Wednesday, October 20, 2010

a granbaby quilt


a Grandmotherly thing to do

well, yesterday I finally got my act together and began to sew the quilt top for my granddaughter. We went to JoAnne fabrics in late June and picked out the fabric and only now am I beginning it. It has been a busy time since then. I just got back from a tour with Jerry in Montana. We went to visit many of our friends in many different churches, telling them about our lives in Kiev. Each time I looked at pictures of our friends, it made me homesick for our life there and hope things are going well for them. It is funny...when we are in Kiev, I am homesick for our life with our family back in the states, it seems that we are always missing the other life, whichever one we aren't in at the time, get it? Guess that is where trust comes into play.

Anyway, I began sewing the quilt and finished the top yesterday. I like it, it is pretty wild and colorful, our granddaughter loves color and design even at this very young age.

Can't wait to finish it and see my grandbaby sleeping underneath it!

Looking forward to hearing from our friends in Kiev, how they are doing....

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

the new family pic


here we are all together!

Summer in the states

It's been a while since we have blogged,
where do we begin?
We got back to the States just in time for our first grandchild's birth! Maia Grace Wagner was born a week after we returned...and...she has captured our hearts! We thoroughly enjoy being grandparents and understand that we are truly blessed!

This summer I also realized that we are now the parents of 3 adults. I knew this was happening, but somehow it crept up on me. Three weeks ago, we drove our son to his college about 2 hours away and helped him settle into his dorm room. The end of this month, our younger daughter begins her 2nd year of college...yikes!

We are now visiting with longtime friends and folks that pray for us, sharing what has been going on in our lives, how God has been working in us and through us as we allow Him. We are in Montana one of the most beautiful places in the world! Everywhere we look, we see how creation displays Gods' handiwork...
We have been blessed by all and encouraged in our adventurous life...

Each time we talk about our life in Kiev, we are reminded of all our friends back there...and remember that God's plan continues on, we look forward to returning and being a part of it!

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Fishing Season

(some of the sauna guys, Sasha, Yura, Yura and Volodia)


Well, we peaced-out of Kiev a few days ago. After a monstrous travel day we arrived in Kandern for Parker's grad. Grad is tomorrow and we've spent the last day and a half feeling like we needed to be doing SOMETHING, after all the activity of packing and goodbye-ing.

I hate goodbyes. That is, hands down, the worst part of the job- goodbyes to the kids going to boarding school over the years, goodbyes to pastors when we left Russia and now, goodbye to our really good, pre-believer friends from what may be our favorite place to live ever.
Once again I feel the way I've felt often over these years as an international worker: I get PAID to do this! There was a time when we were considering this calling that we wondered if it would be worth it. Now we know- most days it's not only worth it, it's an embarrassment of riches of excitement and fascination mixed with unbelief that this is my life. Ok, not every day, all day, is like this but enough are to make me ask the question, "What if we'd never done this? What if we just stayed in our own little world in that other place we loved so much, Wyoming?" Well, the happy answer is that we don't know but we're thankful that for us the truth stands proven and uncontestable: "He who loses his life will find it".

So, fishing season. I've never enjoyed fishing for fish as much as I've enjoyed fishing for men these past 1 1/2 years. Discouraging, exciting, rewarding, challenging, stretching, compelling. Pick any of these words, they all apply to the job we had the great privilege of doing. We have yet to see any outright conversions though friends like Galina now pray everyday, and Yura has made serious efforts to cut back on vodka drinking. These we take as signs that God is moving them towards final repentance and we keep our prayers up for them.

Sasha, our good friend, made 7 or 8 converts when he came back to the Lord after years of wandering in the gray. We got to work discipling him and this small group met at our apartment for a few months. We ask you to pray for the continued growth and development of Sasha and this group of new believers and most urgently for another place to continue this small group.

All these things are part of what made our time in Kiev so rewarding. Now we're on our way to Oregon for the year. Can't wait. I'm working the internet for info on fishing for finned fish and Kim and I are both trying to think of ways to keep the fish-for-men thing going, so much have we been thrilled by the chase. I see on-line that there are informal groups of anglers that get together for BBQs and fishing trips, maybe that will be a way in...?

