night. (I used to lead this on Monday nights for youth aged girls-bible study, relating, figuring out scripture alongside them, living life etc.) She had a major distrust of many people and we often got in deeper discussions on the car ride home than we had miles to her house. So we'd sit and talk in her driveway. She'd ask questions of me "is it normal to feel _____" and so we'd chat. Or "H-, I hate that this happened and now..." But because I was willing to listen to her and the leading of the Holy Spirit at the same time, I feel it was easier to then ask questions of her. It took gaining her trust, the same way others have had to do of me, in order for her to be open to even questioning in the first place. But recalling how you were patient and yet firm at asking questions when perhaps I didn't want to play, helped me help her. By questioning with others and dialoging that way with God, I think we're able to better see what it is He's wanting us to do...usually to move in a closer relationship with Him.

By the way, at #3 where I said the first thing that popped to my mind...that's something else you showed me. That if we're in tune with God's leading, and if we're constantly seeking Him, and praying continually, the thoughts of your brain really aren't just "your" thoughts. I knew that even as I doubted whether that story was the one to use, it was the one to use. Remember those times we'd pray in your office and ask God to show us where to move next, what to talk about next, to show me what needed to be brought up? We asked these questions. And He never failed. We always had a clear direction to follow, even if I didn't always want to participate...yet through obedience I would. I knew that He wanted it and because you were willing to continue asking of me and continue pushing (in a good way of course) I'd become that willing participant. Some days were not easy, as the questions were tough and the answers even tougher. But because we would ask of Him where to go, what to say, what I needed to see, etc. we were able to move forward and keep working.

My first short-term team

2009-04-05T19:08:00.004+04:00

Nothing gets a person's mission juices flowing like actually doing a mission project. In my correspondence with our supporting churches, I constantly remind them that we are ready to help them organize a short-term project that suits their desires and parameters. Meanwhile, I got to help with a team of high-school kids who came here recently from the most famous mission school in the world: the Black Forest Academy.

The purpose of the week was to expose these kids to orphan ministry and to partner them with the local mission school - the International Academy of St. Petersburg. Leadership from the I.A. initially contacted me for ideas about where they could serve, and I turned them on to the real experts here locally for short-term work with orphans: MIR. But then I also offered my services to do what I love to do: help people dig deeper and listen to what God is doing in a situation. And they were more than happy for my help.

My roles boiled down to two: help them get ready for their ministry, and then help them gleen meaning and purpose in and after ministry. Twelve high school students from each school spent a week here in one of the best orphanages the city has to offer: #9. The orphanage Diana and I work in is pretty nice by Russia standards, but this one is even better. The facility is clean and somewhat modern; the kids are well-attended to, and they offer lots of good programing. Of course, earthly and heavenly parents are missing, but these are incidentals, right?

I had two hours to get the two teams to bond, learn about orphan life, and gain some spiritual underpinnings for the week on the first night the kids from Germany arrived. Here is how I used the time:

To break the ice and start forming teams (Diana gets the credit for this idea) I brought in all kinds of dessert-potential ingredients. The kids were put into 6 teams and given the task of creating a dessert out of what was on the table. They had to negotiate with other teams for ingredients, and they had to create something that was both tasty and attractive. It was a hit.
Before the start of the week I had sent them all a document on orphans and orphanages that the director of a local ministry wrote. With this background knowledge in mind, I organized an orphanage simulation experience for them. I felt like this idea was divinely inspired, though almost no one I told about it in advance understood what I had in mind. It took a lot of time to think up all the roles and write them out, including interviewing people like a psychologist to make them somewhat realistic. The idea was to simulate a day in the life of an orphanage, giving roles to the kids from the director down to residents. Almost everyone had a specific task to complete so that they would have to interact with others, creating somewhat controlled chaos. Of course the whole thing hinged on the willingness of the kids to actually get into their roles and make something of them. It was a glorious success. In fact, some later told me they were nervous about going into the orphanage afterwards, and were pleasantly surprised to see that it was not so bad as they had feared. Afterwards we processed it, including the deaths of two people, the work of the mysterious "Spirit of Death" that I had planted in the mix, and how it felt to actually play an orphan. I'll definitely be using that one again.
Then I helped guide them through a series of small-group prayer time for the week ahead.

On two other evenings, half-way through the week, and then at the end of the ministry time, I led the processing of what they had experienced. These were questions like: what are you learning about how God has built and called you? What is happening in your heart? What could you do to be bolder? How is the Kingdom being impacted this week?

The kids seemed to respond, but I honestly expect that most of the "aha" moments will come after they get home, and even years from now. This is the ministry of seed planting.

Me, Myself, and God

2009-04-03T17:38:00.003+04:00

I've been stuck in moving my prayer life to another level of intimacy with God. Recently, I started this spontaneous conversation with myself that I think gave me a few small breakthroughs.

Someone needs to read this, I feel. Someone else may be bored. Maybe someone needs one part of the conversation I had with myself that follows, and someone needs another part. But I felt like I needed to get this out there. Moreover, it's a good example of the power of questions to get you looking in places you need to in order to judge your heart and let God expose your attitudes for their transformation.

Journaling entry: I’ve had to face the fact that to some extent I’ve been avoiding these studies [my Ignatian prayer exercises]. I’m avoiding the frustration, the sense of failure, the feeling of pointlessness. I thought last night to myself, “Would you be better at finding time for these exercises if they were a joy and blessing?” You bet. But now, as I reflect on that, I have to respond, “So what?” Does it have to be?

[And now starts an extensive dialogue of truth telling with myself, and self coaching]

Me 2: So God wants our relationship with Him to be boring.
Me 1: Of course not. He wants us to press in to find the true relationship.
Me 2: Feels like a lot of unnecessary work. What about, “Come to me all ye who are weary?”
Me 1: Don’t ask me. You may have to work hard to be able to look back in the end to realize you didn’t need to work at all.
Me 2: That makes a lot of sense, partner.
Me 1: Then how about this: God is strengthening you and in the yoke with you as you seek after Him.
Me 2: Nice and poetic. If he were with me in the yoke, it shouldn’t be necessary to seek Him, then would it?
Me 1: I didn’t think of that. Then maybe you are overlooking Him and He really is right there with you.
Me 2: I’ve never suggested God has abandoned me, at least not that I am aware of. I just don’t understand how to cooperate with Him in this dance. He has called me to, if I could jump metaphors.
Me 1: Brilliant. So it feels like tilling, and God wants you to see it as a dance.
Me 2: That would be great if I had a lead partner. Feels like I’m taking all the initiative.
Me 1: Then stop it immediately.
Me 2: Stop what?
Me 1: Stop doing whatever feels like you driving the agenda.
Me 2: Who’s driving the agenda in my doing these prayer exercises?
Me 1: You tell me.
Me 2: I took it as God ordaining them for me in response to the cry of my hear for intimacy with Him as I submitted to His man for the hour in my life, Bill O’Byrne.
Me 1: Don’t get it. God gave them to you, but He was “responding.” That’s not the role of a lead partner.
Me 2: Don’t confuse me. God put the thirst there, didn’t He?
Me 1: Sure.
Me 2: I don’t get credit for the thirst this much is plain to me, and for which I am very thankful, because fundamentally I have no other explanation for why it’s there, but by His initiative. So does that mean He took something away so as to give it back later when I most acutely felt the need and could appreciate it?
Me 1: I thought I was asking the questions.
Me 2: Sorry.
Me 1: I’ll turn it back into a question: Did He take it away, or did He just withhold it in the first place?
Me 2: It’s certainly not like I’ve never experience God’s love, care, forgiveness, etc., but I have this deep conviction that there’s another level of Him that I haven’t yet known or experienced. So in that sense, withheld is appropriate.
Me 1: So it sounds like we have established that God has given you a thirst for Him that He has also chosen to not yet satisfy.
Me 2: Fair enough.
Me 1: And beginning these prayer exercises was not your initiative, but God’s.
Me 2: I suppose, but the actual doing of them has become tedious and more to the point, one-sided.
Me 1: You don’t sense God’s participation in them?
Me 2: Heck, I don’t even sense my participation. Well, I take that back in part. I have tried very hard to engage the material, and even this has brought many blessings, but at the crucial point – communing spirit to Spirit with my Lord – it falls apart. There was only about one glorious moment when I felt God’s Spirit leading my meditations, and that at the very beginning a year ago now.
Me 1: All work and no play?
Me 2: Something sets me off about your use of the work “play.” Like I’m expecting a reward here.
Me 1: Well?
Me 2: I want to be as honest as possible here. It’s just that I wonder whether these exercises are built for me.
Me 1: Any evidence of that?
Me 2: Just my responses to it. Maybe it’s that there’s a missing skill in being able to slow down and focus on God and his leading, etc., that I have to learn.
Me 1: And these exercises are supposed to do what?
Me 2: Well just that I guess. But they haven’t after a year.
Me 1: Have you somehow taken the initiative away from God?
Me 2: You tell me.
Me 1: You’ve said they are work and that you are giving input with little output.
Me 2: Sounds like I have. And yet, what alternative is there?
Me 1: Who’s driving this dialogue [that we're having now]?
Me 2: God, which is ironic, given the fact that He is ostensibly not included.
Me 1: Why do you say it’s God?
Me 2: Because it feels fruitful like it has a flow of its own.
Me 1: But you’re using your brain.
Me 2: Yes and no. The conversation is passing through my brain, but I’m only trying to record what is going on up there.
Me 1: Up where?
Me 2: If I say “in my brain,” then you’ll say, then how can God be driving this conversation? And if I say “in my spirit,” then you will wonder why the confusion. How about I say, the Spirit is helping my brain get renewed and come into agreement with it?
Me 1: Sounds like a kind of left brained process the Spirit is taking, wouldn’t you say?
Me 2: A condescension to my limitations.
Me 1: How is it different from journaling when you dialog with God more directly?
Me 2: I guess not substantially. Maybe the additional advantage of freeing me up from wondering is this from God or not. What’s your point?
Me 1: You accept one as valid, so why not the other?
Me 2: It’s valid for what I’m doing today, but doesn’t magically make me able to jump into the right-brained way of relating to God.
Me 1: Meditation, visualization, letting Him guide the process.
Me 2: Precisely, I stink at that.
Me 1: So let God teach you.
Me 2: I’m all ears.
Me 1: Don’t look at me. I said let God teach you.
Me 2: Just tell me how to let Him.
Me 1: First stop taking the lead.
Me 2: Back to this. What does that look like? Didn’t we establish that doing the exercises are a given?
Me 1: So it’s how you do them. Where exactly do you trip up?
Me 2: I don’t know if it’s in quieting my spirit, being able to focus on the subject matter, or being able to let Him take the reigns in the meditation.
Me 1: You don’t know after recording over 150 of these?
Me 2: The 1st and 2nd ones are almost the same thing. I need to add another though – engaging all of my being.
Me 1: Which means?
Me 2: I sometimes have thoughts/meditations that may even be God-led, but they feel like I produce them because they are without my emotional engagement.
Me 1: What’s the difference between your mind wandering and God leading the meditation?
Me 2: Sometimes, maybe, nothing. Sometimes obvious backwash from the day. The point is I can’t control it.
Me 1: And should you?
Me 2: These are spiritual disciplines, right?
Me 1: What sort of discipline, then?
Me 2: Trick question, right? To make me a disciple, right?
Me 1: Keep going.
Me 2: And a disciple is a follower.
Me 1: Who administers discipline? The child?
Me 2: Never thought of it that way. So God is disciplining me to let go of control.
Me 1: Sounds like a winner to me.
Me 2: Except that I said I was not in control.
Me 1: Based on what you said above, wouldn’t you say your emotions are controlled?
Me 2: They are usually placid, if I can use that word. But once in a while God opens them up and I experience an acute awareness of my need or sin or of His grace and greatness.
Me 1: And are you happy with placid?
Me 2: No. I’ve long said that there is joy bottled up in me that would more regularly flow if I could find out how to unplug it.
Me 1: So the “plug” controls them.
Me 2: If you press me.
Me 1: And who controls the plug?
Me 2: Maybe Satan? Just kidding. So I have to find out why I am plugging them.
Me 1: Or let God show you.
Me 2: You know what I meant.
Me 1: Can’t be too careful about these things. Anyway, are we done for today?
Me 2: Bear with me friend. This is easier said than done.
Me 1: Oh, really?
Me 2: You want me to just ask Him?
Me 1: You never cease to amaze me.
Me 2: I guess I’m a little scared.
Me 1: Of what?
Me 2: So what if it’s not the right moment?
Me 1: So what if its not?

