Staff member Luke Harrison reflects on what he learned during his time in Russia.
How have you seen the Holy Spirit work in you over the past three years?
He’s had a difficult person to deal with. You come up against the worst of yourself, working with a foreign team in a foreign culture. I’m amazingly grateful to God for the opportunity, but it has been painful because there are parts of me that are not nice. The Spirit has helped me to work through this and realise that I can’t do a lot without him.
How did cultural differences influence your approach to sharing the gospel?
Well, language can be limiting. For example, I met with Anton, a real future leader who spoke a good level of English, for two years. One day I overheard him having a conversation with one of the Russian staff in his own language – Anton instantly went deeper. Despite having a reasonable level of Russian, this showed me just how shallow I’d managed to get into the culture in three years. But at the same time, ‘being foreign’ attracted people to speak to us.