He loves this city

I thought you'd enjoy pics of Sarah Beth's part of the kids' room. It is covered in the normal stuff all teenage girls love: The Beatles and Russian Football posters. The star on the left is the name of her favorite player--Andrei Arshavin.
More Arshavin posters. The words in the heart--nash chelovyek (roughly)--mean "our man."
More Russian Football. The recent Euro Championships, in which Russia made it to the semifinals, had the whole family (along with the rest of Moscow) enthralled.

"Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving and pay your vows to the Most High; call upon Me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me." Psalm 50: 14-15

I can hear that thunder in the distance
Like a train on the edge of town
I can feel the brooding of Your Spirit
"Lay your burdens down, Lay your burdens down."
--"As Sure as Gold (Revival)" Robin Mark

One of my favorite memories of my time as a praise team member at my church is when we took a Sunday night and did the entire songbook of Revival in Belfast by Robin Mark. There are many great songs you know in this collection, but my favorite (at least now) is the song I quote above. It is not as well-known as the other songs in the collection, but it is literally about God's love for a city. I listened to it yesterday as I was walking home from the grocery store. I had just finished listening to my pastor's sermon from Sunday, and I just clicked on this song to get me home. I love it because it is so much about the sights and sounds of a city. I don't think I could totally appreciate that in Middleburg, Florida, which is a fairly small place with not much noise. But a city of 15 million is constant noise. I can't imagine how I'm going to sleep if they ever finish the construction outside our building and I'm not constantly listening to the sound of cranes and drills and hammers.

I also love this song because it is a reminder to me that God loves this mega-city that I call home. (Mega-city is the IMB's designation for a city of this size.) He loves these streets. He loves the high-rise apartment buildings. He loves the drunks leaning on trees to try and stand straight. He loves the little kids playing in the parks. He loves every inch of this city, and He longs to see every person here come to know Him and His love and His forgiveness. It can be overwhelming to live in a place this big. How do you tackle a city of 15 million? The block on which I live has as many people as the town I came from in Florida. I can't even comprehend that. The answer is, of course, that you don't tackle a whole city. You chop it into pieces, you figure out ways to approach groups, and you go from there and pray that God can use you in some way. The answer is that you have an English club and a Bible study that meets in your home, and you work on loving those people to Christ. The answer is that you lay your burden for the city on Him, and sit back and watch the amazing things our giant God can do with lives that are just submissive to Him.

I've said it a thousand times--I have no clue why God chose my family to come here. Not a clue. There are far better (in my opinion) families to do the work we are doing here. But the truth is that He called us. The secret to success here is not in what we do with that call, but in how obedient we are to it. I have no idea what God is going to do with the people who show up every Thursday night for English Club. But I know that God honors our faithfulness in having them in our home. And I can't help but think that in our little, tiny part of this huge city, God is up to something. I don't know what, but I am waiting with anticipation for what He's about to do, and I'm so grateful that I get to be here to witness it.

It is a rainy, stormy day here in Moscow. Normally, that would not be a good thing, but it has been in the 90s every day this week, and we have no air conditioning, so we are grateful for a little cool air. It may cancel the picnic we had planned for tonight with some friends, but pizza and a movie at our house sound good, too. Wherever you are in the world, I pray that you are waiting with anticipation for how God shows Himself in the place you are called to, and that you are enjoying a break in the heat! Blessings to you and yours!

His,
Kellye