Posted in General Posts by Marina Razumovsky on 5/18/2012
1. I moved a total of 5 times in the last 2 years! (11+ times in 11 months? Bring it)
2. By my 3rd and 4th move I didn’t even bother unpacking anything and just lived out of my boxes and bags. (I will be a pro when it comes to living out of a back bag for a year)
3. I’ve slept in some pretty interesting places when I wasn’t sleeping at home. Ahhh if only I had my tent, sleeping bag and sleeping pad.
4. Can someone say rats, mice, lizards, frogs and huge spiders? (I wish I was making this up but a rat actually ran into my leg!)
5. I tried a lot of new cuisines. Yes, sushi, Indian, Thai, Vietnamese and an enchilada can’t be compared to what I’ll be eating in Africa and Asia but they were still new and thrilling adventures for me!
6. I flew every couple of months to see my family. One flight was a little over 2 hours and I remember complaining about the duration of the flight but then I realized that I signed up for ministry ALL OVER THE WORLD with some of the flights lasting over 10 hours. Barely got done processing that thought and oh look we were on the ground.
7. I got to work the last two years at a ministry that has played a big part in the preparation for my own personal ministry.
8. I was apart from my family for the first time. At one point I didn’t see them for 6 months. (What are 5 more months?)
9. I had to depend on God a lot for basic things that you wouldn’t even think of. (Yes there are stories but I would NOT like to share)
10. I got sick more times than I would have liked and survived without my mother being there. (Friends you can stop trying to scare me with Malaria stories, I have Jesus!)
11. If it wasn’t for life in California I don’t know how strongly I would have pursed missions let alone TWR.
12. I was living in a new place, surrounded by people I had yet to meet, enchiladas I had yet to try, sights I had yet to see. Last two years were an adventure. But it’s nothing like the 11 months of adventure God has set before me to be His hands and feet, to pray for the lost and love on the unloved in 11 strange, new and exotic countries! I can hardly wait!
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Posted in General Posts by Marina Razumovsky on 5/18/2012
I moved back to Missouri a couple of weeks ago to spend the remainder of my time in the states with my family. It has been a lot easier than what I was expecting.
Almost as if I never left. And to be completely honest that’s not as good as it sounds.
And this is why.
We all have that moment in our life when we come face to face with Jesus. We can be believers our entire life and not really know who He is. I grew up in a Christian home, went to church/prayers/bible studies/youth events regularly. Prayed daily, believed, read the bible but did I really know who He was? I thought I did but then the first year of living in Cali happened.
Hardest year of my life!
I was a full time student, worked full time overnights, was living away from my family for the first time, lost about half of my friends that were left in Missouri and wasn’t making any new ones. All I had was phone calls with my family.
That was it.
Other than that I was alone alone.
Looking back now I can tell you that I was led to California for one specific purpose and that was to finally come face to face with Christ and develop a personal relationship with Him. He needed to isolate me from all of the distractions. He needed to break me, to open my eyes and to start building me back up. Everything else that happened in Cali was an added bonus.
So you can see why it is so important for me not to live as though I never left Missouri in the first place, settling back into my old ways, but to continue living the new life and Will He has laid out before me in sunny California.
I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will guide you with My eye.
Psalm 32:8
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Posted in General Posts by Marina Razumovsky on 4/9/2012
Oh life with Jesus is never boring. Just when I settle down, get comfortable or finally have some clue on what’s going on in my life, in swoops Jesus and changes everything up.
I was suppose to be leaving for my first country in less than 3 months (notice I said "was" and not "am") but it looks like I will officially be switching routes. I fell in love with this route and my incredible squad. So yes, I won’t lie I am very sad to be switching routes but I know that I have made the right choice.
Reasons for switching:
I told myself from the very beginning that I will not go until I am fully funded (even though you don’t have to be to leave for the first country). I don’t want anything to distract me from the mission God has set out before me and I know I will be constantly wondering if anyone will support me. God has blessed me with a great job, so the funds are rolling in.
I just finished my externship a couple of weeks ago. It was hard and there is so much to learn in the surgical field that I feel that it would be wise to stay put, even if it’s for a few months, to gain more experience before I leave for a year.
I was way too picky about what countries I wanted to serve, where I wanted to go, when I wanted to leave, who I wanted to serve with, what kind of group I wanted to be put in and what I wanted to do once I got there. Jesus took one look at my heart and said” umm no you will go where I send you, to do what I tell you to do, this isn’t about you!” Yep, I heard Him loud and clear that time.
When I first became interested in TWR and knew that this is what God had in store for me, I was so excited to skim through all of the different routes before settling on one. There was one thing I knew for sure
I did not want to go to Central or South America!
Now I have nothing against those countries and would love to do missions work there in the future but I just had no interest to include it for this 11 month trip. Even after choosing July route 3 last fall, I knew that I knew that I knew that God would still send me to central/south America during my world race only because my heart was so against going there.
Last month my best friend Lauren Lee came back from her first mission trip to Peru. We went out to lunch and she told one amazing story after the next. Sitting there listening to the testimonies pour out of her mouth I couldn’t help but think back to my initial rejection. I could feel Jesus whispering to me “let go of route 3, open your heart to these countries because like it or not you will go where I send you.” So I left lunch with so much on my mind. I knew I had to change routes so I started to look through the September 2012 and January 2013 and much to my surprise every single route had 3 out of the 11 countries in Central or South America.
