FHBC Sermon Notes

Personal testimony from the missionary front in Russia.

• The past three years, have been the most exciting of my life... Missions is not boring.
• We think missions is for little old ladies, and is boring. But it is for real men. The mission field needs real men. Missions is an adventure.
• I was not called to missions all my life, no still small voice, but a blatant, "Wake up dummy! I'm calling you."
• We uprooted our family to go.  Our in-laws had moved into town to be with us. Yet God called, and we went.
• One of his jobs is to share the message of other missionaries in Russia.
• Theme of Lottie Moon this year, "Are we there yet?!" Fitting for Russia, where a half hour drive takes 3.5 hours. 
• Moscow is 15 million people. 600 unreached people groups. 11 out of the worlds 24 time zones.
• We are at that place in missions, if "traffic" went well, we could reach it. But if not, we must persevere and continue going.
• So.. we get there and we ask, "How can we reach people?"
• Earlier SBC way of missions was more, professional missionaries, supported by the funds from churches. 
• Then individual churches started taking mission trips, to places near the U.S.
• We can do more together than separate.
• We need a new paradigm, instead of go "me" therefore, it needs to be go "we" therefore.
• Marc's primary job is to go to the places that we haven't been to yet. To "map" out Russia.
• There are 17 Slavic speaking churches in Florida.
• Engage Russia is designed for the churches (for us) to go and have a place to serve.
• Challenge to us to make Russia part of our 5 year plan.
• Marty's Wilderness Camp - cool story
• Marc's family - His family struggled with the transition. Then... took his daughter with him on one of the trips. Daughter help translate for some missionaries, saw 3 girls come to Christ. She discovered that she wasn't just the daughter of a missionary, she was a missionary.