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

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.

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.