Thanks for reading along.


Saturday, May 29, 2010

Distractions


I should be packing,... our house is looking quite topsy-turvey, action packers piled high, stacks of stuff that needs to be sorted through and really thrown away, but will stay around and finally be thrown out on the last days. You know the stuff that just is too good to throw away, but not good enough to save...

I should be packing...most of our kitchen is already in boxes, the landlord's stuff is back in the cupboards. We are having some friends over to make Thai food together on Monday...hope we can make do with what we have...

I should be packing....I go from room to room bringing something to the room with the box full of "that" stuff and find another project that needs my attention and get caught up in that project, forgetting what I was originally doing. It is hard to stay focused.

I should be packing...on Monday Jerry will take a load to the storage place. That will help me see what is still needed to be done. I think we have just a bit left. It is always a challenge to figure out what will fit into our suitcases that we are bringing home with us and what needs to be put in a box.

I should be packing...but all of these nostalgic feelings come to my mind as I pack up our stuff again. I remember that when we first came over here, our kids were little...their whole lives ahead of them. Now they are adults ready to lead their own lives. I have been stepping into this new phase of parenting for a few years now and it still feels like someone else's life, not mine. I just packed away Parker's hand print from 5th grade, it makes me stop and count how many years that has been, and I begin to think of how he will start college this year. Beki is finishing up her first year of college. Laurel and Trent are getting ready to have their first baby.

Somehow this all snuck up on me. It seems that the kids were little just the other year and now they are grown up. When we come back, it will be just the 2 of us. Wow! time ticked right by us!
I should be packing, and I am...it just takes me a little longer as I stop and remember the times...

I should be packing....but we keep having friends over for one last goodbye, I keep reminding myself that God has a plan and He will accomplish it in these dear lives...I just need to be faithful to pray for them...help me to trust....

Friday, May 28, 2010

elevator music

This past month has been filled with special memories, meals and events with all of the good friends that we have made here in Kiev this past 19 months. One of the special friends, is Vitya. He has been studying medicine for 4 years, on his way to becoming a doctor. We met him a year ago and have met with him weekly this year, watching movies, eating food and speaking English with him. He has become a good friend. We have also gotten to know his parents and some of his friends. On Wednesday we had a fajita dinner at our place with his parents and a friend and then we went to an organ concert. It was a lovely evening together.
Vitya will be in the states this summer, we are really hoping that we can get together with him. We are trusting God and will be praying for him this year. Please pray with us for Vitya.

Sunday, May 16, 2010


Our good friend and neighbor, Enver, wearing all of his medals from his service in the Soviet Army.


A Victory Day dinner at our good neighbor's home. We enjoyed getting better aquainted with another couple from our entrance. Our friend, Enver has personally introduced us to nearly all of our neighbors. We love them and are praying for their souls!

Another walk through the Botanical Gardens with Iilya, our good University professor friend.


They love to debate philosophical and spiritual topics.

May Day



Jerry and Vitya, our good friend in front of a monastery and lilacs.



We have been celebrating the many May holidays in Ukraine these past few weeks and hanging out with our friends as we begin our good-bye saying. The first of them was May Day, May 1st. We have met friends at the National Botanical Gardens just down the street from us. It is beautiful this time of the year, as the lilacs are blooming. The smell is at times overpowering and the views of the surrounding Orthodox monasteries are so beautiful!

We are trying to take all opportunities we have to spend with our friends here before we take off to the states.


We will miss them.

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Sasha again


Finally, we're back home and back to ourselves.


(I reread our last entry and want to update you on Michael Merrill. He is in the US and is still undergoing treatments. At this point the doctors have not been able to come up with a solution that's going to work long-term. Please keep praying. Trevor Hope has recovered from the sickness he had on our travel to Germany.)



