Sunday, 13 July 2008 06:17
A prostitute advertising her body for sale; a Muslim stopping to pray by the roadside; a barefoot drunken man passed on the floor of the trolleybus in a pool of his own vomit...
Those are just three things that caught my attention yesterday and today. Besides the many orphans, street kids and elderly beggars, our streets are home to prostitutes, Muslims and alcoholics.
Yesterday, on my way home from Ukraine, we went through a rotary and saw a truck driver who had pulled over, laid his prayer mat on the shoulder of the road, and was kneeling eastward. (I couldn't resist checking my compass: he was actually more south than east!)
We pulled into Krasnodar at about midnight and stopped to drop off one of our travelling companions at her home. Near a park, we saw a group of prostitutes illuminated in the headlights of several cars so that potential customers could examine "the goods" they were about to buy.
Today, while on a mission to shop for a vehicle, I got on a trolleybus and immediately noticed a man lying on the floor, passed out in a puddle of vomit in the back of the bus. The conductor's solution to this was simply to stop opening the back set of doors to passengers, so that nobody would step on the man.
Sights like this can easily send me into a funk. I know we're doing the work set before us at the moment (language school.) I know we've only been here 6 months. But the 21st-century American in me wants to see results. Immediately! There's frustration in knowing that I hold within my hands and heart the very thing that can bring these people into a right relationship with God... Yet He tells me to wait a little longer.
I recently realized something cool that picked me up from my discouragement. Here it is: I was sent to Russia to be Jesus Christ to the impoverished kids in Krasnodar. As Christians that's what we all are: ambassadors for Christ in this world. What I realized was this: Jesus was God's ambassador, God Himself coming to earth to open up relations between God and man. Jesus Himself, being fully God and yet fully man, had to learn how to read and write Hebrew, dress in Jewish style, eat Jewish food and develop deep relationships with Jews before He executed his main play. He was 30 years old before He pulled His team together and began to shake things up! That's a lot of patient preparation for 3 years of ministry.
Why should I think that within 6 months I am ready to do what Jesus took years to prepare for? I am learning Russian, dressing in Russian style, eating Russian cuisine and trying to figure out this intriguing and complex culture. It is going to take time before God is ready to use me to shake things up. I have to be patient and continue to pour myself into preparation for the time when the Holy Spirit moves and I jump on board and see what He does. Do you remember what He did in Nineva? He can do it again in Krasnodar! I hope He does and that I'm here to see it! His timing is perfect and He is not in a rush.
On the other hand, I really don't want to wait 30 years to speak into the hearts and lives of the lost kids of Krasnodar. Please pray your knees off that God brings things together for us sooner than that! And in the meantime don't forget the prostitutes, Muslims, alcoholics and street kids in your own home town.
