It's the last day of 2009. Probably a good time for reflection. Has this year been all that we wanted to be? No. But then, it is easy to place to high expectations on life. Has it been worth while? Yes.
We left Russia in July 2008, which is quite a while ago in some ways. A lot of things have changed back in Russia. When we left, our Russian team mates could not understand how we could plan our lives in such a way as saying that we wanted to return in 2010. They weren't even sure what would happen the next week, let alone a year or 18 months later. The evidence of this is that all of the Russians on our team have now moved away from Krasnoyarsk. Aleksei was single with no girl friend and is now married. Igor is now an Orthodox priest and living with his family in a Buryat village. Rustam and Lena, whom we were very close friends with are living in a different village, Rustam as a high school teacher.
Our non-Russian team mates Tim and Iris are still in Krasnoyarsk though. They are the only expats who remain from our time living there. On one hand that is ok, because we aren't going back to Russia to live with expats. It will force us to connect with people locally, which will be good for us in the long run. But it is vitally important to have people who are on the same page and who understand our passion and goals. Nobody is closer to this than Tim and Iris.
We do have some Russian friends in the city, and hopefully they will have time to reconnect with us. We will have to work hard at making more friends though. So our resettlement time will be a challenge, to say the least. But we are very grateful to God, who knows what we need before we even ask. We have met an Australian family who were already living in a different Russian city, and have recently moved to Krasnoyarsk. They will not be living in our part of the city (in fact, none of the people I have mentioned will be), nor will we be working directly with them, but they will be a good release valve. It will be great to have some other Aussies to hang out with, to kick the footy with.
So back to our time in Australia. Before Melody and I ever met, Melody was really keen to do Bible translation studies. I remember that one of her former leaders was disappointed when Melody and I got together, because he believed Melody was going to miss her calling. When we married we began to pursue our calling together, and it just didn't seem to fit in that we could do the translation studies. We had our first child, and then went to Russia. Some where in our first term in Russia, I knew that if Melody did not get the chance to do the translation studies, she would have regrets in life. I wasn't going to let that happen. Of course the benefits are great for our work. Another thing that many may not realise is that being citizens of different countries, there was always the possibility of one day being split up, without permission to live in the same country. So it was vitally important to get Melody's Australian citizenship. We couldn't practically do this in Russia. These two factors have meant that we have been away from Russia a long time, and there are drawbacks in that.
But we've nearly completed our goals in Australia. The last and most important, is the arrival of our little son, any day now. How can a son not be more important than our studies and work after all? No doubt, our lives will change once again. But just as we decided when Abigail was born, our new boy is coming along for the ride in life with us, not the other way around.
So, soon it will be time to pack and return to the land of our dreams and hopes. But I don't want to take anything for granted. I don't want to turn around and say "Ok God, we're off to Russia now." I want to continue to follow my Lord. I want all of our steps to be ordained by Him. So we humbly approach the Lord, and ask him to grant us permission to return, to open the doors once again for us to work in Russia. We have a nice little test to pass through for this to happen. Currently our financial support is at 75% of what we need. Last time we saw God's hand move many times, in providing that support in ways we could never have predicted. It is now time for us to place our trust in God again, that if he wills us to return that he will bless us with all of our needs to do so. I do believe that he wants us to return, and I have seen him move many times before. I am thankful that we need to go through this test of faith again, as I would hate to begin to trust in ourselves and take our eyes off God.
You'll be hearing more in the coming days.
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