A Missionary Lament

By Julie Mosse

Most missionary newsletters are packed with stories of blessing, miracles, changed lives. So sometimes it’s probably good, maybe healthy to see a glimpse of the struggle that life can be. We could fill pages with the things God is doing here in Odessa. We’ll indulge this urge on the flip side, But here we’re gonna vent. Consider this missionary newsletter a “lament.”

It’s been a painful year for us. If we go by feelings, we’ve felt tremendous pressure to give more than we have. At times, we’ve felt inadequate, misunderstood, lonely, broken. We’ve felt naive, unnoticed, yet at times, intruded upon, underprepared, blindsided, scrutinized. We have felt like our decisions, reactions, and our words were often found seriously lacking. We seriously wondered if we were cut out for this life, and for the responsibilities God seemed to have handed to us. We’ve questioned whether God had really led us to this place in His harvest or if in our foolishness and pride, we presumed too much. Our marriage has been stretched too thin at times. Sometimes, we’ve been afraid for this basic unit called ...us. Our own unity feels shaky. Our kids have also struggled. How and when to fit into the culture and existing groups of friends, and when and how to stand for what you believe in...? Hard for them to reenter the culture after a year.

Are we making wrong decisions? Are we bringing this havoc on ourselves? Do we quit or weather the hard times?? And we don’t even have any “real” crises to point to as the cause of our grief. No war, no sickness. Just relationships and responsibilities, and foreignness. ...We are really feeling the pain of continually living at the end of our character, and doing so in “living color.”

We know. This sounds absolutely pitiful. It is. And you know? The funniest thing brings so much peace about now… ”I chose you to suffer with Me.” Strange, huh? Our being stretched and seeing our weakness is part of our suffering with Christ. Here it is:

“...for momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen…”

And...

“Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

Finally, from another who lamented,

“In you, Lord, I have taken refuge; Let me never be ashamed; In your righteousness deliver me. Incline your ear to me, rescue me quickly; Be to me a rock of strength, a stronghold to save me.”

Stories from Zagreb, Croatia

Anya the Joyful rolled down the cliffs of insanity in an old tire with Joseph the golden nostril during a bomb strike by unknown forces. They laughed so hard they fainted. They woke up at home and couldn’t laugh until the next day. The Dread Pirate Roberts saw it all along with his friend, Enigo Montoya.

Joseph the faithful became a Jedi Knight with Tiana during the 100th annual Croatian cheesecake cook-off. Hedge-hog tried to kill him , so he killed the hedge-hog. All this was witnessed and recorded by Ahmed Abassida, official scribe of the most excellent sultan of Abijarda, may he live forever, in the second year of his reign.

Anya the terrible laughed for no reason, nonstop with Jem and Andre the Giant during a snowstorm on the planes of Georgia. Jabba the Hut fed them to his monster (Luke was too late to save them). This was all witnessed by Mr. and Mrs. Mosse, who watched it wide-eyed.
Micah the unbreakable decided to start a career as a mercenary soldier with Queen Elizabeth the second of England. During a time of dire necessity and general inconceivable calamity the lizard was so hungry that he pulled off his own tail and ate it. Now one saw it and no one heard it.

Mama became a knight errant by playing dance-dance revolution, while watching the history channel on rainy nights with 14 sturdy hobbits. Because it was fun they became attractions in the circus freak show. You can see the toughing story of the twinkle toad history professor on history channel!

Scout the great banana-arm dirtily defeated the evil ruler of a neighboring kingdom’s champion in a one on one joust to the death. Because the champion was not thinking the moment he did this. This caused a wide spread constipation epidemic and a high demand for the proper apparatus. It was witnessed by Micah.Joseph, the happening historian about town, shattered 40 coconuts using only his left hand in a moving outhouse with a gang of ruffians so that he could train for Ukraine’s got talent and Wipeout. They went up on a plane and were made to parachute with nothing but an oversized sombrero and an umbrella. This was all witnessed and recorded by Mickey and Minnie Mouse.

Camp on the Farm

We just returned from a camp up the village of Andreevka. It is a small village near the city of Kotovsk in the northern Odessa region. The pastor of a Baptist church in Kotovsk (about a three hour drive north of Odessa) has a farm in Andreevka and uses the territory every to run at least one children’s camp. The camp was seven days and there was about 20 kids. The kids slept either on the second floor of the main house, in a small shack on a hill or in tents on the field. A team of seven came from Pennsylvania to assist in running a kids camp on the pastor’s farm. The team taught a Bible lesson every morning, had crafts, directed games and had a daily English lesson. There was also a quiet time every day, free time, swimming, walks in the forest, ping-pong, swings, horse riding, camp fire every night and other games. Meals were served in a patio kitchen and outdoor showers were used.

Our girls were able to participate in the camp while Julie Joseph and Alfie were support help. Joseph stayed with the boys in the shack, Micah and Anya stayed on the second floor with the girls and Julie and Alfie lived in a tent.

Now we are home preparing to leave for vacation in Croatia. Joseph will attend a camp for missionary kids for a week then we will all spend a week together with some friends.

Bible time puppet shows.

Wild flower bouquet contest.

Julie and Anya rounding up the kids.

Sunday morning service in the dining room

Passing the Halfway Point

Our summer is rolling along nicely. Last week, Julie, Leah, Grace and an American team hosted an ESL camp at the Black Sea Camp. It was for beginning and intermediate level speaker and believer and unbelievers were welcome. It was a lot of work but all went well. I (Alfie) and the girls visited two of the days and enjoyed the festivities and mostly the beach. Joseph stayed four of the five days and did a lot of translating.

