October 23, 2007

Dear Friends and Family,

I write to you again to share a story. In the Perm session of the vacation bible School seminar, the Pittsburgh team and I got to know a young woman who is a great witness to God’s healing love. Her name is Inna.

In one of the seminar activities, we asked the students to write, in four simple sentences, their personal history as a Christ-follower. Inna’s personal story stood out even in its simplest form: "As a child, my family moved very often so I never finished a year in school in the same place. I had no friends and was very lonely. When I was 13, I went to a church and they taught me that Jesus loved me and died for me on the cross. Now I can be happy all the time."

Like us, Inna and her family were staying in the church guest accommodations. The last evening, Inna came into our room to chat. We talked about our families and ministry. I was surprised to find that Inna is the same age as our eldest, Allison. At 24, she is the mother of 4- and 6-year-old daughters. She has had a very different journey from our daughter. As we chatted, the details of her personal story unfolded.

Inna’s parents were always moving to find better pay. They went back and forth between Moldova and Ukraine. Sometimes she lived with her parents, sometimes with her grandmother. For a time she was in an orphanage in Russia. Her parents divorced at some point. As a result of her irregular school attendance, she was out of synch with school programs and struggled academically. She was plump and wore big glasses. She had no friends and was very lonely.

At 13, she returned to Ukraine from the Russian orphanage to live with her father. He was an abusive man who punched her, knocked her down, and kicked her. It was at this point in her life that she first visited a Baptist church. There she found the love she hungered for. They taught her that Jesus loved her, had died for her, and would always be with her and care for her. This news touched her life in a profound way. She found joy.

Not long after this, she returned to Moldova to live with her grandmother. When her grandmother found out that she was going to a Baptist church, she gave Inna a choice—“Go to the Baptist church or live with me.” Inna did not think she meant it. She went to church on Sunday, and when she came home her belongings were outside the door. Fortunately, grandmothers from the Baptist church took her in and treated her as their own. When they discovered that Inna had a strong desire to teach children, they offered to pay her way to a local Christian college. Her hope and prayer at this point was to return to Russia and help children.

In her second year at the college, she took part in a friend’s wedding. At the dinner, they sat across the table from a young man, Misha. They were delighted to find that both wanted to be missionaries to Russia. Inna went home from the dinner asking the Lord if she might have Misha for a husband. In the following two years, they saw each other, but nothing more momentous took place. Inna had five or six proposals, but she turned them down, each time wondering if she would ever get another. At the end of the fourth year, she had a dream about Misha. They were each coming along separate paths, joined hands, and continued along a single path. That day, Misha proposed to her and she accepted with joy. (In the Baptist church here, young people don’t date. They do things in groups, and at some point, they pair off and get married.)

As she began to have children, she discovered the damage her father had inflicted on her. Her organs were damaged and out of place, and she had great difficulty carrying babies, losing at least one. With the pregnancy of her eldest daughter, she began bleeding at five months and had to stay in bed for the rest of the pregnancy. With her younger daughter, she began bleeding even earlier and was in a great deal of pain. After her birth, Inna was so ill she spent months in the hospital. She was in a ward with women having abortions. She struggled so to carry her own miraculous babies; she felt called to witness to the other women and showed them pictures of her two girls. At least one young woman had second thoughts and gave her baby a chance.

Misha and Inna set out to Russia as missionaries. They were sent to Chita, a brutally cold city in Siberia in the mountains on the Chinese border. They all suffered from vitamin deficiency and didn’t see a lot of sunshine, but they were together in ministry. At the end of their period in Chita, they asked to go someplace warm and accepted a call to a church in Anapa, on the Black Sea. They expected a ripe field, as Anapa is a resort community. They thought it must be a big church with people flocking to it. What they found was something very different. They arrived early on their first Sunday. Inna sat down with the children in the back, so that she could leave quietly if they fussed. Immediately, someone told her that place was taken. She moved to another, but again was told the place was taken. She moved again, again the same. She stood out in the narthex waiting for the church to fill, so that she could find an empty place. There was no place for her to sit. One of the girls began to cry (an infant), and someone fussed at her, telling her it was God’s house and the baby was disturbing the peace. Inna went outside and cried.

After living in Chita, Anapa was very hot for them, and Misha had arrived to preach in short sleeves. After the service, the brothers gathered to chastise him for appearing in church with bare arms. Only a week after arriving, they were both ready to leave. They stayed for two years doing a ministry at a drug rehabilitation center. Inna invited women into her one-room apartment for Bible study and fellowship. Large groups gathered, sitting everywhere. When, after two years, they accepted a call to Perm, the church was sorry to see them go. Inna and Misha rejoiced to finally be on their way.

With all that she has been through, Inna carries no bitterness. Her voice has the quality of joy. When we met in that upper room in Perm, Inna and Misha had only just arrived. They were still looking for an apartment from which to begin a new ministry. I would ask for your prayers for this young family. May the Lord grant them health and strength as they begin again.

We thank you all for your prayers for our health and strength throughout this year. We cherish the bonds we have with you in Christ. We hope that you have all had the opportunity to participate in Mission Challenge ’07, with PC(USA) missionaries in your congregations to share the stories of your missionaries across the globe. We know that our colleague and friend, Gary Payton, has been traveling across the vast stretches of Montana. Please hold all of these missionaries in prayer as they finish their travels in the States and make their journeys back to the field. May the Lord grant them health and strength as they too begin again.

Peace and blessings,

Ellen

The 2007 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 186