Obedience, Repentance, Surrender

Something that really struck me when I was reading it recently was from "My Utmost for His Highest" by Oswald Chambers (the updated version, edited by James Reimann.)

"After sanctification, it is difficult to state what your purpose in life is, because God has moved you into His purpose through the Holy spirit. He is using you now for His purposes throughout the world as He used His Son for the purpose of our salvation. If you seek great things for yourself, thinking, "God has called me for this and for that," you barricade God from using you. As long as you maintain your own personal interests and ambitions, you cannot be completely aligned or identified with God's interests...I must learn that the purpose of my life belongs to God, not me. God is using me from His great personal perspective, and all He asks of me is that I trust Him. I should never say, "Lord, this causes me such heartache." To talk that way makes me a stumbling block. When I stop telling God what I want, He can freely work His will in me without any hindrance.He can crush me, exalt me, or do anything else He chooses. He simply asks me to have absolute faith in Him and His goodness...."

I confess, I really have said lately that I am only here in the States because God required it of me. What He has brought us here to do is exciting, but I have said that it was painful to leave Saint Petersburg, and the International Christian Assembly there. I am guilty, as described above, of being a stumbling block to all that God wants to do through me. Thus, I am no longer going to say such things. Instead, I pray that my words will be something like, "I am here, doing this, because God has granted me the privilege of sharing about Eurasia with others." Then I will just have to have that absolute faith in Him and His goodness, that He will take what we offer Him, and use it for His glory and His honor!It has to be ALL about Him!

Okay, so, where in the world are we? Well, at the moment we are in Kiev, Ukraine. We arrived here a week ago today, having left St Pete on the 1:05 pm train the day before. We are here for numerous reasons, the first of which being our Russian visa ran out. We must get a new visa for Russia. In order to try and keep a system of rotation going, so that the Pastoral position of the church remains full, we will remain here until nearly the end of May.
Is it vacation? No, while we are here in Ukraine, we are taking a Christian Counseling course, coordinating the sending of information back and forth between here and America regarding a new project in Motovilivka, Ukraine, Mark will also be helping with putting some teaching materials onto DVD for rehabilitation programs here on the Eurasia field, we will be meeting with folks who are working on new materials for use in marriage ministry, and we will also try to meet with folks who have published a curriculum for those who minister in transition homes.

So, while we are certainly missing the flock to whom we have been ministering, God is seeing to it that we don't get lazy!!
Let me finish with a quote from "In the Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day…" (Batterson)

"If you wait for perfect conditions to seize an opportunity, you'll be waiting till the day you die."

Are you thinking, I could never do what Mark and Holly do? All we are doing is following the voice of Jesus, we stepped out of the boat, and are heading towards His voice, knowing that if we take our eyes off of Him, we too will sink, but knowing He will be our rescuer! God knows the plans He has for us…and for you too! Step out on the water!!!

Warmth in St Petersburg

Don't know about where you are, but here in St Pete, we have given up on winter. Yes, I know it is March, and in lots of places that is definitely Spring. But, we have not had winter yet. Oh, yes, there has been some cold weather, but not anything outrageous, and not for long! It is such a bummer!!

The good news that parallels the fact that there were not many dark (literally) days in winter, is that spiritually, many folks are now aware that St Pete is not nearly as cold as they thought it might be, because of the warmth they find in the Christian community at ICA. God is crafting a sense of community,as evidenced by people who have met at church, running into one another at the Metro stations, and actually stopping and talking to one another! Meeting for lunch, hanging out after church during tea time, getting together for Friday night fellowship, it's great. If you get to St Pete, be sure to stop in on a Sunday!

For info, look at the website www.icapetersburg.com

Warmth in St Petersburg

As I write this, the sun is shining into our living room. Even though we have had an extremely mild winter, this is still something that happens very occasionally. I sat in the window seat for a while and read, just to absorb the sunshine. It was wonderful!! Even though I wanted to remain there, I couldn't, as I have Praise and Worship to get ready for tomorrow, must do laundry for my Mom who is visiting, at some point, lunch must be made in the dark kitchen, etc., etc., etc. Life must be lived, right?
One thing I am thankful for today is that no matter where we are in the world, we can ALWAYS have the SON (Jesus) shining on us, and HIS warmth in us. This is what we are here in Russia to share, and today's physical sunshine is just a reminder to me!!

Be blessed!

