Three days of being 29 left...but its only another day older really, so I'm honestly not bothered.
It has given me a great reason to write again though and reflect (in a good, what-has-God-done-in-me type of way).
Something I mentioned in the first part, was something I called, in the spare of the moment, Dating God's Way. I guess it isn't really quite that, in that it's no Bible study but what I was referring to was how God worked in me in this area. If its a model to others, I don't know. I hope it's an ideal for many though, and it would be wonderful if one day my children were to follow the same path. I know I will need a lot of grace if they don't....but God's got plenty to help me with!
You see, largely through how God made me, I grew up quite clear on things. School was for learning, youth was playing (though I now see in adulthood its also vital), church life for growing in God.
I'm a black-and-white thinking person. I really have no grey. Honestly. So within this thinking, there came a natural (maybe God given?) decision to only 'go out' with the girl that I was to marry. Other than that, I couldn't (still can't) see the point. Is there a point? Ask anyone who has ended a long relationship (or short one) and they tell you of hurt, anger, bitterness.
No thanks!
"But", I hear you say. "How will you ever know who's right if you don't 'play the field'?" Or "Isn't that a little narrow minded thinking, avoiding hurt and therefore staying single?"
Well, all I can say is that in my life these questions aren't relevant.
You don't, for example, need to go to a banquet with 1000's of puddings and need to taste everyone in order to know which one you like best - you look around, and there you see it! Why would you want anything less perfect!
So for someone, that when he turned 21 had never had a girl friend, nor even kissed a girl, you'd imagine my chances of 'finding love' were limited. Because, of course, doesn't all this experience of 'playing the field' make you better suited next time around to really find the partner for you? How would a novice ever start at 21!
Well, within my later teenage years, I also knew this feeling inside that God had placed, that confirmed within me that I would get married in my early 20's. I knew it. Fact. Total. It was there and I hadn't put it there.
And because I had no 'experience' in dating that could humanly back up such a conviction, it must only have therefore been God.
The closest I seemed to get as my teens turned into my twenties was that I 'enquired of God' about two women who I wondered if they might in fact be 'wife' potential. They were indeed wife potential, but for different men, praise God. I had not told either of them of my thinking, the conviction just wasn't that strong!
And yet, just after my 21st birthday and only a matter of weeks into the Frontier Year Project, there was this girl that seemed to appear. Her name was Rachel. We started writing to each other (we were based at churches about 200 miles apart from each other) and within about 3 months it was clear that things we changing.
I remember, with Rachel aware of my conviction about only going out with someone I'd marry, writing in a letter that we were now 'going out' and therefore it was effectively a proposal.
Two weeks after my 22nd birthday, we were married. In my early twenties. Just like God had said.
This, the guy that had no 'experience' with girls. But, married nearly 8 years now, what's the issue?
How many teens and twenties say to people "I love you" to people they'll never marry. How many of them actually know what love is?
Praise God that I've only said those words to the woman I've married - all glory to God for that, it wasn't my doing at all.
So, is this God's way? Is it Biblical.
Clearly, this is what God did for me. As a model I highly recommend it. Get on with life, get stuck into the things of God, and leave your marriage partner up to God - He'll tell you who they are, in time.
I used to pray for my 'wife' from as young as 19. I remember it clearly. I recommend that as well. Because, and though it does happen, for anyone that age, it is true that their future husband or wife is 'out' there somewhere, alive, living and as yet unaware of you. But still to pray God's blessing over them, to ask God to protect them and direct them. Very healthy things to pray!
I don't want to speak for God though. This is the story of what God did with me. I can obviously recommend it. As a principle I think it's healthy.
And not only with relationships. God knows the desires of your heart - give these things up to him, and all things are possible. They really are.
I'll close this entry. I thank you God for my darling wife of nearly 8 years. Thank you that I trusted you in this. You know it wasn't easy for me at times - far from it. But you helped me through the tears and have done something great, for your glory. So thank you God! Amen.
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Saturday, August 15, 2009
Monday, August 10, 2009
Reflections on 30 Years - Part 2
As I continue to reflect on these last 30 years that have formed my life up to this point, I write this second section back in the country that God has sent us to, having started this series in England.
My blog, which I first started on Windows Spaces and then had to change to this one on arrival in Russia last summer, was always called 'Hearing My Heart' for a reason, because I wanted it to be a place where my true self is voiced. And therefore, by reflecting on the events that have made my life so far, as I approach my 30th birthday next week, maybe this series more than anything will really voice my heart - the things that have formed me, the moments that have shaped me, the struggles that have stretched me and the times that have surprised me.
I've had many times (and more so recently than in earlier life) where I've spoken at the front in meetings, both within churches and at other places. If I've shown confidence in what I've said, it will have been because I would have believed in what I was sharing.
I'm told, in these moments, I appear to be confident, cool, collected....as always, appearances ARE deceptive. Within these times, outside of bringing something directly that I know God has spoken to me in the form of a prophecy, I feel very vulnerable. Within a leadership role, I hated opening up the Sunday morning meeting, the anchor role. Horrible! Yes, maybe it seemed I could do it - but inside I was dreading it. I honestly don't think it's within my gift mix anyway. I'm far happier bringing a prophetic word or even tying together a number of words that have been brought at that meeting. I feel on safer ground there. But to open things...!
But I bet most people wouldn't even have known that of me. Which is probably why no one said "Well done Tim, you did well with that" to me after such events, clearly assuming I didn't need to know something I knew myself. And yet, I didn't know.
Then again, maybe they didn't think I did a good job and that's why no one said anything.....
And there the thoughts start! Where they come from, I'm not sure. But that has been my thinking for too many years. Having not heard encouragement, my natural (maybe everyone is the same?) mind assumes that its because I've done something not quite so well - so I try harder.
I do realise that it started for me in youth. I don't remember hearing many 'well done's' and so developed a perfectionist streak that I'm now aware of, though still working through! By not being praised for the things I did well, even a gentle encouragement, I assumed I was in fact doing things wrong and therefore must try harder, must work harder, in order to gain some encouragement in the future...which then, didn't come either. And so the cycle starts again.
One thing I've tried hard to learn from this is that I've always said I want to be an encourager. I love encouraging people and see (from first hand) the power that comes from such a simple phrase as "Well done, you did great - I really liked it when you..."
I've said it for some time that encouragement is one of the most under-used gifts around, including within the church. I also see it as an underlying, foundational gift - an essential gift. Yes, there are 'bigger' gifts - evangelist, preacher...but without hearing encouragement in the gift the person is using, how will they ever grow within that gift.
No, encouragement IS the releasing gifts for all these other bigger gifts to flourish. And the Bible tells us to 'encourage one-another daily' so I think it agrees about the vital role that encouragement plays within our growth.
So I encourage you to tell those people around you that they are doing well - maybe they need to hear it as well. Even if they are just doing the same thing they've done a hundred times.
Encourage, encourage, encourage...!
My blog, which I first started on Windows Spaces and then had to change to this one on arrival in Russia last summer, was always called 'Hearing My Heart' for a reason, because I wanted it to be a place where my true self is voiced. And therefore, by reflecting on the events that have made my life so far, as I approach my 30th birthday next week, maybe this series more than anything will really voice my heart - the things that have formed me, the moments that have shaped me, the struggles that have stretched me and the times that have surprised me.
