This post is
a guest blog post I wrote for A Tiny
Traveler. To read more of this awesome blog
follow the link or view the blog buttons on the right side of my page.
I hope you enjoy my
first guest blog post!
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Meet Liv.
A secondary education major at Valley Forge Christian College who visited
Russia in March of 2014. Liv is hoping during this upcoming year to
add a second major in middle level education.She says that her immediate plans
after graduation are: "Take pictures with my friends and rejoice that four
(maybe 5 if I add my double major) of college is over. Then go into the
big kid world and find a job. I have no idea where I will end up but my
heart has been set for years on teaching over seas. Russia seems like an
extraordinary option, but God’s options are extra-extraordinary so we shall
see! My not so immediate goals are to change education, or at least that
is what God is telling me right now." Her goals for her blog in the
next year or so are to keep people reading and keep up with posting. "I
have never been good at journaling or keeping up with these kinds of things,
but I think I have some good friends that will keep me in line if I am
slacking. Hopefully I don’t run out of masks for Mask Mondays!
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God has granted me
a love of language. He makes me giggle over grammar, relish in reading,
whimsically wonder about words, and he saturates me in sentences.
God has also given
me adoration for fashion, and especially shoes. High heels, loafers,
vans; metallic, bedazzled, black—you name it I love it.
See, God tends to
work in silly ways and He used both speech and shoes to make my latest missions
trip to St. Petersburg, Russia one of the most inspirational and moving trips I
have ever been on. He tied each aspect of each love affair I have
with these two objects together until they were intricately woven into my
mind. And in a second, I will tell you how, but first—background.
My name is
Liv. I grew up in Omaha, Nebraska. No, I do not ride cows
to school. No, I do not live on a farm. No, there are no
polar bears here; you have confused Nebraska with Alaska. By the
way, they don’t have polar bears either. Just thought I would get
your questions out of the way. I am a city girl addicted to Starbucks
and stargazing. Unfortunately, stargazing is not very doable in the
city. I am a city girl who loves traveling abroad and I have had the
opportunity to thanks to friends, family, and God’s provision. I am
a city girl who grew up as a pastor’s daughter. I have been in the
limelight of ministry and I have been torn between loving and hating every
minute. I have had experiences that have strengthened
me. I have gone though periods where I felt lonely and periods of
life where I felt loved. My favorite bible verse is cliché (Jeremiah
29:11). Despite all of this I have found that I am still loved and
cared for by God. He has a purpose for me; I want to fulfill that
purpose not to the best of my potential, but to His.
So, in comes
Russia. In approximately March of 2013 I was scrolling though
Facebook and saw that Andy and Nancy Raatz, family friends were moving to
Russia from Moldova to continue God’s work for them there and in a split second
my mindset changed forever. God said, “You’re going there.” I said,
“LOL, nope.” And thus we begin an adventure.
For just over 365
days God pounded Russia into me. Every single day I overheard, read,
and/ or saw something about Russia. He provided funds faster than I
could have dreamed. He provided the perfect team. And then he sent
me to learn a lesson: Speech and Shoes.
I had been on one
other missions trip to Derry, Ireland in 2010. It was there I became
enamored with different languages and shoes that represented other
cultures. So, I started talking with an Irish accent and bought a
pair of fashion forward (the trend hadn’t quite entered the states yet) combat
boots. Likewise, in Russia, I started speaking Russian and bought a
pair of high-heeled boots and then God did some crazy stuff.
Speaking a
different language is hard, but communicating is easy. The very first full day in Russia we headed out to a small
village about two hours outside of St. Petersburg. We had the
pleasure of ministering with a group of college-aged students. The
day was full of fun and excitement, but I was impacted most on the bus ride. My
team was awesome, but I noticed they sat with each other and the youth group
sat seperately. I knew going into this trip that I had to step out
of my comfort zone. I sat up front with the strangers and we
acted. The language barrier was so hard to over come so we didn’t
even try. We subconsciously decided that waving our arms, flashing
pictures, and teaching each other new words in strange languages would help us
connect, and we were right. By the end of the day everyone was
“talking”. The girls and I had a great conversation about our
families. Who was the oldest and youngest sibling? They acted out
taking a picture and I proceeded to share pictures of my
family. They knew very simple English words such as ‘age’ so we were
able to show each other with our fingers how old we were. The best
part of the day was singing with our new friends. They knew worship
songs we knew, but they didn’t always know the English words. The
beauty of this was we could sing the same songs, in different languages, and
still be completely surrendering to the same God. The God of Isaac, of
Jacob, of Abraham, of Americans, and of Russians—The God of all.
