Mark's Blog

 In  the mid-nineties, we visited with a well-loved professor at one of our Christian universities . He really didn’t seem like the “missions” type. He taught in the liberal arts, very scholarly, quite creative, but all who knew him knew that above all he was a very committed follower of Jesus—so that made him the genuine “missions” type!!

In the course of one of our conversations, we discovered that he had this burning desire to go to Russia.  In fact, he had been studying Russian on his own for fifteen years!!  That means he was learning Russian when no one thought the Berlin wall would come down, and when no one dreamed that the Soviet Union would disintegrate like it did in 1990/91.

Professor J was a quiet man, wry sense of humor, tall and thin, and if you stood close enough to him you could hear the mechanical valve in his heart clacking.  He had all kinds of jokes about that!

He volunteered to lead a team of students from his university to St. Petersburg, Russia the following summer. In spite of his position and his many responsibilities, he participated in all of the training and truly participated as one of the team members.

Finally, the summer came and he was just as excited, if not more so, than any of the students.  He had been waiting for this opportunity for fifteen years—if not longer.

Every day for six weeks, he read the Gospel of Luke with Russians, from whom the Gospel had been withheld by Communism for seventy years.  He helped people with their English, but sneaked in some practice for his Russian as well. The Russians loved him for that!

For six weeks, he served the small church that was hosting his group. They even asked him to bring the lesson on the last Sunday that the team was supposed to be in Russia.

That last Sunday is always a hard one.  Saying good-bye to people with whom you have talked so intimately, shared subway rides with, walked the streets of St. Petersburg with, it’s hard to say good-by and there are often hugs and tears all around.

Professor J stood that morning in front of the little church, speaking for the whole team, he told both their readers and the church members good-by.  But even in the poignancy of the moment, Professor J brought their attention to God by saying, “We will probably never see you in this world again, but our prayer is that we will all be together again someday in heaven before the throne of Jesus.”

That very evening, that little mechanical valve stopped clacking and Professor J went on ahead to his rest.  From the streets of Russia where he had so longed to visit, from those streets he departed for the streets of Heaven, where he so longed to spend eternity!

His words that Sunday morning now proved to be prophetically true! We were sad, but the impact of Professor J’s life on that little church full of old Communists and new Christians will only produce joy!

May the same be said of your life and mine!