Our hearts are heavy with the continued uncertainty in Ukraine. We’ve postponed our return trip now twice. Our return tickets are currently planned for this next weekend. Will we return? Just myself? How can I be the most useful to the Lord? Things only look to be intensifying and I can’t imagine taking our family back until we see signs of stability.

We’ve run across several missionaries on this trip down the east coast, and receiving texts through the day from friends seeking the same sort of ‘inside scoop’ that will allow us all to get back to living.

It’s been quite disorienting for many of us who are used to planning more than a week at a time. Clark, our 16yr old said the other day something that hit home for all of us, “I just want to get back to living.” We may look and talk like Americans, but after spending 14yrs in Ukraine, we feel quite at home in Slavic culture. You’d think we’d embrace a seeming unending ‘vacation’ here, but our lives are suspended in the air, and it’s becoming more challenging by the day.

Until then, for us missionaries, it’s like we’re a bunch of airplanes unable to land, without a runway assigned. We’re each learning to trust in the Lord in the present moment, each day, in fresh ways. All the while, our hearts just want to land, be home, and do life with those we love and are investing in together.

It sounds shallow compared to those in Ukraine right now, without any options to head to safety, whatever that is. Their lives are not only on hold as well, but the immanent ‘doom’ that is the nature of fear, is very real. We can pray, we can trust the Lord knows our plight, but there’s a place of faith, of deciding what to do for our families, and ministries we are stewards of. God has made us each in His divine image, with the capacity to will to the left, or right. We listen, we ask, we knock, but we must move our faith into the realm of the material world, and trust the goodness of God that He will grant us the capacity to listen well, and move in wisdom. These decision for many are being made, I read about them, I know many of them, I feel for them deep in my heart. They are not easy, they are not all the same.

Holding patterns. This is part of the evil of war, and the threat of it. The unknown, the uncertainty. Lives upended, rhythms altered. Will we return to our known? Will we gather once again with those we love, in the living rooms we laughed and cried together in? Will we know the peaceful walks in our neighborhoods, the same sunsets? We take these questions for granted in times of stability, but when the parameters of our reality are pressed upon, out of our control, we’re forced to reckon with our faith in new ways.

We are sojourners, but if we’re honest, do any of us really want to be? Yes, our homes are eternally in the heart of God, but this present world is precious, revealing the aroma of heaven in our places of community. Those relationships, and the symbols we value together, are the closest thing we have on earth as it is in heaven. We hold out hope that we will soon be back in those blessed, imperfect spaces.

Until then, we encircle in these holding patterns, actively trusting, willing, yet uncertain.

“But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, where grafted in their place to share in the root of the Olive tree, do not boast over the branches.”

Romans 11:17

The first Christians that gathered in Rome, like all of the early Christian churches, were hybrid Jewish communities. Hybrid in the sense that fundamental Jewish ritual, and Torah keeping was synthesizing on the fly with teachings and the witness of Jesus Christ. Gentiles, representing converted Jewish and an expanding pagan believers, found themselves coming together under the belief that Jesus Christ rose from the dead, and had established the kingdom of God through a new, expanded, and even global people.

The traditional Jews wanted to keep Sabbath (14:1-6), and saw no reason to change several ancient practices that had come to represent pillars in their faith, convictions that were deeply personal. The Gentiles however, had no such inclinations and considered every day alike. The Jews, under Torah, kept strict dietary requirements, these too became issues for the church as the Gentiles took liberty in ways that wedged and divided the new community.

If matters from within the community weren’t enough to confront, there was Rome, the powerful governing autocracy pressing upon the empire. Believers in the belly of the beast, so to speak, were in a sense representatives for the whole of this new Jewish sect around the Mediterranean world. Rome had it’s hands full these strange monotheists in cities like Corinth, Ephesus, and Thessaloniki; how the Christians behaved and represented the witness of Christ in Rome, surely Paul had in mind when writing to the believers in Rome.

In the year 2022, it’s easy to forget that we too, like the newly grafted in branch, are not the tree. We have no root of our own. This faith, this covenant with God established in Jesus Christ was, and is an ongoing grafting of the nations into the nourishing, life-giving root system of faithfulness shown to the patriarchs of the Jewish faith. God’s promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the love and commitment shown to Israel became known to you and I through human disobedience. Paul’s reasoning in chapter 11-12 works like this:

Israel rejected Christ, and therefor God broke off the branch of the olive tree to make room for all nations (11:31). Therefore don’t be proud, or haughty in your faith, because you were already disobedient, cut off from mercy in the first place and it’s only through the rejection of Christ, both Jew and Gentile that mercy has come to each of us that believe. Then, Paul appeals to the Jewish believers in an astonishing, at least to me, turn of logic – He says the Jewish believers should also remain humble, because it’s through the Gentiles that God’s mercy is re-established in and for the branches – He’s using the Gentiles to graft them back in!