Back to Sasha: to make a long story a little shorter, I wrote back to all the contacts I'd received from the website manager. One of the people I wrote to again was Sasha. He was interested in meeting to talk about life. He suggested one of the many McDonald's restaurants we have here in Kiev, near a school where he is learning English. We talked about his walk with Christ, which had stagnated over many ears of D.I.Y Christianity- no church attendance, no Christian friends, only that whole 'I can worship God where ever I am' type of deception that so many people try to make work.



Anyway, we had a good talk about where he was and where he needed to be headed if he wanted to get to the Abundant Life that Christ promised. This was on a Saturday so I invited him to an English international church service the next day. It turned out the church was within walking distance of his apartment so he could have gotten there easily, though we did meet him in our car. [We're looking for a buyer for our car before we leave in 45 days, please pray]



Anyway, he loved the service and determined to go to a Russian-speaking small group, which he also loved. And since that first meeting 4-5 months ago Kim and I have been meeting with Sasha weekly for discipleship.



But what was interesting was his attendance at a gathering of some old friends of his who invited him to come to a 'religious' group meeting. He went because of his re-newed interest in spiritual things and a renewed desire to tell people about life change through Christ. He was surprised to find a group of disciples of a woman, who had recently died, gathering to pray to a pyramid...



That's it for this entry. We'll try to get back to this story soon, (which I can already tells you ends, as of this writing, with a group of new believers meeting in our apartment).



Thanks for reading along.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Quick update

Hi to our readers...you know who you are,

We just wanted to give you a quick word on what we've been doing and where we've been.

2 1/2 weeks ago Parker came home for Spring Break. We had a nice time in Kiev together but we are quite busy with ministry nowadays, which we didn't realize until we tried to find 'just hang out with Parker' time and we found it difficult. Anyway, all was good. Parker and Jerry did spend a full day working through college acceptance letters (George Fox University, in Oregon and Wheaton) and financial aid packages (a word to young fathers: start saving now). Parker had all but decided on GFU until the Wheaton financial aid info came and the amount they offer makes the choice difficult again. Oh well, on Life's Big Scale of Problems this one doesn't weigh anything.

So, as Spring Break was winding down our Russia (and Ukraine) Field Forum was gearing up in southern Russia. Kim, Parker and I went to Anapa, on the Black Sea, for this annual gathering. It was especially nice for us to be there as a family so that Parker could do his goodbyes for the last time with kids he's known, or know about, for his whole MK life. He had a good time there and we had a good time watching our nearly full-grown baby (18 years old this month) interacting with his friends.

Then, with school starting in Germany the kids had to get back. I had the job of escorting them (since Lisa Merrill (who was the original escort) is in America trying to help her son Michael deal with a chronic health problem. Plllllllllleeeeeeeease pray for Michael. He's one tough kid but he'd really like to get his medical issues resolved so that he can get back to school.)
The need for an escort was only too clear as a couple of the guys got really sick. Trevor Hope, another tough kid, was indescribably ill every hour or so all day l0ng, including airports, airplanes and trains. I haven't heard but I hope he's better today.


Well, anyway, I'm typing this in Parker's dorm while waiting for him to come back from school. This is our next-to-last visit to BFA, at least as parents of students. We'll be back in 7 weeks for graduation. For all the difficult stories that you may have heard about missionary kid boarding schools we can only say from our own experiences with Black Forest Academy that we have nothing but positive things to say. This is true about the quality of school and social life and especially about the spiritual input our kids have received.
Our thanks to all the professionals who have sacrificed time in their careers to give something to our kids.

Ok, that's it for this update. I plan to be back at my computer tomorrow in Kiev and will try to remember to continue the Sasha Saga for those of you who might have been waiting.

Bye for now.
Jerry

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Sasha

So, as promised here goes the story about Sasha.

It begins with our arrival here, now almost 1 1/2 years ago. Through a series of contacts- which are themselves an interesting story -we met Steve Webber, the director of the Christian Broadcasting Network for the whole Russian-speaking world.

