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.

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.

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!

Fishing inside the 'Now Will of God'

Luke 5:4-7

When he (Jesus) had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch."
Simon answered, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets."
When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signalled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.

These are very familiar verses to well read Christians, and yet something of their meaning has not left me since I once again came across them.

Picture the scene - Simon Peter and his friends were experienced, professional fisher men. This is what they did! It was hard, wet and dangerous work. It was long hours. It was their living. Their best efforts that night had seen them working all night and yet they hadn't caught anything. Did they lack ability? Clearly not, but that night they caught nothing.

When Jesus turned up in the proceeding verses (1-3), Simon and his team were already on the shore, cleaning their nets. No doubt tired and down hearted, they still offered help to Jesus when he asked by letting him use the boat to speak to a crowd of people standing on the shore. There was nothing in it for Simon, it seemed. No promise of payment or reward, just a service that he could offer, as the owner of the boat, in allowing Jesus to use it to speak from.

Simon must have liked what he heard, because when Jesus had finished and had turned to Simon suggesting they put out to deep water and lower the nets again (as they had just been doing all night long), the experienced but tired fisherman replied that because it was Jesus that asked, he would listen to him.

Right here I am going to jump into our own situation. My family came to Russia because I heard God tell me too. In England, we had fished for a long time, with very little success, just a few things here and there, it seemed (everything done for God though is rewarded). We didn't feel very able though. We didn't see any abundance so as to break our nets. But having obeyed God and followed him to St Petersburg, without doing anything else, or anything special, now when we've lowered the nets, there is a big catch! Nearly everyone we invite, it seems, is able to come. In England, we invited just as many people, but they wouldn't come. Here they do? And it seems the same for several others within the church plant team.

Having only met for meals on Wednesday nights for two months, we are getting 30 people most weeks...each week anything between 3-10 new people that haven't been before come along. So in two months maybe 60, or more, different people have come through the doors.

What has changed?

Well, at this point I'll tie the two stories together, I hope. In both settings it was clear that human ability alone hadn't done the trick. Both had tried their best but hadn't caught the kind of catch they wanted. And then Jesus spoke. The Authority of God was on the situation. Through obedience, in both settings movement was done to go to where God told them. And once there, doing nothing different to what we had done before (so as to be clear that it was God going the gathering and not 'man') suddenly, there is an abundant catch.

The lesson?

When you are obedient and in the place Jesus had asked you to be, and therefore within the Now Will of God under his authority, you will find that Jesus himself breathes life into your best efforts and it is He that makes them successful - for his glory!

So where is the Now Will of God?

For you, I don't know. But God does! Have you asked him about it lately? And remember, its the Now will of God so that even if you are in a place that God spoke to you about ten years ago, has he said other stuff since to which you have not obeyed? Maybe he hasn't, but what if he has? Would you therefore still be in the most fruitful and blessed place?

I hope you have found this helpful. To God be the glory! (Great things he has done..)

A Growing Church - Update 2

Our budding church plant has this week been involved in a conference that was attended by 50 church pastors looking at what New Frontiers stands for and what we are here doing in the city of St Petersburg!

And to our regular meetings, people continue to come on in. At our last Wednesday night meal we have 33 people in total, which was the most so far by some way. Of this number, something like 10 of them were first time visitors, and there were about the same number who'd been before but were not there then! So the prospect of getting 40 next time is very possible...!

At our last Saturday night, with the same traits as the Wednesday, we had 22 people.

With a meeting again tonight and then a meal again on Wednesday, having missed last week because of the conference, it'll be exciting to see who else comes along.

And this is all still without any advertising - we all just seem to invite people, and they come along!

Mission Realities - A Great Honour

Today in Russia is Men's Day - 23rd February. It's a national holiday and another reason for a good party. I have not learnt fully what it means but it did mean that I got a card and two chocolate bars from my wife and rather excited little three year old this morning.

We also listened yesterday to a Mark Driscoll talk that looked at the importance and great honour of a father to his daughter, about how amazing it is to bring up a Christian women.

So with all this in mind, and my heart already stirred afresh with wanting to do the right thing for my daughter so that I have the best relationship possible with her as she grows up, as well as all the Men's Day stuff in Russia, it just so happened that today was also to be the first visit as a family to an orphanage!

Oh, how privileged I felt by the end of the time. How honoured that God had allowed me the opportunity to serve these little boys and girls, who have no parents, which gives them very little prospects at all.

Was it just chance that these events all coincided? I doubt that very much!

The orphanage that we went to (myself, wife and three year old, joining our friend Johanna) was south of the city, about 8 stops down from our nearest metro station. A toddler group from a UK church had sent two bag fulls of toys and stuff for them so we'd taken them with us, giving them to the director of the home to be distributed as she saw fit. We just pray they get to the children who need them most.

We only had about an hour with the children, mainly because we were playing outside with them in the snow. We'd been told to wait an hour already so this was now two hours in the cold of a Russian February afternoon, and too much for a three year old, though I also was starting to feel cold as well.

The children all seemed genuinely happy to have us - noticeable was the fact that all the female workers (only females...no men around) just stood around outside, 'watching' the children play but not actually playing with them. We can't pass judgement on this as this is the way it is here, even in the private kindergartens. But while there were only about 8 children outside to start, they kept coming and soon there must have been up to 30 of them running around, all various ages and sizes (meant to be from 5 years and up) but some were very small, surely a result of a poor diet. Many of the children's teeth had rotten away, though this didn't detract from the warm smiles that they greeted us with. The boys were all very polite, constantly coming over to me when they first arrived and saying the very official & polite Russian 'hello' to which I was only too happy to return (the less formal, and more friendly version), getting down to their level so as not to scare them!

So I titled this entry as a Great Honour because that is what it was! It wasn't us doing our good bit for the week, or anything equally worthless. It was an honour to be there, to be a daddy to these children, albeit for only an hour, but it was wonderful.

We really pray now that when Johanna checks next week whether we can come back weekly with her, they say yes! Because this isn't a job or just a good work. To give these little ones, even an hour of attention a week, there's no knowing what impact it would have on their lives.

Jesus - I thank you for each of those little children. I thank you that you have a plan and a purpose for them. I thank you that you haven't forgotten about any one of them, and though life circumstances have thrown them into that home, you haven't stopped loving them. Please help them Lord. Please give them all a future that is centred around you.

A Growing Church - Update 1

Having only just written the last entry, its great to be able to say that after the meal we had last night, there were three new faces. A french man that I'd met on Sunday and invited to the meal, as well as two Russian ladies. One is Nadia's housemate, and the other a lady that works for Oleg.

So we hit twelve adults last night, and that with one girl not available. With David & Scilla arriving on Monday and Johanna sure to be around next week, numbers are set to increase even further.

And then we'll have the problem of space....though surely that's a good problem for a church plant, isn't it...!

Blessings, Tim.