So Far...

I started to write this thinking that I would post some of the things that have happened "so far" on this journey. Then I realized I had also been thinking in some other terms of "so far" as of late.

Here's a map of Russia:


Never before have we been "so far" from our home, here in the middle of America. When we reach Moscow, we will tie our record of when we went to Israel in 2009. As soon as we board the plane for Novosibirsk, we'll be heading further than we've ever been from home.

When we arrive in Novosibirsk, we will be "so far" from home, that when our bodies will think it's lunch time (about 11:00am for me!), it will actually be midnight! Thirteen time zones separate us!

When we board the train heading further into Siberia to Irkutsk, we will be "so far" from the US Embassy (our security blanket as Americans abroad), that if there were trouble, it would be a five-day journey by train to reach the embassy!

Despite all this, we fully realize that the Lord has never before called us "so far" beyond ourselves. He sees beyond the cultural differences of a place "so far" from normal to us...and knows His purposes for this trip. I guess the main purpose is becoming pretty clear to me now: to share His great love and grace, which I know is "so far" beyond my comprehension, with people we've never met.

So why are we willing to go "so far" in obedience to a call we can't hear with our ears, by a God we can't see with our eyes? We know He has spoken these things to us, and because, like David, we recognize how gracious the Lord has been to us. "As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us." --Psalm 103:12