Déjà vu in Russia...

Following a late night return from Russia, we woke up on Thursday morning, opened the curtains, pulled up the shades to see green everywhere. There are pansies on our front balcony and tulips and forget-me-nots in our backyard. Even the dandelions are a welcome sight. Spring has come to full bloom in Budapest.


Our week in Russia was timely. It was the first pastoral renewal vote for one of our national churches. Pastor Anton accepted a four-year call. We enjoyed a lovely dinner in their home with their three boys, where Inna prepared a delicious meal of Russian favorites. Our M's hospitality was over the top. We enjoyed many good and strategic conversations around their kitchen table. I also had the privilege of sitting in on a ministry in the Vladimir church similar to the freedom ministry I was involved in at Spring Lake Wesleyan.

This trip was déjà vu for Dennis and I. In February of 1997, during our trip around the world, our family of six flew to Moscow, Russia where we all piled into a van that took us the four-hour journey to Vladimir. Just a month before we had received the shocking news that our friend, Ron Dawson, missionary to Russia, had passed away. We arrived in Vladimir with a heaviness for the Russian team as they processed this unexpected news. Dennis and I, along with Joni and Julie, stayed in the Ministry Center in the second story apartment where Ron and Barb had lived. Josh and Jamie stayed with the young adult short-term Go-Netters on the field at the time, many of whom now serve as career missionaries in Europe.

Last week Dennis and I took that same van ride, though on new and improved roads, and stayed in the same apartment as we had then. I thought of Ron and Barb often during our stay… transitioning to missions later in life, giving up family, home, possessions, to go to Russia. I recalled the story told of an empty key ring - no car, no home, no business - and Ron's words "now there's nothing holding us back." Now that we are in that same place, I find myself wondering how that was for them and thinking I would have had a lot of questions back then if I would have known what life would hold for us thirteen years later.

Well, as I write this on Sunday evening from our flat, we have a window open (photo on left - view from our back windows), the birds are singing and the sun is giving us its last warm rays as it wakes up the other side of the world. We just finished a skype call with one of our West MI churches, Crossroads, for their first morning service where they are focusing on missions. We'll be doing a second call in just a few minutes for their second service. Dennis and I are grateful for so many of you who partner with us through prayer and giving. Thank you!

This next week we are planning to take the train to the Czech Republic for connection with our Czech M's, and joining this trip with a week-long Ecclesiology class that one of our American professors is coming to teach to our national pastors (some coming from Poland and England), but we keep watching CNN to see if any of this will come to pass with the Iceland volcanic ash disrupting European travel.

Thanks for being a part of our lives!
Happy Spring!