THE Taylor family is BACK!!! The Girls - Shannon and Britney and their brother JT are doing concerts outside of Moscow and in the Russian cities Tombov and Kuluga. Please, pray for the many young people, they attract to their concerts, would surrender their lives to Jesus Christ. Also pictured is their mother Maureen. Ron will be joining his family in a couple of weeks to support the outreaches. It is always good to have the Taylors stop in on our Sunday service.
This is my friend Eggar Petrov from St. Petersburg Russia. I have know Eggar for about 9 years. Eggar on his way to Ghana, Africa stopped by and stayed a few days with me in Moscow. Eggar is part of a 7 member team from Russia that will be doing outreach and a vacation Bible school in Ghana. I think it is very exciting to see missionaries from here going out across the world. Eggar and his team will be visiting a Russian family who were sent from Moscow by Wycliffe Bible translators to create a written language and then translate the New Testament into a Ghanaian tribal dialect. I was amazed to know the Wycliffe bible translators were here in Russia. Then I learned about William Cameron Thompson the founder of Wycliffe Bible translating society. After serving for 50 years on the mission field Cameron decided that he was not quite ready to retire. So at ripe young age of 71 Cameron and his wife decided that Russia needed Bibles translated as well. Cameron asked himself, “What about the Iron Curtain countries? Shouldn’t all languages there have God’s Word?”
Cam and
Elaine arrived in Moscow on October 3, 1968, on their first visit. They both felt strongly that any further invitations to the Soviet Union and, hopefully, permission to do
Bible translation would depend first of all on God and, second, on extending a hand of friendship to all they met.
As Cam said in a letter to a friend in the Soviet Academy of Science in 1969 after the first trip, “I am determined to do everything we can to draw our people more closely together in bonds of friendship—the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. In this way we’ll be performing a real service to our country and to the lovers of peace everywhere.”
The Door Cracks Open
By their eleventh trip in 1979, the Townsends had traveled more than 10,000 miles and given away hundreds of scripture portions. They openly shared about linguistic research and Bible translation taking place in Latin America. They had written two books, The USSR As We Saw It and They Found a Common Language.
Cameron and Elaine had also been invited into hundreds of homes where their hosts showered them with gifts and courtesies. They were graciously given the privilege of importing a car and travel trailer and were allowed to travel unaccompanied for months at a time. The Townsends enjoyed wonderful fellowship in packed churches, especially in Moscow.
Cameron never shied away from presenting his hope to university academics and others that one day the 160 languages of the
Soviet Republics and Eastern European countries would have God’s Word available to them. Through friendships they had made in the Soviet Academy of Science, four translations of First John were eventually completed by a Russian linguist. What an amazing testimony of God’s hand on Russia.
THE Taylor family is BACK!!! The Girls - Shannon and Britney and their brother JT are doing concerts outside of Moscow and in the Russian cities Tombov and Kuluga. Please, pray for the many young people, they attract to their concerts, would surrender their lives to Jesus Christ. Also pictured is their mother Maureen. Ron will be joining his family in a couple of weeks to support the outreaches. It is always good to have the Taylors stop in on our Sunday service.