Now this may seem
like a very simple concept, but think about it for a second. We
cannot walk up to someone who speaks a different language and expect them to
know exactly what we are saying, but in a split second, with music in the
background and God in the foreground we knew exactly what these students were
meaning.
From then on I
picked up Russian fast. I had a few people talk to me in Russian
thinking I spoke it fluently (only if I kept my conversations to one word…but
good enough! J) Olga, one of our translators, taught me word after word
and God certainly blessed her with patience for me and my need for
language. I soaked it up like a sponge. Laying in bed one
night in our small room I thought “We should be so fascinated with the
language of God we become fluent in every language that praises him so nothing
hinders us from worshiping him fully.” Now, humanly it may not be possible
for all of us to fluently speak the millions of dialects and languages that we
have around the world. And that is okay, because God gave us
tongues. How cool is that? God gave us a perfect unhindered,
uncomprehend able language to worship him with. Humans haven’t
tainted this language. The connotation of each word is exactly what
God intends it to be. It is so incredibly pure. We can
sing and speak in tongues. Russian and English have been tainted and
ruined by society. We can only praise God to the best of our
abilities and it becomes so much more powerful when we put them
together. Imagine what it will be like in heaven when we are
praising in tongues—a heavenly language!
Speaking and
language is only half of what God taught me while over in
Russia. Shoes, and whom they represent is another. Have you ever
heard “Walk a mile in their shoes?” This is where I got the idea to purchase a
pair of shoes that represent each country I minister in. Russia is
fabulous. The people are always dressed to the
nines. Gorgeous tall women and muscular men put on facades to hide
the hurt behind. Hair is always nice, but minds are amuck with
needing peace. Faces are painted thick with makeup, but the lack of
smiling is hiding pain that only Christ can heal. The heavy coats and tall
boots keep bodies warm, but there needs to be a spread of spiritual warmth in
Russia. I felt all of these heavy feelings every time we stepped
onto the Metro. The biggest thing for me though, was how high the
heels were on the boots of almost every young lady riding on the
metro. To me it screamed, “I want something more.”
Immediately I knew I had that something more.
It is a crazy
thought I realize to think that by someone putting on a simple pair of heels
could be saying something, but the fact that society as a whole in Russia is
crying out for a savior makes it slightly less crazy. You see, like
in America, girls want to be noticed. The men too, of course, but by
just focusing on women’s shoes you can see a trend. The thoughts
tend to be “I am going to be the most beautiful, I will have the most
expensive things.” Instead of “I am beautiful in God’s sight, I am rich because
God has blessed me.” As soon as I found my pair of Russian boots and
put them on I knew they were the ones. These boots remind me to walk
a mile in the Russian women’s shoes each time I wear them. I have to
think like Russian women, think that I have no hope, and then I have to walk a
mile in four inch high heels to feel what it’s really life. Imagine
doing that without God. It is impossible. Doesn’t
that alone make you want to go over and share exactly what God has done for
you? Because of what Christ did for us on the cross we are free to wear
whatever kinds of shoes we want. We don’t have to be hard on
ourselves because we are not perfect or because we are not tall enough, we
simply have to come to the Father barefooted and dirty and he will clean us and
make us new. I am constantly awestruck by the faithfulness of
God. Everyday, I put on a “pair of heels” and he gently reminds me
that I am enough all by myself.
Speech and Shoes
changed my life. Two passions that I never thought I would see
collide. And here they are, together.
How beautiful are
the passions that God places on your heart, for he will wreck, inhabit, and
rebuild each of them for the glory and honor of Him. If only you let
Him.
