Well, it looks like it’s actually going to happen. I have a Kazakh work visa in hand for August 29, 2010, to August 28, 2011. Plane tickets have been selected and will hopefully be confirmed early next week. A pile of books on English grammar and basic Russian sit next to me, having ridden 4,600 miles in my car over the last 3 weeks, yet having received distressingly small amounts of my attention. The duffle bags, their duct tape repairs still holding strong after being relieved of their loads of climbing gear, are enjoying a brief respite before the next dose of misery I’m about to put them through. My cello is staring me down from across the room. “We’ve been through so much and become so close over the last two years. Surely you wouldn’t leave me behind on an adventure like this! You are taking me, aren’t you?” I wish I had an answer for that one.
In fact, I don’t seem to have answers for much at this point. And if I do happen to have an answer, it’s likely to be rather vague. “What will you be doing?” Teaching English. “To whom?” To people, I would imagine. “Is where you’re going…civilized?” Well, Almaty used to be the capital of Kazakhstan, but I’ve heard some intriguing rumors about less than reliable Soviet-designed facilities…just rumors. “Kazakhstan, huh? Are there any terrorists?” Depends…if you mean the kind that blow up buildings, I doubt I’ll have the pleasure of making their acquaintance. If you mean the kind that makes it such a terror to drive an automobile, I’m sure I’ll encounter a few of the Kazakh variety. Would you like an autograph? “Will a Florida boy like you survive the winter?” I think I’ve got a fair chance, and I might even come through without losing any appendages. “Just how cold does it get?” Uh, pretty cold. “What will you take?” Well, right now, a good jacket (or three) is as far as I’ve gotten with my packing list.
Actually, there is something else on my packing list. Since I seem to be lacking in the answers department, I’ll be taking my Bible, the ultimate answers encyclopedia. It’s fairly average looking, as Bibles go. The binding is held together with packing tape, and the cover is creased from some forgotten mishap. Small cards and notes that bring back pleasant memories are inserted to mark special passages, and Romans sports some elaborate highlighting, a product of high school religion classes. But when one opens its worn pages, and opens their mind to the messages contained therein, it quickly becomes apparent that the Bible is the most un-average book ever written. Whatever situation I have to confront, whatever questions I come up with, it holds an answer waiting to be discovered. For instance, here’s one of my favorites, and one that many people my age face. “What next?” The response that I often look to is the often-quoted passage of Romans 12:1-2.
"Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – His good, pleasing, and perfect will."There’s so much packed into those two verses that there is no way that I can begin to understand all of it, but let me just mention the most important message that I get out of that passage. I think many people see these verses as a call to spend the rest of one’s life in direct service to God, preaching to the unreached, giving Bible studies, and baptizing new believers. Quite right. For myself, though, I’m not likely to be very effective, at least by my own power, at any of the above forms of service. Thus far, it seems that “God’s will” is that my “spiritual act of worship” be in more indirect forms of service – showing people about Him. One might be inclined to think that teaching English in an officially “secular” setting isn’t typical work for a missionary, and one might be right. However, perhaps God is planning to use a missionary in a secular setting to show someone about Him. It is my hope and prayer that that’s exactly what will happen in the coming year.
Since this is the first blog post, I think it’s appropriate to mention a slightly unorthodox scheme I came up with to do some fundraising for the student missions program. The idea was this: line up some sponsors and then climb as much vertical rock as possible in a 24-hour period. In order to keep things simple, and to reduce the possibility of mistakes caused by sleep-deprived judgment, this was accomplished by doing laps on two different routes at a cliff near Chattanooga called Tennessee Wall. Climb up, lower off. Climb up, lower off. Needless to say, I learned a lot about my personal endurance level. Most likely due to a series of carefully planned breaks, I was able to hold things together for the entire 24 hours. Here’s a few statistics:
- Total amount of climbing: 13,750 feet
- Total amount raised: $1,448
- 21 sponsors
- Started at 12:15 pm, April 2; ended at 12:15 pm, April 3
- 7 different belayers (people to manage the other end of the rope in case I slipped)
- Drank 14 quarts of water/Gatorade mix
- Ate 2 packs of noodles, 6 bagels, 12 granola bars, 2 boxes of raisins, a bag of mangos, and probably some other stuff that I don’t remember
- Officially ended the usable life of 1 rope
- Acquired multiple blisters on the soles of both feet, despite ample tape and thick socks
Doing belay duty for someone going up and down the same route, again and again, has to be one of the most boring, yet very necessary, jobs on the planet. So I’d like to say a big thanks to my six evening and morning companions – Kevin Detlor, Dale Pickett, Meagan Johnston (SM to Palau, ’07-’08), Rochelle Barr (SM to Palau, ’07-’08), Emily Milliner (SM to Ebeye, ’10-‘11), and Sarah Ruf – and an especially big thanks to Krystal Barton (SM to Tanzania, ’08-’09), who belayed and kept my ‘nose to the sandstone’ all night and most of the following morning. And, of course, a huge thanks is due to the sponsors who made the whole effort worth it. Your donations not only helped cover some of the cost of my trip to Kazakhstan, but also helped give eight other student missionaries the chance to witness for Christ around the world.
I have no idea where this blog is going to go (there I am, lacking answers again). You will likely find posts that run the gamut from vague questions to rambling thoughts to simple accounts of the experiences of a naïve Yank. My thoughts and opinions are prone to be (actually, are likely to be) slightly westernized, fairly inexperienced, quite simple minded, somewhat untrained, mildly impulsive, moderately biased, and grossly insufficient. My apologies. If something I write rubs you the wrong way, please feel free to leave an appropriate comment on the blog, stalk me on Facebook, or rant at me by email (robbieburnham@southern.edu). If you manage to find some morsel that you like, I wouldn’t mind hearing about that, too. I will also do my level best to keep this blog relatively free from lengthy political banter, but considering the context of the experience, I feel like there is no way I will be able to avoid making some brief examples now and then.
Many of this year’s student missionaries will be keeping blogs. If you’re interested in seeing what some of the other SM’s are up to, the student missions office at Southern Adventist University has a list of the blogs of the other SM’s (studentmissions@southern.edu). Please keep the entire student missions program in your prayers. Of all the places in which prayer is an important part of everyday life, nowhere is it more indispensable than on the front lines where people are being introduced to Jesus for the first time.
