Why I Do What I Do

This past Sunday I ran into a former student at the Wesleyan Church here in Vladimir.  Her eyes lit up with excitement when she saw me.  She said she needed to talk to me and we arranged to meet before tonight's class.  Ksusha is a bright, beautiful, passionate Russian Christ-follower whose love and enthusiasm is contagious.  She also speaks very good English.  Ksusha had taken several classes from me before her graduation from the Bible College in 2009.  Her last class was an online Church Planting course I had taught.  The final assignment for that course was to put together a strategic plan to launch a new ministry.  Now she wanted to share with me what had happened as a result of that assignment.

Ksusha has a heart for foreigners who were living in Russia so she chose for her assignment the launching of an international ministry.  She began praying about this and sharing her dream with her friends.  One of those friends said that she knew there were some Chinese exchange students at the university and maybe Ksusha should sign up to take a course on Chinese and meet some of these students.  That sounded like a good idea, so Ksusha enrolled in the Chinese course and began to befriend some students from China who were in Vladimir to study Russian. 

Ksusha's day job had her working at a driver's education school in the city.  To get a driver's license in Russia you have to pass a 900 question test.  Given the way people drive over here there must not be any behind the wheel training required for a license!  As Ksusha was praying about her outreach to foreign students, a Chinese student walked into the driving school and signed up to prepare for a license. 

Then Ksusha gets a phone call one day from another Chinese student whose mother became a Christian in the mushrooming house church movement in China and asks Ksusha if she can go to church with her.  To date Ksusha has 15 Chinese students she is investing in and having spiritual conversations with, as she reaches out to them with the love of Jesus.  Next month 10 of them will be going with her on the student retreat put on by The Wesleyan Church here in Russia.  She asked me to pray that God will use this retreat to bring her Chinese friends to Christ.

I met one of her Chinese friends on Sunday.  She enjoyed chatting with me in her faltering English.  I thought what a crazy world we live in.  A guy from Texas is having a spiritual conversation in English with a Chinese student who is studying Russian in Vladimir.  All because a student took an assignment seriously and began to pray and believe that God could use her to reach out to "foreigners" and lead them to a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.  Wow!  Just in case you wonder why I do what I do, it doesn't get any better than this!  That's a "Yea, God!" in any language...
Blair