[Interrupted for lunch. Two days later, during the last two hours of a personal retreat:]

Me 2: Obviously, that wasn’t the moment.
Me 1: The point is God will take care of those moments.
Me 2: Fair enough. I think I’m ready today.
Me 1: What are you aware of having gained from your time in prayer, silence, and listening to [the recording you got of] Graham Cooke on the way over here?
Me 2: From GC the theme was the “suddenlies” of God. God does things in our lives to call us to a whole new place of being and living, and we may have no preparation for its coming. But, he underscored, that doesn’t take away the need for process and discipline. But it reminds me that God like to intervene in our rhythms and “mess with” our thinking to get us to a new place. So I’m eager for God to do such a number on me. I prayed over these things in the park, and asked Him to do some “suddenlies” in my life, Diana’s life, [my brother] Jonathan’s life. I also thought about the Czars and their families, who are no longer who they were, owing to some national “suddenlies” back nearly 100 years ago, that when God calls us to a new place or calling, we can never be demoted, but by our own sins, and even that may not be a demotion, because God knew our hearts all along. God views me, as GC said, through future lenses, so all attempts to view external roles as a measure of God’s favor are suspect at best. There are some spiritual laws, however (this is me reflecting now, not GC), such as sowing and reaping, and that of stewarding little to get to steward more. So I’m not looking so much for a big ministry (though I sometimes do say I want to be highly leveraged) so much as I want not to miss the lesson of the hour. I want to speed up my learning curve, and I know that the key to this is my relationship with God. Now here I go again sounding like I want the relationship as a means and not an end itself.
Me 1: Where did your logic break down?
Me 2: Well asked. I don’t see that, but when I step back and analyze it, it seems to break the rules.
Me 1: When you analyze.
Me 2: Then I’m just going to shut up and let God show me when I get out of line.
Me 1: My thinking exactly.
Me 2: Can we get back to the emotional plug?
Me 1: Is that where you heart is today?
Me 2: My heart is on being where God wants me so He can do what He will do.
Me 1: Are you where God wants you to be?
Me 2: I’m remarkably at peace about the shape and direction of my ministry here. I’m not at peace about my intimacy with God.
Me 1: I didn’t ask about peace. I want to know if you are in the right place.
Me 2: And how do I know?
Me 1: Are you under conviction about being someplace else?
Me 2: You don’t know how much I want to answer that in terms of God’s work, the end result of my relationship with Him, so I see your trap. You want me to accuse God of not doing His part.
Me 1: Can’t put one over on you.
Me 2: Since I’d be happier with God, if he would hit me with some Alka-Spirit to get me over my cold, but I’m not aware of any fundamental disappointment.
Me 1: Then how do you feel towards Him?
Me 2: Confused, if honest. And I hate it when my clients use that word.
Me 1: At least it gets us started.
Me 2: The thing is, I know there is more of God for me, and I know I need it. I know He’s doing a lot of good and important work meantime to strengthen me. Ask me if I 100% trust Him to give it when I need it.
Me 1: You beat me to it.
Me 2: Well, you notice I already said I need it. So there’s a disagreement between the employee and the Employer.
Me 1: Anything you can do about that?
Me 2: The easy answer is repent and tell Him I’ll take His position from now on. GC used another term this morning that got me thinking. “It’s the kindness and mercy of God that brings you to change your way of thinking.” He’s so good at that kind of thing. That acknowledges the fact that a mere prayer of repentance does not mean a change of heart or a way or pattern of thinking. So I need some more kindness and mercy, it would seem. Any idea where to fill up on some of that?
Me 1: Can’t say as I do. Let’s re-visit…. No, wait, maybe this is a good place to ask Him Himself. what do you say?
Me 2: Gird thy loins, self.
Me 1&2: Lord, you Word promises that your kindness and mercy are what lead us to change our way of thinking. Obviously my way of thinking is wrong, since I am thinking you need to be giving me something I don’t have now. What do you want to say on this subject, Lord?
Lord: Son, your thinking is good. I love your brain, since I made it, and I have given you the ability to figure out things may never know. This one thing I ask of you: Dwell in my house, all your days, and I will show you sides of me and my nature that will amaze you.
Me: Sounds so long, Lord. Have I not been dwelling with you, even in my pitiful own ways?
Lord: Yes, you have.
Me: I feel you pulling away, even now.
Lord: No, your fear is pushing me away.
Me: Take it away, Lord. Help me trust you more. I can’t stand the thought of being estranged from you.
Lord: That’s your fear. How does that line up with my Character?
Me: Where did it come from?

At this point I got a rather direct and startling answer. It's a bit personal, so I won't share it here, but I'll be looking into it further, to say the least, to confirm or not what it's about.

Now, anyone who reads this will find a hundred things to question. I'm just trying to share with you some of my process. I'm a work in progress here; bear with me.

A psycho psychic and a psychologist

2009-02-27T10:07:00.002+03:00

Back in November I attended a conference where I met a psychologist with whom I was eager to follow-up, as she also seemed. After several attempts on my part, she called me in January and asked if she could meet with me in February with an "unusual request." So I waited another month and finally heard from her again, most eager to meet.

From the first moment we met, Tatiana started telling me that it was a deep compulsion that had been driving her to contact me for some time, and that she had been unable to resist it. When she then asked me if I were a believer, I was sure she was coming for some personal help, maybe to get spiritual advise as one psychologist to another. Not so fast, brother. Instead, she started telling me about how her life, which had become almost meaningless, had turned around since last August when she started getting to know better her upstairs neighbor. This lady had taken her to all these monasteries and had shown her some amazing phenomenon, including the healing of some people through clearly supernatural means. Her adult son and daughter had joined and had been healed of some things themselves.

Tatiana showed me some photos her son took on her digital camera from a cave he and friends were playing in some distance from here. After a few shots, the pictures begun to have a curious haze in the middle of the frame, which, over the course of several more shots, began to concentrate closer and closer to his head, eventually looking like an honest-to-gosh halo.

She told me this lady claims to be a beleiver too, though Tatiana told me she smokes like a factory and cusses like a soldier. The gift only seems to be available, it seems, when they are together. It's not available for Tatiana's husband however. "Some people she says they won't allow her to help."

And just who are "they" I wondered. "Oh, the archangel Michael, Gabriel, several others." She finally gave a name for it all - channeling.

She pulled out her key chain with a cedar doggie on it, which she dangled and asked it whether I was believing her. I prayed fast, and it swung in different directions, giving her mixed answers. She asked me to ask it what I wanted to, but I declined. I told her I could see that she has a gift in spiritual sensitivity, but that perhaps there might be a need to investigate the source of the spiritual input she was getting.

"I quite understand your questions. I would want you to have them. But I am assured by now that they are from God. I did, after all, approach this through Jesus," she assured me. And all these places that were open to the spirit world were at Orthodox sites.
"But you also told me you now understand better than ever that all the main religions are the same at their core," I responded. "And the fact that Orthodox locations can be connected with this kind of activitity only proves that they got a foothold there, not their ultimate source."

Bottom line: this neighbor of hers felt since the moment she heard of me that she needed to help me, so she sent Tatiana to ask if I would come meet her.
"What does she want to do?" I had to ask.
"I don't know, other than that it has to do with America."

This lady not only knew nothing of me, other than that I am an American. She did, however, tell Tatiana that they would not help Diana with her injured Achilles heel (Tatiana leared about that when we were arranging a meeting time and place.)

The only point in the conversation when it seemed that I had opened a door to her personal doubts about this stuff was when I corrected her that the God of the universe loves everyone too much to play favorites and deny His healing to some for capricious reasons.

The ball is in my court. Do I want to meet? My question of myself is not so much "what does the Devil want with me?" but "what is God doing here?"

Coffee Chaos, or What Would Jesus Do with stupidity?

2009-02-20T17:23:00.004+03:00

The big coffee chain here, an obvious imitation of Starbuck's, is called Coffee House, but I used to mis-read the name. In Russian it's Кофе Хаус, which is only one letter off from Кофе Хаос (Chaos) so I thought it was the latter (House isn't even a Russian word, one other reason I mis-read it.) Although I love to go there to work alone when I have a big stretch of time to fill, they earned their former name back from me the other day.

I bring this up because I left this interchange wondering how a spiritual person should have handled it. Help me think this through. I showed the waitress a coupon I had for buy one get on free coffee. I asked if I could get that deal, and she said yes. She then proposed a new mocha thing they were offering, so I said sure. When I went to get my second cup, the manager refused, saying it was not one of the coffees in the offer.
"Couldn't the waitress have pointed that out?" I asked.
"That wasn't her job."
"And whose was it?"
"Yours."
"I asked for the deal. Your job is to give me what I ask for."
"Look on the coupon. It says 'See manager for details.'"
"You're joking, right?"
silence
"Then how can you make this right for me?"
We went back and forth a bit, with me offering a mini course in the principles of a market economy that is customer oriented. She finally offered me an espresso, but I don't drink those. A cappuccino or regular coffee was out of the question.

Of course being mean is not under consideration here. Russians rebuke and correct each other and put each other in their place with abandon. Was I peeved? You bet. You see enough stupidity around here to last an American a lifetime. But I hope I didn't show it.

Forgetting about it seems too simplistic. I can hear all the American Christians saying, "turn the other cheek; overlook a sin," etc. What I wanted was to help a fellow human how to think about how to treat a fellow human, but with respect and patience, unlike the norm here.

But if felt yucky anyway.

Next year's visa and residency updates

2009-01-30T15:10:00.018+03:00

Our last trip out of the country was at the end of October to get student visas that would allow us to stay in the country for a full year. (Of course, things are never that simple here. They really were only for three months, but they could be extended to a year. We just finished that process this month. Or, I should say, the government just finished it for us, causing us to be "illegally" here for a day in the process of waiting.) So you would think we could at least rest for a while and focus on ministry, right? Not so in Russia.

We're now working on temporary residence permits, an option that we didn't think we were eligible for last year. I met with a lawyer to discuss the details in January, and it sounded great: jump through some irritating hoops, and you get to live in peace for three full years. Here is the blow by blow, which may interest some folk as an example of their red tape.

