I went with Yuri today to his house to finally see this place he has been so feverishly working on for the last several weeks. What’s an orphan doing with a house, you ask? Don’t be so hasty. This is the house (duplex) that he, his sister, and mother lived in before the family was…

Something I’ve always liked doing is getting out in the community to meet new (to me) ministries. I don’t do nearly enough, but I have extra motivation with my new role at MIR. Just Monday, I found out about a ministry well outside the city that serves much the same population as the Harbor –…

Yuri showed up for his weekly visit the other day. Only he didn’t look well: two black eyes that proved a violent confrontation had befallen him. He had just that day come out of the hospital after nearly a week there! The reason: a couple of fellow students had come to pay him a visit…

As I reported recently, I’ve been asked to serve on the board of a local ministry, MIR, who serves other ministries in the city be providing administrative services, program help, and connections with Western volunteers. Here is a summary of my first day (April 20th) going in to see how I could help: I met…

Out of the blue I got an email in the states asking me to join the board of a ministry in Petersburg that I have known about and respected since we got here. MIR, the Russian word for “peace” and also an acronym for “Mercy and Joy,” is actually a lot like my old ministry…

I wrote this praise report to my intercessory team this week: I hope I can communicate to you the level of excitement I feel at this moment. First some background. While we were on furlough, I attended a conference. Picked up a book that looked good for my kids. Went to the web site for…

The following is a transcript of the message I gave to my home church in Georgia just before we left to return to Russia last month. It represents an important development in my thinking about why we are hear – not merely to minister to the orphans, but to the orphan spirit that drives it…

Simon got up from nap yesterday crying. He sometimes does that when you get him up prematurely, but this was not the case. Moreover, he kept going, and going, and going. It wasn’t pain; he just wanted to cry on my shoulder. Try as I might, he wouldn’t tell me what was going on. So…

To our great regret, we have had to cancel both of this weekend’s gatherings. Why? Snow is coming yet again (this isn’t the Richmond I remember), and even though it still may not be prohibitive, Packing is upon us to get ready to leave the state on time, and Diana is feeling pretty overwhelmed and…

We don’t plan to leave Russia. I sometimes even tell Russians that we will die there (I’m in the states as I write on furlough). This really shocks them, since they are not used to missionaries being so committed to them. Of course God’s will be done, but I really can’t see having a significant…