Reflections From Ephesus

During a recent trip to explore the possibility of work in Turkey, I was able to spend a day in Ephesus. It is a huge archaeological dig that has been in process for much of the last century. What has been uncovered and reassembled is breathtaking. This was my first time to visit any site that has a key role in the Bible. It was surreal thinking that the apostles Paul and John would have been seeing the same structures. It was awe inspiring to stand in the amphitheater where Paul addressed the Ephesians and to see the harbor where they had their tearful farewell. This was one of the great cities of Rome and one of the cities where the early church was founded. Yet as the water receded from the harbor and earthquakes hit, the city died and soon was forgotten. There now actually is a small town nearby. We met with a couple of believers who work there - they told us there are no fellowships of believers meeting in that town.

One can't help but consider the parallels especially as we experience the current upheavals in our own civilization. A great city and civilization that must have seen impregnable and never-ending is now just an interesting archaeological dig. And the city where the Apostles themselves lived and where one of the first churches in history was established no longer has a single church. Yet the indicators were already there even as John penned revelation - John, who tradition holds spent his last years in Ephesus. We visited the place he is purported to be buried. In the letters to the churches in Revelation, Ephesus is the church who Christ rebukes for having "forsaken their first love."


Standing in that place and reflecting on those words, I could not help but be reminded that no people has an entitlement to God's favor nor any civilization a promise of longevity. In fact, it is when we begin to rest on those assumptions that complacency creeps in and we risk losing our first love. I could not help but be saddened to think that this place, so rich in the history of God's revelation, now is practically without a witness. When I look at my own culture as we argue over nativity scenes, when I see charitable giving as the first thing to go when economic times are uncertain, and when I am often confronted with a myopic view of what it means to be church, I wonder what would the content of a Revelation-style letter to the churches in our nation and our time in history be? Like the Ephesians, we are called to repent when we have lost our first love. We are called to recommit ourselves to being carriers of His Word to a nation and world who need to hear it. Just some reflections caused by a recent experience in the light of our current times.

Lost Voices

Well, my great plans for a travel blog during my trip to Prague didn't work out. I'm back home now. It was a great trip, though.

The most memorable, though, was a trip to Terezin I took on Saturday. It was the location of a Jewish Ghetto during the Nazi occupation - many lost their lives there due to horrible conditions. 84,000 passed through, ending up in the more well-known places of horror like Auschwitz where they lost their lives.

In one room, the wall was covered with names of those who perished. But it wasn't just anyone - it was limited to children. The tragedy was overwhelming. As I looked at the birth dates, I realized these people would be my parents' age. Most were born in the 30's, but perished from 1942-1945. Thousands of lives lost - what contributions would they have made to the world had they not been destroyed by that evil? How many children and grandchildren would now be in the world today if that generation of children had been allowed to live.

As you walk into the room, you are met by a photo of a boy of about 12 years old. Here is the poem he wrote while in the ghetto. He later died in a concentration camp.

A little garden,
Fragrant and full of roses.
The path is narrow
And a little boy walks along it.
A little boy, a sweet boy,
Like that growing blossom.
When the blossom comes to bloom,
The little boy will be no more.

To read such words in the context of that place created an incredible sense of sadness. Yet even today, children's lives are cut short by hunger, war, and sex trafficking and their innocence is destroyed by the self-centeredness of many adults. It must grieve the heart of God.

Praying for Us - They Really Mean It!

Last weekend Shawn, Rebekah, and I traveled down to Tallahassee to visit the folks at Killearn United Methodist Church. This church, and particularly a women's fellowship group, have been supporting us and praying for us since we first started preparing to go to Kaz back in 1995. They invited us down to help kick off a day of service they were doing in the community, then share with them in their worship services on Sunday (4 services, no less).

It was truly a joy to be with them and see the enthusiasm of the people who turned out on a Saturday to go out and serve. But the greatest blessing was the number of women from the fellowship group who came up to us - many had never even met us - and asked knowingly about our family and ministry. They had been praying for us. One woman - Mrs Dorothy, is 91 years old. She asked very specifically about things I had shared about in newsletters many months ago. She asked about each of our children, again knowing what they were up to, remembering what we've shared about them over the years.

We've had this experience before, but it always humbles me when we meet others who say they pray for us and really mean it. It is truly the lifeline of all people - would that we all prayed for one another with that same fervor that we as missionaries are blessed to receive.

Economic woes or opportunity for faith?

Like many folks, I've been afraid to even look at my retirement accounts for fear of how much lower the value is than it was just a week ago, not to mention a year ago. I get nervous when I hear predictions of economic collapse. I am tempted to get impatient with the gas stations with no gas here in Atlanta this week. I want to grumble about paying $4.50 a gallon after waiting in line when I do find a pump. And I wonder at the intensity and meanness of the political dialogue (if one could call it that!).

But what if I just stop for a few minutes and consider the things that are not on the radar screen of most of us in the USA? Even if my retirement vaporized, the fact I am in a house still puts me among the wealthiest people in the world. If our whole economy were to collapse - I'd be no worse off than the many friends we had in Kazakhstan when we moved there in 1996. I don't like paying $4.50/gallon for gas, but in most countries it's much higher, and the vast majority of people in this world don't even own a car. And as inane as the political debate is and the meanness of the tone, at least varying opinions are allowed and I'm not likely to be shot by someone who holds an opposing view as mine.

I don't know where all the current challenges will lead, but I do know that the Lord does not want us to be myopically focused only on that which affects us. RIght now, hundreds of Christians in the Orissa State of India have fled to the jungles after having their houses burned in a wave of militant Hindu violence. Dozens have been killed. Yet that hasn't shown up once on my home screen of Google's top five news stories. In our churches, are we praying for our brothers and sisters in India in addition to praying for our own economy and our retirement accounts?