Allison and Prayers

My sweet little 2nd cousin passed away quietly last Sunday evening. We know she is rejoicing around the throne of Heaven, dancing, leaping, using her energy to do things she never could do here on the earth, or couldn't do with all her might due to her physical limitations. She now has no limitations!! Thanks to all of you who prayed for her and for her family. Please continue to pray for the family as they go through the grief process.
Looking forward to seeing her again one day, when we join her at that wonderful Throne of God!!
Until then we will remember her joy, her excitement at life, and all of the little Allisonism's that brought smiles to our faces and lives!

Marriage...

Ok, allow me to be mushy for a bit. I LOVE my husband! And I feel blessed to have such a wonderful man who would stay married to me for over 22 years now. Has it always been perfect? No. Is it perfect now? No, because it is a marriage made up of 2 imperfect human beings, and one great big God!! But, (and as Pastor Keith says, "everything before the word "but" is negated by it...)it is a wonderful marriage because of that great big God, and the work He does in and thru each of us.

We taught our first "marriage class" of the year tonight, and in doing so, were reminded to be thankful for one another, for the "good gifts" that God gave to us in one another. If you are reading this, and are married, be thankful for your mate. And ask God how you can be a better mate to them! If you think this is impossible, as God to be the great big God in the center of your marriage, and as you grow closer to God, you will be changed into the mate God would have you to be!!

Visitors

Well today in church we had visitors from 4 other countries. America, Canada, Congo, and Finland.
It is exciting to have so much variety among our congregation. Together we are learning the basics of serving Jesus. Today's message was on studying, reading and meditating on the Bible. As Mark Batterson says, "I don't think the Bible was meant to be read. I think it was meant to be
meditated. Meditation is a thoughtful or prayer reading. I came up with this
little mantra few years ago: reading without meditating is like eating without
digesting. If you don't meditate you lose all of the nutrients. "
So true!! Make time to read and meditate on God's word this week.

We have played tourist a bit this past week, as my sister Lynn came to visit. We went through the Hermitage, and saw lots that I hadn't seen in my previous two hour tour. :) Like items from two villas south of Pompeii that were also buried when Mt. Vesuvius erupted.
We both thought it would be great to go and help continue with the archaeological dig there!!
However, we both have things to do that are more important at the moment, so we will have to just imagine!!

Prayers

Well, on Sunday, I (Holly) preached on prayer. How we need to pray more, How we need to pray for wisdom in decision making, How we need to pray so that our relationship with God is strengthened and How we need to pray for others.
This week we are needing to pray for each of those areas. Serving the International Community, there are many things to pray for . Like the people in Kenya, and the church community there who lost loved ones and friends, and a church building in the recent troubling times. Please pray for our brothers and sisters in Kenya, that the Lord would bring peace to this troubled area.
There are also things facing us as leaders that we must seek God's wisdom for. And there is my cousin Kim, and her daughter Allison who stand in need of prayer. Allison was born prematurely, and has had numerous medical problems in her short life. She recently had surgery, and has still not come back to herself since the surgery. Many prayers are going up from all around the world, and these need to continue, even more so since Kim suffered a stroke yesterday. This is all the news I have currently, but it is enough to know that I, and as many people as I can get to do so as well, need to lift them up in prayer to a Heavenly Father who knows them and loves them, and wants to give them good gifts!! (For more info on Allison, you can view her webpage at http://www.freewebs.com/updatesforallison/index.htm)

Blessings from a snowy St Pete!!

Celebrating New Year's

Well, for those of you in the West, your holidays are over. However, where we live, the holidays will continue until after January 7, which is officially Orthodox Christmas. St. Petersburg seems to be a ghost town, with fewer people driving around the city than we have ever seen. It's wonderful!!

On New Years eve, we called up Y & M, one of the couples from our International church, at about 11:15 pm, just to see if they wanted to head down to the center of the city for the fireworks and excitement. They did, so we went and picked them up, and arrived at Palace Square (just outside the Hermitage Museum) in time to see and hear President Putin's remarks on the big screens. Afterwards, there were fireworks being set off all around, champagne and wine corks popping, etc. We strolled over one of the bridges, watching the view over the river, with many thousands of other people. Families, singles, couples, it seemed like everyone was outside. We ended up at a restaurant, where Y & M told of how God had placed a call on their lives to be Missionaries. Prov 3:9 says "Honor the Lord with your wealth..." This couple wants to do that by studying to become excellent in the talents which God has gifted them, and then to use those talents to help equip others to minister. How cool is that? God is directing their steps, and we have got to be an encouragement to them along the way, by being a part of the ICA ministry team. We are glad to still be here, ministering, and looking forward to being part of the rotating ministry team here in the days to come.

Next posting we will tell you about another part of our ministry, as we rotate out of Russia for 90 days out of every 180, due to Visa law changes.