Cross Over Me Collection: 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