Post-Christmas

Our children totally spoiled us. Getting together they pooled their money to give us a large chunk so Marina and I could go to Mexico this winter, all to celebrate our 25th (which, BTW, given all the health issues in the family, we have had neither time nor energy to plan).

Can I write here that our children are the greatest gift we have ever been given? I am in awe.
Thank you Lord for such precious gifts!

Happy Christmas!!

To all of you, I wish you a wonderful Christmas!! On behalf of everyone in our family, may Jesus be the Light in your life, and may you remember that He is the reason for the season!

The Return...

Yes, that's right. The "Natster" is back. Our dear daughter, Natalie, is visiting us from Calgary. It means our family is complete for Christmas!

And that, my friends, is the best present any parent could hope for.

St. Boniface: A Christmas Story

Life is full of God's Blessings. One of those for me has been the wonderful privilege of getting to know and work with various living heroes of the faith. One dear brother, George Grant, has been a source of wisdom and encouragement over the years. Drinking the delights of wisdom from his wonderful blog is a regular pastime for me.

George has a cool story in a recent post that is especially meaningful to me. In various travels I have had the blessing of travelling to the city of Fulda in Germany to meet with long-distant relatives who live and work there. The Gerk family originated from this wonderful area, with Sebastian Gerk moving to Russia from there in 1767.

At any rate, St. Boniface is buried there and I have had the great opportunity to visit his tomb and meditate on his missionary work to the German people.

George tells this Christmas story about Boniface:

Boniface of Crediton spent the first forty years of his life in quiet service to the church near his home in Exeter. He discipled young converts, cared for the sick, and administered relief for the poor. He was a competent scholar as well, expounding Bible doctrine for a small theological center and compiling the first Latin grammar written in England. But in 718, Boniface left the comfort and security of this life to become a missionary to the savage Teutonic tribes of Germany. For thirty years he not only proclaimed to them the Gospel of Light, he portrayed to them the Gospel of Life.

Stories of his courageous intervention on behalf of the innocent abound. He was constantly jeopardizing his own life for the sake of the young, the vulnerable, the weak, the helpless, the aged, the sick, and the poor—often imposing his body between the victims and their oppressors. Indeed, it was during one of his famed rescues that his name was forever linked to the celebration of Advent during Yuletide.

...

You can and should read the complete story here. Be Blessed!

Thought for the day...

A living faith is nothing else than a steadfast pursuit of God through all that disguises, disfigures, demolishes and seeks, so to speak, to abolish him - Jean-Pierre de Caussade

The Rest of the Story....

My good friend Len S. will be visiting us in January, coming all the way from snowy and cold Moscow to snowy and cold Kelowna...go figure!

Anyway, Len is the head of the International School of Tomorrow in Russia and is a dear brother of mine. I'm writing this to set the story straight on an event that Len has spoken publicly on, but needs another perspective so that the real truth can come out.

In July of 2003, I visited Russia with 2 of my children, Natalie and David. Our goal was to visit a number of villages that never get visitors from the west, delivering Bibles and offering a little hope to an area that hasn't changed much in 200 years.

Nat, Julie (Len's daughter) and David visit a friendly grandma who had a sad story to tell of the murder of her son


We delivered the Bibles and spent much time visiting with the villagers...one lady even wept that we would come "all that way just to visit her".

Our trip back to Volgograd would be eventful. The Volga area is much like the Prairies here in Canada. Summer storms can catch you unprepared, and since I was born and raised in the Okanagan, where such events are rare, we were taken by surprise.

It started to rain. And this was no ordinary rain...thunder and lightening also added to the experience. There were lightening strikes all around. We took a dirt road back, deciding to visit the site of our family's destroyed village...

Natalie & David at the site of the cemetery in our old village

What should have been a half hour drive to the next village, turned into a 6 hour ordeal....driving through fields, pushing the car, me going outside in front of the car to ensure there were no holes in the fields where we could get stuck...permanently. I was even almost hit by lightening at one point!

The kids were great, we all pitched in and helped push the car, braving the Russian mosquitoes and pouring rain. Did I mention not ALL of us?

While we struggled, pushed, heaved, and battled the elements, Len stayed perfectly dry and warm INSIDE his car.

Yes, INSIDE his car. Deciding that it would be best for us if he was safe and warm and rested, Len commandeered the car through the elements raging around us.

Now, I for one can attest to the goodnes of God in keeping us safe, even when I was running to direct the car to safe areas in the fields of Russia. He was even with us as we spent the night cramped in this Russian car, all 5 of us, deciding that the Russian mosquitoes were too much for us to chance staying outside.

In the morning, the rain had stopped, the ground had dried sufficiently to allow us to drive safely back to our Russian home.

Len has used our adventure many times in a devotional on God's providence. I too agree. But I just want it recorded that WE got wet while Len stayed dry. WE were eaten by Mosquitoes while Len cheerfully waved through the window. I was almost killed by lightening, while Len pointed to the areas he wanted me to "check" out for safety.

Nice and Dry Mr. Len?

This is, indeed, the rest of the story.

Gotcha Len!

Remembrances

I warned you, from time to time I would write here about our family going back a few years. Family will remember in 1989 when we brought our Uncle Vanya from Russia to visit for a month. He was the youngest brother of Grandpa (Paul) Gerk and had not see anyone from our side since 1925. In 1933 when the iron curtain slammed shut, he was not even allowed to write to us. Of course, the days and weeks of his visit were filled with "catching up", mostly getting dates of loved ones and when and where they died in Stalin's GULAG. It was bittersweet for Granny because she at last discovered when her parents died and how. One place that Uncle Vanya and many of our family were sent (in 1941) was the labour camp situated in Krasnoturinsk, near Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains. I've got a book now that lists 4000 of the dead from this camp, all of German origin, who died in horrible conditions. The city now has a web page and they've even published some photos of the special memorial set up to commemorate the dead from this concentration camp (you can see the one here). It's an interesting story that will be in "The Book", you know, the one I never have quite finished! Honest...this next year...it will be done...I promise!!

I've already been overwhelmed with requests to do "look-ups", which is merely folks trying to piece together what happened to their loved one and grasp on to anything printed about the camps in hopes of closing a sad chapter of their families life. We're still trying to obtain copies of the original KGB files (no easy task). I think I'd like to be an archivist in heaven.

1989-Uncle Vanya with Andrew & Elissa

Currently Listening to:
Life Song
by Casting Crowns (CD)