Undeniable Hand Of God
By Becky Porter
Lena was a college-aged seasonal worker who came to the US to spend the summer working with our family at Bradford Inn. She traveled two very full days by bus, train, plane, and car to reach Branson, Missouri. Her demeanor was slightly shy, with a sweet smile, pale skin, strawberry blonde hair and a small frame. Lena was quick to learn her new job and proved to be a very hard worker. She was quite fluent in English and worked very hard to perfect pronunciation. She was a joy to our family and fit right in quickly. Many times she said she’d never been around such happy, loving people and being in Branson was very much different than home. She loved going to the pool each day after work to sunbathe. She said it was very difficult to get a tan in Siberia!
It seems that it was about 6, maybe 7 years ago that my husband & I were planning to teach Vacation Bible School at First Baptist Church, Branson. Knowing that none of our seasonal workers attended churches or were believers, I invited three of them (from Siberia, Macedonia & another part of Russia) to be “helpers” in the class. My prayer was that God would soften their hearts as we shared Bible stories in the simplest terms to the kindergarteners. By day 3, Lena had lots of questions. The other two “helpers” really were not terribly interested, but Lena was!
After class she wanted to hear more about Jesus. What she was hearing was personal and very different from her church in Siberia where God is portrayed as distant, cold and mostly judgmental. She spoke of a pretty cathedral with a gift shop where she attended church, but she’d never learned about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and she was extremely interested. As I shared with her about who Jesus is and the salvation that he makes available to each of us, she said that she definitely wanted that relationship. We prayed together and she accepted him as her Savior. She was baptized just weeks before she was due to depart for Siberia. What a glorious day that was!
But here is the part that just leaves me in absolute awe of how big and awesome our God is. My sister and I had searched high and low to find a Bible in her language. We looked on the internet and searched bookstores in town, even asking our missions Aunt if she could locate a Bible in the Siberian language. We came up completely empty handed. So we bought her a Bible in the English language and sent that with her. The tough part was that she could not read it very easily and studying it took her a very long time. Churches are very hard to find where she lives and Bibles are not found in every home as they are in America. We prayed over Lena and tearfully sent her home not knowing if we would ever see her again.
She journeyed for a few days to get back home to a lonely, isolated train station where her mother would be awaiting her. When she got there her mother was holding a book. She told Lena that there was a single woman reading it in the train station and when she got up she left the book behind. Lena’s mother, who is not a believer, wasn’t exactly sure what the book was. But she asked Lena if she would like to have it.
It was a Bible in her language!
God miraculously and sovereignly already had a plan in place and there was no mistake in any of our minds that Lena would never be alone in Siberia. I believe he allowed it to happen this way so that only he would have the credit and would show her he would take care of her and be faithful even in Siberia! We continue to pray for Lena and stay in touch through the internet. She finished her schooling and is now married with two beautiful small daughters.
The undeniable hand of God! Let’s praise Him for Who He Is Today!!
For You O Lord, have made me glad by what you have done, I will sing for joy at the works of Your hands! -Psalm 92:4
From Lena:
Lena (the blonde) with Becky (in the hat) and friends at Vacation Bible School at FBC Branson.
