Interlock PrayerNet

D’YA SEE WHAT I’M SAYING? by Larry Stout

Every region of the United States has certain quaint expressions, and the region of Pennsylvania where Debbie and I now live certainly has more than its share. The one expression that absolutely drives us crazy is the one, “Do you hear what I am saying?” (There is also the oft-used variation, “D’ya see what I’m saying?”) It is used as a statement to clarify that the message has been understood. D’ya see what I’m saying? Because sometimes people misunderstand what was said. D’ya see what I’m saying? So, we want to make absolutely sure our message is understood. D’ya see what I’m saying? I hope you get the idea… Debbie and I have made a hobby out of seeing how many of these phrases we can collect in a day’s time while talking with others, but it actually provoked some thought in my mind concerning how difficult it is to get a message across today. I have seen communication confusion in many different forms. I was speaking with a man who has been a foreman at a factory for over twenty years, and he admitted he is having more trouble understanding management today than he ever has in his life. I am not surprised. I am confused even watching television. I have seen a number of commercials, and I have to turn to my wife and ask what in the world was the advertisement trying to say? I find it incredulous that enormous amounts of money are being spent on ambiguity. It would be nice if we could say that we find clarity of communication in the church. Years ago, a person walking into a new church would receive a bulletin that would provide the essential information about the service and at least a general sense of the liturgy that would be followed. Debbie and I have visited almost a new church every week, and I cannot get over the muddled maze that used to be called the handout bulletin. It has lots of bells and whistles, but is almost worthless from a content standpoint, especially for the newcomer. Some of the sermons are not much better. One went from Genesis to Revelation and back again, and I still did not know at the end what the actual subject of the message was. I believe the church cannot emulate the world in this regard. It begins with listening. Jesus told us on numerous occassions, “He who has an ear, let him hear.” And we have a responsibility for clarity as 2 Corinthians 4:2 tells us that we are to set forth the Word of God plainly. I, for one, want to to obey the Lord in this regard. I have made an informal New Year’s resolution to myself that I want to improve my communication skills in 2007. I have had a number of people tell me that they enjoy my Vision articles, but many do not read them because they are too long. Okay – I will shorten them! I will also work harder at hearing and understanding what others are saying to me. If I do, maybe they won’t have to ask if I hear what they are saying.

GREAT ADVENT-URE by Larry Stout
I know I am in danger of over-hyping a movie (something that my kids often accuse me of doing), but I am still basking in the glow of the marvelous film, The Nativity Story. One of the things that struck me while watching it was how it captured the adventure of this event. Our familiarity dulls us to the fact that this truly is an extraordinary story. First, there was a very young maiden who is impregnated supernaturally by the Holy Spirit in a society that condemns unwed pregnant women to death. Incredibly, her virtuous finance stands with her. Not long after, they are forced on a grueling journey while she is nine months pregnant. Finally, when they reach their destination, they must spend the night in an animal's stable, and that is when the baby is born. At the same time, angels announce the birth to shepherds who go visit the mother and her newborn. A small group of Magi traveling from the East also are guided by a star and pay their deep respects to this prophesied King. The man occupying the throne, King Herod, took a very dim view to this whole thing and tried to extermine the child by killing all the baby males in Bethlehem. This is actually an amazing story, and we so easily forget the incredible difficulty of it all. The birth of our Lord came through great trials and hardships, much like his death.

THE ROAD AHEAD: Vision for 2007 and Beyond by Larry Stout

“Having hope means that one will not give in to overwhelming anxiety, a defeatist attitude, or depression in the face of difficult challenges or setbacks… Hope is more than the sunny side that everything will turn out all right; it is believing you have the will and the why to accomplish your goals.” (Daniel Goleman, quoted in “Team of Rivals” by Doris Kearns Goodwin).

