It has been a fun couple of days. As many of you know, I am no longer involved in live radio. What does that mean? For, non-broadcasters, that simply means most of the programming we produce at Mission Network News is recorded. While it makes for good radio, you don’t have the same feel that you have when you’re doing something live. You also don’t have the same response from your listeners.
This week I was able to do live radio again. Thanks to my friend Jack Haveman at WGNB, Moody Radio. I’m filling in for Jack’s co-host Scott Curtis. It’s fun. It’s always a great time to try and put a good radio show together. Although, this week we haven’t been doing any interaction with telephone calls. I do enjoy that interaction. But, that’s just made it more challenging to make the show compelling.
This week has been a challenge for me, physically, however. I am dealing with pains and things that aren’t normal. I will be going to the doctor Friday to see if we can figure out what’s going on. It’s actually quite scary. I’ve had several friends that are dealing with cancer and I fear that.
Now please, don’t go out telling everyone, ‘Greg’s got cancer’ because it’s probably nothing. I’m 42 years old and I’m sure I’m feeling more pains because of that. But, it also makes me start thinking about my life and how I’ve lived my life.
I figure I’ve lived half my life already. The question is, how have I lived it? Have I lived it totally serving Christ? Have I loved and lived for serving others during my life? Has the sin in my life kept me from serving Him as effectively as I could have? What if God decides to plague me with something that will shake me to the core of my being? How will I react?
I don’t have good answers to all those questions. I haven’t ‘totally’ served Christ. I’ve been selfish many times. I haven’t shown love when I should have — especially to my wife and family. I fear being sick. I fear the pain that goes along with it. I fear my family being alone. But, at the same time I know going through something like that would take me to a new level in my spiritual walk with Christ.
When I experienced the problems I did in November with dizziness and numbness, I feared I was sick then. I still have those moments, but I just view it as God’s way of keeping me close to Him.
So, how am I praying? For the first time in my life (well, maybe not the first time) I’m not sure how to pray. Any suggestions?
We got up to a beautiful sunrise at about 10:30am. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. No wind. But, the temperature was -35. It felt much cold than the previous day. We awoke to more reindeer meat, more tea and more bread. Many of us had to use the bathroom, but there are no bathrooms in the tundra. So, we just used the outside. We had to be careful because the reindeer CRAVE salt. Guess what’s in urine. We had to strategically walk away from the herd and not look like we were doing our ‘business,’ otherwise they would RUN to you.
We got ready to hand out the Christmas gift boxes at around noon to the few children who were in this camp of three teepees. Then, we had church. One of the men in our group, Boris, preached a wonderful message, then we sang songs, ate again and prepared to head back to Beliarsk. This is the typical food you’d receive in the tee pee — raw reindeer meat, bread, crackers, and tee.
In tee pee living, the woman is the queen of the tee pee. She rules. She sets up the tee pee, keeps the fire going, cooks, takes care of the children, etc. Men are only guests in the tee pee. Their job is to care for the reindeer heard. This particular family owns 500 reindeer. They can sell it for $5.00 per pound, or $10 per pound in the city. The reindeer feed off the tundra, so when all the feed is consumed, they move somewhere else. It takes nearly
The ride back to Beliarsk was only 3 hours, this time, but still grueling. Each person on our team is sore and exhausted, but truly thankful for the opportunity to explore the world and have a small impact on someone’s life. We arrived back in Beliarsk at around 8:00pm, got warm, ate dinner, had some good fellowship, and traveled two hours back through the winter road to Salehard. It was a great adventure. Now all we have left is sightseeing in Salehard, travel back to Moscow for a little more sightseeing and then home on Saturday.
We flew from Moscow to Salehard on January 6. We stopped by this monument, which identifies Salehard as the only city centered on the Arctic Circle. It wasn’t as cold as it was when I was here four years ago. The temp was around 10 above — very unusual for this part of the world. But, that quickly changed. Salehard is a city of about 30,000. It’s separated by the Ob River. In the winter, the river serves as a bridge to the city of Lobitnangi, a city of about 20,000. Salehard was home to thousands of political prisoners during the days of the Soviet Union. Many Christians died in labor camps here.
Christmas Day in Russia (January 7) was a great day. We spent most of it in church and serving others. We started off at the Baptist Church in Labitnangi, just above the Arctic Circle. We heard from four speakers including Paul Tokarchuk, Moscow Regional Director of Russian Ministries. We also heard from Pastor Sergey, who was commissioned when I was here in 2004. The mood was that of worship. It was a blessing to celebrate Christ’s birth twice this year.
Part of our celebration was the annual Christmas program. I don’t think it matters where you all in the world, when you get microphones and kids together you have funny moments — moments that memories are made from. The program contained a little drama, little ones reciting poems, singing and the annual kids Christmas gift.
Following the Christmas celebration at church, we accompanied Pastor Anatoli Merechev to two orphanages to hand out Christmas gifts. It was part of Russian Ministries’ Greatest Gift Exchange – Project Hope initiative. Russian Ministries provided the boxes and Bibles, the local churches provided the candy, toys and other goodies. The presents were handed out to orphans and poor children to allow the local church to share the Gospel. Without the gifts, the evangelical church isn’t allowed in the orphanages.
From there, we traveled to Pastor Anatoli’s church, Good News Church, which is almost completed for good Christian fellowship. Believers from both churches gathered together to celebrate the birth of Christ. They had good food and many people sang, shared a poem, or just enjoyed their time together as a family of believers centered around the one Christ. This serves as both a church and training center for Next Generation church leaders in the Yamal region of Russia, particularly the Arctic north.
This year it was a quick trip over to Davison, MI where my folks still live. In fact, they still live in the house I was born in — can you believe it? It was a little strange. Only half of my kids were there. Half of my younger sister’s kids were there. All of my older sister’s kids were there. But, everyone was think about those missing — Grandma and Grandpa Yoder. It was always a joy to see them.
Greg Yoder 