New births, more often than not, are a long, arduous process. I’ve never given birth (nor do I expect to), but from what I’ve gathered the process can be filled with pain, strife, and finally joy. A mother spends what seem to be countless hours in labor when bringing forth a child.
I’ve no doubt that Mary went through the same struggles when she brought Jesus into the world. New life results in joy, but struggle must present itself to give joy its meaning.
I’ve seen this principle exhibited in people’s spiritual lives too. Take Pasha’s story for example. The first weekend in December, a group of Americans came over for a week to help us give a conference for students. The conference covered topics such as The Existence of God, The Uniqueness of Christ, Relationships, and the reliability of the Bible. There were well over a hundred students there and about half were non-believers.
Pasha was one of those non-believers. In fact, about two years ago he was an adamant atheist. But after some further study of philosophy, he began to question his atheism. After the first meeting at the conference, he began to think some more. He then said that his position is now more believing in God than not. He left the conference with his interest peaked.
I met with Pasha this last week to talk with him further. We talked at length about Christ and the Gospel, and accepting Christ into his life. He agreed with me on most every point, but was not ready to surrender his life to Christ. He said that he has many questions and would like to understand more before making such a decision.
Jesus said, "no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." For Pasha, the struggle of birth is beginning. Whether he accepts Christ and comes out a healthy, new creation remains to be seen. Pasha is more open to the Gospel of Christ now than he has been or may ever be. He is at the edge of a precipice and needs the faith to step out.
Please pray for Pasha and others like him. Many other students in Minsk are in the same stages of "birth." Please pray that they will allow God to create them anew.
Many encouraging things are happening here in Minsk since I last wrote you. The conference has given our ministry an incredible boost, as has the extra time to really get to know many of the students we work with.
For Christmas our team will travel to Switzerland for a conference with other similar teams that are stationed throughout Eastern Europe. Pray that it will be a good time of team building and fellowship as we are away from our families. After the conference we will take our vacation visiting some exchange-student friends from Belgium, and spending New Year’s in France. It will be a different Christmas for me, but I think being away from all of the American commercialization of the holiday (Christmas isn’t that big a deal in Belarus) has helped me appreciate it more.
I do want to wish you and yours a merry Christmas, and I thank you for your continued support of me and my team. I really do consider you an integral part of this ministry, and am privileged to have you alongside me.
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