I've had many times (and more so recently than in earlier life) where I've spoken at the front in meetings, both within churches and at other places. If I've shown confidence in what I've said, it will have been because I would have believed in what I was sharing.
I'm told, in these moments, I appear to be confident, cool, collected....as always, appearances ARE deceptive. Within these times, outside of bringing something directly that I know God has spoken to me in the form of a prophecy, I feel very vulnerable. Within a leadership role, I hated opening up the Sunday morning meeting, the anchor role. Horrible! Yes, maybe it seemed I could do it - but inside I was dreading it. I honestly don't think it's within my gift mix anyway. I'm far happier bringing a prophetic word or even tying together a number of words that have been brought at that meeting. I feel on safer ground there. But to open things...!
But I bet most people wouldn't even have known that of me. Which is probably why no one said "Well done Tim, you did well with that" to me after such events, clearly assuming I didn't need to know something I knew myself. And yet, I didn't know.
Then again, maybe they didn't think I did a good job and that's why no one said anything.....
And there the thoughts start! Where they come from, I'm not sure. But that has been my thinking for too many years. Having not heard encouragement, my natural (maybe everyone is the same?) mind assumes that its because I've done something not quite so well - so I try harder.
I do realise that it started for me in youth. I don't remember hearing many 'well done's' and so developed a perfectionist streak that I'm now aware of, though still working through! By not being praised for the things I did well, even a gentle encouragement, I assumed I was in fact doing things wrong and therefore must try harder, must work harder, in order to gain some encouragement in the future...which then, didn't come either. And so the cycle starts again.
One thing I've tried hard to learn from this is that I've always said I want to be an encourager. I love encouraging people and see (from first hand) the power that comes from such a simple phrase as "Well done, you did great - I really liked it when you..."
I've said it for some time that encouragement is one of the most under-used gifts around, including within the church. I also see it as an underlying, foundational gift - an essential gift. Yes, there are 'bigger' gifts - evangelist, preacher...but without hearing encouragement in the gift the person is using, how will they ever grow within that gift.
No, encouragement IS the releasing gifts for all these other bigger gifts to flourish. And the Bible tells us to 'encourage one-another daily' so I think it agrees about the vital role that encouragement plays within our growth.
So I encourage you to tell those people around you that they are doing well - maybe they need to hear it as well. Even if they are just doing the same thing they've done a hundred times.
Encourage, encourage, encourage...!
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Reflections on 30 Years - Part 1
These posts are for me. Firstly, I doubt many others actually read them (I'm just not that famous, nor do I want to be), but also what I go on to write in a series looking at by soon-to-be 30 years of existence on planet Earth, I expect to be very open, very personal, as I touch some of the things that have made me - well, me!
In some ways its quite an unspectacular life, in other ways its far from normal.
To have thought that after 30 years I'd be living in Russia, written a novel, married for 8 years with a 4 year old daughter. All these things seem to relate to things that have happened in the last parts of my life, and I guess being my adult life, that's quite understandable.
But things did start a long time before that. I've had now 25 years as a Christian. I still remember the moment when I stood at the bottom of the stairs and accepted Jesus as my personal God. And I really haven't had any period's where I've gone against that decision, in fact, I know I've grown from that moment on, each year learning more of the personal, radical walk with God. I've seen God do some amazing things over these 25 years. I'm not talking about just things in the Bible, or what others say, but things right in front of my eyes, even within my own body - miracles that time and time again prove the life, and power, that exists only in Jesus Christ!
Within my Christian walk, I know God has been close to me throughout my life, almost protecting me from the world, it seems. How I made it through so many situations without the all to common 'back-sliding' period which seems so much part of the course now days, only God knows! (And He does).
I don't know the answer to that question? I am no more special than the next person. I don't for one minute think that God gave me any special grace. I've just seen enough things to know that God is real - and if He's real, I must take him seriously. And if you take Him seriously, he'll take you seriously. And that's all that's happened. It's been great to know what God has done and will continue to do.
I'm also someone that doesn't do things by half. You can't half walk a life with God, if indeed you think that he is real. If he's real, you either need to oppose him (not advised if you actually know how powerful he is) or give your all for him. So when he's spoken to me, I've obeyed. Again, not because I'm more able or better equipped - far from it! But because if God says so then it'll all be OK. And it has. Every, single time! Without question. Without any grey areas. 100%, God does exactly what he says he'll do.
My roots were in the South East, in Kent. A normal family upbringing, two parents with two siblings, one older (my Sister) and a younger brother. Things did get complicated on that front over the years, but maybe more on that later.
But after working in London, God said the nations and first stop was Manchester. Manchester was to be the first stop on my way to Russia, though there would be an eight year growth first that would see me blessed, matured and more ready than ever for such a big move abroad. But during that time, as with the move itself, it taught me the value on taking God seriously and trusting him. Our home in Manchester saw me meeting Rachel (no small thing), married for seven years and with a wonderful, amazing daughter Mia, soon to be 4. Plus loads of others things! How blessed am I. All possible, or more correctly, ONLY possible because I dared to believe God when he said go to Russia - via Manchester.
And again, having obeyed God to go once again to Russia, like we did last summer, even after a year I know I am more blessed. One example, not even mentioning the life skills we've gained, is that my novel has emerged from this year, something that I'm positive would not have been written by now, if ever, had I not gone. And while I'm sure it wasn't the only reason why I was to go to Russia, it just shows that God is a God of blessing. He loves it. It's his nature. And that's just one of the things I love about God.
But far from thinking my life has been a walk in the rose's, there have been plenty of dark patches in my walk over these last 30 years, times of real soul searching and many tears. Times when I thought the way through was one way, to realise it wasn't. Times of hurt within leadership, in self image. I'm well aware that I carry many thorns in my flesh that I still walk with. I'm far from perfect - more of a work in progress. I'm sure as this series (I'm assuming there will be a Part 2 at this point!) progresses, some of these things will come out. From God in my working life, and the colourful jobs I've done, to God in my love life and how He found my wife. From my inner struggles that I guess no one ever sees (or even thinks) to outer struggles.
I'm sure deep down we are all the same. We all need loving. We all need encouragement. And if in any area you feel a lack, you either copy it or over compensate. But people are different in how they show emotions and express things. I'm an internal guy. Things might seem OK. I might even look confident, but generally I'm not. It doesn't feel my nature. I do not enjoy being in a room with a lot of people I don't know. I need my own time and space, within reason, of course.
This last year I've known earthly 'loneliness' like I haven't seen before. Being in Russia, and not having people around me to talk to, not having friends around and then not hearing from people, it was very hard at times. And in all we were communicating quite well throughout, sending group messages on facebook to 150+ people at a time, to hear nothing, or very little back. I guess in reality, a draw back of good communication, is that people are informed and therefore don't need to email us to ask how its going. But I'm getting better on that front now...I hope. I still will no doubt check email about 20 times a day...Russia's just one of those places that makes you do it. But we are growing a base on the ground in Russia, a friendship circle that helps.
But enough on that. And maybe enough on this entry already.
Things to come up in future entries - Dating God's Way. And much more.
