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Comforting Those Who Mourn
Report K
November 14, 2006
May Your Glorious Name be blessed and exalted -
above all blessing, and above all praise! (Nehemiah 9:5)
May we so endeavor to live: that The Glorious Name of God may be exalted and blessed in all we are and do. I just finished reading through Nehemiah, and it's a great Book – if you haven't yet read it, i encourage you to do so; and if you've already been through it, why not read it again? Nehemiah was an interesting servant of God... he greatly trusted in The Lord, and was very zealous for His honor. We even find him doing things that would be quite shocking in our day and age (you'll have to read The Book to know what i'm talking about). Chapter 9 is amazing, and glorifies God in speaking of His Character and of His mercy and forgiveness.
Lord willing, the next report you receive will be from Pittsburgh, PA – i leave Bsln on Thursday the 23rd, and am due to arrive in Pittsburgh Friday evening. I would greatly appreciate your prayers for me to be able to wrap up everything here, as well as for a safe trip home. And please ask God to give me endurance and patience in traveling; i leave Bsln about 3 PM Thursday (about 8AM EST), and have a very long layover in Moscow. It's then on to Munich, Chicago, and finally to Pittsburgh. I'm not writing to complain; when my dad's side of the family came to the US from Italy about 100 years back, they spent around a month on a boat. So i'm not complaining! Just that i ask you for your prayers for safety, patience, and good connecting flights. I'm due to enter and fly out of Chicago's O'Hare airport, which is known for – shall we say – 'occurences.'
As the above verse says, my heart is that YHWH's Glorious Name is greatly praised and exalted in having seen all He's done here during these 3 months. All the glory belongs to The Lord, and i want to explicitly acknowledge that. I praise Him for His faithfulness and love and encouragement, and for all of you who have prayed, given, written, and loved so much. Please keep me in your prayers for my time in Pittsburgh, from where i hope to be able to continue serving the people of Bsln in putting together more music for them, as well as an informational CD to pass on to all of you, and other ministry projects as well. Lord willing, i'd also like to begin an 'adopt-a-family-in-Bsln' prayer program, letting interested believers know specific families' details, information, as well as photos and addresses. May The Lord so build as He sees fit (Psalm 127).
May His Glorious Name be blessed and exalted forever!
Monday, 11/6/06 – The Lord blessed be to visit with a babushka (grandma) here that i know named Olya. She is quite fiesty and direct, and usually chews me out for not having visited in such a long time! But she also has a very generous and soft side, and God enabled me to share with her about our needing to believe in Jesus. She claims she is an athiest, seeing all the rotten things which happen in the world – but she also has an openness to hearing about The Lord. To God's glory, Olya told me today, 'I didn't listen to the last person who told me I needed to believe in God, but I'm listening to you. If you knew this babushka, you would join me in greatly praising God, 'cos she can at times appear to be extremely hard to reach. She mentioned something about herself going to Hell: i spoke of how God doesn't want anyone to be in Hell. But, He Is also Generous and gives us our choice. If you choose Hell, He will give you what you ask for – but you don't have to be there. Olya lives very close to School No.1 (the school which the terrorists attacked), and so heading home i walked past it. On the other side of the school was a man and his car... it was Valiko. Valiko's wife and only child (Elvira) were held hostage during the attack; and sadly, his little girl never survived. Knowing him and his family, i greeted him and we talked some. Valiko represents many of the people of Bsln: families who lost their loved ones in such a horrid massacre – families who to this very day come to the place where their loved ones lost their lives... perhaps just to sit and think... perhaps to try and find some sort of consolation in being there... and perhaps to once again try and figure out how it all took place and to try and find out whether there was something more that they could have done to save their loved ones. These are the families of Bsln – people who will live with this grief and pain and inconsolable sorrow all their lives, until the day The Lord Himself heals those wounds. That is not pessimism – that is simply the reality. Pray for fathers like Valiko who live with such vivid sorrow every single day... ask The Lord to comfort them, and help them find peace in His love.
Tuesday, 11/7/06 – Visited my friend Batik and his family this evening – they are believers, and very kind people. Batik introduced me to a smiling little boy who was also there with his (the boy's) aunt and cousins: the 6-year-old's name is George, and his story is so tragic. George was in the terrorist attack along with his father, mother, older brother, and grandma – but only George survived. He now lives with his aunt and uncle (his father's brother) and their two young kids. The terrorist attack took place from September 1-3, 2004, which means George was only 4 years old at that time. My heart just absolutely breaks for this young boy, and i don't really even know what to write.
Afterwards i went and taught Madina (who lost all four of her siblings in the massacre and was there herself as well) English; Madina and her family are believers. The Lord also blessed me to help translate some letters that their family has received.