In talking with Steve about what we were trying to do here, he offered to connect us with Andrey, the CBN guy in charge of their evangelistic outreach website. Andrey began to send us contact information from people who'd written into the website with questions or because they wanted to say that they'd just prayed a prayer of repentance or re-dedication to Christ.

We did a lot of work, writing to these people, but got little response. One thing we did try was to invite people to an Alpha evangelistic group, in English. In this way we hoped to do something we were good at- English -and combine it with the Gospel. (The attempt was technically successful, but actually the people who came were already believers, which sort of defeated the purpose...)

Anyway, it was at this time that I got a response from a man who was very excited to think that someone would take an interest in him and could show him to a church where they could help him find a job. I wrote back right away explaining that the church could help, but that didn't mean that they could get him a job.

He wrote back right away to say, "Well, what's the use then?"

So I wrote back right away again and said that there was more to life than just a job and not to be discouraged if I couldn't promise him that a local church could help him.

I was to find out later that this guy was Sasha. We'll tell you more of his story next time...

Thursday, March 18, 2010

93 days

Today, (March 19...the day Vitya and his family and friends come over) is the first day Deutschbahn- the German railroad company -will allow us to buy tickets from Frankfurt, Germany, down to Kandern, Germany, where Parker goes to school. We will be on our way to Parker's graduation, and then continue on our way to the US for a year.

Wow, our lives as parents of kids in missionary boarding school ends with Parker's graduation on June 11th. Where did all those years go?

Anyway, 93 days from now (June 18th) we are scheduled to land in Eugene, Oregon. We've been in Kiev nearly 1 1/2 years now...where did THAT time go?

Actually we're thankful that, though the time has been short, way too short in fact, we've made tons of friends and through those friends are connected to other friends and we keep praying and telling the story of Jesus and asking God to do something in the lives of these people.

Tonight Sasha will come over to be with us and Vitya, et.al. I'm going to take time in future blogs to tell you of our relationship with him and how God has used some simple discipleship to encourage Sasha and then he has used Sasha to bring 8 people to faith in Christ.

Anyway, thanks to those of you who have/are praying for our dinner tonight. We'll keep you posted on the results.

AND, more news: on Sunday members of the Sauna Team will be coming over for dinner. We recently spent some time skiing with these three couples and so my personal hero, my wife, wanted to invite them over for dinner. They'll come for dinner at 6pm...but before that Sasha will be here for more discipleship...and before that, a Ukrainian couple will be here for lunch to talk about the potential for working together with us in church-planting.

Yep, all on one Sunday.
And Kim will be working to be hostess to all of them.

You see why my wife is a personal missionary hero for me. Please pray for her this weekend.

Jerry

Monday, March 15, 2010

More work

Hi,
Our last post was about the people you could help us minister to by praying for them.

Here's a quick update:
We have a new friend, Sasha, who is a very gifted personal evangelist. We want to connect him with some more friends, Vitalic (a 5th year medical student) and his parents and two of their friends. They are coming for dinner on Friday, March 19th.

Please pray for our time together.
Thanks
Jerry and Kim

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Work


HI All,

I'm sort of in a revival of updating the blog. I had, what I'm SURE you'll agree is a great idea: a prayer list.

What follows is a partial list of the people that we have regular contact with and for whom we need your prayers. All of these are open to spiritual themes and discussions but we seem stuck in the discussion phase...


Anyway, so you don't overload I'll give you ten names and a little about these people so you can join us in our work by your prayers:


Yura and Luda Serikov- The orignial Sauna Guy, Yura has become a good friend. Once when we were all together and 'God' came up (as he often does when we're hanging out) Luda told the story of a life after life experience she had while undergoing an appendix operation. I would say the Serikovs are willing to be convinced that there is a God and that he loves them. Pray for their eyes to be opened; for steady construction work for Yura who's dealing with the weak economy; for recovery from a minor operation for Luda. (Yura is in the picture on the left- This was taken recently when I went skiing with him and Volodya Tikomirov.)


