Tuesday, 11 May 2010 03:33
You haven’t heard from us in awhile, and that hasn’t been on accident.
You may recall that the end of March found us heading to Kiev to apply for our final visa: the one that would allow us to get back into Russia just long enough to pack up our things and leave for the last time. Since the Russian government has become increasingly antagonistic to the presence of Westerners in the south--where we live--we weren’t completely surprised when Tim, going to turn in our visa applications at the consulate in Kiev, met with some pretty hard resistance.
Normally, applying for visas is a simple-ish matter of standing in lines long enough to pay your fees and drop off your paperwork. This time, though, they put Tim through the wringer. They yelled at him; they grilled him about our reasons for being in Russia; they said they didn’t believe him; they threatened to have the FSB (KGB) investigate us. (Don’t they know that everyone in our line of work is already a household word with the FSB? Even we know that!) In the end, they didn’t refuse our paperwork, but in the weeks that followed, we waited and truly thought we were not going to get a visa this time. We began making contingency plans for “How to Dispose of Our Stuff From Outside the Country.” Another of our Krasnodar friends had it worse: the consulate interrogated him for a full hour before taking his paperwork and letting him go. Their message was clear to us: Do not try this again.
These are the kinds of situations where you find out what prayer and fasting are about, and I believe we fought a truly spiritual battle while we waited for our visas. We also thought it prudent not to “show our face” on our blog during that time. In retrospect, that last entry, about “Dirty Power” probably wasn’t the wisest course of action, but I thought it needed to be said in light of what happened on Easter. In the end, prayer prevailed, and we got the visas…although we’re not back in the country yet.
Visas in hand, we headed west for Germany, where we’ve spent the last week in meetings. Friday, we’ll head home to Krasnodar, and start the great exodus. We have to be in the States for meetings mid-July, so we hope to leave for America around July 10th: that gives us just about 6 weeks, once we hit home, to pack up, sell up and finish up all our ministry work.
Pray for us on the road home, especially at the Ukranian/Russian border, which is always a challenge. Then, pray that we’ll get everything disposed of in 6 weeks, and that we’ll finish ministry there well.
From July until the New Year, we’ll be in America, hoping to catch up with all of you in person. The next 2 months will be pretty intense for us, so hold us up in the battle! After that, we’ll meet in Maine and have some lobster together, and get to hear what’s happening in your lives.
