August 29, 2012

Day thirty-two, thirty-eight remaining. I haven't blogged for two weeks now. I have been working on reading and learning from S.M. Houghton's Sketches From Church History for our time in Vlad. Over halfway through. Houghton covers fourteen centuries in the first half of his book. So much to learn from twenty centuries of Christ's church...so many important characters from the apostles to the early church fathers to Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Tyndale, Huss, Zwingli, Knox, etc.  How do you do a survey of twenty centuries of the history of Christ's church in twenty hours? I hope to highlight some of the saints in Russia who have played a role in the growth of the church there.

It is amazing the persecution God's saints endured for their faith in His name and Gospel. I am curious to learn of the isolation, hardship, and persecution that Russian believers may have endured in the last several decades. I am not ready to assume that just because Russians have more freedom that Russian believers are free from suffering for the sake of the name. 

Basic goal now is to commit in the next 7-10 days to a scope and sequence structure for the history of the church - then I will switch to my course on Christology, or the study of the Lord Jesus Christ. Honestly I have as much joy and thrill to teach on church history as I do on Christ. After all, isn't history His Story? 

More tomorrow on my approach to Christology....

August 14, 2012

Day seventeen, fifty three remaining. Forgive me while I play with the font size. I haven't posted on this blog for a week. Really grateful for the church's support for the trip. The question remains: How do you maximize $ 2,400 and twenty-eight days in another culture for the advance of the Gospel? What is the value of presence, teaching, encouraging to a people of another culture and language? What is the impact of incarnating the Gospel? What is the benefit to the senders? To those who go (who are sent)? To those who receive us on the other end? How are our lives impacted by those to whom we are sent? I cannot commend too much the brother in Christ who I'm joining as he makes his fifth trip to Vlad. Have you ever thought that only eternity will ultimately reveal the profit of our effort, energy, and labor for the Kingdom? We plant, we water, we till, and maybe we harvest - but mainly we work as faithfully and obediently as we have strength which He provides. And then we trust Him for the results and the fruit. We never graduate beyond the call to live by faith.  "And the government shall be upon His shoulders."

August 7, 2012

Day ten, sixty remaining. Today we received the word that almost $ 2,400 was given for our special offering this past Sunday night. That's so close to the entire total I will need for the trip. Praise Jehovah-Jireh!  I am very thankful for our church's generosity and second step (after the elders' support) for the trip to Vlad. The trip has all the basics of planning, fund-raising, travel arrangements, etc. One brother in Christ from LA has send me a load of Russian language-learning lessons in mp3 format. I've got to get to work! All is set date-wise with a 10/6 departure and 11/3 return from NY to Moscow to Vlad. I must confess that I lacked a basic geographical sense of Moscow's location in far western Russia with Vladivostok's place at the extreme southeastern corner. Though Russia is regarded as a country on the continent of Europe, it is fair to call Vlad in the Eurasian area where China and North Korea are so close.

Next step is visa application, purchase of airline tickets, and constant language learning. Have you ever looked at the Cyrillic alphabet? Not that much different from Greek and English combined with a twist! One happy development is the use of S.M. Houghton's Sketches from Church History. Steve has encouraged me to buy it - I also understand he is shipping several copies of it (in Russian no less!) on ahead to Vlad. Looks like a tremendously informative and inspirational read. Can't wait to get my copy in the mail...

August 4, 2012

Day seven, sixty three remaining: I found out Thursday night from Pastor Steve that our trip to the Far East is now scheduled for October 6 - November 3. This is one week later than I have been speaking about in this blog. So now we have sixty three days until we leave, not fifty six. Good for me from a planning and preparation, but slightly disappointing on a personal note. The daughter of good friends is getting married on the day we return from Vladivostok. Perhaps we'll arrive back in time that I can make it to this very happy occasion. :) This change in plans reminds me to cultivate faithfulness and flexibility. My times are in His hands...


I've never been away from Greenville to another country for twenty eight days. True, we went as a family to the western US in the fall of 2000 for thirty days in our motor home with four small children. And we went to Argentina in the summer of 2003 for 3 1/3 weeks to visit missionaries from our church. But this is different. This is Asia, not South America. This is Russian, not Spanish.And all this without my sweet and supportive wife Cheryl, on whom I have come to depend for the logistical details of life. Especially travel logistics. Preparation for our trip includes consideration of budgets, flight arrangements, passports, visas, itinerary, luggage weight limits, clothing requirements, computers, cameras (my brother suggests bringing a spare!), books/commentaries, coordinating teaching subjects with Pastor Graham, reading/studying Russian culture, acquiring at least a minimal amount of basic Russia vocabulary, etc.  I can understand the temptation to do lots of preparation without prayer, as though the trip were simply a logistical operation and not a Spirit-led missionary enterprise. Prayer: God grant me the insight to know that the "weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ..." (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).


Tomorrow: Why go?

August 1, 2012 Wednesday

Day four, fifty-nine remaining. I had the opportunity to share with our Community Group tonight about the Vlad trip. Everyone was receptive and encouraging. I want to be (in the spirit of Paul) a faithful steward and servant as we make the trip. Insightful commentators of Paul's letters suggest servant and steward as the dominant metaphors which Paul's employed in viewing his own ministry. Prayer - "Lord make me be willing to be poured as a sacrificial drink offering for the sake of other's faith in your Son. And help me serve with incredible faithfulness as your steward, only concerned with your interests. Amen."