Lest anyone think I'm standing in judgement here, let me hasten to assure that I include myself in this. I am astonished at how quickly even someone who lived in a collapsed economy for 10 years among people with limited freedom and now who has seen poverty around the world can get grumpy about waiting 15 minutes to get gas and having to pay more for it! I expect Shawn could identify such a person - she has to live with him!

I guess I would encourage myself and all of us who testify to Christ as Lord that we need to ask Him to help us see the world as He sees it and to maintain His heart for the world, even in times when our self-centered nature pulls us toward self-pity. Especially in uncertain times as this, we can be witnesses to faith in a sovereign Lord, for whom NONE of this is a surprise or even a "blip" on his time line. Can the God - who gives strength to the believers in Orissa who choose death rather than recant their faith - can that God be trusted to see us through these times, regardless of who gets elected, which way the stocks bounce, or whether or not the local gas pump is empty? Let's allow the uncertainty of the times help us not focus on the uncertainty but on God's faithfulness and constancy.

Russian Language at the Beach

I'm on vacation, but while playing on the computer, I realized it has been over a month since my last post. If I don't post now, my usual pattern of lack of follow-through will consume this blog. So, a vacation blog. We are at the beach - much needed vacation. Shawn and I with our younger two children, Jon & Naomi, plus 4 Duggins children - Hannah, Ruslan, Lydia, Albina. Out in the water today, I heard "Vada kholodnaya". Russian! Since returning to the US, we don't hear Russian much - when we do, our ears tune in and our hearts leap. It was a teenage girl speaking to a boy. Then she spoke typical teen-English to the other boy. So I introduced myself. Turns out, she was adopted 7 years ago from Kazakhstan! The Russian-speaking boy had been adopted just 5 months ago, along with a biological sister, also from Kazakhstan. This family then has two biological children. So we got to speak some Russian to the kids, then visit with the parents. The kids had come from near Pavlodar, a few hours north of Karaganda where we'd lived.

As we spoke with the parents, it reminded me of the many adopting parents we had known over the years. It is a grueling process, a real emotional roller coaster with the excitement of bringing home children mixed with the complete dependence on the whim of the local officials, who often see opportunities for personal financial gain. I congratulated these folks on going through it twice. It was good to see these kids - a happy ending to the story.

3 Weddings and a Couple Doctor Appointments

I just returned from 3 weddings of nieces and nephews. And although I don't anicipate a funeral, ironically I had appointments this week with a cardiologist and a orthopaedist. (Nothing serious in either department - routine check with the former, working on a bum shoulder with the latter). However, seeing these young folks get married and seeing my other nieces and nephews being all growed up, having Rebekah finish college, etc. You just can't help but ponder the movement of time!

A colleague told me that on his annual checkup when he turned 50, the doctor warned him that the body is designed to last 50 years, so things will likely start going wrong. Hmmm. At 48, that does give me pause to thought. Another generation enters the scene with excitement and potential. Most of the young folks at the weddings were solid believers, desiring to serve God. I see the generation above me in their twilight years, some already with the Lord. Many who are also solid believers who have allowed themselves to be used mightily by God.

The winds of change come and go. Fads, fashions, wars, kingdoms. But God will always raise up a new generation to carry His word in their hearts and to live it in their actions.

Into the Future

(The following text is from my e-mail "diary" I send out every few weeks. It's something I started way back when we first went to Kazakhstan. You can get these via e-mail by sending an e-mail to Ramsays-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.)

Weekend before last Shawn, Naomi, and I were in Western NY to attend Rebekah's graduation from Houghton College. We are very proud of her accomplishments and look forward to seeing what the Lord has in store for her. She majored in History. For her senior seminar project, she studied the culture where she grew up, doing a major project on the impact of collectivization on the Kazakh people during Stalin's years. It is neat to see how the Lord is already integrating the experience our children had growing up into their adult lives.

As the graduates paraded across the stage, I could not help but wonder what the future holds. What sort of world will they be ministering in? The week before her graduation, we had a 2-day intensive session with a handful of staff and missionaries at The Mission Society to consider that question for ourselves as a ministry. We took a look out 25 years and gave thought as to what sort of world it might be - painting a picture of the horizon out there and our place in it. It was a good exercise to help move us away from thinking in today's set of assumptions. We all know that the rate of change seems always to accelerate.

We tried to imagine what the world will be like in 2033 and what would be the shape of the religious landscape. We know that mission will be a calling for believers until Christ Himself returns. But what forms will it take then? How will those who call Jesus Lord and Saviour best communicate that Good News to others? And given those possibilities, what do we need to be doing now as believers and as a mission agency to prepare ourselves for that world? This whole process is a precursor to a year of long range planning we will be doing with our missionaries worldwide. When one begins to look ahead, it can be overwhelming. Just looking around at the world today can cause a person to want to retreat into a fairly closed-off, isolated life, just ignoring the world. 80,000 dead in China. Conflict in the Middle East that seems it will still be going in 2033. Election years that evoke ever-increasing cynicism. AIDS in Africa. The warnings of limited oil from my childhood seeming now to become reality. Collapse of morality and basic social institutions. The list can go on and on.

But this should not scare us off as believers. God does some of His best work in the midst of human chaos and tragedy. He does not call us to be ignorant, nor does He call us to despair. But we are to fully engage the world in whatever location He has placed us.

That's what comes to mind as I think of these young folks completing their studies. I've gotten to know many of Rebekah's friends -these and other young folks I've met among our other children's friends and our young interns serving with The Mission Society. I think of the young believers we worked with in Kazakhstan. When I think of these folks, I can't help but be convinced that God is preparing a new body of Christ-followers who will be ready to engage this newly messed up world. He is always there in the present as well as in the horizon!