Why would God do this? Paul doesn’t pretend to know the heart and mind of God in this matter, but simply rejoices:

“O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgements, and how inscrutable are His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord?”

Romans 11:33-34

Paul reminds both Jewish and Gentile believers in this new Roman faith community that all have sinned, all have been shown mercy, regardless of their claims to origin or entrance into the body of Christ.

The believers, as equals before one another, living as sacrifices for the good of one another and the world around them (Rom 12:1-2). He reminds them of their diverse nature, each having different gifts, some having prophetic witness, some teaching, giving (12:6-8) but love and honor toward one another is key to upholding their collective witness (12:9-13). He instructs them to be zealous in their faith, rejecting what is evil, to serve the Lord.

We don’t serve men ultimately, though we are to be good citizens (Romans 13:1). It’s obvious that some were not only rejecting Torah entirely, but that with God’s new kingdom on earth some believed one could completely reject the world’s governing structures as well, even forgo paying taxes etc (13:7). In Rom 13:2 Paul speaks of resisting authority. This, as greek scholars will contend, is a continuous posture of rebellion, a rejection of government institutions to the point that the government essentially must turn and sink it’s jaws of justice upon the insurrectionist. For anyone wishing to dig into Romans 13 further, see this exegesis https://learn.gcs.edu/mod/page/view.php?id=4267 –

The context of Romans 13 is surrounded by chapters that give it the proper meaning for the original readers, and our own 21st century application. It’s Christ alone, through the conscience that each person is to navigate one’s convictions. Those convictions should never divide us, we should respect the individual pursuit of worship before God as we promote what we believe to be honorable, good, and right.

We don’t serve Christ for others, but serve Christ for His glory alone.

We don’t serve worldly authority, but our attitudes and actions are revealed through our life long posture towards the structures that govern us. It’s God that has initiated the concept of government, to reject order is to bring upon yourself a world of hurt. This is the heart of what Paul was getting at. He was encouraging the uniquely diverse body of Christ to carefully ensure that when they suffer, and they did suffer, that it be against evil, and not turn in on themselves which would injure their witness.

The Roman believers were struggling under the oppression of Roman government, and also from hostile actors within Judaism who were threatened by their liberty. Paul’s instructions, guided by the Holy Spirit, were for each believer to carefully weigh what matters in their acts of worship, compelling them to embrace their diversity, and their common root of God’s mercy.

Some in the faith, are weak. Their consciences won’t allow them to stand up for or against particular things that others are willing to stand against. What moves and motivates one, may not our neighbor. Paul reminds the Roman believers, both Jew and Gentile, “Welcome those who are weak in the faith, but not for the purpose of quarreling over opinions” (14:1). Essentially, be gracious to one another, let your diverse unity display the unique fragrance of the kingdom. Where the world seeks uniformity, the church embraces true unity as a reflection that emanates from the Trinity and has become our model for relatedness in the body.

The challenge for the church in every generation is to love one. another, always, without exception, as the ultimate ‘imago Dei’ witness. We look most like God when we walk in His gift of unity.

How can we do this? How can we remain humble, and love those that we disagree with, who upset us, or refuse to align with our particular issues of conscience? One way is to heeds Paul’s letter to the Romans. By remembering we are all grafted branches, none of us ‘own’ our spiritual life, and therefor need not defend it. This gift, this love received, flows from the roots of mercy through the nourishing roots of God’s ancient covenant with Israel, renewed and perfected for all in Christ!

Don’t judge others, just don’t do it. “It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand” (Romans 14:4). In matters of conscience, the food we eat, the people we hang out with, the doctrines we espouse, these are all part of our individual journeys as we bring shape and meaning to our lives. We are to come alongside one another, bringing witness to our world that there is a Savior who loves us, unites us in our diversity, and many uncertainties. As much as it is possible with us (Romans 12:8), we remain open to unity with all people. It seems the only thing that keeps the body from this diverse unity, is a predisposition to uniformity. Thinking we must all look alike, think alike, do the Christian life alike; this was the problem in Rome, and continues to effect the body today.