I thank God for Pastor Steve who had the courage and love for Russian believers to make that first trip to Vlad back in 2004. Love expresses itself in returning. He tells me two things about this trip - one, I'll be changed forever, and two, I'll feel terribly guilty when I return for the crazy good life I have in the US. I trust his prediction, so I am glad I have his companionship for the journey. Mostly, like a bricklayer who has gladness because he was privileged to lay some brick as part of a beautiful edifice, I only want to be useful for Christ, to express His love, His work, His presence. It is understandable that in Isaiah 6 the prophet would say - "Here am I. Send me!" Why?  He had just seen the "...Lord lofty and exalted with the train of His robe filling the temple." Lord show us your glory!

Tomorrow: How do we prepare for thirty days in another country?

Entry #2

July 30, 2012 Monday and July 31, 2012 Tuesday

Days two and three, sixty remaining: On Monday I had a challenging start to the week as I struggled with vertigo. I thought – “What if this happens on the trip? What if I wake up in a cold apartment in Vlad with my head spinning?” As I prayed to begin my day, I realized that at best a mission trip is carried out by weak, fragile sinners in daily need of God’s incredible grace. And I trust him to be there with me in weakness – be it cold, vertigo, homesickness, missing the comforts of the good old USA lifestyle, frustration with a culture not my own, etc.  I rejoice that, as Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4:7, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves” (NASB).    

Today Pastor Selph sent out the email introducing/promoting the trip to our church family. We’ll take up a special offering this Lord’s Day. More than anything I hope our body embraces the ownership and responsibility of the trip as their missionary effort. There can be no sent one without senders. Maybe only one can go, but a whole body can hold the “rope” on the other end. I love to see how Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch at the end of their first missionary journey and reported to the church that initially sent them (cf. Acts 13:1-3; 14:25-28). Luke noted that they a) reported all God had done with them, b) also reported how God had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles, and c) spent a long time with the disciples. I consider it the greatest privilege in life to share the Gospel and open the Scriptures. To have the privilege to do this with people of another language and culture whom I’ve never met is beyond anything I could ever have asked. I pray to be used, I pray for open doors for faith for Russians in October…

Entry #1

July 29, 2012 Sunday

Day one, sixty-two remaining: This is my first blog entry ever. I came up with the idea yesterday to create a blog between now and the end of September (probably the 29^th) when I hope to join Pastor Steve Graham of Chicopee, Massachusetts for a month-long trip to Vladivostok, Russia for ministry and teaching. I hope you will join me for the journey. Of course I intend to continue the blog while in Russia and for several weeks after I return. This initial blog entry will be longer than most as I set the stage for subsequent posts.

Vladivostok is a long, long ways from Greenville, South Carolina. I have never traveled so far. In fact, Vladivostok is a ten-hour plane or one hundred fifty hour bus trip from Moscow. The huge country of Russia itself currently encompasses nine (9) time zones – in contrast to the four we have in the United States.  Vladivostok is effectively in the eastern end of Russia – where China, North Korea, and Russia all converge in one cold region.  According to Wikipedia:  “Vladivostok is a city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai, Russia, situated at the head of the Golden Horn Bay, not far from Russia's borders with China and North Korea.”

If you lived in Los Angeles, California, you would travel west if Vladivostok was your destination. Pastor Steve (Steve from this point forward) and I will meet in New York City and then fly east to Moscow for one stop and then on to Vladivostok.

 Vladivostok (hereafter “Vlad”) is fifteen (15) hours ahead of Greenville, so as I write this at 2:40 pm on Sunday afternoon, most Vladivostokians (spelling?) are still asleep in their town of some 600,000 souls. Today it is 67°F with the wind howling at 25 mph from the southeast. When we travel in October the average high should be around 55, with an average low of 42°F. And I understand the heat in Vlad is unreliable….:)

How did this trip come about? Well, Pastor Steve stayed with Cheryl and me at the end of March when he came down for Pastor Bob Selph’s 60-40 celebration (60^th birthday and 40 years of Gospel ministry). We hit it off right away, and he graciously threw out the idea of me joining him for his fifth trip to Vlad since 2004. Steve has made four previous month-long autumn trips to Vlad (three by himself; one with Mitch of Louisiana). I have tossed the idea around with Cheryl and our elders since June. This past Tuesday night the elders gave me their blessing (call it approval if you will) to proceed with the trip. Understandably, the elders were initially more interested in Cheryl and me making a trip together to a potential place of ministry. I appealed to the men that this trip would do me good; it would encourage Steve; and I hoped serve the faith of our fellow Russian believers. The thought of ministry in a far away place has been largely theoretical to this point. I begged the men to see how this trip would serve the purpose of testing my desire for vocational ministry – whether that looks like church planting, theological education, or leadership training.  Of course the fact the trip occurs during the heart of the American college football season (Go Tigers!!) – one of my pleasures in this life –  adds a dimension for testing my true desire and resolve for future Gospel ministry.  I cannot express enough gratitude for the elders’ willingness to let this chief of sinners have the privilege to leave American soil with their blessing and prayers to share the Gospel with a people I have never met. I dearly wish Cheryl could join me (and she was willingJ) but that is for another trip…

Tonight Pastor Bob Selph and I present the trip to our deacons for their consideration of providing financial support for the trip. I trust God’s kindness in this matter; I also trust the wisdom of our deacons.

So much for my first entry…I will always include a passage of Scripture or significant quote in every blog. Nothing is more relevant as I look forward to this trip to a country of those of another tongue than my own, than John’s vision of the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders in Revelation 5:9-10:

Revelation 5:9-10   They sang a new hymn: "Worthy are you to receive the scroll and to break open its seals, for you were slain and with your blood you purchased for God those from every tribe and tongue, people and nation.  ¹⁰ You made them a kingdom and priests for our God, and they will reign on earth."