Speaking in the Light – 4-1 Pastor Rudy in Russia

I have just returned from my great adventure that took me to Russia and back. I am grateful to God for the opportunity and for giving me the much-needed courage to not back out because of my fears- and to take “baby steps” all the way to Moscow, Krasnodar, Maikop, St. Petersburg and back to Jersey.
If you have ever seen the classic Bill Murray movie, “What About Bob,” you know exactly what I am talking about, and if you haven’t, then let me give you one more wonderful quote from the movie about a guy who battled through his anxiety issues to finally live life again.
While contemplating whether he should get on a bus to go on a trip, Bob asks the important question: “What if I am looking for a bathroom and I can’t find one and my bladder explodes?” Well, I didn’t let the “What If’s” stop me from experiencing the “What God wanted to really be” and I had the time of my life.
Rudy in Russia was not exactly a marriage made in heaven. For one thing, I learned very quickly that people in Moscow only talk very loud in crowds if they are drunk. For the most part, the culture is very reserved and not very boisterous in public. And here I go, old big mouth, venturing out into the streets talking at the only volume level that I know how to use, the one turned all the way up.
Hey, I’m an Italian Jersey Boy at heart. You may be able to take Rudy out of New Jersey but you can’t take the New Jersey out of Rudy over night. One of the dear Russian Missionaries named Bob politely yet very directly asked me, “Do you even have an inside voice?” To which I replied, this is my “inside voice.” From then on I tried very hard to comply, and let’s just say, I was successful about half the time.
While I have a ton of stories that I want to tell, because of my limited time and space today, let me share about my favorite day during my trip. On a Wednesday, we drove down from Krasnodar, which is a city in the southern part of what the natives call the “Real Russia,” to a town called Maikop.
It was there we traveled with one of my best friends from college, Diane, who is a missionary in Russia and has had a real powerful ministry with the handicapped children and orphanages in that area, and her good friend Natasha. We dropped in on many homes where families with these very “special children” live and all we did all day was just “love on” and prayed with people from the heart.
And even though many of these abodes were very humble dwellings at best, we were still greeted with incredible hospitality and lots of teas and snacks at every stop. I truly thought I was going to float home since I never drank so much tea in one day my entire life. Maybe the bladder exploding fear was an actual threat.
One of our stops took us to a little tiny apartment where a radiant young lady who is 19 years old named Fariza lives with her parents. She has cerebral palsy. Let’s just say that for all the complaining we do about medical care in the US, you just might give your physician a big kiss the next time that you see him or her if you have ever tried to get the same care in Russia.
While there is not much physically that can be done, Diane and Natasha have made it their mission to make sure that this precious angel and the family gets a ton of tender loving care and prayer and some practical needs met every time they stop on by. My heart was both touched and tormented by the whole encounter.
Every life is a gift from God. Every human being has the power to impact another for eternity. The only real handicap is the horror that comes from never being loved and cherished and held and adored. It only took a matter of minutes before Fariza had my heart wrapped around her spirit. When I held her hand and gave her a kiss, she bubbled over with the biggest smile that I have ever seen.
My kisses very rarely have had that effect on anybody, but I wanted this young woman to know that she is important and that somebody is especially fond of her. And not only by me, but by the very God who takes care of her and holds her in the palm of his hand in the midst of a condition where she can’t even hold herself.
While we were sitting around that tiny table in that little apartment sharing the delicacies that were placed hospitably before us, I felt like I was back in my Aunt Jeanette’s house because every time my plate was empty, there was Fariza’s Mom filling my dish over and over again. But before we headed out the door, I asked through my interpreter if I could pray for Fariza and her family. I just knew that God wanted me to do that before I left.
I prayed in my native tongue and even though I knew that my new friends couldn’t understand a word of what I said, I did know that God was translating my heart to let them know that love can really conquer the insurmountable circumstances and there is no battle that is too hard to face when you know that you are not alone.
My hopes and prayers are that I can get back to Maikop in the days to come and bring some others with me to experience what I did. And once again I want to reiterate that God didn’t meet me in those big overblown cathedrals that grace the landscape, but in a tiny little shack, way towards the back where God was present in the least of these.
When will we learn that this is where God is really found? He is in the place that you might least expect to find him in the faces of those that too many miss because they choose to gaze with their heads and not their hearts! So maybe I don’t have the best “indoor voice” but let me say this with the one voice that I do have, it is all about relationships!
Never forget that truth. Blessings and thank you all for your prayers…More stories to come soon…
Write Pastor Rudy pastorrudytlc@comcast.net