Jan. 16. Meet the lawyer, who gave me the name and number of another American whom he helped last year to talk to for details. (2 hours)

Jan. 19. (Mon.) I go to the local office of the Federal Migration Service (FMS) at his advise to see if their list of things I had to do agreed with the one he gave me. Each section of the city has one, and ours was at least close by, so no big deal. (You think I should have just called? Don't make me laugh. That never works around here.) The waiting room was daunting: a mass of people standing around. No lines, no information desk, no signs indicating where to go. I asked someone in the gathering near one of the doors who was last in line (they don't form lines here; people just ask who's last, or either it's mob, and it's every man for himself. But here they had to answer with a question: what was I here for? I hapened to have asked at the right door, and so the guy with the same need whom I was behind identified himself. When I finally got in, I found out I was at the wrong place. I needed to go to the central office, since I need to find out if I can get in under the city's quota (the Federal government only allots each area a certain number of people from each area of the world to come in by certain routes). (1.5 hours)

I spoke with the other American (Susan) who had a wealth of knowledge, and she suggested I go to the central MFS ASAP to get in under the quota, since it's still early in the year, and they only do temporary residence permits on Mondays. (1 hour)

I arrived there that afternoon to find a mob style line. The reason there was no real line is that no one could find out where the keepers of the lists were. Keepers of the list are regular folk in line themselves who maintain a list that FMS uses to let people in - sometimes. I was too late for today, but I found out that my window next week was only from 2-4pm, and it would be a "live line" - meaning no list, at least so I understood it. (3 hours standing in the cold).

Susan disagreed. No, there is always a list. Go early in the morning. She sent a bunch of docs to read over and answered a bunch more questions (1 hour).

Jan. 20. Diana and I and two of the kids go to the U.S. Consulate to get fingerprinted for our FBI background check. Simple process (these are Americans; I just had to call ahead for an appointment.), but it was a long walk there. (2 hours)

Jan. 22. I take our passports to get translated and notarized. (1.5 hours).

Jan. 25. I pick up the passport translations (.5 hours)

Jan. 26. (Mon). I arrived again early at FMS and found the keeper - several Afgani guys who were taking turns sleeping in a car. I signed up on the list (#97) while we talked about Obama (thumbs up!) and their desire to immigrate to the West. They told me I'd have no chance of getting in today at 97, especially since there were people on a list from last week. Since they work 2 hours a week on this issue, he figured they'd get to about 40. "But come back about 3:00 just to see how it's going." (1.5 hours including transportation)

I decided not a bad idea, and when I got there, there was the familiar mob, though I didn't understand why, since there was a line, right? Nope. I'm told they "destroyed" the list - back to a live line, meaning a mob. And boy did it get pushy. With about 30 people squeezing on a porch about 4x6, it was tight. I was on the top step, getting dripped on from the overhang for a while before managing a space for myself under "shelter." (Someone tell me if you can imagine this scene at the US immigration office?) When people were let out, they had to push through the crowd like through so many matresses. 4:00 came, and we eventually found out that, since only a small number of us in my category of person were (lucky enough to be) there then, they decided to go ahead and let us all in. I was in shock. I didn't have any paperwork, except passports. I was literally the last one in. Went to the desk of the officer, who asked for my passport, and said, "You can come back on March 30th." What about my family? "Family? They are not here, so I can't help them." I explained, patiently, "first of all, I didn't know anyone else needed to come. Second, my wife is at home with our three kids. Would you please have mercy, since I do have her passport here?" Praise God, she did, and wrote all our names down in the register. I was happy, but I didn't even know what I had just been given. "Bring all the paperwork, with your wife, on that date. You are on our list now, so we will call you in by last name." And the quota? "You are in under the quota."
Victory! Thank you, Lord! (2 hours)

In another God moment, I got a call while in line asking me to help voice over a video in English for a Christian TV channel (TBN Russia). A rather odd request, but I decided to help and went there after FMS. While there, I found out one of them was going to the US this week so could same me time and a lot of money and take our FBI request with him.

We quickly got everything ready to go that night. (1 hour)

Jan. 27. I delivered it to the station. (1 hour of transit time)

Feb. 13th. They actually make me go to the Post Office and buy stamped envelopes. Bought them today while picking up a package.

Plus, you don't pay the application fee at the office, you pay at a bank into their account. Got that covered today when I had to pay 1) our utility bill, 2) phone bill, and 3) Lydia's art school tuition. (15 min.)

Feb. 16th. Usually calling some place, especially state institutions, is a waste of time, but going to the two hospitals I needed to check out for the sake of our medical tests is such an out-of-the-way trek that I had to try, and after many many attempts, I got one and found out that we have to go to one hospital for testing kids, and the other for me and Diana. It's likely to have to kill two full days to do this. (15 min.)

Mar. 3rd. Phone calls with the lawyer and a couple of others who have gone ahead of me (30min.)

Mar. 6th. Diana and I went today to get our battery of medical testing done to prove that we are healthy enough to live in Russia. The sad part is that they won't do the kids' testing in the same hospital. The even sadder part is that Lydia has to get a urine sample for her part, but they won't do that at the children's hospital, so she has to go on both trips. I'm beyond even reacting to such stupidity by now. We arrive at 8:30am after dropping the boys off, pay and register. The process is that you go through what they call a "commission" - a series of medical personnel in different rooms testing for different things, each with it's own line:

room #1: the blood test (AIDS and syphilis)
room #2: the skin test. We called it the naked test. Take off your shirt, drop your pants, and spin around, getting poked a few times. I bet she hates getting asked what she does for a living.
room #3: the tinkle test
room #4: to TB test. We had a brief scare here, as they called Diana back for a more serious x-ray after saying there was some question about her first. After getting visions of returning to the States to die from cancer, we found out it was just a function of the poor quality print-out of the photo.

Total time consumed, including transportation: 6 hours.

Mar. 10th. The kids tests were at a hospital that would have been bulldozed a hundred years ago in the States (if you think I exaggerate, read Lydia's blog about our visit here). Our house helper Tanya came along since Diana was teaching online, and after going to the wrong hospital, we figure out where to go (the other hopsital had no idea, even though it was only several blocks away). Pretty much the same battery:

blood test - they were troopers!
naked test - the other reason for Tanya
mental health test, consisting of the psychologist filling out the paperwork. No questions, no testing. I guess they just looked mentally stable.
TB test, which for kids was a skin test

Total time: 4 hours

Mar. 11th. Diana went to pick up our test results (1 hour out of the way).

Mar. 13th. We can't just go get the kids' results. We have to drag them back again to get their skin looked at. Time: looking at skin - 1 minute; waiting for them to finish the paperwork - 2 hours. Total killed: 5 hours.

Mar. 20th. Drop off the kids' birth certificates to be translated (30 min).

Mar. 24th. Pick them up (30 min)

Mar. 29th. Fill out application (1 hour) and compile our file (about an inch thick - another hour).

Mar. 30th. Our big day at the federal migration office. Since they require both me and Diana there, we got a babysitter for the boys (Lydia was at friends for a sleepover) and left shortly after 1pm. We had to be there between 2-4 and wait for them to call our names - a much more civilized process than the way you first get in. Got in fast, but we were there about an hour and a half as the officer painstakingly reviewed our documents and found more problems than we ever imagined. It was maddening:

we had an official copy, but not the original of our registration cards
we were missing our marriage certificates (though they had told me before not needed)
we needed the kids' birth certificates "legalized"
Diana's name and "Virginia" was inconsistently transliterated by the document translators
answers on the application were incomplete ("No" is not sufficient, for example.")

The blessing of it all was that the officer was very patient and generous in showing us exactly how to fix all the problems. As we left, I took a step of faith and committed to a date barely two weeks out (April 14) to get everything done, the main issue being obtaining what we needed from the States. (3 hours)

Diana were going to go on a date to celebrate, but we came home instead and started working on ordering our marriage certificates and the kids' birth certificates with "apostilles" ASAP (1 hour). The good news is that the marriage certificates can be obtained in a few days. The bad news is that the birth certificates are supposed to take from 15-19 days. We need a miracle.

So far our running total hours spent is 41.

Apr. 6th. After various calls, to check on things over the last few days, I found out that God had indeed worked a small miracle: the birth certificates are done after 1 week and out to my parents (who took care of the marriage certificates).

April 7th. My parents send everything to a colleague associated with the Harbor (Alex Krutov), who has a friend at FedEx who offered to give us a break on shipping.

April 9th. For some reason they didn't get it out until today, and, what's worse, FexEx now says they can't guarantee delivery until the evening of the 14th. Not only is that late for our interview, it doesn't give me time to get everything translated in advance. Now we really need a miracle!

April 13th. After being stuck in "sorting" in Frankfurt for over two days, the package suddenly shows up in the tracking system in St. Petersburg! Rush to finalize our other paperwork, corrections, etc. (2 hours)

April 14th. I call FexEx when they open at 9, and they tell me the package is in, but they can't get it to me until evening. I can, however, come pick it up. Victory is in sight! I rush across town from dropping the boys off at school, then back across town to the translation bureau by 10:30. They finish their work by 12:30, in time for me to get to the immigration office to meet Diana in time for our appointment at 2:00. However, more errors and errands to run, and another week inbetween appointments. The good news is that they are all small enough to manage in that time, but we had hoped for a full victory today. The other assignment is totally stupid. They want some doc from the consulate to help them not worry about Diana's name change at marriage. (5 hours)

April 16th. I go to the hospital that did our medical testing, because they misspelled Diana's middle name in Russian.
I run to the translation bureau to have them fix yet another of their mistakes in how they spelled Diana's first name in Russian (but I did get to witness some to the lady who was handling it for me!).
I run to the Swiss Center, which is the organization under whom we get our student visas, to leave them my registration papers which they have to take to the immigration office in their district to correct. There was a mistake in my birthday. How could we have missed it?? I'll tell you: the volume of papers. This is already the 4th or 5th mistake that one office has made! (6 hours)

April 17th. I go back to the Swiss Center to pick up my registration (1.5 hours)

April 19th. Diana and I go over all our papers with a fine-toothed comb to find mistakes. Fortunately, nothing that requires going anywhere else. (1 hour)

April 21. Our third appointment at immigration. We were most nervous about one doc they had demanded for Diana from the consulate about her name change. It was nothing more than a generic letter saying women in the US do what they want to when getting married and signing papers. But it worked, as did everything else. Our papers are now officially out of our hands! Now comes a 5 month wait for the final decision, then one month of getting registered. (3.5 hours)

Total time to date: 60 hours, not counting the blessings of others, like our parents, who helped out, and Clifford at FedEx who didn't even charge for shipping. Thank you!

August 9. Having just arrived back in the country from staff conference in Hungary, our landlord called to inform us that she had decided against allowing us to register where we live. Thus began a series of panicked calls to my lawyer, her lawyer, people who have have either traveled this road ahead of us, and trips to the local immigration office to get some holes filled in our knowledge about whether this could jeopardize our applications and what to do about it all. The long and short of it is that it is not as big a deal as we had feared, and it should not be a big deal to register ourselves with anyone who is willing. (5 hours)

August 18. Pastor Igor himself today offered to register us at their house, a tremendous blessing.