Julie with some of her new students and friends.

Joseph helps with translation.

The teaching was done outdoors in the fresh sea air!

Last Saturday, the team came back down to Odessa and had a downtown tour. One the same day our good friend Ron and Jeane Hawkins left after a month of service at the Black Sea Camp. Also, Saturday, the next construction team arrived. It was a busy day.

Julie has been recovering this week. We have enjoyed a lot of time together as a family while putting out fires. We currently have two teams here. We spent a lot of time catching up, reading together and playing together. Yesterday we visited a new (to us anyway) catacomb tour under the fine arts museum downtown.

Tomorrow (Saturday, July 10th), our largest team from Grace Fellowship leaves. They have helped with two camps. One at the Black Sea Camp and one in a village in the northern part of the Odessa Region. Our current construction team will get their downtown tour. Another team arrives. Joseph and Alfie will meet them and travel to the city of Kotovsk for a two week camp experience. Julie and the girls will join us next Wednesday.

Week Four

This week, Julie taught six hours of vocabulary development to the teachers and translators. The last session of the English Café met on Friday. They enjoyed Julie’s lesson and our last lesson in the book of John.

Julie has also written sixteen hours of lectures for the youth English camp next week. She and the team will leave for the Black Sea Camp on Monday.

The second construction team has come and gone. They accomplished much on the upper level of the camp. There are four buildings on the upper level that are almost ready for occupancy. This was a significant team because Joseph worked as their translator. He spent two weeks with them up at the camp. We missed him but are very proud of him. He received excellent reports from all.

The next team arrives on Monday. They are our largest team for the summer – 17 people. They will assist in running an English camp at the Black Sea camp next week and the week after that they will help in a tent VBS in a small northern village.

Linguistic Richness

The last two weeks have been crazy. It has been one of those times in our lives where so many things converged that it seemed impossible to respond to everything. To start off, Alfie agreed to teach a two week intensive class to students from the Middle East. He agreed to give 30 lectures in two weeks. Halfway through the class, our first construction team left for the US and the second one arrived. The second week of the class, Julie and Alfie started the ESL Café (Monday, Wednesday and Friday). Well, sounds like a crazy schedule, but all should be well as long as nothing goes wrong. Unfortunately, our team-mate, who was taking care of the construction team was in western Ukraine and her car was stolen. So Alfie needed take over logistics for that team, but just for a few days. Next, we had a catastrophic computer crash. Our new notebook is currently a large paperweight. Of course it happened about an hour before Julie’s ESL lesson and, of course, before she printed her lesson. She did a great job of teacher her two hour lesson without her notes and prepared material.

Alfie’s class is over now and our teammate, Susanna, is back in Odessa to take care of the construction team so things should be a little smoother.

So, is it worth it? Yep. It has been hard but two of many highlights make it more than worth it.
First, it has been a pleasure teaching these students at the seminary. There are only three of them but they are unique. One speaks English, Russian and Arabic. The next speaks some English and Arabic and the third speaks Russian and Arabic. So my class is an ordered confusion of English, Arabic, Russian and Greek. We often have all four languages on the whiteboard. Also, listening to what these young men have already been through and their desire to serve the Lord among Islamic communities has reminded me of the ease of my life. When I see what they have sacrificed for Christ, I am humbled.

Second, it has been a joy to see the fruit of relationship building. Over the last year Julie has been hosting “teacher exchange” meetings. She and friends have gathered English teachers and shared experiences. The purpose has been to develop relationship and provide a meaningful time of professional development. Many of the teachers from the teacher’s exchange are coming to the ESL Café. The first part of the café, Julie leads a lesson in vocabulary development. It is for high level speakers, so there is much interaction. Then we have a short break and drink coffee and tea. We have some cookies and candy and enjoy fellowship. After the break, Alfie leads a Bible study from the Gospel of John. We have believers and unbelievers and the interaction and the interest has been a joy to see. Our goal is the same as John’s…that they me understand the Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and by believing in Him, they may have life in His name.

Secondish Week

The first team is on their way to Kiev. The accomplished much up at the camp. Ron and Jeane and Dave and Barb mostly took care of them. The installed wainscoting, wallpaper and trim in 23 of the 24 rooms in the wooden buildings on the upper level. The next team arrives tomorrow and they will continue the finish work.

I finished his first week of teaching students from Jordan and Syria. I teach them Monday through Friday for three hours a day for two weeks. It is an interesting group. There are only three students in my group. One speaks English, Russian and Arabic. The second speaks just Russian and Arabic and the third English and Arabic. It is interesting having English, Greek, Russian and Arabic on the board at the same time.

We lost water for a about a day and half this week and it has been getting hotter. But Julie continues to develop her lessons for the two ESL camps. The first starts next week. We will host a ESL Café for two weeks – Monday, Wednesday and Friday for the next two weeks. After that Julie along with our coworker Leah will teach at an ESL camp at the Black Sea Camp.
Today is Sunday and Joseph has left with the team for his first solo translating job. He is very excited. We are excited too but we will miss him.

Monday starts probably the busiest week of the summer. I am teaching 15 lectures at the seminary and three days this week, Julie and I are starting the ESL café this week. That means that Monday, Wednesday and Friday I have class in the morning and ESL café in the evening.

It is Monday and we hosted our first ESL Café. Julie taught on vocabulary development strategies and Alfie gave a Bible lesson on John 1:1-18. We are tired but had a great time.