Thanks God for 30 years of blessing. As I finish this first third of my life, please do what ever you want with me this next thirty years and help me when I get it wrong. Send me as you see fit. You know my desires, my hopes, my dreams. They are yours too. Have your way, mighty wonderful God. Thank you so much for all that you have done. You're amazing!
In some ways its quite an unspectacular life, in other ways its far from normal.
To have thought that after 30 years I'd be living in Russia, written a novel, married for 8 years with a 4 year old daughter. All these things seem to relate to things that have happened in the last parts of my life, and I guess being my adult life, that's quite understandable.
But things did start a long time before that. I've had now 25 years as a Christian. I still remember the moment when I stood at the bottom of the stairs and accepted Jesus as my personal God. And I really haven't had any period's where I've gone against that decision, in fact, I know I've grown from that moment on, each year learning more of the personal, radical walk with God. I've seen God do some amazing things over these 25 years. I'm not talking about just things in the Bible, or what others say, but things right in front of my eyes, even within my own body - miracles that time and time again prove the life, and power, that exists only in Jesus Christ!
Within my Christian walk, I know God has been close to me throughout my life, almost protecting me from the world, it seems. How I made it through so many situations without the all to common 'back-sliding' period which seems so much part of the course now days, only God knows! (And He does).
I don't know the answer to that question? I am no more special than the next person. I don't for one minute think that God gave me any special grace. I've just seen enough things to know that God is real - and if He's real, I must take him seriously. And if you take Him seriously, he'll take you seriously. And that's all that's happened. It's been great to know what God has done and will continue to do.
I'm also someone that doesn't do things by half. You can't half walk a life with God, if indeed you think that he is real. If he's real, you either need to oppose him (not advised if you actually know how powerful he is) or give your all for him. So when he's spoken to me, I've obeyed. Again, not because I'm more able or better equipped - far from it! But because if God says so then it'll all be OK. And it has. Every, single time! Without question. Without any grey areas. 100%, God does exactly what he says he'll do.
My roots were in the South East, in Kent. A normal family upbringing, two parents with two siblings, one older (my Sister) and a younger brother. Things did get complicated on that front over the years, but maybe more on that later.
But after working in London, God said the nations and first stop was Manchester. Manchester was to be the first stop on my way to Russia, though there would be an eight year growth first that would see me blessed, matured and more ready than ever for such a big move abroad. But during that time, as with the move itself, it taught me the value on taking God seriously and trusting him. Our home in Manchester saw me meeting Rachel (no small thing), married for seven years and with a wonderful, amazing daughter Mia, soon to be 4. Plus loads of others things! How blessed am I. All possible, or more correctly, ONLY possible because I dared to believe God when he said go to Russia - via Manchester.
And again, having obeyed God to go once again to Russia, like we did last summer, even after a year I know I am more blessed. One example, not even mentioning the life skills we've gained, is that my novel has emerged from this year, something that I'm positive would not have been written by now, if ever, had I not gone. And while I'm sure it wasn't the only reason why I was to go to Russia, it just shows that God is a God of blessing. He loves it. It's his nature. And that's just one of the things I love about God.
But far from thinking my life has been a walk in the rose's, there have been plenty of dark patches in my walk over these last 30 years, times of real soul searching and many tears. Times when I thought the way through was one way, to realise it wasn't. Times of hurt within leadership, in self image. I'm well aware that I carry many thorns in my flesh that I still walk with. I'm far from perfect - more of a work in progress. I'm sure as this series (I'm assuming there will be a Part 2 at this point!) progresses, some of these things will come out. From God in my working life, and the colourful jobs I've done, to God in my love life and how He found my wife. From my inner struggles that I guess no one ever sees (or even thinks) to outer struggles.
I'm sure deep down we are all the same. We all need loving. We all need encouragement. And if in any area you feel a lack, you either copy it or over compensate. But people are different in how they show emotions and express things. I'm an internal guy. Things might seem OK. I might even look confident, but generally I'm not. It doesn't feel my nature. I do not enjoy being in a room with a lot of people I don't know. I need my own time and space, within reason, of course.
This last year I've known earthly 'loneliness' like I haven't seen before. Being in Russia, and not having people around me to talk to, not having friends around and then not hearing from people, it was very hard at times. And in all we were communicating quite well throughout, sending group messages on facebook to 150+ people at a time, to hear nothing, or very little back. I guess in reality, a draw back of good communication, is that people are informed and therefore don't need to email us to ask how its going. But I'm getting better on that front now...I hope. I still will no doubt check email about 20 times a day...Russia's just one of those places that makes you do it. But we are growing a base on the ground in Russia, a friendship circle that helps.
But enough on that. And maybe enough on this entry already.
Things to come up in future entries - Dating God's Way. And much more.
Thanks God for 30 years of blessing. As I finish this first third of my life, please do what ever you want with me this next thirty years and help me when I get it wrong. Send me as you see fit. You know my desires, my hopes, my dreams. They are yours too. Have your way, mighty wonderful God. Thank you so much for all that you have done. You're amazing!
Friday, July 24, 2009
Adventures of Faith - Part 5 - One Year On
And so I come to writing this Part 5 of the AoF series which I started last summer, accounting for our run-up to Russia and then our first impressions, which formed Part 4 and was finished on the 23rd August 2008.
And the closing words of that entry, which I have just re-read in order to remind myself of the events, really did hit the year on the head for us in relation to what we would experience, what we would learn and how as individuals we would change.
It has been a year of great highs and dark lows. A year of loneliness and new friends. A year that threatened to stretch us more than we were capable and yet God was with us in order to make sure it wasn't more than we could actually bear. It was the year we needed in Russia, an opening of our eye's into such new things, such different ways, where even the smallest of things became a challenge because of where we were now living. It was God's grace and blessing upon us, because while we went through the tough times we were learning new uncharted territories of God's love and kindness.
I've likened the year to that of train tracks - running parallel alongside each other, joined by the railway sleepers. The right hand track represents the greater blessing and richness of our experiences. This year we've moved further down that track. Our lives feel richer, more blessed in so many areas. But it is because of the left hand track, which is hardship, suffering and sacrifice that we have seen the movement down the tracks. You can't have the rewards without the costs. And we wouldn't want to lose the blessings by not going through the lessons. But we are through them. So what were these times of good and not so good;
Well picking up from Part 4, it was indeed just over a week later that our furniture finally caught up with us, arriving on our 7th wedding Anniversary, 1st September. It was wonderful to see everything again, all arriving in one piece, as far as we were aware. Mia, who'd been sleeping on a borrowed mattress on the floor up to that point, was so excited to see her bed again and slept the best she'd done in the month that night, completely out of it and waking recharged for her 3rd birthday, which was the 2nd September. All her presents had been shipped out so for our daughter, who was just excited to have her birthday, the timing was perfect.
It took a few days to get things sorted but the time in our flat, all 4 weeks of it, helped us to really appreciate everything.
September therefore saw things starting to fall into place. Mia's kindergarten started, as did our regular language lessons which were to be the main focus for the year. We still had some nice weather and could visit places while we had the chance. We'd gone to a local Russian speaking church as well by now, "Harvest Church". Over the next three months we would go there most times, though it was a struggle with so little Russian to understand anything that was being said from the front during the preach. Mia also was struggling and wouldn't go out to the children's work on her own so one of us took it in turns to go with her.
