Trusting His Methods

April 20, 2009Leave a comment

John and Karen Bull have become good friends; they live in St. Pete with their four children. You can learn more about them here and here. This is a nice post by Karen that I wanted to share:

OK, this is really John’s revelation…but it was so good for me, that I had to write it.

Background:

I have often felt frustrated with “last minute” things that are done “by God.” Sometimes, wondering—were they from God or did people just make it happen and it finally did. OK, more than that, let me go even farther and say that I have chatted with the Lord(once or twice) about “why don’t you do things ahead of time and prove Your Hand is in things, instead of being so last minute—it does terrible things to “God’s reputation” when people think…well, you just have to wait for Him to act and it won’t happen til the end.”

Continue reading →

A Postcard from Estonia — Resting in Him

April 18, 2009March 28, 2020Leave a comment

I (Mike) am currently in Estonia again after a quick trip back to Russia. Olga and I continue in a time of prayer and seeking God’s will for our next steps. But, it is not a time of passive waiting. The Lord has given us good work, and we continue to see His hand in our lives. We’re working in several areas, and over the next few months we will:

— welcome short-term teams to minister in Russian camps
— minister in Montenegro with a team from the Wesley Foundation in Athens, GA
— host several church groups and families at Elama, our Russian camp
— visit ministries and missionaries in Budapest and Minsk
— help several volunteers minister at Camp Gideon, an Estonian Christian camp
— continue to learn more about possibilities in Estonia

Above is a view of the medieval town of Tallinn. We’ve seen much wildlife here — storks, foxes, deer, hawks — and beautiful scenery. And I continue to find watermills all over the place!

Recently Thomas Umstattd visited us from the US and created a video called What is MIR. It’s a good oversight of MIR and the foundations of our work in Russia. We’ve also recently updated the Stoneworks website.

Above all, Christ has been reminding us to abide in Him. Apart from Him we can do nothing of eternal value. Love and faithfulness are necessary, and the tasks and fruit of ministry will be a natural outcome of ‘abiding in the vine’. Now is the time for us all to surrender our lives daily, trusting that our Father knows what we need before we even ask.

What is MIR?

April 12, 2009March 28, 2020Leave a comment

We believe that the Lord sets us together as members of His body, as living stones. As we honor the relationships that He establishes, then the work naturally flows. We made a video to help people see and understand better what MIR is and work to which we’ve been called.

Many thanks go to Thomas Umstattd for making this video. He came to Russia and lived with us for a month, helping in many ways.

God’s Love in Action

April 9, 2009March 28, 2020Leave a comment

Olga and I have three young ladies from our church staying with us, Zhenya, Anna and Natasha. I’ll post some pictures of our ‘new family’ soon. Natasha works at Crimson Sails, a Christian children’s shelter. Here’s one story of the way the Lord uses His people to save the lost. This is from Street Cry’s update —

Dasha (in the photo at left) was sent to this Christian shelter by her district police station officer.

Her alcoholic mom’s alcoholic boyfriend attacked Dasha with a knife. She managed to escape almost without injuries with her grandmother’s assistance. With no time to even get dressed properly, and without a coat or boots, this young child ran through the snow and frost to the police for help.

As the police inspected Dasha’s home, they found a destroyed apartment, with almost everything sold in order to buy alcohol. There was no food and not only Dasha did not have a desk to do her school homework but she did not even have a bed where she could sleep. The court case began by denying Dasha’s mom parental rights. While the case proceeded, Dasha was placed in the Christian shelter.

Very soon, she received Jesus and began attending Sunday school at our church.

Continue reading →

The Face in the Mirror

April 7, 2009Leave a comment

Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.

James 1:23, 24 (NIV)

This verse came to shouted at me one morning recently as I finished up my Bible reading. The cares of the world were already infiltrating my thoughts, and I felt as though I had been studying the Word in vain. I had to approach the Lord all over again and ask for forgiveness.

What does it mean to forget what one looks like?

It’s absurd. The only time I didn’t recognize myself was after I got contacts and looked at myself in the mirror the first time. I had only seen myself in glasses for most of my life. I think one would have to be literally blind to not know oneself.

It’s sad. Being uncertain about one’s identity can be heart-wrenching.

It’s careless. I am not promoting vanity here, but not being familiar with one’s appearance may say something about character. Maybe it’s a lack of organization, lack of attention, or lack of purpose.

I believe that the Living Word often works in our hearts undetected. We don’t always experience an emotional or otherwise conscious reaction. Yet when we test our hearts, I believe we will find evidence as to whether or not the Word has taken hold.

The passage in James is talking about action. Good deeds testify about one’s faith. We could also talk about bearing fruit. But there are also simple commands in the Bible such as casting all our cares upon Him. Surely this also is an act of obedience, and a starting point for other acts of faith. If I can’t emerge from my prayer closet with an attitude of trust, perhaps I haven’t paid attention very well to what I’ve just read in the Bible.

Goodbye Lucky

April 1, 20092 Comments

Cute as a button:

Again, this has nothing to do with Russia, but it’s very sweet and cute.

A Postcard from Estonia — Estonian Beauty

March 30, 2009March 28, 2020Leave a comment

I am currently in Estonia researching ministry opportunities for possible future mission work. I’m staying with John and Sara Russell, the founders of Street Cry in St. Pete who are now starting a new work in Tallinn. Olga will join me this week before we return to Russia in about 10 days.

A few days ago I visited a Christian camp, Camp Gideon, near the Russian border. We are hoping to be able to send Russian and/or Belorussian orphans to this camp, where American mission teams can meet them and preach the gospel without fear of reprisals by Russian authorities. Camp Gideon is owned by the Estonian Methodist church and has hosted orphans in previous years. We pray that God will speak to the hearts of people to serve orphans in this way.

Estonia is a special place — a mix of Russian and European culture, very welcoming to westerners, and yet a large portion of the population are Russians who were ‘stranded’ here after the USSR collapsed. Continue reading →

In Estonia

March 27, 2009March 28, 2020Leave a comment

camp gideon 10 300x225 Estonian fact finding After a nice drive from Russia, I’m in Estonia looking at opportunities for ministry. Yesterday I visited Camp Gideon, the first Christian camp in Estonia. It’s been owned by the Methodist Church since the early 90s and is directed by Artur Pold, a minister who is also a congressman (called a Deputy here).

The camp is very large and has about 800 meters of beach on the Baltic. It’s snowy and beautiful there now, and it’s sunny and beautiful there in the summer. Here you can see the Baltic sea just beyond one of the buildings. It is quite a piece of property.

We’re hoping to bring orphans from Belarus and/or Russia to this camp. Perhaps American mission teams could come and meet them here. It would be very good for the kids to be in an environment where they can freely hear the gospel. The cost is about $15/day for food and housing, plus transportation.

Probably the most important thing I’m doing now is establishing and building relationships with believers here, and I’m looking to see which of those relationships God is establishing closely. We want the work to flow from our relationships, rather than have the work define the relationships.

Over the next few days I’ll be visiting orphanages and shelters, and I’ll also be looking at some property that could perhaps serve as a summer camp and ministry center.

Neva View

March 24, 2009March 28, 2020Leave a comment

A friend from the States was visiting for the past month. Thomas Umstattd came to Russia to help us set up computers in the MIR office, establish encrypted communications with partners in Belarus (very important), and he also made a short video for MIR which I’ll post here as soon as it’s ready to go. Several of us had dinner and then were on the Neva river embankment a few nights ago. I took this short video; the quality is bad but at least you can get a feel for how beautiful it is this time of year; and you can hear that Olga was enjoying herself —