Paul encouraged the believers to remember the fountain of mercy. It’s these nourishing roots that unite us in solidarity with the world as sinners, alienated and undeserving of mercy. We are grafted in, united by who we know, not what we know. This unity, if embraced and celebrated in the church, remind us that our enemy is not from within, but from without. We forgive, and show mercy, patience and endure with the many strange beliefs and actions of others, especially when they do it unto the Lord, from the conscience as their act of service or worship to God. In the end, it will be God that weighs each of our hearts, whom he knows perfectly.

“If we life , we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord.” Romans 14:7.

The truck protests in Ottawa continue, in their third week. My dad is still there, parked legally with receipts for the meter along the road. The PM has declared the emergency act, the equivalent of martial law in the US over hundreds of peaceful protestors, whom the government and media have demonized.

This morning I read an article from 2 years ago entitled “Canada is sinking into totalitarianism” – It’s amazing how what sounds ludicrous can so quickly become a reality in a short time. It’s an interesting read for anyone interested in the precipitating events leading up to the movement of Marxist socialism in Canadian politics. https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/canada-is-sinking-into-totalitarianism-the-evidence-is-overwhelming/

It’s a shame that most Canadians have been both aware of this trajectory, and essentially done nothing about it until now. The trucker convoy is just a spark, igniting the type of government response that affirms the ideological motivations at work from those in power. Many Canadians are so lulled to sleep by illusions of safety from their ‘responsible’ Government, that even the thought that their government is tightening the noose of liberty around the ‘common’ person’s freedom causes simply repeated narratives, rhetoric that bypasses reason and common sense. Independent thought has been replaced by group think, unity by uniformity, and stage is set for a last gasp hope towards genuine democracy, or the very autocracy Canadians set out to be emancipated from when they left the shores of the old country.

Forget about what pundits write about, you need only read for yourself the the World Socialist Website (WSWS). https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/02/04/otta-f04.html

The WSWS (World Socialist Website) whose ultimate goal is the “influence of a socialist political movement guided by a Marxist world outlook” proudly support the Prime Minister of Canada’s strategy of ignoring and denouncing legitimate concerns raised about vaccine mandates. Remember when this was essentially about holding a democratically elected government in check for extreme mandates?

Are Canadians seriously cool with Marxism? Do they even know what this means? Has anyone read history? The federal government’s refusal to acknowledge the content of the grievances of million’s of Canadians is a showcase of the ideology at work. If anything, this protest has pulled the lid off the vision of freedom these ideologues have. Hint… it’s not what you had in the past. Socialist, communist regimes produced the greatest ideological carnage in human history, killing more than a hundred million people in the last century. Secular humanism insists that with the right leaders, it can still work, but the seeds of Hegel have been at the root of every failed attempt, and they are embedded clearly in the heart of many western leaders, like Trudeau who openly embrace the principles of socialism.

Here’s a little primer on Marxism from USA Today – https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2018/05/05/karl-marx-communism-death-column/578000002/

Thankfully we are free in Christ, as a gift, which no government power can take from us who believe. Believers, particularly in democratic reflections, must align with reflections of government that promote the least amount of human suffering – and hands down, socialism, in its varying forms and when permitted to maturate, has produced devastating human suffering.

I highly recommend “The Socialist Phenomenon” by Igor Shafarevich, a contemporary of Solzhenitsyn. It’s a powerful history of origins of socialism as it’s played out over time. Nothing is new here. History is a gift for reminding humanity that we can never ‘progress’ our way out of evil. Socialism denies even the ontological existence of evil, for that would keep humanity accountable to a god, and ‘god’ limits human progress. Yet, the denial of evil ironically ushers it with ferocity. This was the warning cry of Solzhenitsyn to the West, he saw all of this coming.

We’ve been hearing the warnings for what seems like months. Russia has amassed over 120,000 troops around edges of Ukraine, with all the machinery of war. Is this to intimidate the West into concessions over Ukraine’s western trajectory over the past decade, or a legitimate threat?

Our family is still in the US, we’ve twice rescheduled our return tickets to Ukraine. The first time, it was because of positive Covid test results. With the extra time on our hands, we decided to send our passports off to the Russian consulate in DC. Yes, we have felt for the past year that the Lord will be opening doors for us and lead us into Russia itself in an upcoming season. Today, we received all six passports back, with 3 year visas.

We fully intend to return and continue serving among our community and ministries in Ukraine. This is our home, most our financial investments, including extended family and partners are in Ukraine. We love our friends and team there, and believe it will be from this ‘base’ or Lighthouse platform, that we will continue to engage Slavic culture in both Belarus and Russia as the Spirit leads. We see a season of immersion in the Russian language, to finally learn it fluently, and encourage the body of Christ there.

