Translation work

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.