Volodya Kompanyets and Volodya Tikomirov(in the picture on the right) these are two more of the Sauna Guys- The first Vova is a jet aircraft engine mechanic and sharp, sharp. He's an 'orthodox' believer, which means he can live however he wants as long as he calls himself 'Orthodox'.
The second Vova is an electronics repairman and is sharp, sharp. He doesn't know what he is, religioulsly speaking, but has expressed a desire to know what God wants from him and to live right.
Pray that these guys get more and more hungry...


Ilya G- It's funny we don't know his last name. Ilya is a professor at the University where we teach English and we've known him for a year. We have wide ranging spiritual discussions by email and we see each other from time to time at the U. He has a lot of arguments against Christianity: "If Jesus is real why do Christians kill other people?" I think he means things like war. Anyway, he's a new father and I think, humanly speaking, if God works in his life it will be through his needs as a father and husband. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to reason him into repentance.


Galina and Enver- Our two oldest friends in Kiev, they live one floor above us. Galina is an avid reader of Christian books we give her and she also shares them with others. Getting from avid reader to the assurance of salvation is really our prayer for her. Enver is a Georgian who credits Stalin with bringing order to Soviet society. He smiles a smile that says, "You poor, naive person" whenever I bring up life after death. He's in his 70s so he thinks about dying, he just wants to avoid any topic that might suggest a Judgement Day.


Pasha and Halya- These two ladies we met on the street selling potatoes and cottage cheese when we first got here. We have great relationships with them. They've read verses from the Bible and other books but we are clueless as to how to take this to a higher level. These two ladies are 'salt of the earth' quality and we would just like them to experience true joy in Christ.


...and last? Sasha the van driver and (11th) Vitalic the taxi driver. Two guys who we've really been blessed to know because we can trust them completely with guests coming and going. We've talked with both about Christ and Vitalic, at least, is open. Sasha is just a great guy but smiles that same, you-poor-naive-person smile as Enver.

We are confident that these guys have good hearts and that God could really work there.


Well, thanks for reading along and praying for even one of these people.

Until next time

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Fish


Had an exciting meal a few days back-a baked carp. Um, unforgettably forgetable.
The issue, apart from the fact that it was a Carp, was that it hadn't baked long enough and was a little raw-ish towards the back bone. Anyway, I'll eat more carp if it's served to me but I can't see Carp-shore-lunch ever making my Top Ten list.

But it does lead me to digress a little, bear with me...
'Fish' is such an easy word in English.
For instance: Fish- the noun; Fish- the adjective; Fish!- the imperative; to Fish- the verb; Fishy- the adverb

Without boring you with a Slavic grammar lesson I can tell you that fishing is not such an easy thing to, uh, tackle in the other languages. However, the actual task of fishing is exactly the same no matter the language.
But that makes perfect sense, right? Languages, by definition, are different ways of describing experience but the experiences themselves are often identical.

And if the fishing experience is the same so are the fishermen! There is a Far Side cartoon that shows two fishermen in a boat. In the background, presumbly over their own homes, mushroom clouds from nuclear explosions are rising into the air. Their response? Something about how what this really means is that there are no longer any fishing limits. Perfect. Gary Larson must be a fisherman. I know Russians and Ukrainians who would also get a good laugh out of that cartoon.

There is something about fishing that gets in your blood and makes you ask: "How can I catch more?" and "How can I catch better?" And the biggie: "Are there any loopholes in the law, in the absence of the thermo-nuclear destruction of the very foundations of society, which say I can catch all the fish I want?"

So here's the good thing about my job: I can fish by any method I want and there are no limits either to size, or type, or number.
Sauna evangelism? Perfect.
Sports night evangelism? Perfecter.
Inviting people over to watch World Cup Alpine Ski Races? Pure Heaven.
Trying new types of food with unbeliever-friends? Absolutely, even half-cooked Carp.

This kind of fishing is open to all- to us here 'on the mission field' (we're really all 'on the field') and to you 'at home' (Home for true believers is where ever God is.)