The end of September saw the first two months passing, and the time drawing near for our visa extensions, the initial visa being for only three months. This process was therefore started in September, in order to have enough time. Dave & Hannah also had to do this, having arrived 5 days before us, and they needed to be able to register the car they had with them from the UK as well. More on that in a moment.
The most frustrating part of the visa extension was the need for an HIV test, something that both families had had done in the UK but which were not acceptable in Russia. With time pressing, Dave & Hannah found a US hospital that would do them and they were waiting in the car for us, seeing if we would come at that moment in order to rush off and get them done. We couldn't so let them go by themselves (with the children). As it then happened, the visa department would only accept HIV tests done by the state Russian hospital - so we'd all have to have tests done there, but only the adults as there was a separate hospital for the children.
So the four of us went while the kids were in kindergarten to have the tests. It was rather basic, just going in one at a time, our arms just strapped down will the test is made, using needles that aren't new but have just been sterilised (we prayed!) from previous times. I went back later that day to pick up the results - all, thank God, clear!...
The children's hospital at first looked like something out of a 60's Western film set. It was all over-grown, the buildings seemed to be falling down. At one point Mia started running up some old looking stairs, and in alarm Rachel had called to her to come away as it might be dangerous, before Hannah Henson pointed out that this was indeed the building we wanted!
Greeted by nurses in big green masks, the kids just were besides themselves, not helped by the fact that you could hear each of them screaming from down the corridor when it was their turn, making it seem worse for the next ones going.
We came away from there with heavy hearts, troubled by the thought that we'd have to do that at each visa renewal (as it turned out, we didn't, praise God).
This was September and the papers could be submitted for the extensions.
Sadly, also during September, Rachel's Gran, who up to that point had always been in good health, had a heart attack and was taken into hospital. It didn't look good from the out-set. As September drew to a close, it became clear that her Gran wasn't going to recover and the need for Rachel's visa extension became pressing, in order that she could fly back to see her.
Like many things in Russia, we were able to pay a premium in order to fast track Rachel's visa extension so that she had it on the morning of the 1st October and was then on a plane that same day, leaving for Heathrow and then onto Oxford. It was now a race against time in order to see her Gran before she passed away, such was her condition.
And so as the 1st October started, a period of darkness seemed to enter over the whole church plant core team - a period that would last for 12 days.
Rachel arrived at the hospital in Oxford at some point around midnight (bearing in mind Russia time is a further 3 hours on from that). Emotionally drained and tired, she came away from seeing her Gran not knowing how she could get through the next day, when she was due to spend the day by herself with her Gran at the hospital. She knew it was time for her Gran to go and prayed that night as she went to the flat to sleep (the taxi driving off with her case in the boot which took some time to sort out first before she could sleep).
At 8am the next morning, Rachel's mum called to say that her Gran had passed away at 5am that morning - God had been gracious, allowing Rachel to say her goodbye just in time. Rachel was to spend 12 days in England, being there for the funeral as well as helping her parents move into their new house, also in Oxford.
Back in Russia, 2 months to the day we'd arrived, the team was to go through its darkest time yet. By now we were 6 adults, with a Russian couple looking in. Johanna had joined us, an American student doing a year's language program at a St Petersburg university.
Dave, having picked up his kids from kindergarten, had taken Rachel to the airport. Even on the way, someone had run into his car, doing a little damage. But Dave let it pass, because worse still it seemed that something was much worse with his youngest son. Indeed that night and over the next few days, tests were carried out at various hospitals, for all sorts of things from brain damaged to meningitis. All throughout the kindergarten had claimed nothing unusual had happened that morning. We will never quite know. But he had had some fall, which because it had taken so long to realise, for fear that it was something much more serious, he'd developed an infection which was to go onto slow him down for the whole year, on and off.
So for Dave & Hannah, these 12 days saw isolation. Hannah at the hospital with their son, Dave home with the other two.
I was also basically home bound with Mia, taking her to kindergarten and doing the lessons I needed, but these were the only people I saw - and loneliness and insecurities were eating away at me as the initial buzz of arriving in Russia was wearing off and reality was setting in! I even had a night of power cuts to deal with!
Nadia, our Russian team member as well as Johanna also reported after this period, when they too didn't see any of us, that it was a real time of struggle. Little did we know until it was over that the enemy had tried even in the earliest of stages to destroy us before we'd started.
With the first half of October gone and Rachel back in Russia, the dark clouds lifted. We also had Trevor & Gary visit us from Hope Church Orpington & Bromley towards the end of the month - this brought much needed encouragement and a very good opportunity to talk some of our struggles through. It brought an outside perspective and connection that had been sadly missing up to then.
By the end of October all our visa extensions were done, but not in time for Dave's car registration, who, the day before going away on holiday, needed to re-register the car or face losing it. And with the city centre office closed, the only way was at the border! So I joined him, for company, as we headed for the Finnish border on a Thursday evening, in what would be a 12 hour round trip which saw us about 4 minutes in Finland before turning around and coming back. Quite a night!
They were away the first week and we left the day they got back for 10 days, as we'd been advised that getting some winter sun shine before winter kicked in was helpful. It was an OK time but not really our cup of tea, and far from the uneventful rest we needed, indeed at times it only felt more like Russia!
But by the end of November we were all into our routines. The first snows had come, and what a lot of snow! It actually turned out to be the heaviest it would snow all winter, though we weren't to know at the time. It was a Sunday morning and we were walking to the nearest church to meet from our flat, just the other side of the river, but even going that far with an almost horizontal snow blowing into our faces over the exposed bridges, made going any further impossible. The church was an international church, aimed at expats and all in English. It would prove to be a 'home' for us for a while, especially with winter approaching, and this became our regular Sunday venue for the next few months.
The snow also meant that for some reason our TV stopped working. Only when we got it fixed in May did it show that the cables in the hallway were out, and not the roof aerial as we had imagined...what happened there we don't know but it was good to have some Russian TV back when we were at a place to be able to understand a lot more.
Running up to Christmas the church plant had been meeting on a Wednesday night for food together, which was followed by some worship and teaching. With numbers low enough, as we were all just still finding our feet, it suited us up until the New Year break.
New Year could have been tough again, as all the team (other than us) were leaving Russia, but actually it pushed us out to meet people, which we started to do very quickly. Over that holiday we meet up with a family who's daughter went to the same kindergarten as Mia, someone Mia had said was her friend. The mum is a Russian while the dad works in the German consulate. Over time, this seemed to open up a whole world of different people for us to meet, and at first we were unsure but soon sensed the leading of God in it. This mum came to some of the meals we had and we had the couple over for a meal at ours as well later on.
Much of the explosion in numbers that we saw from Jan-June I've covered in my entry "Fishing in the Now Will of God". It seemed everyone we started inviting to our new look Wednesday night meals came, with Saturday evening set up to meet for 'church'.
A momentum was certainly starting to grow, helped by the arrival of David & Scilla Devonish in early February, that saw us hosting two conferences. The first, in middle February, was for church pastors and wives, and saw 130 people attending on the main day. The second conference, located in the city centre, was wider and both served the purpose well, to build relationships and bring teaching.
By May & June, we'd seen numbers growing nicely, an expanding core growing with gifted and lovely people getting more involved, sharing out the workload some more. We were by now feeding 30+ people every Wednesday night, which was no small task.