September 22. Having been told when we turned in the applications on April 21st that 5 months would be the review period, and having found out from a person in line ahead of me one day that to wait for a letter was pointless, I decided to go check for myself if our applications were done. The way it works here is that you have to go really early in the morning to sign the list that someone standing outside is holding to get you in line. I arrived at the immigration office at about 7:30 in the morning. One lone guy who had nothing else to do with his time was there ready to put me down as number 14 (already that many ahead of me!). But at least I could leave until 11pm.
I arrived at about 11:30 and learned 1) that only the first person was in line, and 2) that I was in the wrong line. I needed the consultation line, instead of the document line, so I found the lady holding the consultation line and got on #5. So I left again and came back shortly after it opened at 3pm. This went a little faster, and so before 4 I had gotten to the front, but only to learn that not only were there no docs for us, but I should have had no reason to expect any before 6 months, despite the clear word from the other immigration office where we had applied. "You can try back in 2 weeks if you want, though."
I was told to go to yet another office to find out more about the visa situation, as this news gave me cause to worry about being about to complete everything we need before our present student visas expire on Oct. 21. At the other office, I learned that I can just extend our student visas.
Called our educational center, the Swiss Center, and found out that they could just barely pull this off for us in time, as it takes 20 days for immigration to complete the application. So I quickly scrambled to complete everything they needed, nonetheless bothered by the fact that it might all be in vain (including the $100 fee) if we do still get our temporary residence approved in time. Alas! (6 hours)

October 5. Our Russian tutor called Diana this morning (while I was slumbering in bed after a two-day visit to the hospital for a disk in my back that took me totally out of commission from a conference I was attending on fatherhood) and informed her that the Swiss Center had called to inform that our temporary residence had been approved! For some reason the approval had gone to there instead of the one here where we live. But who cares. Now it only remains to find out what our next steps are to finish this all up.

October 6. I go to the immigration office (UFMS) from which our letter came, only to find out that it had indeed come to the wrong place, so they sent me back to the UFMS for our region. The only good news was that they actually arranged for us an appointment to go get our stuff, and they gave us a list of things to work on for the next steps. (3 hours)

October 8. All 5 of us show up at our appointed time, and then still wait a half hour to be seen. "Have you gotten your fingerprints done?"
"No. We thought that was to be done here."
"I don't think we can do that, certainly not this late in the day.
Nervous moment while the official checks if they can. I prayed boldly for it to work. Yes! We wait for the guy another half hour. By the time he's finished, the office is closing, so they asked me to come back tomorrow. At least the kids don't have to! (3 hours)

October 9. I go, expecting to get our passports stamped on the spot. But expectations are a dangerous thing in Russia, even when others tell you how it happened with them. No, all I got today was 2 pieces of paper in exchange for our passports, saying that we would get them back in 10 days! (1.5 hours)

Meanwhile, we work on the paperwork for getting registered and for applying for exit visas (4 hours, not counting the work others did on our behalf)

October 19. Every celebration is only the initiation of a new trial here. We got our passports back today with the official stamps: we are temporary residents! However, although we were ready to apply for registration, which is necessary to apply for exit visas (our biggest personal goal at this point), we were now told that because we wanted to change place of registration from the city to the "county," it would take 2.5 months review. This was the last straw for Diana. Poor thing just fell apart.
But wait: they offered a solution: get the Swiss Center to extend our registration with them. Well, they refused. I went to the leadership meeting at church tonight plumb exhausted and totally baffled about what to do, and how to proceed. Our registration ends in 2 days, after which we will not be legally here, and will have no basis to apply for an exit visa. (2 hours)

October 20. Pastor Igor's wife, Angela, who agreed to let us register with them, found out this morning that we could go talk to their local UFMS, so she took me there right after we each dropped off our kids at school. This office thought that our UFMS had screwed everything up, and they said I needed to go back to them and work on the visa first, which made no sense, but what could I do?
So I went all the way across the city back there to a different window that does the registration and visas, and they gave me a totally new option: just go find anyone registered in this region who will be your "receiving party" and you can get on the "migration account," which is like a 2nd class registration, as near as I can tell.
I thought of 4 people I could ask, only one of which was actually registered here, and her parents wouldn't let her do it. At this point I pretty much just decided to let go of it. I have learned by now that there are times when the work needs to be turned over to God. I thought at best I would stay up all night and pray, but I wasn't going to work the phones and try to find anyone "by hook or crook." Besides, time was running out anyway. I came home after my marathon day just in time to sit down to the computer and teach a tele-class by Skype that Igor and I am leading for coach training. While in class, a call came in from a friend of a friend who herself does barely know us, and she was willing to lend us her name. Thank you, Jesus!
So, of course, we stayed up a while longer to do the last-minute paperwork. (11.5 hours)

October 21. Met our savior this morning and went to UFMS. Fortunately for her, they really only needed to see her passport and have her sign the docs then excuse her. I stayed there 3 hours working with the Oksana, whose name I know because I've been working with her so much, and because she is so incredibly gracious and helpful to me and everyone who comes to her. The good news, we got back on the "account" (учёт) on the last possible day.
Then came our visa applications, and even after all Oksana's help, there were still enough mistakes in to force me to go home and re-do them, largely because she herself was corrected by her supervisor on what was required. You can't even trust the bureaucrats themselves to know what you need around here. (5 hours)

October 22. I paid yet another visit to Oksana today to turn in our visa applications, and this time it worked with only a few minor corrections (she actually lets me get away with white-out, which I've never seen tolerated by the government here). One of those corrections was that she said we would have to back-date our application to yesterday, since our former visas also expired then. I don't even understand fully why that is important, but I am grateful for her doing that for us, or else we would have no basis for applying, apparently. So when can we buy tickets to leave, I asked? 20 business days was the answer. Yesterday the answer was 20 calendar days. Things change around here. Hold things very loosely, or you go crazy. Everything is in God's hands. I gave Oksana some chocolate and told her how much we appreciated her special care and treatment of us. I told her I could see her attitude was so unusual and marveled at how she did it under the circumstances. I think she was really moved, so it made my day as much as the relief of it all. She took the chocolate, but told me she wasn't supposed to. I assured her it wasn't for a bribe to do anything, just to say thanks. (1.5 hours)

So we are done with the paperwork and can finally buy tickets for the States!

October 26. But wait, there's more! Our kind Oksana called on Friday to say that they had found in the Grand Database that I have a work visa elsewhere, which of course is impossible, but I had to go to sort it out (not that they could, of course) by going to their counterpart office in the region of the city where we had our student visas registered. There they told me they were having computer problems and would sort it out and call me and the other office. (2.5 hours)

October 27. They didn't call, so I went today to Oksana, since she is closer, to see if they had called her. Nope. Go back yourself. Can't you call them, I asked. She actually told me they don't have the number of that office. I was floored. (1.5 hours)

October 29. Went back to the other office who told me there was nothing in their database about me having a visa. "Can you at least talk to the other office?" I asked.

"Give me the number." Oksana had called me on her cell phone on Friday and been so kind as to offer to have me call when I needed (truly amazing for these parts), so I started to give this lady that number. "I refuse to call a cell number." So I called Oksana myself to get the number. They finally talked and worked it out. All I have to do is go back to Oksana's office and write out a statement that I never had such a visa. So I went back, waited forever in line again, and did it. (4.5 hours). This was a total of 9 hours of work on my part that they could have resolved if the two offices actually talked to each other.

Total hours to finish all paperwork for us to stay in Russia and leave next month: 107.5

Homelessness in St. Petersburg

2009-01-28T09:18:00.009+03:00

The following is an article from Arguments and Facts, a well-known national paper here, about some of the ways the homeless live here. It's worth reprinting in its entirety. I used the Google translation tool, so it's weak in places, even after some tidying up on my part, but you'll get the idea. As an aside, my Russian tutor, Ludmilla, introduced me to a friend of hers who runs a government homeless shelter. The lady seemed more than eager to meet me, but when I got there, she wouldn't even let me see the place, saying I had to write a request that would go through her boss (even though she is in charge). She wouldn't discuss anything about it with me, saying she wouldn't know where I came from and how I would use the information. They didn't even need volunteers, she informed me, saying they have a "different structure" than private shelters. I rarely get offended, but this peeved me pretty bad. I had walked a long way in the snow to get there, and she didn't have the courtesy to tell me or Ludmilla any of this in advance. Ludmilla was equally upset, if not more, and could only speculate that the shelter was actually making some money on the side by renting rooms to people who would pay market rates. Boy, does this society need Jesus, as you will see more of below.

How the homeless spend their winter
Eugene KOLESNIKOV
Published: January 14, 2009 11:56:46
Article from AiF number 3 of 14 January 2009 11:13:01

The middle of winter. Many homeless won't make it until spring. Our correspondent found out where and in what conditions the winter in St. Petersburg is like on the street.

Eat Seagulls!

The famous South landfill, near the cemetery for South Pulkovskimi heights. It is
the biggest in Europe. And since Soviet times, it shells and live homeless and any other questionable identity.

I fell into some primitive world. In the landfill rummage bearded men, similar to neanderthals with ... bows and arrows. They prey on gulls, which at a dump are likely invisible. They hunt for a gulls picking that pick over garbage. I was accompanied by a police officer familiar with the gun - one appears in such places is dangerous. He says: «This is a very terrible place, but many homeless from around the city want to come here. There's always food. The homeless build a hut of planks, plywood, felt, make a hole in the debris. Newbie here are not accepted. In the South there is a dump and a rigid hierarchy - even the semblance of taxes for ordinary homeless ». I note that the stench and the smoke in the air makes my head dizzy.

- But there are not only homeless here - continues the officer. - there are vagrants who do not want to work on the basis of some philosophical ideas. Some here even during Soviet times «kosili» from the army, got accustomed to it, and still live here.

Lohmatogo meet local residents. Nikolai, a bit «polomavshis», told us about his life: - Food a lot, and vodka turns up. Moreover - it happens that thousands of U.S. dollars have been found.

His fairly tattered sidekick adds: «A few times we've found guns and sniper rifles, maybe killers dumped. We sell them. In general, it's good here, a lot of food, a lot of debris, so you can burn fires in winter. So that winter, and this time normally ». Asked what the food - a typical tramp meal at South Landfill? A woman with cracked black lips and colored eyes met my eye: «There is always the bread, sausage, bones and meat; I often come across chips, chocolate, in some cases, cans with out of date red caviar. If you want fresh meat - kill seagulls, then you'll be full »...

«It was a scholarship» ...

Village Toksovo. Not far from St. Petersburg. There are elite homes, simpler houses,
and simply shacks (dachas - summer cottages). The latter are where many homeless spend their winters.

Alexander came to St. Petersburg from Tula, a student here at the university. But the rental
housing money he lacks. A dormitory is not provided, since they are rented at higher prices to guest workers, who pay more even for ten people in one. Sasha has to find cover byvarious means. Sometimes sleeps in summer houses in the winter.

- I am certainly awkward about doing this to the owners, but I do not damage their property -- said the 20-year-old student. - If my scholarship were normal, the problems would be no such.

Sasha is a unique person could live with their parents in Tula, but preferred to study in St. Petersburg, manage on his own, despite the difficulties. But he, though he does not look it, is a homeless person: a specific place of residence in it does not. When I visited him, Sasha left the electric train and began to search Toksovo for a house to spend the night.

All property - books

Subway «Moscow». Every day there on a bench you can see a high greying tramp. With him a big touring backpack, in which fit all his belongings. And it's a lot ... books. This tramp looks very intelligent, but dressed in rags. He is sitting, reading, standing passengers of the subway station to the has long been accustomed to. Do not touch the old man and the police. We talk to the homeless, who introduced Vladimir. On the street he was still in the middle 1990, his tricked fraudsters from real estate, as so often happened in those times. Then Vladimir was already retired, and worked all his life engineer. He is not asking for charity, goes to social dining. Also in rummages in garbage bins.

In principle, with no special problems with food, but sleep in the winter in the basement is not easy, but cold. Therefore homeless man waiting for the closure of the subway (at the same time, you can read in warm, and read Vladimir loves most in the world).

On this day, he kept a volume of lyrics by Lermontov. «All of my books I know by heart, - said Vladimir. - I have them for several years reread, others I did not buy ... »

Where to get help

Bypass. Town not far from the «Warsaw Express». There, on cardboard and even a flaw kuchno wander the most disheveled homeless alcoholic. Many have been in this position after release from prison.

