May through now has been a blur beginning with closing out the school year with all that Suzanne and the kids had going with the International Christian School -- teaching, turning over the reigns as school principal, Merinda's graduation, a first time visit of Suzanne's family to Russia. At the same time we were trying to wedge in good relationship time and goodbyes with those we have been ministering to and with over the past few years- before going on this one year furlough.
Then there were the minor details of packing up 12 years of life into boxes and all of us and our friends making the numerous trips down 3 flights of stairs, a 100 yd. walk to the buiilding behind us, and up 4 flights of stairs to fill up a room about 12' x 12' to the 10' ceiling with boxes. We honestly wondered if it would all fit! At last we were done and able to to turn over the keys of our old flat to the landlord , a Russian who has immigrated to Germany.
Then, the procedure in reverse once we hit American shores! This time, we were moving things from Bob's mom's home and from storage units in Texas and Alabama into our old home in Clear Lake, Texas. Many of you prayed about that decision - thank you. God answered that prayer by giving us the peace to delay selling it until the end of the school year. After our 900 sq. foot apt. in Russia, our 4 bedroom home seemed daunting! We still have boxes and boxes to go through, every thing laden with memories. The rewards come in small packages: Amber walked into a room that I had finally manged to hang some pictures up in and said: "I've never seen those pictures - is that me?!" Most all of our old photographs of life pre-Russia up to their ages of 2, 4, and 6 have been packed up, so they are playing catch up! (I'm saving the boxes they came from though - it's hard NOT to think about the re-packing process in a few months!)
We all had a let down the first day we were in the house... Tasha our faithful friend for the past 12 years... the one who protected our kids on the snow covered playgrounds at ages 6, 4 and 2 started her untimely exit from this life. It was as if she waited till she safely escorted us to the New World (her first visit to American soil) that she was given her orders to depart this life. Healthy one day but she was gone by the end of week. We gave her an honors burial in the back yard - there was not a dry eye among us. We were again grateful to have the home so we could put her in the ground. Each in our family know to look for an angel in dog skin when we get to heaven that goes by the alias "Tasha". Countless times your prayers for us have been answered by that messenger from the throne room. And we will be able to share stories for days and learn the rest of the story from her point of view.
Prayer - Thanks for this roof over our heads. :o)
There have been lots of good and some humorous questions thrown our way about our time in the States...but all in all the most common question has been, "Have you seen big changes in America... I've been here everyday and I feel like it has changed right out from under me... you must really experience B-I-G changes coming back after being gone so long."
Let me lay that one to rest -- YES!!
Before we came back I decided to implement some great advice we were given when we were in training going to Russia back in 1993. "Never stop living like you are a guest in your host's country." For 12 years I have been blessed by the wisdom in that simple statement. It has really helped me to curb my expectations of what I thought I deserved. And all I had to do was pretend I am still a guest in my host's country. A guest can bare with the current surroundings knowing that there is a better place coming. A guest is free to then focus on blessing his hosts. America has changed so much since we left. I think I will need to extend this guest philosophy of life till I get to my "home" country. :o)Prayer - Ask for sense of adventure in being guests in America (Amber, Dustin, Merinda, Suzanne, Bob).
I (Bob) am focused now on getting the world literacy computer program ready for deployment via internet.
Last Spring He impressed me that I needed to work on deployment readiness. After a few weeks of analyzing the issue of 'How does one distribute a literacy system (that can potentially hold 5000+ languages) to 1 Billion people,' I was stopped in my tracks. I hand concluded it was going to cost $500 million in server charges if only half the people download the program! So I said, "Lord, surely You knew I was going to run into this problem."
Then he reminded me that the foundation of the project is to be based on volunteers. So I had my marching orders. I began to build a system whereby Believer's computers in the West could act as volunteer servers to dish out incremental updates to folks all over the world. This way at least the updates to the program would be delivered for free. I was still wondering how to get the first big chunk of download to users fast and reliably.
When we got to the States... I was telling a friend who is in college the challenges and he said "Why don't you use such and such to do the big download?... it's free and fast." (Thanks Jeremy!). Praise God for once again He had given me a God sized problem and then He proceeded to show me His solution.. This is why I have decided to call the reading program, "His Hands Reader". For every step of the way I have seen His Hands make it. By the way, now the cost estimate for deployment and incremental updates is reduced from $500 million to zero!
Prayer - Ask God to create a system that will help everyone in the world to learn to read so they can meet with Him by reading His Word.
Something else that has been helpful for our family as we enter this (new
to our kids) American culture has been our sharing of Quiet Times as a family
to see what
God will say to us. Back in the early summer right after Tasha died
I decided it was time to convene our family Quiet Time counsel. We needed
to look to the Lord to see what He would say relative
to our new adventure here in America.
