My God is Good Even While I am Blind

Dacula, Georgia (ACN)

Ok, so for the last year I have been under the misconception as to where God was leading in our ministry and what He wanted for me in regards to that ministry. God finally got throught my thick skull and it seems that there were only a couple of changes he wanted me to make to the ministry.

The first and largest change is that we are to venture out to new cities and make new friends in those cities. So we did.

You can read earlier entries of my trip to Nizhnevartovsk and Novosibirsk, both deep into Siberia. Novosibirsk is 11 time zones from the eastern coast of the USA.

So even in my blindness God blessed us in many ways. They are somewhat private and I don't want to reveal the details, but suffice it to say that when God did these things it brought me to tears of gratitude. Finally when I did understand God's will for us and cancelled this summer's trip, and ate crow, God began to bless this next trip. Four weeks ago it was going to be me, Stephanie, William and maybe David along with Beverly. Then David cancelled. So we were left with four people to go. Now as far as we can tell there are about 18 people in various stages of decision making and most of those seem to be definitely going. God blessed me even when I was blind and then blessed me even more once I could see. Is that any different than loving me when I was yet a sinner, lost and on my way to Hell? I think not.

It has been 10 months since I was in Russia and it will be another 11 months before I return, if God is willing. I miss my Russian friends and I miss the camaraderie we have and the love we share with our Russian friends.

To a person, those who have been with us in the last couple of years, remarked at Christmas time that "we really miss our Russian friends." Kelly Hickey said that she didn't feel quite right around thanksgiving, because for the last two years she has been doing a lot of pre-trip planning and preparation around Thanksgiving. So you can see, that Russia, more properly the Russian people, have gotten under our skin. We love being there, teaching, learning and loving on our friends.