Wednesday, 04 November 2009 22:58
Today, Tim met with his connection Dima for the planned joint "street kid search." He got to Dima's and was invited inside, where the two of them spent some time talking. One thing Dima told him was that he knows of no one-Russian or otherwise-in this city who is doing any consistent work with street kids. This confirms what we already suspected. (Dima himself has done some of this kind of work here in the past, but not now.) What this means for us is that we can't join in with a ministry that's already going on somewhere.
As always in Russia, there are cultural lessons lurking around every corner, and today was no exception. When Tim got to Dima's, he assumed they would be going out together to look for street kids, but after talking for half an hour, it was clear that Dima wasn't able to take Tim out today after all. Communicating across culture and language barriers is always a recipe for potential misunderstandings, and Tim's learned to take these things in stride: He was ready to get to work so he went by himself.
He went to the train station and spent a couple of hours there, just keeping his eyes open while trying to avoid the police, who aren't really into foreign men loitering around the arrivals and departures platforms like that. He also walked a few times around the surrounding blocks and while he did see a child or two who seemed to be homeless, that was all. He wasn't really surprised, as Dima warned him that the street kids seem to congregate there mostly around lunchtime, and this was already late afternoon.
Meanwhile, Plan B is for Tim and Dima to go back to the train station together on Monday, with sandwiches and tea, and continue the search. The question remains: Are we going to be able to reach street kids here in Krasnodar?
Our first reaction to today's events was disappointment, however we know that we-and plenty of people all over the world-were praying specifically about this today, and we believe our prayers were answered. We're just not sure how yet. When he related his afternoon's work to me, Tim reminded me that Thomas Edison tried over 1,000 variations on the carbon filament for an electric light bulb before he hit on the one that changed the world for everybody. It's days like this that we try to remember that God does not measure success by results, but by faithfulness. Results, we can't guarantee, but faithfulness we can.
Please keep praying for the next crucial months, that we will break through and make some lasting connections with street kids.