- I got a minor and an adult and was freed without shelter - husky voice tells one of them. - In the deal, what to do and where to go from I was in the trolley-bus was stolen «wolf ticket» (certificate of release. - EK). And so as a passport, I never had, then I get him nowhere. Without a passport every moment requires me fees. And where do I get registered? Only buy a to buy, I need money надыбать. Надыбать бабла nowhere - without documents, no one takes. So that's zavertelos ...

Many of the homeless do not survive until spring. Waif named Sergei says: «Well, the past winter was warmer. Although Кolyan nonetheless gave out ... This is my koresh. Yes every winter someone dies, how else?»

More on hypnosis

2009-01-28T09:11:00.002+03:00

A reader responded to my post on helping my daughter go to sleep:

I found your experience with Tobias and the prayer to relinquish the influence of another spirit fascinating. I think I understand and agree with what you and Tobias did. My question is this - how does one identify such foreign influences in one's life? I understand that it is through the Holy Spirit, and in this case clearly Tobias was led to advise you this was not of God. But, as an example, if I had learned some relaxation techniques in college (which I did), techniques which were secular (they were) and seemingly spiritually 'neutral' (meaning not related to yoga or TM or another religious practice), then...

Do these represent another authority and spirit, or are they more along the lines of, say, learning physical exercises such as stretches to relax muscles? What if you had simply made Lydia a cup of chamomile tea, but neglected to ask God to show her how He would help her?

No and yes. No, they are not grounded in the demonic, nor are they a denial of Christ. They aren't even wrong, per se. But look how fast we jump to "remedies" before we jump into the arms of Christ. Hey, what I am saying here is convicting to me. Why are we in such a hurry to solve the problem, rather than ask Jesus why I'm having a hard time relaxing. The Bible has plenty to say about relaxing, so there is plenty of reason to consider that there MAY be a spiritual connection.

As I begin to filter more of my life through what happened with this incident, it starts to get scary how much we are controlled by "vain imaginations" that have nothing to do with God. Look at Col. 2:8.
"See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ." I'm going to make a conjecture about this verse, and I may even post my answer to you to see if anyone will respond (though I confess Lydia gets more online responses than I do by far!). I'm well aware that non-Christian philosophies are damaging, not only because they deny Christ and all that implies, but also because of what they affirm. They are full of lies that lead people into lives that are destructive and even dangerous. That being said, I'm not sure that's the emphasis of this passage. I think that the discussion here is about the fact that they are "empty" and "human" - as opposed to Christ-filled. They are based on "tradition" and the "elemental spirits." There is debate over what the latter term "stoicheia" means. The word means "rudiments" or "elements." I think I am on at least defensible grounds when I suggest that we are talking here about systems that propose to follow "the way things are." That is, they follow natural patterns, or they conform to natural examples, or the well-founded traditions of men. Astronomy and all the modern sciences would fall under this.

Here is where my claim may seem radical, but not so if Paul is not emphasizing their wrongness, but rather their independence from Christ. Notice that Paul starts to admonish the Collossians in verse 8 and picks up the thread in verse 16. Everything else is a theological grounding for his insistence that their radical commitment to Christ is in fact not crazy, as their world would have judged, but rather the real Truth that informs victorious living. Read verses 9-15 from the perspective of someone caught up in the thinking of verses 16-17 and 21-23. Such a person seems to have a measure of wisdom grounded in experience. If a true test for comparison is the "philosophy's" impact on the person, then we see that the approaches advocated by the world (vv. 21-23) may have the desired effect on the body (e.g., behavior), but not on the flesh (v. 23), which, of course, the world cannot touch, because the flesh (spiritual nature) is a matter of the heart, which is deceitful and wicked.

Over and over again, third world Christians tell us that the reason there are hardly any miracles in the West is because we don't need them. How do we not need them? We act like we don't because of our dependence on Science and our implicit faith in naturalistic reasoning, which is Greek philosophy. This is where we get defensive and shout, "but are you saying that modern medicine is of the Devil?" If Paul, as I argue, is not emphasizing the wrongness of philosophy, but its independence from Christ, then it helps us see the resolution. The problem comes in actually trying to imagine what medicine would really look like if it were founded wholly on Christ. I think it's better to leave it at that for imagination's sake, rather than try to attempt a description. I think this approach disarms the whole polarized discussion about science vs. faith.

The conclusion: Your question takes off the table any question about an approach's demonic origin. That's good; it's a red herring.

1. Where is your reliance? Christ or the elemental spirits?

2. What is your goal? resolution of a problem, or God's glory?

How 'mi doin'?

2009-01-01T20:46:00.003+03:00

Taking ispiration from Mayor Ed Koch, I thought I'd review my progress on attaining my 2008 goals, which I posted here last December. I do this as a matter of accountability to all of you who support us in prayer and financially.

In this month's newsletter, I mentioned my hopes for producing a multiplying deiscipleship process to empower high-impact leaders with a broad base of discipleship skills, including counseling, coaching, and spiritual formation. This falls right in line with what I wrote last year - to "start immediately duplicating the knowledge God has given me by investing in others who can teach the class [Biblical Problem Solving] and grow into trainers of trainers themselves."

Not only did this happen when Ilya started teaching the class, ...

"My January, therefore, may be dedicated in part to working in parallel with one of my students to teach this class there [at a mission training school nearby]."

..., but I have also started counseling two other couples with leadership potential. The vision has expanded beyond counseling, however, and coach training will be coming in 2009. I am currently under mentorin by my team member, Bill O'Byrne, in spiritual formation, and I hope to be able to mentor others by next year.

"I have a list of pastors and other Christian leaders, including Orthodox, I want to meet and listen to next year to find out where the needs are and where I might find other open doors."

I had significant first-time meetings with at least 4 pastors and 3 missions leaders. I had one other good meeting with an Orthodox priest who is active in ecumenical relations. I am praying for more key contacts with Orthodox leaders in 2009. My goal is at least 12 new relationships with church leaders, and at least 6 new ministry leaders.

I hoped to expand my work at the Harbor in 2008, and God granted relationships with Yuri, which grew throughout the year (and continues), and with Nastya, a former program participant, whom I coached for a few months. Additionally, I began coaching staff members at the Harbor. The one I am currently working with, Sergei, sees the vision I had last year of:

"exploring both how coaching might be used for the whole staff and for how it could be used for the program participants themselves."

Not only is Sergei beginning to use principles from what we do together with Harbor residents, he is very interested in getting coach training himself. We are tentatively looking at starting a 15 week program in March if God grants a group of interested participants.

"Outside the Harbor, I feel the need to do some research into the other ministries and secular entities serving the orphans and street kids. The street kid problem is radically different from even a year ago, as it appears that the government has actually done something good for a change and established homes for them based on a European model that works fairly well. I need to know more."

I did some initial research, which I reported in my April '08 newsletter. Beyond this, I sent out a call to the missions community here and to my supporters at home. The result: 4 people here interested in helping (one soon left the field), and none to help long distance. I decided that there wasn't much need, or that God didn't have that as a priority for me for the time being.

"Barely 100 paces from our house is an orphanage for school-aged children. I intend to find a way to meet the leadership there and begin serving, to include bringing at least Diana and Lydia along over time."

Barely a week after I posted this, God supernaturally opened the doors to ministry there, and the rest is history. One hope I have for 2009 that I did not write about in my December newsletter is to get access to at least one family associated with that orphanage who would like to reunite with their child and to work with the family as a pilot project for what could be developed further. The main obstacle from my vantage point now is that such families almost don't exist from what I hear. They are NOT motivated to get their kids back! I hope this is not true.

My biggest disapointment of the year was the work with a Christian businesswoman that did not come to fruition.

"My aim is to see her company (her mission, really) have deeper penetration into the secular business community. The possibilities are tremendous."

After talking about these possibilities for some time, Colleen did not feel that God was leading her in the direction of a partnership. Perhaps God has another such partnership planned for me. Trouble is, I don't know of any others at this point. I pray He will show me.

All in all, I'd say God gave grace to more than surpass these goals. Makes me excited about 2009.

My reading list

2008-12-31T14:25:00.005+03:00

For the first time in what seems like years, I am able to commit to the value of ongoing growth and self-feeding. Of course a man's library is about a personal matter as they get, so no one will like everything I do. Nonetheless, I've got some great books I'd love to have you check out. Here are highlights of what I have read in our first year and a half in Russia:

Note: I wanted to get this published, but come back for some annotations and links)

The Heavenly Man (Paul Hatthaway)

The Shack

Epic (John Eldredge)

The Final Quest (Rick Joyner)

Crime and Punishment (Dostoyevsky)

The Gulag Archipelago (Solzhenitsin)

Heaven (Randy Alcorn)

The Master and Margarita (Bulgakov)

Sub-merge (John Hayes)

Black Earth (Andrew Meier)

The Rest of God

Deceived? Who Me? (Craig Hill)

Promoting Russians in adoptions

2008-12-07T22:32:00.003+03:00

I went to a wonderful conference on Nov. 14-15 by a group called "Light of Love" promoting a reversal of the unusually poor trend in Russians taking orphans into their own homes. This ministry focues on reaching Christians, by far the most capable (in general) of providing the kind of homes that orphans need without much training or oversight. Some of the ideas discussed included:

how realistic it would be to eliminate orphanages in the Ukraine. If every church found 4 families to take in kids, all orphans would be accounted for.
the vision of starting a nationwide reality show about the positive side of foster care and adoptions;
efforts to actually return orphans to their families, which almost never happens;
pairing foster parents with biological parents as mentors;

I met a wonderful couple whom God called to add to their one biological child 19 others. Now that many are reaching their majority, they plan to take on another 20 over the next few years.

I also met a psychologist who was more than excited to meet me and, though herself not a Christian, she works for Bethany Christian Services to help work with families who are preparing for foster parenting or adoption. She expressed great interest in having me train psychologists in Biblical counseling. Pray for me as I pursue this lead.

The big idea I left with was, is God calling me to be a part of helping get orphans into Christian homes, or back into their biological (now transformed by Christ's love) homes? Pray for me as I seek His leading in this question.

Mother's report

2008-11-25T19:04:00.002+03:00

I wrote my August newsletter as an interview with my mother, who had visited here that month. Now that she has had time to reflect more on her time here, she has written a report that she gave me permission to post here.

The Missions Committee asked me to give a brief sketch of what I learned during my visit with Lyle and his family in Russia. That is a difficult task considering that every day was packed from morning till night with unbelievable experiences. However, I want everyone to know one thing above all else: these five people are happy, healthy, and content with where God has led them to serve.

Even Lydia, age 10, who had the hardest adjustment initially, has accepted that she has an important contribution to make in her witness with new friends. Art classes, her favorite new activity, have given her a new focus.It is almost impossible to realize that the boys, ages 6 and 4, have not lived there since birth. They love school, where they speak only Russian; and they are excited by each new experience. Simon, the four-year-old, recently found his services to be needed as interpreter for two new American boys in his class. Both are very compassionate toward people on the streets who are forced to beg in order to survive, and I saw them give up their spending money on several occasions. Lyle and Diana both feel a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment in their work with orphans and church leaders. When I asked whether there had been any point at which they had experienced second thoughts about their decision to be where they are, the answer from each of them was an emphatic NO!

I met a number of their devoutly Christian friends, and it was gratifying to see how they are all witnessing at every opportunity. It is not easy, as many Russians are not open to new relationships. They will pass you on the street and neither look nor speak. In Lyle's own neighborhood it has been an uphill battle to get people interested in socializing. Even the children are unpredictable, being friendly one day and cool the next. One interesting observation, however, is that the elderly seem to warm up to you in public places (on streetcars etc.) when you have children with you.

