Recent news/travel plans
Life is continuing, we are acclimating, and the weather is warming. I will be preaching in the Russian service this week – in Russian. It will be a sort of new beginning for the church here. I have asked the members to simply lift up Christ and He promises to draw all men unto himself.
Every morning, Anita, the girls, and I begin our day by reading Proverbs together and spending time in prayer. Today we read the 6th chapter and those famous verses about what the Lord hates – a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, an heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among the brethren. Lord help us. We really experienced this in Belarus, in our own lives and in the lives of other Christians and missionaries. How strange to think that people who have sold all and left all to serve God in a foreign country would have problems with pride and insecurity! How unfortunate that in the world of ministry and serving Christ, often our greatest enemy is ourselves and other Christians! We have suffered from this fleshly, devilish, sinful condition. It is truly the poison of ministry. We pray that God will protect us from ourselves, and clothe us with His humility, His servant attitude, His love for others whom He loved so much He died for them. He must increase, I must decrease!
Yesterday I bought train tickets to Kiev. We will all travel there next week to visit the US embassy so Anita and I can renew our passports. We will apply for five year visas, and our passports expire next March. They won’t issue visas for any time past the expiration of your passport, so we must renew them. We did this in Minsk for the girl’s and Josh’s passport. So we will leave Monday evening for a 15-16 hour ride to Kiev, arriving there Tuesday morning. We will spend Tuesday night in Kiev, then get on another train back to Simferopol Wednesday evening, arriving Thursday morning. It should be fun travelling together. It seems like a long ride, but this type of travel is quite typical in this part of the world.
The girls and I went to town a few days ago. Here is a picture of them in the center of town with a statue of comrade Lenin. It was a beautiful day – almost Springlike!
