The Purpose of Scripture

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Recently sent by a friend —

Our deeply held conviction is that everything in Scripture is for the purpose of bringing us into a deeper and closer relationship with the Lord, so that we may truly know Him and be conformed to His image and that He may truly know us, as He indicates to be so essential in Matthew 7 and as Paul says in Galatians.

The goal on every level is to surrender completely to Him, so that His lordship may be complete.

This is the purpose of all the truths of God’s Word.

The problem for many Christians over the ages has often been that Scripture has been interpreted in a way that nullifies the purpose of our obedience to Him and to His Word. Continue reading →

What the Russians Say About Us

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Here are excerpts from  a very interesting article; you can read the entire piece here, at The New York Times:

What do Americans not understand about Russia? On the eve of President Obama’s arrival in Moscow, The New York Times asked readers of its Russian-language blog at community.livejournal.com/nytimesinmoscow.

Here are excerpts from their responses, as translated by The Times’s Moscow bureau, each introduced by the user’s Web nickname. Some readers gave details about themselves, which were not independently confirmed.

SKABLYAN: The Russian character is founded on contradictions.

Inwardly, we understand that in the contemporary world we have not much to be proud of. Therefore, we seek moments of greatness in our history and protect them reverently. The very same can be said of the Soviet Union.

The facts show that during the U.S.S.R., the standard of living of the average citizen was, to put it lightly, low.

However, paradoxically, the same U.S.S.R. was one of the poles of international politics, and therefore we can’t throw out that heritage and call that era a black spot in our nation’s history. Denis, 27, Moscow.

TIKI2TAVI: In Russia, familial and friendly connections are stronger, mistrust of authority is stronger and we value work less.

In practice, this means that we take loans from our friends and relatives more often than from the bank, we go to them instead of the psychoanalyst, we deal with a drunk neighbor without calling the police, and many go on livejournal.com while at work. Continue reading →

You know you’ve been in Russia too long when . . .

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I saw this a few places and wanted to post it myself. Not everything applies to me, but those of you who have spent much time in Russia will understand —

You know you have been in Russia too long when . . .

· You are impressed with the new model Lada or Volga car.
· You don’t think things are that bad right now.
· You say he/she is ‘on the meeting’ (instead of ‘at the’ or ‘in a’ meeting).
· You answer the phone by saying ‘allo, allo, allo’ before giving the caller a chance to respond.
· When crossing the street, you sprint.
· In winter, you choose your route by determining which icicles are least likely to impale you in the head.
· You hear the radio say it is zero degrees outside and you think it is a nice day for a change. Continue reading →

A Postcard from Finland — Peace and Quiet

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We’re in Finland for a few days staying at the little cabin, named Koppero, that we’ve mentioned before. 

Because of visa restrictions I must be out of Russia fairly often; it’s just a 5 hour drive here so it’s easy to come over and spend a few days. And it’s nice to have an internet connection so we can continue to work.

Koppero is located on a beautiful lake that often has very dramatic sunsets. We love the place and have been helping fix it up over the years. On this trip we’re cleaning, mowing grass, building bookshelves, and relaxing in the hammock.

We return to Russia on Tuesday, and life gets busy in July:

— Olga helps two teams from Texas as they minister in youth camps
— We host a children’s camp at Elama, the Christian camp in Russia
— I go to Montenegro with a team from Athens, Georgia to run a camp in the mountains

There’s also good news from Stoneworks. We’re adding long-term missionaries to our ‘family’; I’ll report more on that later. The work in Belarus continues to grow, even in difficult circumstances.

We are currently building support for a Family Home we’ll open in Minsk this fall (if all goes as hoped). This will be a residential program helping graduate orphans grow as Christians and learn life skills. Please contact me if you’re interested in knowing more about that project.

This scripture is meaningful to us this morning, Psalm 139:1-5 — O lord you have searched me and you know me; you know when I sit and when I arise. You perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down. You are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord. You hem me in, behind and before. You have laid your hand upon me.

Queuing

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Another good post by Liz Hulley:

I was very amused that my automatic Russian-English dictionary correctly translated the title of this post when my mouse hovered over it. The dictionary is rather incomplete and sometime supplies the wrong contextual definition, or it recognizes only the lexical form and won’t translate if word appears in a different form. It had no problem with “queuing,” so I suppose the concept must be an important one in the Russian language.