Personally, firstly through a link with Johanna, we as a family had gone to an orphanage that Johanna had just made contact with, visiting in the February to play with the children in the snow. We were thrilled to have been able to then start going weekly from about early April, and did this right up to returning to England in mid June. It is something that we want to continue doing more of once we return. Rachel also was able to visit an abandoned baby unit that acted as a holding house for children while paperwork got sorted. That too, we hope, is something we can have more of an opening into.
On the weather front, the rains of October and heavy snow of November aside, we found winter to be a wonderful time really, far from the horrors that at first we had feared. The cold was never too cold, nor the dark too dark. But Spring time did hit us unprepared and we actually struggled with it in March and April as it seemed that winter was still around. We've learnt now that flowers do come, just a lot later!
I'm guessing this is reading more like a diary than an account of God's adventure in us, and partly this is down to the fact that I'm trying to cover a years worth of activities in as short a time as possible so as to make this readable! Going one month in Russia you'd have enough material to write a small book.
And speaking of writing, one interesting thing that God seemed to do in me through the year was to touch my creative writing gift, so that by October, I was buzzing with new ideas as well as eager to finish the novel I'd started some three years before. Between October and January, taking only about one morning a week to write, I wrote around 80,000 words and got the first draft finished just into January. I have a separate blog all about this so won't go into any details here, but it does form part of the story to our year, a year of working with God to out work all that he has for us to do. My prayer for my books is that they will earn us the money we need to not only live out here, but to finance so many other things as well. I dream to write for a living...books that will publish and then make great films. Is it just a dream or something that God has breathed upon. It does seem that only by going to Russia have I actually finished the book. Was that God's reason for sending me? Now that's an interesting one.... Or was it just another blessing, another fruit of following the call of God to another place, another nation.
God has been about a good work in us and will continue to be so. There are many things I haven't said, though some of these may be picked up in various other entries over the last year.
And the Adventures don't stop here. We hit the summer with what seemed like a pause in the church plant as we worked through the legalities of working and making sure we were doing things right.
But the trumpet call has sounded. A path into Russia and into St Petersburg has been laid. We've flattened a path for others to follow. We'd made that first step which will make it easier for others, we hope. A call to the nations has been sounded that has seen the nations come to St Petersburg. Students from America and Britain joining us, two South Africans visiting and really connecting, so that we hope they join us when and if God moves them to St Petersburg. There is another family moving up to join us from another part of Russia, and experienced guy who's lived in Russia for 11 years and will be an asset to our team.
And wider still, two Russian couples came over to England for the Brighton conference in July...strong church leaders that are part of much bigger things in the city and where relationships have been really healthy all year.
So its been a year of big things and small things. Major steps and yet tiny things that seem to set us back.
But it really has been an adventure - an adventure that doesn't ever stop, that goes beyond death even - an adventure in the service of our God. Going to places He asks us, doing the things He wants. Being the arms and legs, hands and feet, heart and voice of Christ in these situations. It is an adventure that I want to run with. Taking every possible risk for the God that brings so much assurance.
What things we will see this coming year, I do not know. How God will bring in the finance we need I do not know, but if it is his will for us to be in Russia beyond February, he will bring it in. If it isn't his will, we don't want to be there anyway!
What nations will open up, we can only dream. The borders are not so far away, cities and nations with people that do not know the truth - a truth that is adventure, that is life giving - a truth that sets people free.
So have your way this year Lord - let Your will be done. I thank you for this adventure. I thank you for all the blessings you have lined up for us, just help us learn them through the hard times.
What chapters you have yet to write - what adventures you have stored up for us all.....what a God you are!
I really hope that you have enjoyed this series - please let me know if I've not answered something you really want to know. And let me know about your Adventures too - we're in this together! With love in His mission field......Tim
And the closing words of that entry, which I have just re-read in order to remind myself of the events, really did hit the year on the head for us in relation to what we would experience, what we would learn and how as individuals we would change.
It has been a year of great highs and dark lows. A year of loneliness and new friends. A year that threatened to stretch us more than we were capable and yet God was with us in order to make sure it wasn't more than we could actually bear. It was the year we needed in Russia, an opening of our eye's into such new things, such different ways, where even the smallest of things became a challenge because of where we were now living. It was God's grace and blessing upon us, because while we went through the tough times we were learning new uncharted territories of God's love and kindness.
I've likened the year to that of train tracks - running parallel alongside each other, joined by the railway sleepers. The right hand track represents the greater blessing and richness of our experiences. This year we've moved further down that track. Our lives feel richer, more blessed in so many areas. But it is because of the left hand track, which is hardship, suffering and sacrifice that we have seen the movement down the tracks. You can't have the rewards without the costs. And we wouldn't want to lose the blessings by not going through the lessons. But we are through them. So what were these times of good and not so good;
Well picking up from Part 4, it was indeed just over a week later that our furniture finally caught up with us, arriving on our 7th wedding Anniversary, 1st September. It was wonderful to see everything again, all arriving in one piece, as far as we were aware. Mia, who'd been sleeping on a borrowed mattress on the floor up to that point, was so excited to see her bed again and slept the best she'd done in the month that night, completely out of it and waking recharged for her 3rd birthday, which was the 2nd September. All her presents had been shipped out so for our daughter, who was just excited to have her birthday, the timing was perfect.
It took a few days to get things sorted but the time in our flat, all 4 weeks of it, helped us to really appreciate everything.
September therefore saw things starting to fall into place. Mia's kindergarten started, as did our regular language lessons which were to be the main focus for the year. We still had some nice weather and could visit places while we had the chance. We'd gone to a local Russian speaking church as well by now, "Harvest Church". Over the next three months we would go there most times, though it was a struggle with so little Russian to understand anything that was being said from the front during the preach. Mia also was struggling and wouldn't go out to the children's work on her own so one of us took it in turns to go with her.
The end of September saw the first two months passing, and the time drawing near for our visa extensions, the initial visa being for only three months. This process was therefore started in September, in order to have enough time. Dave & Hannah also had to do this, having arrived 5 days before us, and they needed to be able to register the car they had with them from the UK as well. More on that in a moment.
The most frustrating part of the visa extension was the need for an HIV test, something that both families had had done in the UK but which were not acceptable in Russia. With time pressing, Dave & Hannah found a US hospital that would do them and they were waiting in the car for us, seeing if we would come at that moment in order to rush off and get them done. We couldn't so let them go by themselves (with the children). As it then happened, the visa department would only accept HIV tests done by the state Russian hospital - so we'd all have to have tests done there, but only the adults as there was a separate hospital for the children.
So the four of us went while the kids were in kindergarten to have the tests. It was rather basic, just going in one at a time, our arms just strapped down will the test is made, using needles that aren't new but have just been sterilised (we prayed!) from previous times. I went back later that day to pick up the results - all, thank God, clear!...
The children's hospital at first looked like something out of a 60's Western film set. It was all over-grown, the buildings seemed to be falling down. At one point Mia started running up some old looking stairs, and in alarm Rachel had called to her to come away as it might be dangerous, before Hannah Henson pointed out that this was indeed the building we wanted!
Greeted by nurses in big green masks, the kids just were besides themselves, not helped by the fact that you could hear each of them screaming from down the corridor when it was their turn, making it seem worse for the next ones going.
