Taking a Break

April 28, 2008
For the first time in a few weeks I have found myself surrounded by English speaking people. Saturday evening the regional directors for the Nazarene Church from all over Europe and Asia arrived in Kiev for their annual meeting. To welcome them we grilled out at the Nazarene Church in Kiev. All the missionaries and volunteers from all over Ukraine came to take part in the fellowship. After being surrounded by Russian and Ukrainian speakers I found all of the English conversation going on around me stimulating. My brain no longer had to work so hard to process what was going on. It was like time had slowed down while I had been in Vapnyarka. I felt as though I had been caught in a whirlwind of language. I was now able to understand the conversation around me as it was being said.
It was an honor for me to be in the company of so many people who had made so many sacrifices to answer the call of God on their lives. A missionary to India named Jennie Fowler Fuller once said, “It was not our imitating Jesus. It was not trying to reproduce the life of Jesus; but it was our being an empty surrendered temple for Jesus to dwell in, to repeat His own life in us.” As I spend time fellowshipping and observing these men and women of God I am inspired by their lives. They live to a surrendered life. Joyfully they serve one another. Out of love they serve God’s people around the world. It is not an easy or glamorous job. They leave their homelands, everything familiar to them, everything comfortable. They raise their children in foreign countries. They learn new languages and adapt to cultural customs. Never complaining, ever humble, always serving; They never give up. These men and women have abandoned their lives to God. They are truly an example to all believers. To me personally they are an inspiration and an encouragement. I am thankful for their testimonies and willingness to surrender all to God.