In a nutshell, St. Petersburg is a city of contradictions. The main part of town is filled with exquisite, historic palaces, museums, and government buildings. With canals running throughout, it is truly picturesque. Many in the U.S. think of Russia as a gloomy and oppressive place, but this is not true today ( with notable exceptions) One thing that took me by surprise is an odd mix of the super modern and the antiquated. For one example, some of the streetcars look and sound like they might not make it to the next block, while many of the buses are quite new, sleek, and equiped with technology I'm not sure we even have here. Since the people have latched onto Western customs in recent years there are stylish and very expensive clothes, jewelry, and home furnishings in the shop windows. However, the typical young woman you pass on the street is more likely to be "over-dressed" in an outfit that is cheap and flashy.

Another change in recent years is the abundance of goods everywhere. There is a local market near Lyle's apartment where some of the best fresh produce is sold. Oddly, most of it is imported from other European countries. Some items were more tasty than anything I've had here at home. There are many individual vendors who specialize in different types of produce. Lyle has made friends with all of them and they seem to enjoy giving him something extra with his purchases. They represent the exception to the typical "unfriendly Russian stranger". We hear a lot of complaint in this country right now from some who say they have been forced to work extra hours to make ends meet. Each of these vendors works 12 or more hours a day, 7 days a week. It is a rare thing for them to take a day off.

Another store, called the O.K. is larger than any Super Wal Mart you can find. One whole wall is nothing but vodka. This is symbolic of a major gloomy side to Russian life. Alcoholism is epidemic and especially evident in the subway stations and tunnels. One challenge for missionaries is to try to steer teenagers into a life without addiction. The other major concern is that many of the elderly cannot get by on the pathetic government pension they receive. They see no choice but to become beggars. Again, you see them more often in the subway areas. First they carry their meager belongings with them and sell what they can. After these are gone they simply hold a basket out for donations. Lyle has made friends with some of the poor who are regulars and is trying gradually to provide some assistance in whatever form might be beneficial. His children are getting a real lesson in what it means to be compassionate and unselfish.

This merely scratches the surface, but I would be happy to elaborate at any time you might have questions. Meanwhile, I want to say again how grateful Lyle and all our family are for the prayers, correspondence, and financial support which has come from many of you, and for his "adoption" as a missionary of his home church. He and Diana are committed to being deserving of your trust. Please continue to keep them in your prayers, that God's plan can be realized.

A necessary goose chase

2008-11-24T15:37:00.002+03:00

The boys and I had just started on our way home from school (11/7) and got out of the tram (the street car) to enter the Metro. I suddenly realized that Kerith's backpack was not in its mandatory (on his back) location. The tram was just ahead of us, and we dashed to try to get its attention or beat it to the next stop. Despite how slow they go, this was rush hour, and there were too many obstacles between us and it. With all his school books, homework, and an article of clothing or two, defeat was no option, but I had no clue how to track it down.

Think fast, man!

As we watched it chug off over the bridge across the Neva and into the sunset, I followed the only plan I could think of: we made our way across the street and began to hail a car. Around here, people "vote" for cars all the time by holding out their arm (not just the thumb) and private car owners earn an extra few rubles by taking people with them if they are going in the same general direction. Yet no one was stopping! I pulled the boys out from the curb with me where I was in the road to increase the sympathy factor, but it must have taken me 3 minutes and over a hundred cars before one finally stopped.

Our man wasted no time and flew across the bridge. I still hoped the tram was not far ahead and easy to catch in the heavy traffic, but, alas, I had lost track of how long I had waited. We got to the other side and followed the tracks to the right, and then did a full stop. The tracks split, and I had never noticed the number of the tram, otherwise I could follow the route on my transportation map. We sat there for a minute while I studied the map and guessed which direction it might have gone before finally taking a guess: go right again.

It was another 10 minutes of stop-and-go traffic before we saw any tram at all, and all I could verify was that it was the right color. The boys were doing well, but stressed. Simon quietly whimpered, wanting to go home. The tram was turning around at its end point, and our man pulled over at the next stop. To my amazement, he offered to wait while I checked to see if it was the right one.

Praise be, it was the correct tram, and the conductor was sitting with Kerith's backpack, stupefied that we had caught up with them. We jumped back in the car with a huge load off our shoulders (but a good load back on Kerith's). For some reason, I pulled out the map again to check the number's route (69). The blood left my face as I realized that the 69 should have turned to the left! The map was wrong, or this tram was off route.

This was too much to handle. Why was this guy being so nice? Why did he not want to take off as soon as he had got us to the backpack? In fact he took us all the way back to where we started, and I had to press him to admit that he had now missed the appointment he was going to before helping us, and so he was just heading back.

I studied his face carefully, wondering, is that regular skin, or are we being escorted by an angel? I listened to the music on the radio. Nope, not a Christian station, but, hey, angels could listen to cool music too, I suppose. In the end, he did take what I thought a modest payment for his time and gas. I decided angels don't need money.

But he sure was sent from God.

Going to sleep God's way

2008-11-09T20:51:00.004+03:00

This story begins back this summer in Germany where we had the blessing of time to hang out with Tobias and his wife for long nights to talk about whatever topic God brought up. On one such night I mentioned to Tobias that I had been an effective hypnotist once upon a time. His question to me was, "Have you ever asked God to take away your ability to do that?" I had never considered such an idea, nor did I know how to respond. He pressed me to consider that I had received an impartation that needed to be cut off. I had to admit that, upon reflection, the essential spirit behind it was control/manipulation. Even Diana didn't feel like that was a real issue for me.

Coincidentally, I offered, I had actually used some of the knowledge from the techniques to assist Lydia in going to sleep a few weeks earlier. Mind you, I pointed out, I just used the relaxation techniques rather than actually suggesting that she would become hypnotized or be under my control. The point was, Lydia had been struggling for some months, and I used what I knew to help her, and it worked like a charm, as it were. She was out before I finished.

Tobias' response was that I was not only not depending on Christ for Lydia, but I was actually drawing from a foreign influence. It's not the real thing, but it's the same idea in a lesser form. His arresting question was, "You want to walk in God's power and authority, so how can you simultaneously walk in another authority and spirit?" We prayed, and I let go of everything related to this influence we could think of. I must say, I was under conviction to do this, but not feeling the depth of it or how or why it was SO important. Tobias felt that it was a major spiritual breakthrough in my life.

Fast forward to our return to St. Petersburg. Lydia hadn't had any trouble with sleep in Germany, and she never had before we moved to Russia. Diana also has had frequent problems herself. We really think it's something in the air pressure or something. Many locals take that position. Nonetheless, it was only a matter of time before Lydia came asking for help again. I told her I wasn't going to do what I had before anymore and explained a bit why. We prayed instead, and I asked God to show her what he was going to do to help her go to sleep. He told her to tell herself stories, which she started doing with tremendous success. She got into some creative things like visualizing heaven (and one night even hell!), and it's been phenomenal ever since (she has posted about it here). It's evolving more and more into a two-way conversation with Him that is enriching her relationship with Him in marvelous ways.

There have been a couple of times when she came out asking for help, but God had given me a hint in advance, and I was ready. The first time, I knew it meant she needed to go back and ask for a new approach, which he gave. The second time, it meant it was warfare to take it away, and the third was to teach her to do it without me. Pretty cool, huh?

So we're running about 4 months now with success in falling asleep, but that's really not even the issue anymore. Do you see how a worldly system may have the desired effect yet be the wrong solution? Life isn't about solving problems; it's about knowing the Problem Solver. Our problems should draw us closer to God. Isn't that why Jesus suggested that we could find our life and yet lose it? Some problems can't be solved without God, but He has also built the world in such a way that cooperating with the created order will help relieve our pain. But we risk winning the battle and losing the war this way.

Winning the war is enjoying God's company forever; I'm glad Lydia is getting an early start.

Vending for the Harbor

2008-11-03T21:57:00.004+03:00

As I posted before, I have been working on an exciting project to combine business and leadership development with a local Christian business owner. Now that CRM's Enterprise International is interested in the project, it has slowed us down, but only for the good. They are really helping us make this a great project, and we are still hopefull that they can chip in some funds before the end of the year to help sponsor a few leaders.

The latest development is a way we have found to be able to work in the Harbor so that it can be blessed and get me more involved at the same time. The idea is to sponsor several of their staff members by having them service vending machines as part of their work week. They would work fewer hours at the Harbor because of this and so that they would be able to participate in our leadership development coaching. Not only would they be able to earn more money than they do now, the Harbor would be saved the expense of ongoing overhead from staff salaries. Pray!

Update: The project made it all the way to Enterprise's final step before funding it. The issue turned out not to be lack of funding, but their lack of ability to manage the project with so many other projects worldwide in process. What is really needed is for a person to come live here specifically devoted to business development under Enterprise. Let's pray!

Uno means "more than one"

2008-10-31T09:40:00.013+03:00

The card game Uno is fast becoming a favorite over at the orphanage down the street. After we tackle the English homework, we play cards. Lydia loves to help too, and she even has helped with the homework by listening to the kids read their texts.

I (Diana) brought Uno because most Russians already know it, and to play "in English" requires colors and numbers, but not much more. I figured that Uno would hold their attention for only a couple of sessions. But, as in so many situations with these orphans, I was wrong. Not only do they request Uno each week, but we also end up talking about more personal issues as the game progresses.

The boys' group made a rule that Lydia and I will play in Russian, and they will play in English. I countered with a rule that if any of them speak in Russian, they must take a card for every Russian word uttered. Little English knowledge + no Russian rule = very quiet room. We laugh about that equation. My card shuffling techniques bumped me up the respect ladder a rung or two as well. I just might be training casino dealers now!

Updates:
Andrei continues to open up about his background and current interests. He's curious about me too. Consequently, I know him the best of the boys. He may be only one in that group that wants to relate, but Uno is a big number to God.

Masha has acted more somber and depressed in the past few weeks. She hangs around after her session and seems to want to talk more. The kids are on fall break next week, and orphans with a family member will leave for a few days. Masha has nobody. I asked if she wanted me to come back next week just to hang out. She readily agreed. Uno.

Natasha, the breakthrough from a few weeks ago, continues to try to speak English, and our trust is building. She also will not go to any relatives next week, and I plan to meet with her as well. Uno.

The director has given us permission, for the first time, to actually take Masha and Natasha out for a while, so we are excited to see how God will work when we have more time with them outside the home.

Uno at a time.

Deeper relationships at the orphange

2008-10-01T00:06:00.005+04:00

Three weeks ago I resumed my English tutoring at the orphanage down the street. Last school year's experience held some beautiful moments with these teens, but there were as many difficult times managing the dynamics in the group as well. Even though my Russian is much improved, I knew that if I were to be effective and really get to know these kids, I needed to divide and conquer.

The director allowed me to teach "one-on-one" in smaller blocks of time per my suggestion. It just wasn't as effective in a group setting, I said. The one-on-one quickly became two-on-one, and then when I arrived the first day, they snuck three-on-one with the boys, but who's counting. The smaller groups have worked extremely well, and in just three weeks, I have learned more about these kids and experienced some breakthroughs in our relationships. Lydia continues to join me, and with the smaller groups, can participate more.

Here are three snapshots.