I read these words as I was in the midst of one of the most trying weeks of my life.  My itinerary was to be from Newark, NJ to Kyiv, Ukraine but I ended up with so many delays and misconnections that it took me 33 hours to complete the trip.  Little did I realize that it would take even longer (!) than that time to make a journey from Kyiv to Tel Aviv, Israel.  In a seven day period, I spent three nights in a bed and four nights on a plane or in an airport.  Twice during that period I was going 48 hours without sleep.  This was by a man who covets his sleep dearly!

DEBBIE’S FAREWELL MESSAGE TO THE US EMBASSY IN RIGA by Debbie Stout
My husband, our three children, and I arrived in Riga on the bitter cold evening of 20 January 1991. If this date means nothing special to you, ask any adult Latvian, and they can tell you its significance. It was during the days of the barricades when Latvia was urging their independence from the Soviet Union. On that particular day five people were shot and killed in the Bastekalns Park by the Soviet Omon special forces police. There are now large stone monuments in the park where each of the assaults occurred. It was both a terrible and wonderful time in the history of Latvia as it was the beginning of the end of Soviet rule.

LESSONS LEARNED ON THE MISSION FIELD – PART 25: The Mystery of Missions by Larry Stout
The year that Debbie and I went on the mission field, 1991, was also the first time in five decades that the reported number of people from the United States who became full-time overseas missionaries declined. According to the MARC Missions Handbook, in 1991 there were a little more than 40,000 missionaries, a twenty percent drop from just five years before. Statistics on the number of missionaries today are a little hard to obtain due to the multitude of independent groups, but according to a recent Christianity Today article, the numbers of missionaries from Western nations in general has been steadily declining.

LESSONS LEARNED ON THE MISSION FIELD – PART 24: And Now a Word From Our Sponsors by Larry Stout
Every government leader in history who undertakes a military campaign knows that there are actually two battles that need to be fought – the one against the enemy and the other for the support of those at home. As President Bush has discovered, to win on the enemy front necessitates having the support of the home front. Exactly the same thing is true with missionaries. Without faithful prayer and financial supporters, no missionary would survive on the mission field for long.

LESSONS LEARNED ON THE MISSION FIELD – PART 23: It’s All About Trust by Larry Stout
Trust is a little like gravity, we use it constantly but never give it a thought. But make no mistake – without trust, there can be no true interaction between groups or individuals. I have read many books on communication effectiveness and public speaking and I am always astounded how little attention they give to the importance of trust. Many years ago, I was attending an embassy function with Debbie and had the occasion to be standing next to the US Ambassador Ints Silins. He was the first ambassador and there were rumors that he was affiliated with the CIA. I was very unsure what I should say around him, and he, in turn, had no real idea who I was (or at least, acted that way). In short, we really did not trust one another. We talked for about ten minutes or so, and later Debbie asked me what we were discussing. I thought and thought, but came up short. We talked but never really shared any information. Trust is an essential element to communication.

LESSONS LEARNED ON THE MISSION FIELD – PART 22: Living in a Glass House by Larry Stout
On Friday I was making an appointment on the phone to meet with an Australian pastor who wished to meet me. We agreed to meet for breakfast on Monday morning at a restaurant, and it occurred to me that I needed to get some description of him so I would not miss him, but he said, “Don’t worry, Larry, I know you.”
It is sometimes disconcerting that people I have never met know vast amounts of information about my life. We have heard stories of our PrayerNets getting widely circulated, and when these folks meet us, we find that they have a huge wealth of knowledge about our lives and work. As one dear friend recently wrote, “I know more about your lives than I do about people I work with every day.”

LESSONS LEARNED ON THE MISSION FIELD – PART 21: A World of Heroes by Larry Stout
One of the difficulties I had in teaching leadership to those who grew up in the Soviet Union was that there were so few role models. The Soviet system bred mediocrity rather than excellence, frustration rather than productivity. It made me realize how blessed I am to have been born in the United States and also to have had such excellent personal examples of leadership. These three individuals are a living demonstration to me of human potential nurtured with the power of the Holy Spirit.

