Imagine with me what Heaven will be like upon the triumphal entry of Christ when all the nations of the earth gather at his feet to worship. People from all over the world - every tongue, tribe and nation - kneeling before the Lord and singing praises to him. Imagine the sight of the hundreds of flags of the nations bowing to the Lord in submission. Can you picture it? Can you hear the collective voices singing “Come, let us worship”?
We were able to catch a small glimpse of that heavenly moment at our most recent staff conference. As the opening night began we started to sing “Come, now is the time to worship / One day every tongue will confess you are God / One day every knee will bow..” As we sang flag bearers from all of the countries in Eastern Europe and Russia made their way forward, waving their flags and worshiping God.
The nations had gathered to bow before Jesus.
As we sang and saw the flags swinging with pride and glory our eyes swelled with tears. This is what we are working towards, this is what we are praying for, this is why we are here! That small glimpse of Heaven was for us a moment beyond words. It was like reading a sentence from the last chapter of God’s great book. I wish you could have been there with us.
The conference was incredibly insightful. We were able to hear about the great things indigenous leaders are doing in countries like Albania, Romania and Ukraine. In Hungary the government came to the high school ministry and asked them to repeat an outreach they did for all the high school kids in the second largest city in the country! If only Russia would do that with us. Could you imagine?
We also were able to catch up with friends we had not seen in many years. From friends who have been in this part of the world for 20 years to friends who just moved here 4 months ago it was like a big family reunion. In fact it was 6 years ago at this very conference when we were Stinters that Jessica and I first caught the vision for coming back. We also caught glimpses of each other and that seemed to work out pretty well.
One of the highlights for the both of us was hearing from the main speakers. Dr. Douglas Moo from Wheaton College spoke about Romans and the need to guard the orthodox (as in traditionally held views, not Eastern Orthodox) doctrine of justification and sanctification. Then we heard from John Lennox, a professor of mathematics at Oxford University. He has debated with athiests Richard Dawkins and Sam Hitchens and is an astute apologist with - as my friend called it - some iron in his spine. We really enjoyed hearing from him and think you might as well. His website is www.johnlennox.org check it out.
Another big highlight for the Russian staff was the announcement of our new Country Director! His name is Misha Goz and he’s been on staff for nearly 20 years. His story is pretty incredible. A Campus Crusade Summer Project came over in the early 90s and decided to play baseball in order to attract Russian students. Misha was a student at the time and saw these loud Americans playing this crazy game. He just had to check it out. The more he hung out with them the more he heard about the Gospel. Eventually he placed is faith in Christ. One summer he was able to get a job as a raft guide with Noah’s Ark in Buena Vista, CO and grew in his relationship with Christ while he was there. He has been a great leader in Russia for the past several years and we cannot think of any one else we would rather follow than him as a Country Director. We’re really excited that a local Russian has taken over leadership of the ministry and cannot wait to see how God is going to use him in the future of the ministry.
In the meantime keep praying for us. We are back in the swing of things. Jess is in full time language school and Dave is in part time language and part time ministry. He is also writing the content for our ministry’s website www.moscowfocus.com.
We continue to have visa woes and would much appreciate your prayers for that. We found a new lawyer recently who is helping us get our documents in order to appeal the earlier decision to deny us visas for 2011 and hope that this will help the immigration officers see that we have much to offer Russia. Pray with us that we would get this visas and that we would have patience in the meantime. As the proverb says “a hope deferred makes the heart sick.” We can only take so much “heart tylenol” before we have to figure out a solution. Pray with us toward that end.
Finally, we want to extend a big and hearty thank you to all of you who gave and helped make these conferences a reality. We could not do this without you and are so grateful for your help and encouragement. God bless you and we’ll keep you updated!
Warmly in Christ,
David and Jessica
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