Navigating this particular week has been a burden in our hearts. While we recognize a lot of the media in the West, and the East for that matter is politically charged with real bias on both sides, we do feel the threat is legitimate this week, towards the materialization of an incursions of some form. In my heart, my gut, which is formed from a lot of Russian history reading recently, and hopefully the guidance of the Lord, is that Russia is like a massive ocean that comes crashing upon the shores of Ukraine. Russia will never, under it’s current leadership and ideology, allow for a flourishing western leaning, democratically functioning Ukraine on it’s doorstep. That reality, no matter how much dreaming the Ukrainian people have and political developments take place towards European standards, is a reality that Russia can, or will allow.

Russia would rather wreck Ukraine, than see it flourish as an independent nation, with it’s own claims to heritage, language, and cultural narrative. The continuous crashing waves of destabilization will ensure dissuasion of foreign investments, and the stability required for an emerging middle class. The question, in my mind, is not whether these aggressive actions will take place, they already are in the East of Ukraine, but whether they will increase, and at what cost to the Ukrainian people.

One thing I do know, is that the Ukrainian people are resilient. Russia attempting to occupy more of Ukraine would produce massive casualties on both sides because the Ukrainian people would rather die protecting their independence from Russia than surrender to it. The incursions in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine only worked to cement the rest of the country into a powerful solidarity against Russia, essentially awakening the country to Russia’s true involvement in dictating their national identity.

So, here we are. Why am I writing this particular blog? This is history. History is filled with important moments, moments we’ll remember, and will mark changes not just in our world, but in our lives. This week, I feel is very important, I feel something is about to take place, and though I could look back and blame the media for informing me wrongly, or inflaming anxiety, I also want to track the Lord’s direction in our family, as a testimony for those that come after us. I started writing our partners about this situation in October of 2021, something was afoot.. we felt it, so this is not a surprise, but I think more of a sobering reminder that we live in a world still dominated by fear and the sin that blinds the human heart from it’s true capacity.

We have been delayed from returning now twice, and this time we are planning to return on February 26th. I honestly don’t have peace today that that return is certain. Why? What is about to take place? Are my friends and community that we lead in Ukraine in danger? What advice should we give them, because inside Ukraine, everyone is quite relaxed, having been lulled to sleep by an 8 year war with Russia that weighs on the nations psyche already – If you ask a Ukrainian if they think there will be war with Russia, the most common answer is, “We already are in war with Russia, the rest of the world just forgot about it.”

But, what if the threat from the north in Belarus is real? What if there are legitimate actions being planned by Russia to attack, either through technological or traditional means? What if the energy sector in Ukraine is about to be disconnected, the internet go out, the cell phones go silent? Russia could, without firing a single shot, bring Ukraine to it’s knees, and force consolidations and instigate the kinds of coercive changes they want without dealing with NATO. I believe this is the trajectory, I pray that it’s not machine guns and tanks, Jesus prevent please the use of aircraft and missiles.

When covid hit, our Cafe and ministry was in a really neat place. Our Cafe as a business was finally making profit after years of continuous tweaking and human effort to see a small business float in a tiny Ukrainian village. There was momentum, others felt it too, it was like a light emerging around the country, economically, and spiritually. That momentum was undermined by Covid, like many other countries in the West. This coming virus, the evils of destruction and anarchy that only Satan himself dreams up, will be a death blow to the economic and political aspirations of a people dreaming into their own, unique, and independent culture.

This week is important. The next 10 days, I feel in my heart, are to be days of prayer as the waves of Eastern political powers crash and lay claim to the shores of Ukraine. To be caught on the shores, in places like Eastern Ukraine especially, are not safe places, they are for surviving, where future planning ceases, and endurance is tested.

So, hopefully I’m not posting anything prophetic. I don’t know how how the Lord works, in His mysterious way. I do believe He has placed a calling in our hearts to rise above the visible politics that divide a people rooted in the same history. The beauty of the Slavic people is something that the Spirit will continue to redeem, renew, and unite for His purposes, and glory – I think this is what I need to focus on, and for our family to be postured to serve the Spirit’s ongoing work, whether it’s in the Ukraine we’ve known thus far, or one that resembles more it’s past.

I think we’ll have a better understanding of the trajectory of Ukraine before February 26th – and Lord willing, our home, our friends, our ministry together will enter an even brighter season shining the light of Jesus Christ to the East.

***The following video I recorded and shared to our community in Ukraine, as they are still quite relaxed in general, but for posterity, I thought I’d include it as well. I love these people and praying God gives them wisdom in the coming days to be prepared, but hopeful and trusting in goodness and presence of our sovereign God.