LESSONS LEARNED ON THE MISSION FIELD – PART 20: A Very Special Partner by Larry Stout

This Thursday Debbie and I will celebrate our 32nd wedding anniversary. Almost half of those years have been spent on the mission field. With each passing day, I realize I could never have found a more perfect mate. She never ceases to amaze me. I remember in September 1990, when I was making a second trip from America to Scandanavia and the USSR. I believed the Lord had called us to do some kind of work in the Soviet Union, and was exploring whether we should live in the Sweden or Finland from which to serve. But it was while visiting Riga I saw that this was where the Lord wanted us to base our operations. I knew Debbie was back in the States at that moment with her family at the Outer Banks, and was praying about our mission. As she was standing on the beach, watching the beautiful eastern sunrise, she realized that we were not moving to the lovely countries of Sweden or Finland, but into the belly of the Bear itself – the USSR. When I got back to the States, I was so concerned about how I will tell her this news that we were going to live under the shadow of Communism, but she just smiled and said, “I already know, honey.” Debbie has given that smile to me many times over the years. It is a smile that comes from having a confidence in the Lord. She does not claim to have a mountain-moving faith, yet when we have faced serious challenges, she knows that it is not my cleverness or resourcefulness that will save the day – but the grace of Almighty God. That quiet assurance has been more valuable to me than all the money in the world. In the first couple of years in Latvia, it seemed that we visited every orphanage and children’s hospital in the country. Debbie knew that it would be impossible for us to do more than make a very small dent against the vast need that we were observing. Yet time and again, Debbie was able to trust the Lord to take her very small input and see it multiplied in the Lord’s hand. For example, juvenile diabetics in the country only had their blood sugar checked, at best, once a month at the hospital. Though getting insulin was not a problem, some children were experiencing secondary effects such as blindness because they were not controlling their diabetes as well as they should. Buying a blood sugar monitor for each child, however, would run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars – so what could be done? Debbie began to get donations for monitors, and as each came in, she set up neighborhood clinics so that there would at least be one in the vicinity of the needy children. Over the years, the monitors gradually came in and the problem was solved. Time and again, I have watched Debbie take seemingly insurmountable challenges and whittle them down to size. Of course, Mes Esam Lidzas, the Children’s Rehab Center, is the most dramatic example. Starting with just one other doctor and a dream, she helped establish the leading rehabilitation center for children in the Baltic countries, if not Eastern Europe. The Baltic-American Fund used Mes Esam Lidzas as a model for how a non-profit organization should be designed and operated. And I was supposed to be the management expert! When Debbie and I made the decision to adopt Olya, which by the way was initially all Debbie’s idea, we faced a huge problem. The entire system had been set up for the adoption of infants, not a teenager like Olya. That did not deter Debbie. She literally got the laws changed so that Olya could become our daughter. No one has a perfect marriage, and Debbie and I have had our scrapes over the years. Two years ago we had to be seperated for eleven months to assist Olya through her last year of American high school. I found that I missed my wife tremendously, but not for the reasons I expected. What I missed the most were the very things that had bothered me the most when she was around! Her frequent reminders about taking vitamins or answering an email or a hundred other little details that I had always found aggravating were no longer heard. And as a result, I found myself not nearly as effective in getting important work accomplished. I finally realized that the Lord had given me the ideal mate. She completed all that was lacking in me, which bothered my pride, but was completely necessary. Debbie is like any other woman in that she desires security and a certain degree of comfort. But, Debbie is also unlike any other woman I have ever known. She is not an eloquent speaker or a particularly clever person. Yet she combines all her abilities in the most unique way, and unites them with unshakeable faith and a heart that loves deeper than most could ever imagine. She is my dearest love and friend. Best of all, she is my greatest admirer. She claims that I am her hero. I guess it is obvious that she is mine also.