Masha: You might remember Masha from a previous blog of mine. She's 13 with a dark affect and sour attitude towards any authority or academic subject. Masha is still dark, but she and I came to an understanding and parted in May as "friends". We picked up right where we left off, and now she has even decided to try speaking a little English. She cracks a smile every now and then and seemed to appreciate my offer to find her the lyrics to the English rock songs she listens to on her MP3 player. Masha hangs around after her lesson and sometimes returns later. She and Lydia are becoming well acquainted too.

Andrei: I secretly hoped the director had other boys in mind for this year. But no, Andrei, 14, was the first face I saw. He was lewd and rude when I first met him last winter, but removing girls from the situation has allowed him to focus on his English homework and give him the freedom to ask me questions about myself and Lydia. Andrei is a tough nut. He reeks of cigarette smoke, talks about drugs and beer, and handles himself like he's ready to fight. But, as I approached the orphanage on week 2, Andrei ran up to me and waved with a shy smile. Progress.

Natasha: I was wrong. Natasha, 14, is reachable! Up until today, I thought Natasha and I would make little, if any, progress in English and in our relationship. Her body language screams apathy and "bug off!". When her lesson partner Anya did not show up today, I had 30 minutes alone with Natasha, and those 30 minutes started out like all others:

Me: How are you today, Natasha? (English)

N: gives quizzical look

Me: How are you today? (English)

N: flops down in a chair and buries head in arms

Me: How are you, Natasha? (now in Russian)

N: terrible!

Ready for the miracle? Today Natasha and I parted with hugs and smiles! How did this happen?

We started the English homework (safety tips for parents, of all things) and after slogging through phrases that she can only parrot and does not understand ("Put the knives away after use"), we started really talking. Okay, it was in Russian, but after "Cover all electrical sockets", can you blame us?

We learned that we are both only children, and that we both always wanted an older brother. Natasha started to lighten up. I ventured to ask about her mom and dad, since most of these kids are social orphans and usually maintain some kind of visitation. As crusty as Natasha can be, she opened up about her family revealing that her mother was killed (with N there) and her father is a drunk. She only sees him sometimes, but she is fond of her grandmother. I queried her about who she looks like, and Natasha offered to show me her mother's picture next week. I was touched to say the very least.

When I ended our session, Natasha seemed -- softer. I gave her a quick one-armed hug, but she leaned into me and hugged me back with both her arms around my waist. She waved me a sweet "little girl" wave before heading down the hall. I shut the door to the room and cried.

Pastor Yuri Dimitriev

2008-09-10T17:22:00.017+04:00

One of my roles here is to serve as a sort of liaison for a US ministry that supports pastors from the St. Petersburg area. Russians Reaching Russians looks for promising leaders, particularly church planters from among the Russians, and invests in them, including financial support and advise. They also send periodic teams over to help these churches. Since seeking and investing in leaders is part of my mission here, it was an obvious fit to work together.

My current task is to merely meet with several of their promising pastors and find out what they are doing, how they are doing, and what needs they can identify. Their two point men are Igor Sokolov, pastor of the church we attend, and Vladimir Osipov, pastor of a church in Pushkin where I served earlier this year helping Ilya Alyoshin (another RRR suported pastor) teach Biblical Problem Solving in their missionary school (which I wrote about in an earlier newsletter).

I met a third pastor, Yuri Troyanov, founder of a church to the east of the city, earlier this year, and it also turned into an ongoing relationship - with me coaching him on a weekly basis.

My fourth pastor came on August 28-29 with Yuri Dimitriev, who planted a church in Luga, 2.5 hours south of the city. We were going to meet here, but he invited me to come down and see his operation first hand, which I decided was a much better idea. He took me down in his van, and we got to know each other on the way, although communications were hindered by the noise of the roads which were so bumpy and pock-marked that I pitied his van immensely.

We have a lot in common. His two kids are almost the same ages as two of ours. (I stayed overnight with his family (left), including pregnant wife Natasha. He has done a lot of work in building bridges between congregations in the city, and he understands how hard it is to get real cooperation. He has a big vision for his church, but he also values teamwork, delegation, training leaders, and empowering the calling of those in his care. Although RRR supports him, he also runs a business (left) repairing and refurbishing cars, and, true to the values just mentioned, his two right-hand men are his two associates at the church. So he mentors them in business, leadership, and Jesus all at once.

He asked me to preach at the evening service (with three days notice), and moved it from Wed. to Thursday to accommodate my arrival. I was nervous, not only for the sake of the language, but also since I don't consider myself a public speaker, and I didn't know what to talk about. But God was good, and a couple of hours out it finally all came together in my head (after much prayer), and I hit upon my subject: teaching how to pray for each other, using some of the material I already had in hand from the Biblical Problem Solving class and a way to categorize prayers so that people could see that they almost never address the heart issues of the person requesting prayer. Yuri graciously let me lead the talk more like a seminar than a sermon - more my style. They seemed to be blessed (right) and thanked me, asking me to come back. Moreover, I enjoyed everyone there. They seemed open, warm, and mature in their faith.

The church has just built a building that they have recently moved into, though not complete. Moreover, it is only accessible by a muddy path through a field to the rear (right). Since it is outside the town, we first had to go around and pick most everyone up and bring them. Pastors have to play a lot of roles here!

Their mission to the community includes a ministry to drug addicts. Five men have been living in the attic of the church building over the last year, helping build the structure and farm the land around it as a part of their rehabilitation (left). The program is unusually simple. Participants get up and join the church for prayer each morning at 7am (did you catch that - the whole church gathers for prayer every morning!). Afte breakfast, they work all morning and all afternoon. Evenings are free for "self study," which means they can read any of the Christian literature in the church library. There is no formal education or teaching. Their method is work, closeness to the life of the church, and lifestyle mentoring through having mature men with them much of the time to guide and shepherd.
Their success is already visible. The guy above was their first convert. He was a wealthy Muslim from Dagestan, but Jesus has made such a difference in his life that his wife and three kids (feom whom he had been separated for two years) have moved up to Luga to join him. She is now attending church, and though she has not yet made a decision for Christ, she is open to it. He now is the apprenticing to lead the program. I was very moved to see their young children reunited with dad and now being raised to know the One who saved them all.

The meeting lasted until about 10pm, then we made two trips into town dispersing folk to their homes, interrupted by a man who needed his van pulled down the street. You don't see tow trucks much here, but it's not uncommon to see a car pulling another with a rope, and it's not illegal. So we tugged this guy a few hundred yards to his house, but it was a struggle, to say the least, his van being much larger than ours. In the morning we found the cost of being a Good Samaritan: the transmission had come out and literally dropped about 18 inches. In God's good humor, Yuri ended up being thankful; he had needed to replace a part that required removing the transmission, and that was so much trouble he hadn't done it yet. He didn't think there was any permanent damage, so it was a blessing. Go figure.

We stayed up late talking about church, leadership, his dreams, and his needs. So what would he like to have from a visiting team of American Christians?

a team who would help disciple the guys in the rehab program. He feels that they would respond well to outsiders caring enough to build relationship and take the time with them.
a team could help with their evangelization. The idea would be to pass out offers to rent the Jesus film. Give those who want to see the film a copy, and when you pick it up, start a conversation about what they saw.
spend time, again in informal settings over time, with some of the new members of the church and those who are just visiting but not yet made a decision for Christ. They idea is to disciple them and help them experience relationship and the love of Jesus.

So what next? Coincidentally, one young lady called me while I was writing this post, asking when I'd be back. I find myself wanting to go again, but it's so far, I need a good reason. I told her that I needed a concrete invitation as a way of measuring desire. Yuri said he could see my services coming in useful, but what I struggle with is whether there is strategic need for my teaching. How can I effectively raise up leaders from this kind of distance?

Visa Victory

2008-09-05T20:38:00.006+04:00

Barring any surprises, God appears to have given us wonderful resolution to our visa woes. As I reported recently, we had decided to taken an open mind to all possible options and allow God to do the choosing for us. After a process of elimination (indeed in one case heart-wrenching for Diana), God made it quite clear that what was left was not just the best of the options, but was actually the place where He was indicating His blessing. To explain:

We had wanted to avoid the option of staying on a student visa for two reasons. First, we were very happy with the tutor we have been going to, and to give her up would not only be giving up a wonderful teacher, but also a key link for us to all things Russian. Ludmilla is always a prime source for teaching us about Russian culture, and she has a keen heart for the injustices of society that she has imparted to us.
Second was the cost. Going this route will cost a lot more than private lessons - about $10,000 for one year, plus about an extra $4000 in visa costs.

After appearing to not be possible, God eventually worked it out for Ludmilla to come under the auspices of the agency that will issue the student visas (the Swiss Center). Not only do we get to keep her, she ended up thanking us, as she will get paid a little more, get access to other students, and earn more towards a larger retirement income. Win, win, win!

A bonus came out of what also looked initially like a setback. The school run by our church that the boys go to was kicked out of its location less than two weeks before the start of classes. God provided an alternative very quickly, but this meant taking the boys much further away from home than last year. I had even bought a cool vehicle, called a Kinder Car (right) that I had started taking them to school in that cut the ride down to 20 minutes - and through a park! Now we have to sit on the Metro and take nearly an hour one way to school.

But wait! The metro where the school is now is close enough to Ludmilla that we won't even have to get back on the metro to get there. So all we have to do is drop them off (I on Tuesdays and Diana on Thursdays), go to Ludmilla for about 4 hours, then return to the school to pick up the boys on the way home. It is actually easier than going to the old location!

That leaves the money, which we did not anticipate in our budget. But trusting God for $10,000 (we expect to find another solution for next year) seems like a walk in the park compared to everything else we've had to trust Him for to this point.

If you feel led to donate towards this need, by the way, you can click here, with our deep thanks.

Summer work project?

2008-09-03T10:21:00.009+04:00

Let me through out an idea for a summer team project that some may want to consider for next year. This is from a ministry here that almost everyone who works with orphans works with. They organize a lot of projects and generally help facilitate ministry for other ministries.

The following is from a note from the director about Camp Elama.

Elama -- Camp Life In previous postcards we've mentioned the camp we have use of: we've named it Elama, the Finnish word for Life (pronounced EH-lah-mah). Before 1939 it was a Finnish health resort, after the war it was a Russian children's camp before closing about 25 years ago. We're slowly bringing it back to life, and this is the first of several years of rebuilding that are needed. Still, the fruit of this summer has already surpassed our hopes. In addition to a few Christian families that are living there all summer, in July we hosted two camps run by a local church. First was a children's camp with 80 participants and then a youth camp with 100 participants. Since we don't have much decent housing, the campers stayed in tents. Even the kitchen was under a tent, and the picture at left is of the 'dining hall'. The church did a great job of improving the land -- clearing the swimming area, building outhouses, clearing trash, they even built a dock in the lake. A pleasant surprise is that some neighbors are quite enthusiastic about having the camps there. Several attended meetings when the children sang or presented programs, and now they have started bringing us fresh milk, eggs, and vegetables. At right is one of the girls with fresh milk brought to us by a neighbor. Later this month, we'll host a week-long church camp for thirty children and other groups will have picnics. Elama is available free of charge to all. This summer we've installed the beginnings of a water system (we now have one sink with running water), we've begun repairs to several buildings, obtained a couple of small refrigerators (donations), purchased tools, cleared away a lot of trash and scrub brush, and swatted a lot of mosquitoes! We ran out of money for this summer, so some tasks (painting, roof repair, heating, a new well, etc.) will have to wait until later. There is still very much to be done. Groups from the US and the Netherlands have expressed interest in sending work teams. An architect in the US has agreed to help design a pavilion/summer kitchen that we hope to build next May. There is a lot of activity and many opportunities. Elama is coming to life, just as we had hoped. As you can see, their attitude of service to the Christian community is wonderful. Anyone can use the camp any time for free. The only rule is "leave it better than when you came."