While traveling in foreign countries, I can sometimes be quite good at blending in. But while I can skillfully hide certain American mannerisms, I’m not so willing to take on the customs of the new culture. There are certain Russian customs that I simply ignore and hope that no one will notice.

One of them is the “waiting in line” conversation. If anyone asks me, I try to be accommodating, but I refuse to initiate a discussion about who’s last in line. It’s just too strange. Here’s a typical dialogue:

“Who’s last in line here?”
“I am.”
“Then I’m after you.”

This is a perfectly normal conversation occurring in Russia. The question I have as a foreigner is, why on earth do they have to discuss it? Continue reading →

Tarmo Sings!

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This video was made last summer, when Finnish friends visited Russia for a cultural/historical tour of former Finnish sites in what is now Russian Karelia.

One member of the trip was Tarmo Kunnas.  Tarmo speaks something like eight languages fluently, and he loves to sing folks songs in those languages.  Here he’s singing in French:

This day was one to remember.

From Montenegro to Russia

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We recently drove home to Russia from Montenegro.  It was a beautiful drive along the Croatian coast and up into Hungary.  There we visited missionary friends and saw (rainy) Budapest.  The relationships were great, the city was beautiful and we hope to return.

Then we drove to Minsk, Belarus to visit Spring of Revival, a Stoneworks program.  Olga Goncharenko and her team are doing a great job there.  We enjoy our time with them and fully support them in all they do.  Visit the Stoneworks site to learn more about Spring of Revival.

Then we headed into Russia and are now safely back in our flat in St. Petersburg.

We really enjoy this traditional music from Montenegro.

Wesley Trip to Montenegro

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Here’s a slideshow I put together from our recent visit to Montenegro with the mission team from The Wesley Foundation in Athens, GA.

I realized that I don’t have too many pictures of the ministry times, because we were busy being involved in the work rather than being outside of it. Still, you can see the people and the land.

And I realized that my wife is in there a lot — I wonder why?  🙂

The music is tradtional music from the area. Zhelyan gave me the CD.

A Postcard from Montenegro

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We’re back in Russia after a great drive from Montenegro through Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland and Belarus. Along the way we visited new friends and old in Budapest and Minsk.

We want to share this amazing picture of the team in Montenegro. This was taken on a mountain overlooking the Bay of Kotor, thousands of feet below.

Here in Russia, we’re preparing for the next phase of the summer. We’ll welcome several teams to minister in summer camps and orphanages. The work at Elama continues, and we’ll host several Christian camps there over the next few months.

I (Mike) will be back in Montenegro with another mission team in mid-July. And, our connections with Estonia and Finland continue to grow.

We are very thankful to the Lord for giving us the grace and ability to be involved in so many fruitful projects. He gets all the credit for any good thing we may be involved in; Jesus said that apart from Him we can do nothing.

We hope and pray that we’ll continue to live in Him, being rooted in Him and built up in the faith.

A Postcard from Montenegro — Deep Love

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Yesterday, after two very good and full weeks, we said our goodbyes to a team from Athens, GA. Most of the team members were from the Wesley Foundation at the University of Georgia. Jane Kilgo, from St. James UMC in Athens, GA, also joined the team. The team is pictured above with the Kid’s Club at church.

It’s impossible to say how loving, encouraging and gracious the team was. Many people were very blessed by their time here, including the team members!

The team was involved in many different aspects of ministry, all with the focus of serving the Brethren Assembly in Podgorica. The pastor, Vladimir Cizmansky, is pictured at right performing a baptism which we were honored to attend.

Vladimir and his wife Marijana are both great examples of disciples of Jesus who pour out their lives in service to Christ and others.

We were also helped in many ways by Violeta Pavetic (the sister of our brother-in-law). Violeta is picture at left with some of the kids from the church. Violeta is jewel of a person and a great friend and co-worker.

In addition to running the Kid’s Club, the team ministered in many other ways. They taught an English class at church; ministered at a small fellowship in Kotor, a city with about seven known Christians; and helped local missionaries in Bar, a city with about five Christians. Continue reading →