February 2006

Hello from Bruce and Aimee Alvord!

DATING 101

Bruce's co-worker, Igor, was a helicopter door gunner in the Afghanistan war. Pure-blooded atheist. Became a Christian, started reading the Bible, and discovered with great delight the account of how Isaac and Rebecca became husband and wife (Isaac's servant asks the Lord to make it so that whichever young lady gives him and his camels a drink is the girl for Isaac).

As a zealous new Christian, Igor decides that this is a brilliant idea! So for six months he prays that the Lord would choose a wife for him, and make it so he couldn't miss knowing who she was. He is so busy with a 12-hour factory job, night school at the University, and being a youth pastor, that the wife thing recedes to the back burner.

One Sunday he is visiting a church with his youth group, when out in the congregation he sees a girl and "something happens in his heart". He prays again for six months that if she is the one, the Lord would make it obvious to him.

At the end of those months, Igor goes back to the church, finds a guy who knows the girl, and says, "Don't tell me anything good about her, and don't tell me anything bad about her. Just tell me who her parents are." So the guy says, "That's the pastor's daughter." Igor is happy because the pastor will be easy to find, and goes to the Sunday evening service. While he is waiting for everyone to leave afterwards, a lady comes up and "starts bothering him with a bunch of questions". He tells her (rather curtly) that he is waiting to see the pastor, and she says, "Oh that's my husband."

Finally he has the man's ear, tells him about his decision to let the Lord choose his wife like Isaac did, and asks him what he thinks about this plan. The pastor says, "Well, it worked for them, and it's in the Bible..." So Igor, having just met this man, says, "Well the Lord has shown me that my wife is supposed to be your daughter. Can I marry her?"

The pastor was Brenza, Bruce's boss and president of Irpin Seminary (you may recall the story about his dad being taken by the communists and rescued from the firing squad at the last minute). Brenza's daughter is named Lena (the baby of the family, with three older brothers), who was in high school at the time. Igor was 24, a new Christian who had just been through the war. Igor said that when he asked to marry his daughter, Brenza's face turned red, he started to sweat, and didn't speak. Igor was afraid he was going to have a heart attack.

So Brenza and his wife pray and fast for a week about whether or not Igor can marry their daughter, and finally conclude that it's Lena's decision (she is 18). So Igor goes to their house, waits for her to come home from school, and says, "Hi, I'm Igor. I came here because I want to ask you to marry me." As unbelievable as it sounds, this is true. He related this story to us himself.

Lena is shocked of course, and the conversation moves along to more comfortable subjects. As he is about to leave, Igor asks if they can pray together, and one of the things Lena says in her prayer is "Lord, bless our lives." Igor, head over heels, assumes she means their lives TOGETHER, and takes this as a definite "yes-I-will-marry-you" answer! (Lena merely meant "bless each of our lives".) So Igor thinks he is engaged and starts visiting every night, as the groom-to-be.

Fast forwarding ahead over some really good stuff, Lena agrees to marry him but is plagued by terrible doubts and confusion (unbeknownst to Igor). Because her mom and dad are staying completely out of it except to pray for her (hmmmm…), she is desperate for wisdom on the matter and starts "testing" the Lord. Here are three of the tests:

• One night there was such a bad storm that public transportation was shut down. Lena prayed that if Igor didn't come, it meant she shouldn't marry him. He came, sopping wet. (To this day he doesn't remember how he got there, because there weren't even any taxis.)
• She decided to do a lottery and made a big pile of little pieces of paper with the word "no" written on them. Then she wrote one with "yes". She shook them and shook them, prayed... and picked the yes.
• Igor was in the habit of calling her from his factory job usually around noon. One day he warned her that he would be at a different work site out in the desert where there were no phones, so he wouldn't be able to call her the next day. So she prayed that if he didn't call her that meant she shouldn't marry him, knowing that the Lord would have to literally drop down a phone (and phone line) from heaven. Then she decided to up the ante and stipulated that this miracle call must come at EXACTLY 12 O'CLOCK NOON.

Next day, out in the desert, a military squadron comes tramping through the factory work site. There are a few big wigs among the group, and for that reason they are toting a phone with a special generator and a really, really long wire on a spool. Igor, (head over heels, you remember) goes up to the top brass and asks if he can use the phone. The man says, "Of course not, go away!" So Igor says, "Sorry, just thought I'd ask," and walks away. Five minutes later the military guy finds Igor and says, "No one's looking, here I'll show you how to use this phone." The army officer helps him operate the contraption and Igor calls Lena. The time? Exactly 12 noon. (Igor said the guy probably figured it was an emergency, and was incredulous when he realized that Igor was just calling his girlfriend to shoot the breeze.)

I could go on and on with more details as fascinating as these, but this is already longer than most people will read. Last we heard there is a book about it in progress. I WILL say that Igor and Lena have been happily married for over 20 years, are a fantastic ministry team, and their daughter Victoria is about to graduate from The Master's College. Igor is finishing up his doctorate and will probably succeed his father-in-law Brenza as president of Irpin Seminary.

PRAYER REQUESTS

1. Pray for one of Bruce's relatives whose spouse has left them - that they will repent and return.
2. It's an answer to prayer that our pastor has decided he needs to train his own leaders. Pray the Lord would guide and give him wisdom along with Bruce, who he asked to help.
3. One of our children is having a very difficult year in school relationship-wise. Pray that he'd learn what the Lord wants him to, and be drawn closer to Him through it.
4. A friend in our church (also a deacon and member of Bruce's discipleship group) is dying of cancer. He has nine children. Please pray.
5. Pray for the salvation of family members, especially Bruce's Mormon side.

FUN FACT

It's been so cold (-17 F) that our tent church canceled Sunday services.

Thank you for all the Christmas pictures we received - we loved them!

Bruce and Aimee Alvord