And remember this: When Jesus said, "Follow me and you will be fishers of men" he wasn't offering a distraction from the fun of fishing for fish. Instead he was offering a life that made regular fishing pale by comparison.

This is what we find in our work here, it's exciting; probably on par with the guy who goes fishing for Great White Sharks and uses himself for bait...Whatever else you might think about someone like that you'd never think they were bored.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Meat

Hi,
(Wow, it's good to see that Kim is keeping up the blog...I forgot we had one)

The other day- it was either in the sauna with the guys or at sports night with the other guys -when I looked around at all who were gathered and thought "How do I really communicate the gospel to these men who grew up hearing there is no God, but now sort of believe that there is a God, but that He has nothing relevant to say to their daily lives?"

It was right then that I understood that whole exchange between Jesus and his disciples: They were one time trying to get him to eat but he said, "I have meat you don't know about". This confused them: "What's he doing, packing his own lunch? Did we do something wrong and now he's mad?"

Jesus waved off their silly speculating and said, "My meat is to do the will of Him who sent me".

I understood that he meant that the energy and motivation and drive that he needed to do the ministry didn't come from physical food, instead it was derived from the very intensity of the work he was engaged in. Put succinctly, he was energized by his passion to bring the truth of God's love and his coming kindom to those who 'labored and were heavy laden'.

Meat. It feels good to have that kind of passion; it feels right. It doesn't answer the 'how do I do it?' question but I can tell it's the right place to begin to look for the answer to that question.

The task then, is not about methods and plans and...whatever. Instead it's about letting that passion take me where it will: to sports and the sauna and the university and finding God's plan in those places.

Sunday, January 31, 2010

heavy heart

My heart is heavy.
Last night and all day today, I have been thinking about a conversation from the evening before.


My heart is heavy.
Our friend opened up and told me about his spiritual beliefs. We will get together again soon and continue this conversation.


My heart is heavy.
I am reminded how desperately we need prayer and I am reminded why we are here.
Romans 10:14
"How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to tell them?"

We need your prayers every day.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Home

Our daughter just wrote that she was homesick. And that made me think about our life and what that means.

Homesick
Where is home?
What is home?

What does she mean by that? Is she missing us, her family? Missing our life over here on this side of the world? Does she miss her friends? Those who know her well? and understand her best? Does she miss her high school? Places that are familiar and predictable?

If she is like me, it must be a part of all of those things. Ours is a life of always missing where you are not at the time, missing those who are not with you at the time.

Where is home? Home always seems to be the place you are not. Right now, home is here in Kiev. In a little over 4 months, it will be where we are all living, in Oregon, but then we will miss our life over here. I grew up in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Jerry grew up in California and Wyoming. Our kids were born in Wyoming, went to school in Germany and lived in Russia. All of our worldly belongings are in northern Minnesota and our girls live in Oregon. Where is home? Where are we from? It all depends on what you are asking.

What is home? Home is that place where you can go and just be. You feel safe there, loved there and accepted for who you are. It is with us, it is at school, at the dorm, with family, with friends.
Home is where your parents are, and then you begin to make your own home as you grow up and make your own family. It seems that home constantly changes throughout our lives.

I loved having our son and daughter home with us for the holidays. They are back at home now. It is too quiet and empty. I look forward to this summer, when we are all together, all of us. We will be home together...whatever that means.

Friday, January 1, 2010

New Year's fireworks 2010

a sample of the fireworks at midnight Kiev, Ukraine

1 January 2010


Happy New Year! 2010!!!


It is 1 January 2010...It has bee a year, some of it good, some of it tough...


Our kids, Beki and Parker, are home with us for Christmas vacation and it has been so good reconnecting as a family. We have enjoyed introducing our kids to many of our friends here.


I am including some photos of these times.


May you have a blessed year in 2010!

a friend Ellen and her daughter
Our neighbor, Galina giving us a beautiful tort that she made for our New Year's celebration

January 1, 2010


Our university friends, Ira and Victor over for an evening of English and cookies.