Thursday, 11/9/06 – Went and taught Madina (a different one who lost her younger brother in the massacre), and her babushka was there also. We talked, and her grandma told me how she still has such great sorrow after her grandson, Marat's, death. She hasn't traveled since then, and doesn't even color her hair any more because of her grief. She told me, 'Life is very difficult without him.' Madina's babushka, like many women here, has a very sad story. Close to three years ago, her husband died – then, a little over two years ago, 10-year-old Marat was killed in the attack. Sometimes when i hear what's happened to so many people in Bsln, i feel like saying, 'What else could happen to such people who have already seen so much sorrow?' Many people have seen tragedy upon tragedy upon tragedy. Later that night, after i was already home, Alina (a teenager who survived the attack and who lives in Madina's apartment building) called me to have me help them settle a dispute. She and another neighbor (Aslan, who also survived the attack) were having a sort of light-hearted argument with Madina about the correct pronunciation of “Michael.” Madina also got on the phone to verify it with me; the others thought the “ch” was like the “ch” in “cheese” - Madina disagreed, saying the “ch” was pronounced like “k.” Way to go Madina! She won, the prize being that Aslan would have to buy her 3 candy bars. Alina asked me why, and i tried to explain it – for those of you who say you can't learn aother language, praise God that you already know English! Russian is extremely difficult, but at least it's phonetic! For example, analyze the different sounds “gh” produces in the following words: light, ghost, and laugh. A crazy language we have indeed! Their call cheered me up, though that may sound strange to you. i had been feeling down, and their phone call and argument made me laugh – hearing them laughing as they tried to argue their sides, as well as hearing their reactions once the verdict was delivered. I thank God for the (seemingly strange at times) ways He helps lighten our hearts when we're feeling down!
Friday, 11/10/06 – Went and visited with Vova and his family (they are young believers, and cool people). We talked about many different things, and The Lord blessed me to encourage Zifa (Vova's wife) to stay in The Word. She mentioned that she doesn't see that she's growing in her walk with God, but confessed to not really being in The Scriptures. I shared that, in my opinion, our real spiritual growth stems much more from our personal time with The Lord rather than from what we receive in church meetings. I am not 100% perfect in doing so either, but i stand totally convinced that the number 1 way to spiritually grow in our faith is to remain in His Word. And God enabled me to encourage her that 'feeling' growth is not to be taken out of context. We all will go through seasons in our walk where we can emotionally feel progress, improvement, and those sorts of things. But we cannot look to those feelings as the proof of our growth. Giving an example, i told how when i woke up in the morning, i did not emotionally 'feel' that i was American. I simply am, and that's all there is to it. (If our faith is in Jesus Christ, The Bible assures us that we are God's children. Feelings will come and feelings will go. But we need to resolve the matter: God is either a liar, or He meant what He said.
Child of God, you are a child of God because God Himself says you are – and that's all there is to it.) Vitalik, Vova's brother, and i talked about different spiritual topics, and all in all it was a very nice visit.
Saturday, 11/11/06 – Went and visited Rada and her family (they lost their young cousin in the terrorist attack). The topic of God came up, and Rada said she doesn't believe in Him. I asked why not, and she said she didn't think He existed. I showed her my digital camera, saying that in looking at such advanced technology can instantly know someone created it; and since the human eye alone is far more complex than any camera, we can understand that Someone made it as well. If God didn't make us, then no one made my camera, either.
Later visited with Khetag and Irina, a brother and sister who lost many friends in the school massacre. Irina's friend, Diana, was there as well as Khetag's friend (also by the name of Khetag). The Lord blessed me to give away three of my CDs, and they put one on. Diana asked what the first song ('century 21') was about, and i shared how in our age we think we're so smart with all our technology, but many people live without reason. But in Jesus, life has a meaning.
Sunday, 11/12/06 – Went to Baptist fellowship in the morning. It was a good service, and one of the preachers spoke on 1 John 2, about us not to love this world. He also mentioned that we ought not to be ashamed in serving The True God and living rightly... let those who live otherwise be ashamed, but we should not be. Amen! After the service, Zaremfira invited me to have lunch with her family. Her father, Misha, also preaches during services; Zaremfira and her husband (Igor) have been through a lot. Igor used to drink really heavily, and it got to the point to where she kicked him out of the house. By God's grace, Igor's sobered up and found work, but it seems that he may fear coming back to the fellowship because of people's gossip. The four of us (Zaremfira, Igor, Misha, and i) had a great lunch together, and The Lord enabled me to encourage Igor that the most important thing is simply our personal walk with Jesus. God helped me to bring up the end of John's Gospel, and how it's helped me many different times in my life. Jesus told Peter how he (Peter) was going to die, and Peter, seeing John, asked Jesus what would happen to him (John). Jesus told Peter, 'What's that to you? You follow Me.' In truth, it doesn't matter what happens to other people, or what they may say about us – Jesus calls us to follow Him. Period! Please pray for Igor. The Lord blessed us all to have a very nice time together, and then after we watched some of their older comedy programs. (For those who have never traveled outside the US, you might be surprised to know that cultural standards for humor vary quite widely! We watched what appeared to be a Russian version of The 3 Stooges, but their antics were incredibly 'less funnier' than The Stooges'. This family, including the two children, laughed and laughed, apparently finding the programs to be really funny – i also laughed, but mine was admittedly more 'social laughing' than actually from my heart. I sometimes wish i could take things from the culture here and show them in America, simply to watch the response of the common person there. Now that would be funny indeed!)
Please pray for:
- The Lord to comfort all the hearts filled with such great sorrow here;
- The brothers and sisters in South Ossetia (now located in Georgia's borders) – ask God to strengthen and bless His church there;
- The peace of Jerusalem, and His salvation for His chosen people, the Jews;
- me... pray that The Lord helps me finish te labor here, and gives a safe trip back to Pittsburgh.
- yourselves! That our Lord will richly bless and reward each person who has poured into this ministry.
All the glory be to YHWH,
jason
jalazone7@yahoo.com
May Your Glorious Name be blessed and exalted - above all blessing, and above all praise!
(Nehemiah 9:5)
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