January 5, 2013
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Happy New Year and Merry Christmas!
Greetings to everyone in the wonderful and blessed name of Jesus Christ! As the Christmas carol states, Jesus was Lord at his birth! Think about it… a tiny baby with all of the divinity of the Almighty contained in his infant life! It is, without a doubt, the greatest story ever told… God becoming man and dying in our place for our sins. What a Savior we have!
For the first 40 years of my life, I said, “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year” to everyone during the holiday season. Christmas for Americans is celebrated on December 25 and, of course, New Years on January 1. Here in Ukraine, and across the former Soviet Union, Christmas is celebrated on January 7. So, the greeting is reversed, “Happy New Year and Merry Christmas.” In reality for us, it would be more like this, “Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Merry Christmas again!”
In keeping with the season, I wanted to share another fun language discovery. Our friend, Slavic, shared with us that the Russian work for manger is ясли (pronounced “yacly”). This is also the same word used for every common nursery throughout the Russian speaking countries. When you take your baby to a nursery at church or a nursery at a daycare, they call it ясли. To me, this is another one of those language nuances that the atheistic government under the Soviet Union could not dispel from the language. Everyone, for centuries past, has taken their children to the manger! Praise the Lord for His prevenient grace!
Since I last blogged, our entire family traveled to Armenia for a one-week ministry trip. We were also blessed to have Joseph Sumi, a fellow missionary living in Kiev, travel with us and join us in each ministry activity. While in Armenia, we had many good conversations with our pastors (Karen, Seyran, and Hamlet). We love these pastors and their families and are blessed to work alongside each of them. Bekah and Sarah particularly enjoyed their time with Maria, Karen and Syuzanna’s 7 year old daughter.
We visited church and property sites throughout Armenia. We also were blessed with some sightseeing on this trip. We visited an ancient Roman temple called Garni, the only remaining Roman temple in Armenia. Dating of the temple is somewhat difficult but there is literary evidence that there was a fortress located at this site in the 1st century AD. We also visited the Monastery of Geghard. This monastery is carved right out of the mountains. Its main chapel was built in 1215 AD, but the site was founded in the 4th century by Gregory the Illuminator. The name Geghard means “spear” because it is believed that the spear that pierced Jesus’ side was brought to this monastery for a short time by the Apostle Jude (also known as Thaddeus).
While in Armenia, we were blessed to be able to participate in the wedding of Trino Jara and Anna Artsrunyan. Trino is a fellow missionary in the Church of the Nazarene, originally from Costa Rica, and living in Kiev, Ukraine. Anna is a Spirit-filled lay leader from Armenia. They were wed on December 21, 2012… the last day on the Mayan calendar. You can imagine the fun we had with that! The wedding was wonderful and the celebration that followed was great. The newlywed couple is going to live in Armenia and be a part of the vision and planning for the church in this wonderful country.
We returned to Kiev on the night of Christmas Eve. Because of a snow storm, a late arrival of our plane, and the difficulty of navigating the snow covered streets of Kiev, we arrived at our apartment around 11:30 PM. Christmas day began our first vacation since becoming missionaries on the CIS. We stayed in Kiev and had a wonderful week of family time! Refreshed and renewed, we are back to our normal routine.
We have busy weeks ahead with a trip to Khmelnitsky, Ukraine, and the CIS Partnership meetings in Orlando, Florida (USA). Can you please pray for traveling mercies and Spirit-anointed meetings and conversations? I am thoroughly convinced that I need the daily infilling of God’s Spirit in order to accomplish what He has called us to in the CIS. And that is the way it should be, isn’t it? God calls and God empowers!
