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Staff Reports
Reports of recent Trips and Work by Godspeed Missionary Care
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Staff Missionary Reports
Reports and Experiences of the Godspeed Staff
...You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies...
Psalm 23:5
Dear friends and family,
We sit on the floor, looking through a family album...the
fading black and white tones and fraying edges reveal that
these are from my era. Here is a young woman in her teens, a
young man in his military uniform, a snapshot of their wedding
day with laughing, proud family surrounding them. There, a
touching multigenerational photograph, with aunts and uncles
and cousins and grandmothers and a family outdoor gathering
from years past. Picking out the right face in the elementary
school group picture is almost as hard as trying to fathom
the future in a graduation pose from a later year. So many
similarities to images of my own childhood, with a few
exceptions...while the child in the album picture was sitting
at her desk in grade school, I was roughly at the same age
learning to "duck and cover" under mine. While the leadership
of her country was teaching her to detest capitalism, the
leaders of my country were preparing me to take refuge in the
event of a nuclear attack during a school day. And as I grew
up, the image of a cold, mechanically unemotional, humorless
Soviet empire became my only image of the other people in
the "us versus them" atmosphere of the 50's and 60's.
And now almost a half century after I learned to huddle under
my desk at the anticipated first flash of light from an atomic
blast, I am a guest in a small home in a village on the
outskirts of Kiev, sharing about family and feelings, hearing
the stories of the ups and downs and sadness and gladness of
family life from a couple whose parents' early lives so resemble
my own.
From two cultures with shared traditions of hatred, war and
deception, we find a sense of common belief and purpose.
What an incredible God who could work such a miracle, bring
about such a resolution, create harmony and union out of such
longstanding conflict!
Karen and I are here to offer help to a marriage in crisis.
It has been a difficult time, listening to the accumulation
of hurts and dashed hopes, of accusations and false
assumptions, all dating back years but coming to a rather
rancid fruition recently. It would be easier in a way if we
heard these types of stories only from non-Christians. But
from much professional and woefully too much personal
experience, we know that those who love Jesus and belong to
Him do not necessarily always know how to love one another
well. Life events that far precede a marriage may prompt
actions and reactions that can poison trust and intimacy,
and such negative elements can, even after salvation, not
only survive but thrive if not attended to openly, Biblically,
and persistently. We serve a God who is in the business of
restoring relationship, and it is no surprise that the enemy
attacks first and foremost in the same arena. And after years
of such corrosion, hopelessness replaces hope and the face
of a spouse becomes the face of an enemy. We see the need
in this particular situation for so much more than we could
ever accomplish even if we had much more time than we do.
But while recognizing our total lack of capability, I know
this: our incredible God can work such a miracle, bring about
such a resolution, and create harmony and union out of such
longstanding conflict.
We thank you for your prayers for this and so many similar
situations in so many Christian families in so many parts
of the world. Your notes are very encouraging. And thanks
again for the prayers for my own family; my parents' health
began to improve soon after we arrived. We are due back late
Saturday evening, but should be able to check e-mail before
we leave. I look forward to hearing from you...
Godspeed,
Barney, for Karen and the Godspeed team
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