How this works is we each go off to different rooms and read any chapter pick a verse and journal a page then pen a response to God. We get back together and share what we got... and look for what the Lord is saying to each of us and through us collectively as a family. It you have never tried that ... well, give a try. :o)
As we got back together that day there was a preponderance of sharing from verses related to not fearing. One of the passages was on David not fearing when he came up against Goliath. I asked the question, "How is what the Lord saying to us today going to help us in this year we have ahead with all the challenges that we face with getting into this new culture?" Dustin responded summing it all up with his observation, "David did not fear because he did not know to fear Goliath. Fighting a 9 foot guy who had sword and spear was all new to him. After all, God had helped him in killing a bear and lion. This year is going to be all new to us. We will have it easier than other Americans because we don't know any better that you can't do this or that.' That has been good counsel from the Lord to us ... not to contrive hysterical fears but instead rest on knowing that God has taken us through so many trying situations before in Russia...He will continue to lead us what lay ahead in America.
A practical manifestation of that for Dustin came later as he was trying to get on the cross country team at the high school. We did not tell Dustin that you don't go up to the head coach of a 4A school that sports 4000 students two weeks into the season and say you want to run CC , especially if you have not done any training.
The coach looked (way) down at Dustin and said, "Well if you really like to run, I can...but you have to really like to run... but you really have to like to run.. How about if you come on as team manager and you can practice with them?"
Keep in mind that the team had been training in the Houston heat 5 days, 5 miles a day -- all summer. Later we realized that the coach mistakenly thought Dustin was a freshman, an easy mistake to make since he is less than a half percent on the growth chart. Else, he probably would have never extended the olive branch to let him come on the team. Dustin almost lost the faith looking up at this 6 foot 5 former All State track coach but then he remembered how God had helped him win a race last Spring at track and field day where he being a freshman beat all the seniors in a one mile race.
The coach suspecting that Dustin had not been running too much had advised Dustin to run just a little that day, and then head back to the school. But the pack got lost from the coach, who was following in his truck with the water, and there "just never seemed to be a good time to turn back". Seven miles, later in 100 degree heat when the coach caught up with the boys, the coach looks at Dustin with astonishment and says "How did you do that!? "
He just kept running...
Nine weeks later... 
His team mates are cheering him on at meets "Go,
Dustin!" as he has now passed a handfull or more of the seasoned 10th
thru 12th graders on his team and is close to making the Junior Varsity starting
lineup. There could not have been more fitting words from the Lord that day
at our family QT counsel -- 'he did not know to fear Goliath since fighting
a 9 foot guy who had sword and spear was all new to him and after all God
had taken care of him in killing a bear and lion.'
Prayer - Ask for no fear in holding up the name of Jesus. At every turn each of us (kids included) find ourselves with the unique opportunity to represent Him when someone finds out we have just temporarily time warped out of 12 years of Russia missionary life.
I (Bob) signed up to go with five guys from Alabama to serve tables for the prisoners at San Sebastian Costa Rica men's prison during a Kairos spiritual renewal weekend. While we five wait on the men's tables bringing them their food and drink requests they will be listening to talks on grace, forgiveness and spiritual renewal. All the talks are in Spanish done by the local Believers on the Kairos mission team. Our job will simply be to be Jesus to these men for 3 days as the Word ministers to their souls.
Our team leader relayed that the local chaplain was blessed to see several "cell" churches begin since the first Kairos weekend two years ago. On Sundays the singing permeates the prison building from multiple cells.
Men can only come to a Kairos event once so these will be first timers that we are serving.
Last week I flew out to Huntsville to attend a bonding meeting with the 5 men I will serve with. As my airplane touched down at the Huntsville airport I asked the Lord if He would give me a sign of His calling me for this trip. I had prayed for a month before accepting the offer to go but this was a little heart prayer asking to see His hand.
As with every opportunity I get I like to share stories about the personal benefits of hearing God speak through the journaling Quiet Time process like I mentioned in the Fear (not) in Furlough article above. The class teacher graciously gave me time before the lesson to speak. So I thought, 'Hey, I'lll look through an old QT journal and see if I have a QT from the chapter they are going to study today and I'll share that as an example. Bingo. I was so surprised to find that I happened to have an old journal with me that morning in which I had selected the last verse of the lesson text. Revelations 9:21
As I began to read the QT God answered my little heart prayer asking for His confirmation of going on the Costa Rica prison ministry trip. It was a m-i-n-o-r miracle that I had happened to have a QT with me exactly for a verse in the lesson that day. But the first major miracle was what the God told me two years ago on that page!
Here is the QT...
Date Oct 26,2003
Revelations 9:21 - "And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts."
How this impressed me: Incarceration and even torture will not change or rehabilitate the heart of man. Russia's 1010+ prisons hold 1,000,000 or 1% of the population of Russia. Those are just the ones who were under dog of the crime world so their competition landed them out of action behind bars. So what will change a person's heart? What will bring these to repentance? These prisoners are a captive audience. Set apart from the rest of the criminals... waiting for a visit from me. Matthew 25:36
The first time God gave me that QT (two years ago)I was headed for an outreach in a prison later that week (in Russia). You can see how it was so relevant to me then, but...