I am working on some other kinds of projects too, but let me know if this interests you.

Kerith speaks -- an interview with Mom

2008-09-01T17:20:00.003+04:00

Mom: Today was "Pervii zvonok" (First Bell). What was that all about?
Kerith: I was going to 1st grade. It was fun. I saw all my friends, and I was relieved that I saw them again. This was because the celebration had started today. First graders go to second, and all the grades are changing. I loved it.

Mom: What happened at the celebration?
Kerith: We had a little ceremony at the school, and we had some tea, candy, and cake. It was awesome. Yummy!

Mom: Tell me about the ceremony.
Kerith: We sat with our teacher, Tatiana Vladimirovna, and every class had to walk to the microphone and call out their name. I was going to just say a grumble when it was my turn for the microphone, but I managed to get out my name. There was a skit with Max, Artyem, the principal, my teacher, and all the teachers. We sang songs.

Mom: The kids all brought something to the ceremony. What was it?
Kerith: Flowers to their teachers. I had an orange one. My friend Nicholas had a pink one. (His was bigger than mine.) A new first grader was named Smile. (Which is a crazy name. I don't know why his parents named him that.)

Mom: What are you looking forward to the most in first grade?
Kerith: At recess always meeting Simon and seeing Anna Mikhailovna, my Kindergarten teacher.

Mom: What was different today than the first day of school last year when we had first arrived in Russia?
Kerith: We had a different school. The building where we were needed the third floor, so we had to move. I couldn't speak one speck of Russian when we first came to Russia. Today I could speak almost as much as a Russian needs to speak. I understand what the ceremony meant.

Mom: Is there anything else you want to say about today?
Kerith: Today is Switch Day. I'm going to First Grade. Simon has a couple new friends in Kindergarten, and Lydia signed up for Art School. Everybody is changing where they are supposed to go to.

I think I'm done. BYE!!!

Can we pray for you?

2008-09-01T13:02:00.005+04:00

Without the faithful support and prayers of a whole lot of people, not only would we not be here, but we would have not chance of thriving in the assignment God has for us. We send everyone on our mailing list news every month that includes prayer requests, and I send a small group of intercessor more specific updates and needs. It's such a blessing to hear back from you how God has prompted you to pray for us.

Now, we can turn the tables! I carry a list around with me that I refer to periodically of prayer needs, including local issues here and requests from friends and family at home. Not only do I want to formally ask for your needs, but our sending agency, CRM is asking for your prayer requests too! Here is an excerpt from their recent letter to us:

It is with great joy that we invite you each to participate in the CRM Day of Prayer on October 2, 2008. Each year CRM staff all over the world set aside one day to intentionally pray for the organization and for our financial supporters. Our donors minister to us so graciously through their prayers and financial resources, and we desire to bless them through interceding on their behalf. We invited your donors to send us their prayer requests, which we will be passing along to you.

Henri Nouwen puts it well—prayer is indeed like breathing. In this modern age of omnipresent cell phone devices, the widespread disease of perpetual business, and little patience for that which cannot be microwaved, it can be a struggle not to relegate the place of prayer to a Sunday ritual or those situations when nothing man has made seems to work. It is essential to regard prayer is a sacred gift given to us by our Heavenly Father, and to make space for our core beliefs about prayer to translate themselves into daily practice. Prayer is breath—it is vital for every moment of life—and works to put us into right relationship with God, by defining our place as a Created being depending upon the provision of our uncreated Creator.

So send them over - either to CRM (Jamie Rosenberry) or us directly. If the former, then you get the blessing of having a bunch of serious pray-ers taking your needs to the throne. They will forward them to us. It will be an honor to lift you up on the 2nd.

War and Russia's destiny

2008-08-22T21:16:00.007+04:00

It was just a conversation with Pastor Igor during our weekly coaching session, but it seemed so packed full of juicy food for thought that I feel compelled to post a synopsis of it.

We started out talking about the war with Georgia, as I was interested in his input on what is going on from the perspective of a Russian and a pastor. He gave me some history, most of which I had gotten by now, explaining that South Ossetia had achieved and maintained a de facto independence since a conflict in the early 1990s. Although they are technically part of Georgia, they use the Russian ruble and Russian passports yet claim independence despite the fact that no one, including Russia, has recognized their sovereignty. Abkhazia is in almost exactly the same boat, and now they are formally asking to be recognized.

What concerns Igor is black and white thinking that paints Russia unilaterally as the aggressor and ends up distancing them from relationship with the West. The danger here is seen in the recent visit from the President of Syria, who compared what is going on in Ossetia with their relationship with Israel. So what kind of bedfellows could this produce if we let things get worse between the West and Russia?

Igor admitted that biblically we know that things will get worse before they get better, so we can expect more wars and collaborations between countries that share only evil as their goal. Is Russia a part of that end-time scenario? It would appear that Russia does figure into biblical prophecy (certainly more than America does), though Igor does not spend much time trying to figure it out. He got a little turned off by all the Christians who used to call the USSR the Anti-Christ. "The Kingdom is not defined by geography or politics. Jesus said, 'the Kingdom of God is within you' (Lk. 17:21). So why shouldn't the Anti-Christ be more about the fact that there will be people all over the world who are given over to the agenda of the Enemy?" He cited examples of leaders in the US who had prophesied things about the USSR in this connection that never came to pass.

We continued the topic of prophecy as I asked what he thought about Rick Joyner's prophesies about the coming harvest and Russia's destiny. I myself had heard about him and his ministry for years but had never read a word of his until Tobias gave me some things to read. His book, the Harvest, is an exciting read, and even if it is not true, it rings true in the sense that the principles behind what would be involved as events unfold are all totally biblical. Igor was once again cool towards Joyner, mostly because he became a sensation over here some years back, and people got so into everything he wrote that Igor knew it was a distraction.

Igor did have one prophecy about Russia he mentioned to me that excited his imagination: that of Hudson Taylor. You will be reacting the same way as I at this point:

Hudson Taylor - on Russia? He was in China!
Hudson Taylor - a prophet? Wasn't he a pretty standard B flat evangelical?

These very things, plus the fact that Hudson Taylor's life was one of such fruit and irreproachable integrity that Igor gives it such credence. Here is how it happened: Taylor was on furlough in England late in life (1855 or 1889), speaking at a church. Suddenly he stopped preaching as though considering something. He started again and stopped again for some time. He then announced:

“I have seen a vision. I saw in this vision a great war that will encompass the whole world. I saw this war recess and then start again, actually being two wars. After this, I saw much unrest and revolts that will affect many nations. I saw in some places spiritual awakenings. In Russia, I saw there will come a general all-encompassing, national SPIRITUAL AWAKENING so great that there could never be another like it. From Russia, I saw the awakening spread to many European countries. Then I saw an all-out awakening, followed by the Coming of Christ."

God had showed him this vision as he was speaking, and though he doubted it the first time, God showed it again, and he felt compelled to speak it.
I was astounded. I had had no knowledge of this word. How can we not take it seriously given:

its source, a man of universal repute
its subject, so obviously a prediction of both world wars and the various national conflicts since then
its focus on Russia, obviously the point of the whole prophesy. That is, the prophecy about the wars is only meant to confirm the validity of the word about Russia.

Igor went on to point out that St. Petersburg also has a prophetic destiny. Even when people come together for worldly reasons to start a community, God is always there with His purposes, and Peter the Great's commission for the city was that it be a "window to Europe." While men may interpret this in any number of ways, Igor wants the Church to view it through spiritual eyes so that it can lay a hold of God's destiny for it. Obviously from this point of view, St. Petersburg is meant to have a role in bringing the best of what God has from spiritually from Europe (and the States) to bear on Russia. And, given Taylor's prophecy, St. Petersburg may be the window that brings the revival to Europe.

And so Igor elaborated by explaining how St. Petersburg is really set apart and isolated from the rest of Russia. All of Russia's churches look to Moscow for leadership, but St. Petersburg is an island to itself. This is rooted in pride. Alexander Pushkin, Russia's voice of their soul, put it:
"I lifted up my head in pride, above Alexander's column." This monument in Palace square here, as you can see from the picture, has an angel with a cross at the top. In other words, Petersburgers have a particular bent towards elevating self above God, more than Russians in general.

I commented, "Then the solution will have to be a form of humiliation that God uses to humble them before they can move into His destiny." Igor agreed, adding that it has already happened to some extent, though it will likely require more. I thought he was referencing the blockade during WW2 which had killed so many. No, he meant the fact that during the 1990's the city had gained a reputation nation-wide as Russia's criminal capital, with many highly visible and terrible murders taking place regularly. This was a disgrace to the residents, but Igor saw it as an attempt by the Enemy to thwart their calling, so he and many others prayed very mightily against it, and God answered. Now the city is relatively peaceful.

Wow. I feel like God may be showing me a part of the big picture as to why I am here. I have often wondered why I would be in such a spiritually difficult place, because I want to be where God's action it. So now I have a sort of visionary pick-me-up!

My son, the Lego theologian

2008-08-21T21:05:00.008+04:00

Just when you think your kids aren't thinking about anything loftier than turning a bunk bed into a fort, they come up with the most amazing thoughts on life. Take Kerith. He's a child of tremendous intellect, but also tremendous range of emotion (blessedly, usually joyful). So he loves to figure things out, take them apart, and understand how they work. But he also is our sensitive one, who can get very concerned and upset over the pain he sees in others. He can't stand to pass a beggar by without asking for money to give them, which he does with a blessing.

He's also becoming quite the prayer, waxing eloquent at bedtime about the virtues of God and the plight of mankind. His prayers can be some profound reflections on life and eternity. Simon once patiently waited him out for several minutes and at the conclusion lamented, "Kerith, you pray so long, and I need to go to bed!" - the only time I've ever heard him insist on the need to sleep.

So out of nowhere the other day, he comes up to me at the computer and shows me this object he had made from Legos:

He then proceeded to tell me it's symbolic meaning, which I managed to capture on film:

Sure it's a bit down on life at times, but what I appreciate about Kerith is his well-developed sense of human fallenness. God has time to work on the rest with him.

P.S. I've gotten my first concerned comment, the effect that Kerith may be "upset and troubled." So here is my response: As I think about what may motivate this kind of concern, it seems to me that had he talked about life being all peaches and cream, God is good, we are so blessed, and the like, then everyone would praise him for his great attitude and outlook on life. What I would see in such a philosophy would be an unbalanced Pollyanna worldview that is clueless about the extent to which sin and the Enemy have invaded this world.

Is life "terrible" as Kerith says? Of course not, at least not overall, because we have a Saviour who is victorious over sin and death. Apart from that, however, life is terrible. And coming to a country like this, you can't help see it much more obviously than you can in the States. We've lost count of all the drunk folk we've seen sprawled out and bleeding on the streets. We have one who lives close to us. And many countries are much better exhibits of the devil's handiwork. So Kerith is adjusting to that reality. Moreover, Kerith is in a phase right now where he is keenly aware of his own sinfulness and his inability to overcome his weaknesses alone. This perspective clearly influenced what he said in the video, and this I applaud. Did he not, however, show a clear understanding that God is the only one who can get us to the "top"? That's grace.

Maybe another kid who said this could be troubled, given different circumstances. Their grandmother came to visit this month, and her assessment of the kids was this: "I've been very relieved and blessed to see them thriving so well. The adjustment and their language acquisition that they have made has been phenomenal. I believe they are happy and content."

'Nuff said.