Friday, January 15, 2010

Let's start at the very beginning...

Here's where the recent journey towards Wycliffe Bible Translators began.

God was so gracious to us on the trip to Ukraine in August. Our travels were smooth, all luggage arrived, we were generally healthy enough to do all we intended to do. The conference went well, we interacted with such wonderful folks who have made Ukraine their home and place of ministry, and everything seemed to be going just fine on my fifth visit there.

One afternoon during the conference, I had opportunity to take a walk with Steve & Nancy Wooden in the city center of Lviv. We reached Veronika (wonderful place, but that's another story for another day!) and stopped for a break. During our chat, Steve challenged me to consider coming to Ukraine long-term to do behind-the-scenes work, similar to my role now at Faith Church.

Wow. From my perspective, that question came out of nowhere! I told Steve & Nancy it just felt like the "wrong time." After all, I had my plans already made.

You see, right before heading to Ukraine, I had sold my condo that had been on the market for a year and put an offer on another house. I knew things were on hold because of some complications, but there was every indication the offer would be accepted. Having a new house that I would need to sell just didn't make sense to me. "Besides," I told them, "I am getting too old." (Yes, I said that.)

So, I did make a mental note of Steve's challenge, and I did keep thinking about it, but had basically ruled it out. The trip concluded smoothly with only one flight delay on the last leg. We arrived home late on August 18.

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