We came away from there with heavy hearts, troubled by the thought that we'd have to do that at each visa renewal (as it turned out, we didn't, praise God).
This was September and the papers could be submitted for the extensions.
Sadly, also during September, Rachel's Gran, who up to that point had always been in good health, had a heart attack and was taken into hospital. It didn't look good from the out-set. As September drew to a close, it became clear that her Gran wasn't going to recover and the need for Rachel's visa extension became pressing, in order that she could fly back to see her.
Like many things in Russia, we were able to pay a premium in order to fast track Rachel's visa extension so that she had it on the morning of the 1st October and was then on a plane that same day, leaving for Heathrow and then onto Oxford. It was now a race against time in order to see her Gran before she passed away, such was her condition.
And so as the 1st October started, a period of darkness seemed to enter over the whole church plant core team - a period that would last for 12 days.
Rachel arrived at the hospital in Oxford at some point around midnight (bearing in mind Russia time is a further 3 hours on from that). Emotionally drained and tired, she came away from seeing her Gran not knowing how she could get through the next day, when she was due to spend the day by herself with her Gran at the hospital. She knew it was time for her Gran to go and prayed that night as she went to the flat to sleep (the taxi driving off with her case in the boot which took some time to sort out first before she could sleep).
At 8am the next morning, Rachel's mum called to say that her Gran had passed away at 5am that morning - God had been gracious, allowing Rachel to say her goodbye just in time. Rachel was to spend 12 days in England, being there for the funeral as well as helping her parents move into their new house, also in Oxford.
Back in Russia, 2 months to the day we'd arrived, the team was to go through its darkest time yet. By now we were 6 adults, with a Russian couple looking in. Johanna had joined us, an American student doing a year's language program at a St Petersburg university.
Dave, having picked up his kids from kindergarten, had taken Rachel to the airport. Even on the way, someone had run into his car, doing a little damage. But Dave let it pass, because worse still it seemed that something was much worse with his youngest son. Indeed that night and over the next few days, tests were carried out at various hospitals, for all sorts of things from brain damaged to meningitis. All throughout the kindergarten had claimed nothing unusual had happened that morning. We will never quite know. But he had had some fall, which because it had taken so long to realise, for fear that it was something much more serious, he'd developed an infection which was to go onto slow him down for the whole year, on and off.
So for Dave & Hannah, these 12 days saw isolation. Hannah at the hospital with their son, Dave home with the other two.
I was also basically home bound with Mia, taking her to kindergarten and doing the lessons I needed, but these were the only people I saw - and loneliness and insecurities were eating away at me as the initial buzz of arriving in Russia was wearing off and reality was setting in! I even had a night of power cuts to deal with!
Nadia, our Russian team member as well as Johanna also reported after this period, when they too didn't see any of us, that it was a real time of struggle. Little did we know until it was over that the enemy had tried even in the earliest of stages to destroy us before we'd started.
With the first half of October gone and Rachel back in Russia, the dark clouds lifted. We also had Trevor & Gary visit us from Hope Church Orpington & Bromley towards the end of the month - this brought much needed encouragement and a very good opportunity to talk some of our struggles through. It brought an outside perspective and connection that had been sadly missing up to then.
By the end of October all our visa extensions were done, but not in time for Dave's car registration, who, the day before going away on holiday, needed to re-register the car or face losing it. And with the city centre office closed, the only way was at the border! So I joined him, for company, as we headed for the Finnish border on a Thursday evening, in what would be a 12 hour round trip which saw us about 4 minutes in Finland before turning around and coming back. Quite a night!
They were away the first week and we left the day they got back for 10 days, as we'd been advised that getting some winter sun shine before winter kicked in was helpful. It was an OK time but not really our cup of tea, and far from the uneventful rest we needed, indeed at times it only felt more like Russia!
But by the end of November we were all into our routines. The first snows had come, and what a lot of snow! It actually turned out to be the heaviest it would snow all winter, though we weren't to know at the time. It was a Sunday morning and we were walking to the nearest church to meet from our flat, just the other side of the river, but even going that far with an almost horizontal snow blowing into our faces over the exposed bridges, made going any further impossible. The church was an international church, aimed at expats and all in English. It would prove to be a 'home' for us for a while, especially with winter approaching, and this became our regular Sunday venue for the next few months.
The snow also meant that for some reason our TV stopped working. Only when we got it fixed in May did it show that the cables in the hallway were out, and not the roof aerial as we had imagined...what happened there we don't know but it was good to have some Russian TV back when we were at a place to be able to understand a lot more.
Running up to Christmas the church plant had been meeting on a Wednesday night for food together, which was followed by some worship and teaching. With numbers low enough, as we were all just still finding our feet, it suited us up until the New Year break.
New Year could have been tough again, as all the team (other than us) were leaving Russia, but actually it pushed us out to meet people, which we started to do very quickly. Over that holiday we meet up with a family who's daughter went to the same kindergarten as Mia, someone Mia had said was her friend. The mum is a Russian while the dad works in the German consulate. Over time, this seemed to open up a whole world of different people for us to meet, and at first we were unsure but soon sensed the leading of God in it. This mum came to some of the meals we had and we had the couple over for a meal at ours as well later on.
Much of the explosion in numbers that we saw from Jan-June I've covered in my entry "Fishing in the Now Will of God". It seemed everyone we started inviting to our new look Wednesday night meals came, with Saturday evening set up to meet for 'church'.
A momentum was certainly starting to grow, helped by the arrival of David & Scilla Devonish in early February, that saw us hosting two conferences. The first, in middle February, was for church pastors and wives, and saw 130 people attending on the main day. The second conference, located in the city centre, was wider and both served the purpose well, to build relationships and bring teaching.
By May & June, we'd seen numbers growing nicely, an expanding core growing with gifted and lovely people getting more involved, sharing out the workload some more. We were by now feeding 30+ people every Wednesday night, which was no small task.
Personally, firstly through a link with Johanna, we as a family had gone to an orphanage that Johanna had just made contact with, visiting in the February to play with the children in the snow. We were thrilled to have been able to then start going weekly from about early April, and did this right up to returning to England in mid June. It is something that we want to continue doing more of once we return. Rachel also was able to visit an abandoned baby unit that acted as a holding house for children while paperwork got sorted. That too, we hope, is something we can have more of an opening into.
On the weather front, the rains of October and heavy snow of November aside, we found winter to be a wonderful time really, far from the horrors that at first we had feared. The cold was never too cold, nor the dark too dark. But Spring time did hit us unprepared and we actually struggled with it in March and April as it seemed that winter was still around. We've learnt now that flowers do come, just a lot later!
I'm guessing this is reading more like a diary than an account of God's adventure in us, and partly this is down to the fact that I'm trying to cover a years worth of activities in as short a time as possible so as to make this readable! Going one month in Russia you'd have enough material to write a small book.
And speaking of writing, one interesting thing that God seemed to do in me through the year was to touch my creative writing gift, so that by October, I was buzzing with new ideas as well as eager to finish the novel I'd started some three years before. Between October and January, taking only about one morning a week to write, I wrote around 80,000 words and got the first draft finished just into January. I have a separate blog all about this so won't go into any details here, but it does form part of the story to our year, a year of working with God to out work all that he has for us to do. My prayer for my books is that they will earn us the money we need to not only live out here, but to finance so many other things as well. I dream to write for a living...books that will publish and then make great films. Is it just a dream or something that God has breathed upon. It does seem that only by going to Russia have I actually finished the book. Was that God's reason for sending me? Now that's an interesting one.... Or was it just another blessing, another fruit of following the call of God to another place, another nation.
