Worth the wait

20 months ago I sat across the table from Gypsy Pastor Nikolai Boloshov and heard him say that for $5000 he could have a surgery that might allow him to walk after being crippled by polio for several years. It took me a few seconds to compose myself after I blurted out that I would not rest until the money was raised. I sent out an email that night from Russia.

Within two weeks the money was raised from the HBC family and few others, plus a little extra for incidentals of travel for the surgery and someone to go with him. We began praying, and then came the obstacles.

The story from the doctors kept changing. At last they determined he didn't qualify for the spinal surgery they originally described to him, and it would be something different. Then the price tag shot over $10,000 for having the surgery in Moscow. It took months to find a qualified doctor in a more suitable location. A little more money was needed and God provided it within days. The surgery took place in summer 2010.

After a lot of pain and ongoing therapy, Nikolai can walk now with just a little help. He says he has no pain!

I've looked forward to today for a long time. I got to hug brother Nikolai and STAND WITH HIM for a picture. In a couple of days I would have seen him in the Doctrine of Salvation class, but this was even better because my reunion with Nikolai was in the midst of a time of fellowship with the Gypsy church. To my knowledge only three Americans had been there just once before--Dick Shaw (Pastor of First Baptist Church in Caldwell), Jenni Myers (SEND missionary who lives in Russia) and me. Today our whole team got to experience the uniqueness of this group.

For Gypsies and ethnic Russians to be together isn't much different than 1st Century Jews and Samaritans or Jews and Gentiles having fellowship. Only God can do it by His grace. When we had Pastor Raphael tell us the story of how this group of Christian Gypsies got started and began attending the church in Michurinsk, he admitted that at first some of the church members checked for their wallets when the Gypsies began to attend--because of the well-deserved reputation of their culture.

But God transforms people through Christ, and we could say of these dear Gypsy brothers and sisters, "such WERE some of you" in the context of thieves and idolators and fortune tellers. Their worship is full of joy and their reputations echo through the Gypsy groups in this region as shining examples of God's transforming grace. They sang many songs for us in Russian and Gypsy, and we sang "Silent Night" in Russian for them

Truly, a day worth waiting for. Wish you could have been here with us!

May you have a blessed Lord's Day with His people. We'll be at church here at Truth Church in Tambov, then we go to the big orphanage near town for Immanuel's Child. Lord willing we'll make our video appearance at the end of the service in Boise.

- Jim