Honor among thieves

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.