God has been about a good work in us and will continue to be so. There are many things I haven't said, though some of these may be picked up in various other entries over the last year.
And the Adventures don't stop here. We hit the summer with what seemed like a pause in the church plant as we worked through the legalities of working and making sure we were doing things right.
But the trumpet call has sounded. A path into Russia and into St Petersburg has been laid. We've flattened a path for others to follow. We'd made that first step which will make it easier for others, we hope. A call to the nations has been sounded that has seen the nations come to St Petersburg. Students from America and Britain joining us, two South Africans visiting and really connecting, so that we hope they join us when and if God moves them to St Petersburg. There is another family moving up to join us from another part of Russia, and experienced guy who's lived in Russia for 11 years and will be an asset to our team.
And wider still, two Russian couples came over to England for the Brighton conference in July...strong church leaders that are part of much bigger things in the city and where relationships have been really healthy all year.
So its been a year of big things and small things. Major steps and yet tiny things that seem to set us back.
But it really has been an adventure - an adventure that doesn't ever stop, that goes beyond death even - an adventure in the service of our God. Going to places He asks us, doing the things He wants. Being the arms and legs, hands and feet, heart and voice of Christ in these situations. It is an adventure that I want to run with. Taking every possible risk for the God that brings so much assurance.
What things we will see this coming year, I do not know. How God will bring in the finance we need I do not know, but if it is his will for us to be in Russia beyond February, he will bring it in. If it isn't his will, we don't want to be there anyway!
What nations will open up, we can only dream. The borders are not so far away, cities and nations with people that do not know the truth - a truth that is adventure, that is life giving - a truth that sets people free.
So have your way this year Lord - let Your will be done. I thank you for this adventure. I thank you for all the blessings you have lined up for us, just help us learn them through the hard times.
What chapters you have yet to write - what adventures you have stored up for us all.....what a God you are!
I really hope that you have enjoyed this series - please let me know if I've not answered something you really want to know. And let me know about your Adventures too - we're in this together! With love in His mission field......Tim
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Reflections - Nearing One Year in Russia
Though I will more fully write about this last year in Part 5 of the Adventures of Faith series to be written next month, I thought that I would start putting some things down, largely because I realise that I haven't been able to spend too much time writing here.
Inevitably, it seems, with our return back to the UK coming up, I have been reflecting on this year, trying to work out what I've learnt, what we have to share with friends and churches whilst back in the UK - all sorts!
In general, the things we prayed about and prepared for were not as bad as we at first feared. It was the things we weren't aware of that we found hard. For example, the winter was one of the things we 'feared', and therefore prayed for and prepared emotionally for. But it wasn't as cold, or as dark, as we first thought. In fact, winter was a great time, very beautiful. But spring (March 1st onwards) hit us unprepared and the lack of flowers and colours came as a shock. Actually, the flowers do come out in Russia, just a lot later, so that even now in mid June, the tulips are just dying and daffodils are still out.
I guess it was just one of those culture, closed minded things. Because we had only lived in England, and Spring came in March, we thought that there wasn't a Spring in Russia because at the usual time it was still winter like. We are learning in these areas though to stop thinking like English people! Its actually not a bad thing! Living in another country, other than your birth country, is a really usual thing to do and opens your eyes to things that you would just never see by staying put. So praise God for his leading!
And for as dark as the winter got, we have all the light we could ever need now in Summer time, with the sun appearing around 4am and still visible in the distant sky at midnight. The city at 4am is a splendid place to be, so bright, so clear, so quiet. Walking by the river, with the bridges just closing and the skies getting colourful, I had a truly wonderful early morning walk with God.
My daughter is calling me, so I will take that as the time to stop. Be blessed today.
Inevitably, it seems, with our return back to the UK coming up, I have been reflecting on this year, trying to work out what I've learnt, what we have to share with friends and churches whilst back in the UK - all sorts!
In general, the things we prayed about and prepared for were not as bad as we at first feared. It was the things we weren't aware of that we found hard. For example, the winter was one of the things we 'feared', and therefore prayed for and prepared emotionally for. But it wasn't as cold, or as dark, as we first thought. In fact, winter was a great time, very beautiful. But spring (March 1st onwards) hit us unprepared and the lack of flowers and colours came as a shock. Actually, the flowers do come out in Russia, just a lot later, so that even now in mid June, the tulips are just dying and daffodils are still out.
I guess it was just one of those culture, closed minded things. Because we had only lived in England, and Spring came in March, we thought that there wasn't a Spring in Russia because at the usual time it was still winter like. We are learning in these areas though to stop thinking like English people! Its actually not a bad thing! Living in another country, other than your birth country, is a really usual thing to do and opens your eyes to things that you would just never see by staying put. So praise God for his leading!
And for as dark as the winter got, we have all the light we could ever need now in Summer time, with the sun appearing around 4am and still visible in the distant sky at midnight. The city at 4am is a splendid place to be, so bright, so clear, so quiet. Walking by the river, with the bridges just closing and the skies getting colourful, I had a truly wonderful early morning walk with God.
My daughter is calling me, so I will take that as the time to stop. Be blessed today.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Treasure Hunting the Streets of St Petersburg
Today I did my first Treasure Hunt, aided greatly by a Durham student, Philly Udy.
For those that are unaware of what a Treasure Hunt is, its simply seeking God for prophetic words, clues that highlight individuals to which God is wanting to bless. The encounters may lead to prayer, healings, miracles, salvation...all sorts.
There is plenty of info available which further explains the process, so I won't explain any further here, just share what happened!
Having prayed, soaking in the Spirit of God, we took three minutes to write down what we felt God was saying to us, under each of the 5 headings that experience has shown people works better - these are: Location, Name, Appearance, Prayer Need & The Unusual.
Being in Russia we did then have the added complication of making sure our lists were bi-lingual, so then spent some time getting the translation worked out as well as the odd useful Russian phrase!
And then off we went! Maybe the first such hunt in St Petersburg?
The first forty (ish) minutes we spent walking around, based on a few of our clues we felt we had - "Garden", "River", "Grassy Patch", "Flowers".
One of the location pointers took us to a very popular and well known tourist attraction in the city - The Church of Our Saviour of Spilt Blood. Suddenly, having not had anything so far, three pointers came along in the space of 20 seconds. Having walked around the building, potentially heading up past the area, we saw our first clues - "North Face" and "Blue". There was a couple that passed us, the wife in a blue top and the husband in a North Face sweater. It was the first one we'd seen so we turned around and started walking back. Just then, a man in "Camouflage" trousers passed us the other way, not long followed by a man on a bike with a "Blue" "North Face" coat on. What should we do? We felt the man on the bike was a hotter clue so watched to see if he would stop. He did, so we turned back round and went to him. It was quickly clear that he was dropping off some more stock to a number of sellers - and especially "Umbrellas" - he had about 15 of them! The Umbrella clue had been with me all day but I felt it was stupid because it was a rainy day and EVERYONE had an umbrella, but when the three minutes started, I knew I had to write it down.
