Center Hill Baptist Church
12 Week Bible Study
Sept. -Nov. 2021
Sunday, September 26, 2021
Sunday, September 19, 2021
Friday, June 18, 2021
Sunday, May 23, 2021
Book 2- "The Cross Before Me" Prologue (Coming July 2021)
Prologue
My story
started at a crossroad, one that intersected who I was and who I was to become.
I shared about the first three segments of my journey in The World Behind Me. I went through a transformational process
during our first few years in Russia as full-time missionaries. In the beginning stages, I tried to do
all the planning and sometimes forgot to put total trust in God alone. After
many life-changing experiences, I realized the need to surrender all things to
Him and commit my every thought and action to Him, for all things were to be
done for His glory.
Along the way I experienced some
spiritual road- blocks or U-turns, and I always sought direction by the minute.
During those first four years on the field, I also discovered the importance of
living selflessly and the value of pouring time and effort into others’ well-being.
My level of trust in God grew as the days passed. We experienced trails along
the path and in some ways my strength to survive grew stronger and stronger. I
started to accept the hard times as learning moments. What began as something
difficult became just testing periods for making better decisions. I learned to
function off of logic rather than emotions—an action at first that did not come
natural for me. At last, I realized the value in observing and learning all
about the people I served. Without taking time to understand a culture, I would
never be effective. So, I invested my life and time in others and learned the
importance of empathy.
Over the
next few years, I discovered that a person must cross over me to hear the
gospel. What does that mean? The responsibility is mine to build a bridge of
understanding for others to hear the
Gospel. I only learned how better to do this after I learned empathy. The first
four years I was building a bridge of learning for myself—compassion, the
mindset of the people, and communication. I had to learn that people were more
open to hearing the Gospel only after I was more prepared to explain it. I
realized that I must conform myself, my thoughts, my body language, and my
words to fit the needs of the people.
I soon discovered that my South Georgia rearing and training for sharing the
Gospel only worked for those who lived below the Gnat Line. We should rarely
walk away from a person and say: “They just don’t understand!” The problem may
be our presentation. We should ask: “How can I better present the Gospel?”
After our
first furlough in the states, we returned to Russia. This time we found
ourselves living in one of the most beautiful cities in the world—Saint
Petersburg, Russia. Here I discovered my role in the family, church, and
community. I compiled my journal notes written about traditional values,
assurance, contentment, loneliness, and cultural adaptation in this book, The Cross Before Me. These are the areas
that I sought to perfect throughout these next few sections of my continued
journey. I soon realized that leaving a legacy behind is just as important as
finding the key to reach people, especially those of a different ethnicity.
As shared
about in the first years of our adventure in Book 1, my thoughts of family,
friends, or those things that I found familiar are what kept me going daily. Do
not worry; I never forgot about home—that undisturbed place. This second book
in the Cross Over Me Collection
stands alone, because we all have different stages in our lives where distinct
chapters are written. This portion happens to begin when our course pointed
north.
-The Cross Before Me (Coming July 2021)
In His Love,
Les
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