But this second time was so awesome filled with the personal resonance of God's voice.
... later that evening God rolled back the curtain to show me what His heart is on the matter for the prisoners in San Sebastian. I learned from the team leader that the date on my quiet time from two years ago was the very week they were making the final preparations for the 1st Kairos in the San Sebastian prison! When He plans He plans even from eternity past to seek the lost.
OK, so you are maybe thinking why the title on this article... Jesus meet Jesus??
When our team did the QT counsel to see what God was saying to us about our trip to the prison our verses rolled together to a common statement that went like this...
What is Jesus saying – summary
Our task from God is to carry our cross… surrender to the Father’s will so prisoners at San Sebastian prison will see Jesus in us. Be in prayer to recognize when we need NOT to be strong (so Jesus will be strong).
So the Lord was telling us that our role was simply to "be Jesus" to the prisoners by serving them at their tables and He will do all the hard work of changing the heart as they listen to the Word being spoken.
So where does the "Jesus, meet Jesus" come in? It was that last verse God gave me two years ago.
Matthew 25:36 - "I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me."
So it will be a time of Jesus, meeting Jesus in the San Sebastian Men's prison of Costa Rica. Please stayed tuned in prayer for that time.
Prayer - Join the prayer vigil asking God the Father to glorify Himself through Jesus Christ His son with bringing the whole San Sebastion prison to trust in Him. If you want to be on the 24 hour a day prayer schedule for the days we are there let me know what time you will pray. BobAchgill@hotmail.com
I continue to be encouraged by being on the receiving end of sharing Quiet Times via cell phone messages with Russian brothers and a sister. May you be encouraged, too by what God is saying to and through them. If you have not heard from God lately, try this journaling process and see what He says. He does speak English, also, you know. ;-) Here are a smattering of messages rec'd from each person - remember that English is a second language to them.
- (rec’d) OH HI BOB THAT’S COOL 2 HEAR FROM U. HOW R U? COULD ALSO SEND ME U’R QT, BECAUSE U NEVER ACTUALLY DID THAT. WE JUST HADE AN OUTREACH.
- (rec’d) Cool. When we stay focus on Jesus and not cercumstanses we won’t drown, we will go no metter how big is the storm around
-(rec’d) ACTS 3:6-8 1) EXAMPLES OF DESIPL’S MINISTRY, TO GIVE OUT WHAT OUR FATHER GAVD TO US. 2) WE ALSO WERE BORN WITHOUT ABILITY 2 WALK WITH GOD,BUT ONCE SOMEONE TOLD US THAT WE CAN WALK, AND WE BELIVED AND HE STRENGTHENGED OUR FEETS, SOFIRST WHAT MAN DID, WHENT 2 THE TEMPLE&GAVE GLORY 2 GOD
- (rec’d) BOB, CAN U PLEASE WRIGHT A REFERENCE ABOUT ME AS A PERSON, CHRISTIAN,MISSIONARY. I NEED 8 FROM THOSE WHO KNOW ME. 4 MY MISSION TRIP 2 ARGENTINA
- (rec’d) ACTS 5:38-39 no sense invest u’r live in the activity of human origin if it will fail any way. I want to do work of God which isn’t fail. But also inmy ministry if what I try 2 do 4 Him is not from God, it will fail, But if I do what He wants, nobody could privent it or make it fail. In my case it’s my family.
- (rec’d) Hey Bob, my QT today was on John 15:4 (5) , I thought on what is it to be a good branch. Is it just letting the nutritions come from the vine thru u into the fruit? U know what I mean? Simply not stopping it … and if I let it thru myself stay alive. My test is tomorrow.
- (rec’d) Yest. QT: John 16:24 what is to ask a father in the name of his son? 1st idea is that the son is no longer here but the business he started is important , so the one who calls the father to the name of son is the one who wants to continue it. And fathers ready to help this person as if he were the son himself . have a good 1.
- (rec’d) Bob, for some reason my thoughts and QT’s have been in manhood and family issues: the book u gave 2 me, sermon on CD, stuff in Paul’s epistles. (???)…
- (rec’d) Hi Bob, I’m very well, thank you. How life is going on? Are you already in America? I’ll go home next weak (Ira*n), and come back to Ukraine in September. I’ll send you an email, and attach my permanent addres in Ukraine. Say hello to your family. Thanks.
Note: This guy is volunteering to work on the Farci translation of His Hands Reader lexicon. Please pray for Person C as he does his service.
With love, from all of us!
- go to the Achgill Arena Newsletter web site
- open the letter you want to send.
- on the Menu bar, choose File > Send > Page by email
- when OutLook Express pops up, change the subject line to: No Fear in Furlough
- press Send.
Thanks!
Bob 713-456-9595 Suzanne 713-456-9596
BobAchgill@hotmail.com
For Financial Gifts: Go Ye Fellowship - P.O. Box 40039 Pasadena CA 91114-7039 Acct. 48 - Achgills - Russia |
For mail and visits! Bob Achgill 1647 Neptune Houston, TX 77062 |