Now it was clear why. This guy therefore had three pointers, so we knew it was time to speak to him. He told us everything was good....he checked the rest of our lists and said he didn't need anything. So we said God bless, and went on our way encouraged that we had started our hunt, pleased to have heard from God.
Thinking that encounter through, had we not stopped to follow the original couple, we would not have seen the man on the bike....we were learning to go with what God was doing.
We had one further chat with a lady begging, her "Walking Stick" pointing her out though we didn't feel strongly that we were to pray with her there, as she had said she didn't have any problems with her "Legs" so we prayed as we walked away.
But God had already by then shown that He can speak to us in such ways. It was both of our first Treasure Hunts...but it certainly will not be the last.
For those that are unaware of what a Treasure Hunt is, its simply seeking God for prophetic words, clues that highlight individuals to which God is wanting to bless. The encounters may lead to prayer, healings, miracles, salvation...all sorts.
There is plenty of info available which further explains the process, so I won't explain any further here, just share what happened!
Having prayed, soaking in the Spirit of God, we took three minutes to write down what we felt God was saying to us, under each of the 5 headings that experience has shown people works better - these are: Location, Name, Appearance, Prayer Need & The Unusual.
Being in Russia we did then have the added complication of making sure our lists were bi-lingual, so then spent some time getting the translation worked out as well as the odd useful Russian phrase!
And then off we went! Maybe the first such hunt in St Petersburg?
The first forty (ish) minutes we spent walking around, based on a few of our clues we felt we had - "Garden", "River", "Grassy Patch", "Flowers".
One of the location pointers took us to a very popular and well known tourist attraction in the city - The Church of Our Saviour of Spilt Blood. Suddenly, having not had anything so far, three pointers came along in the space of 20 seconds. Having walked around the building, potentially heading up past the area, we saw our first clues - "North Face" and "Blue". There was a couple that passed us, the wife in a blue top and the husband in a North Face sweater. It was the first one we'd seen so we turned around and started walking back. Just then, a man in "Camouflage" trousers passed us the other way, not long followed by a man on a bike with a "Blue" "North Face" coat on. What should we do? We felt the man on the bike was a hotter clue so watched to see if he would stop. He did, so we turned back round and went to him. It was quickly clear that he was dropping off some more stock to a number of sellers - and especially "Umbrellas" - he had about 15 of them! The Umbrella clue had been with me all day but I felt it was stupid because it was a rainy day and EVERYONE had an umbrella, but when the three minutes started, I knew I had to write it down.
Now it was clear why. This guy therefore had three pointers, so we knew it was time to speak to him. He told us everything was good....he checked the rest of our lists and said he didn't need anything. So we said God bless, and went on our way encouraged that we had started our hunt, pleased to have heard from God.
Thinking that encounter through, had we not stopped to follow the original couple, we would not have seen the man on the bike....we were learning to go with what God was doing.
We had one further chat with a lady begging, her "Walking Stick" pointing her out though we didn't feel strongly that we were to pray with her there, as she had said she didn't have any problems with her "Legs" so we prayed as we walked away.
But God had already by then shown that He can speak to us in such ways. It was both of our first Treasure Hunts...but it certainly will not be the last.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Victory Day - Just a Russian holiday?
The 9th of May is a big deal in Russia. It marks the celebration of Russia's victory over Nazi Germany in 1945.
Having just witnessed our first Victory Day celebration here in St Petersburg, I've really started to understand a lot more about what it means to be Russian. No other non Religious holiday is celebrated in quite the same way in Russia, and in terms of a sheer show of strength, no other day compares.
It seems that for all Russians they share in the lose and hardship of all that went on, especially between 1941 and 1945. And understandably so. In St Petersburg, as we came to understand back at the beginning of this year with the 65th Anniversary of the ending of the blockade around the city that saw over one million people starve to death, there can't be any natives here who haven't at first hand come in contact with this suffering, as their parents and grand-parents would have been around then. It's a hard scar to bare and something that needs great celebration at the thought of victory.
Here, and more so in Moscow, military muscles were flexed once more in a show to the world that Russia is still, of course, a major military force.
It's been quite wonderful to have witnessed these things first hand and to generally be amongst the Russians at this time.
It has made me think about the whole 'Victory Day' thing though. Yesterday marked the 64th Anniversary of that great victory in 1945, and yet, since then, there have been many wars, much further suffering, both within Russian and all over the world.
Walking around the streets here in this affluent city, it isn't long before you come face to face with the poor and homeless - the hopeless even.
So what of this victory then? Yes, it was one war and one fierce enemy, that has shaped Russian life, culture and literature ever since. But today, no nation in this world we all share, lives in victory. Generally they live in conflict, with rumours of war, famine or disease never far away.
So has there ever been a true 'Victory'?
Yes - wonderfully, what Jesus acheived on that cross some 2009 years, or so, ago was indeed a victory once and for all. He needs to do nothing more to continue to acheive what was won on that day. There is no less freedom today, so many years later, than on that first day after his resurection. So it really was a true victory, once and for all.
I really enjoyed the fact that I could share in the Russian celebrations, and felt honoured to be here and a part of them. But everything in me also is longing that many here could share in Jesus' Victory, a victory over all sin, death and suffering.
If you want to know more about this victory, please feel free to drop me a line. Be blessed!
Having just witnessed our first Victory Day celebration here in St Petersburg, I've really started to understand a lot more about what it means to be Russian. No other non Religious holiday is celebrated in quite the same way in Russia, and in terms of a sheer show of strength, no other day compares.
It seems that for all Russians they share in the lose and hardship of all that went on, especially between 1941 and 1945. And understandably so. In St Petersburg, as we came to understand back at the beginning of this year with the 65th Anniversary of the ending of the blockade around the city that saw over one million people starve to death, there can't be any natives here who haven't at first hand come in contact with this suffering, as their parents and grand-parents would have been around then. It's a hard scar to bare and something that needs great celebration at the thought of victory.
Here, and more so in Moscow, military muscles were flexed once more in a show to the world that Russia is still, of course, a major military force.
It's been quite wonderful to have witnessed these things first hand and to generally be amongst the Russians at this time.
It has made me think about the whole 'Victory Day' thing though. Yesterday marked the 64th Anniversary of that great victory in 1945, and yet, since then, there have been many wars, much further suffering, both within Russian and all over the world.
Walking around the streets here in this affluent city, it isn't long before you come face to face with the poor and homeless - the hopeless even.
So what of this victory then? Yes, it was one war and one fierce enemy, that has shaped Russian life, culture and literature ever since. But today, no nation in this world we all share, lives in victory. Generally they live in conflict, with rumours of war, famine or disease never far away.
So has there ever been a true 'Victory'?
Yes - wonderfully, what Jesus acheived on that cross some 2009 years, or so, ago was indeed a victory once and for all. He needs to do nothing more to continue to acheive what was won on that day. There is no less freedom today, so many years later, than on that first day after his resurection. So it really was a true victory, once and for all.
I really enjoyed the fact that I could share in the Russian celebrations, and felt honoured to be here and a part of them. But everything in me also is longing that many here could share in Jesus' Victory, a victory over all sin, death and suffering.
If you want to know more about this victory, please feel free to drop me a line. Be blessed!
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