A Cold Spring Morning Surprise

As is often the case here, things changed without any notice, but sometimes they change for the better. Today was one of those days. As we noted in an earlier post, we had been told we would not be able to see our little guy's sister (lets call her T) until Monday. Unbeknownst to us, she expressed an interest in seeing us and her brother (lets call him S) today despite being ill. So we piled into our taxi and headed to T's aunt's apartment to see her for the first time since December. She was very shy at first but smiled and greeted us. We drove the 30 or so minutes to the orphanage where T and S hugged and clearly shared some genuine affection for one another. We shared some photos from the family's visit to the orphanage last December, played a bit with S and some other children, but too soon it was time to go. We stopped for lunch on the way back, shared some stories with one another about travel, different cultures, languages and enjoyed pancakes, coffee and hot melted chocolate together. T and Bill discovered that they know about the same number of words in one another's languages (between one and three). When we returned to T's aunt's home to drop T off, she gave us both warm hugs. she expressed (through our interpreter) her apologies for the way our December visit had gone (when T was under the supervision of the shelter director). It was a delightul surprise and a good first encounter. We hope and pray we can build upon this interaction.



Before we left the U.S., we had a conversation with another family that has been over here. We agreed the trip would not "fail" because of a lack of prayer. We believe there are literally hundreds of people praying for God's will for these children during this trip. What we can tell you, dear friends and family, is that these first 72 hours feel very different from our first trip. For example we were in-and-out of Kiev with everything accomplished in 8 hours. (last trip was almost 72 hours.) We felt alone and unsupported last trip: as a simple example, this trip we had three people just helping us to buy groceries! Please continue your prayers as we are grateful to God for His provision so far, and we pray that our actions would be pleasing to Him, that His will would be done and that any success or glory that results from this trip would be given to Him and Him alone. Our interest is in being obedient regardless of whether the outcome of that obedience is one we can understand fully now.

Oswald Chambers' devotions are often so helpful we offer his recent entry here in its entirety as an encouragement to all.
Abraham's Life of Faith

"He went out, not knowing where he was going" (Hebrews 11:8). In the Old Testament, a person's relationship with God was seen by the degree of separation in that person's life. This separation is exhibited in the life of Abraham by his separation from his country and his family. When we think of separation today, we do not mean to be literally separated from those family members who do not have a personal relationship with God, but to be separated mentally and morally from their viewpoints. This is what Jesus was referring to in Luke 14:26.
Living a life of faith means never knowing where you are being led. But it does mean loving and knowing the One who is leading. It is literally a life of faith, not of understanding and reason-a life of knowing Him who calls us to go. Faith is rooted in the knowledge of a Person, and one of the bigger traps we fall into is the belief that if we have faith, God will surely lead us to success in this world.
The final stage in the life of faith is the attainment of character, and we encounter many changes in the process. We feel the presence of God around us when we pray, yet we are only momentarily changed. We tend to keep going back to our everyday ways and the glory vanishes. A life of faith is not a life of one glorious mountaintop experience after another, like soaring on eagles' wings, but is a life of day in and day out consistency; a life of walking without fainting (see Isaiah 40:31). It is not even a question of the holiness of sanctification, but of something which comes much farther down the road. It is a faith that has been tried and proved and has withstood the test. Abraham is not a type or an example of the holiness of sanctification, but a type of the life of faith- a faith, tested and true, built on the true God. "Abraham believed God..." (Romans 4:3).




May it be so with each of us.