kingdom to another people, the Lord allowed no one to oppress them; he rebuked kings on their account, saying, ‘Touch not my anointed one, do my prophets no harm!’”

We have been living in Russia now for nine years. We are foreign missionaries here, which is to say temporary workers, guests, sojourners. We live in a rented apartment. We work under a religious affairs visa, which we have obtained one year at a time. It’s a completely legal arrangement based on Russia’s constitution and international agreements guaranteeing freedom for religious workers. Although foreign missionaries are tolerated, most Russians consider people like us completely unnecessary, or perhaps something of a nuisance or an embarrassment. Foreign missionaries are thought of in these ways first of all because many of us are from the West. Russians have their own ancient and deep cultural and religious traditions. They tend to mistrust foreigners in general and the West in particular. Moreover, most foreign missionaries are Protestants, and not Orthodox. From time to time the Russian Orthodox Church will issue a media statement about the danger of totalitarian sects led by foreign missionaries. The statements are vague enough to make it impossible to identify exactly to whom they are referring but clear enough to cast suspicion on Protestant missionaries.

But God has taken good care of us here. For the reasons mentioned above, we don’t publicize the fact that we are missionaries, but to be quite frank, during the nine years we have lived in Russia we have experienced almost exclusively a sympathetic attitude toward us among the people we have met, both people in the churches we work with and people having no direct involvement with us. We have no complaints about the way we have been treated. We consider it a privilege to serve here. We know it is far, far more difficult for the Ukrainians, the Moldovans, and the Russian nationals who serve here as pastors and missionaries.

Last week, U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney gave a speech in Lithuania in which he criticized Russia for curtailing civil liberties and using its energy resources as “tools of intimidation and blackmail.” Just a few days earlier, the elderly Russian dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn gave a rare interview in which he criticized the United States for seeking to hem Russia in geopolitically by expanding its influence in the countries surrounding Russia. He praised President Putin for resisting American imperialism and correcting the mistakes that Gorbachev and Yeltsin made. He condemned Gorbachev and Yeltsin for selling out to the West. Whose words should we trust? It is hard to know.

I don’t allow myself to become vexed about such exchanges between the superpowers as much as I did when we first moved here. After nine years, we have found our niche, our place of life and service, even if it is temporary. We make our plans, both short-term and long-term, but life must be lived one day at a time, one week at a time, one month at a time, one year at a time. We are sojourners, few in number and people (certainly by this world’s standards) of little account, based in the capital of one of the world’s super-powers, going about our work. Donald organizes training seminars for pastors, Sunday school teachers and missionaries and publishes books and a magazine on children’s ministry. Laurie is a substitute teacher and serves on the school board at our children’s school. We serve here because we are convinced that God is great, and he has given us this work to be a blessing in the world.

Our status as sojourners, living in a land not our own, has become more complicated recently by the fact that our children have begun to head off to college in the United States. Hannah is in her second year at Asbury College in Kentucky. Christiana will graduate from high school at the end of this month and go off to Gordon College north of Boston in the fall. Such an arrangement makes it impossible for our children to come home for the weekend. Vacations are also complicated because of international travel and visas and because we have no “homestead” in the United States. Ours is a dilemma typical for many missionaries. We are seeking God’s guidance about what to do in the future.

This summer from June 5 through July 19, a service team of eight college students representing the New Wilmington Misisonary Conference will come to Russia to conduct children’s vacation Bible school camps in three or four communities in Russia and Siberia. Together we will conduct the lessons based on the theme “Children of Abraham” that I mentioned earlier. We plan to hold three of those camps for the native Nenets and Khanti children living in settlements on the Ob River near Salekhard. Please pray for us. This will be a very demanding trip, both physically and emotionally, because we will be living in primitive conditions at a time of year when the mosquito population is at its largest. If you have ever visited Siberia in the early to mid-summer you will have an appreciation for these mosquitoes. Hannah will assist as a translator for the group. We will be joined by local leaders in every area to which we go.

Laurie, Christiana, and Jeremiah will return to the United States to visit family, friends, and churches, for doctor visits, basketball camp for Jeremiah, and, we hope, a summer job for Christiana. Hannah and I will join them late in July for a couple weeks of vacation and family anniversaries. Then we will drive the girls to their colleges. Late in August Laurie, Jeremiah, and I will return to Moscow for Jeremiah to begin ninth grade.

If you are a follower of Jesus, you also, like Abraham, are a sojourner. You know that nothing in this world is permanent. For you “look forward to the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:10). It’s this vision of God’s unshakeable kingdom that gives us the courage to act with confidence amidst so many uncertainties in this life.

Thanks for being a part of the group of people who share this life with us by your prayers, by your expressions of encouragement, by your personal and financial support. We are grateful for you.

In the grace and peace of the Lord,

Donald Marsden

The 2006 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 188