I have not settled on a route yet (need to marinate this in prayers) but I will most likely be going in January or July 2013!
So I am going to continue to pray and dig up my Spanish Rosetta Stone because Jesus is sending me down south. I don’t know why, but I am excited to find out!
To all of my supporters: everything that has been donated will follow me to whatever route I choose! Thank you so much!
To anyone that still wants to help support my mission: You can click Support Me in the upper left hand column.
To all: Please continue to keep me in your prayers
To District H: You will all be missed! I love each and every one of you and even though we are no longer in the same squad you will all still be a part of my family. I will pray for each and every one of you as you prepare to leave this July!
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Posted in General Posts by Marina Razumovsky on 3/17/2012
So I realize that it’s been a while since my last post and that I don’t talk about the WR as much on facebook anymore but the truth is I just didn’t want to annoy my friends with constant mission updates. So I decided to give you all (and myself) a little break from the preparation and to just focus on living right here in the moment and to stay out of the future. I’ve gotten questioned quite a few times this past week on if I’m still going on this mission trip or have I changed my mind and the answer is
YES I AM STILL GOING!
The last two months have been pretty crazy and at times stressful.
I finally started my surgical tech externship,
had to cut hours at work because of it,
had a truck back into me and so forth.
Around the end of January I really started to doubt the fact that I had thousands left to raise and only a few months to do it in. If I don’t raise the whole amount then I will have to push back my trip by only a couple of months but still my heart is set on July and no matter what I couldn’t shake that fear and doubt off. The fact that I had to cut my hours due to my externship schedule didn’t help.
Now I know better than to doubt God!
So whenever it penetrates my heart ooooo child it is not a good thing! So it’s just been a struggle, to say the least.
During church service last Saturday I felt that my eyes were finally open. Hands down it was one of the best services I’ve ever been to! Pastor Lance’s message was incredible! There was three points that he made that really caught my attention.
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We take for granted the fact that we can talk, pray, repent and just have a personal relationship with Jesus at any time of the day. It wasn’t always like this. Just look back at the Old Testament.
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When things go wrong in our life we need to realize that God is trying to teach/show us something and that He is always trying to reveal more of His mysterious personality to us through His creations and events in our life. We need to slow down or we won’t catch it.
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Jesus loves us. I mean really loves us!
I cried the entire service, my heart longing for forgiveness after a long month of living in doubt.
I can breathe again!
Something went wrong in my life last month and let me tell you that God taught me a lesson.
There is NO life without Him.
I don’t want to live a life in fear, doubt and no hope.
I grew up in a God fearing, Christian family but these last couple of weeks I saw what life would be life without Him.
And like I said, it’s not a life that I want to live.
Doubt is gone, He’s always been faithful.
And I’m excited to say that after two months of zero fundraising activity I’ve had about 10 people come forth this week and say they are going to support me!
God is good!
So even though you may not hear from me often I want you all to know that He is constantly molding and preparing me for this year of service and I am still going!
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Posted in Prayer by Marina Razumovsky on 1/26/2012
Since I’ve gotten accepted to the WR in October, things have been pretty crazy and so exciting!
I’m constantly reading blogs,
researching vaccines and international health insurance,
dreaming about training camp,
shopping at REI (before this I didn’t even know this store existed),
preparing fundraisers,
studying up on the cultures I’ll be submerged in.
Pretty much everything in my life has been shifted to prepare for a year of ministry.
But I will admit that the CRAZIEST thing to happen to me since I got the wonderful phone
call of acceptance is the increase of prayer in my life and the addition of a whole new family.
I’ve always had a prayer life.
It may have been weak and lacking at times but it was there.
I guess I never really understood the importance of it until all I had left in my life was Jesus.
He started His work in me way before I signed up for the race
but things got really serious and focused with this intense, constant tugging of the heart just a few months prior.
Let me tell you that when you ask Jesus to take control of your life,
when you completely surrender to Him – no questions asked,
when you seek His face and indulge in His word
HE SHOWS UP and your life will never be the same!
I would say that my prayer life changed after meeting my WR family.
There are about 72 missionaries in my squad (as of right now).
All of them are insane,
unique
and in love with Jesus
and they are spread out all over the world (special shout out to EM in Korea and Dorian in Australia)!
It has been so much fun getting to know each other through FB.
We have yet to meet in person but no one can deny the love between us!
Within a few weeks we have exchanged emails,
numbers
and addresses
and most of us have jumped in our cars and drove out to meet another team member.
We talk nonstop,
we encourage one another,
we discuss our fear of spiders,
we laugh out loud and
we pray!
Oh how we pray!
There is absolutely no fear,
no pride
and no limit to the type of prayers we ask for.
Almost every time I log onto facebook,
without fail,
there is a new prayer request waiting to be lifted up to Jesus.
This has caused me to stop what I’m doing multiple times throughout the day and pray.
Before I would wait until I finish the task at hand or
even worse I would wait till my prayer time before bed.
Now I’m praying ALL throughout the DAY!
My relationship with Jesus has reached a new level because of this constant communication with Him.
Example…
The other day I was driving home from work thinking about Pastor Lance’s message and just talking with Jesus.
Before I knew it I was sobbing like a child.
I could feel the presence of the Holy Spirit in the car with me
and I was just so over come with the power of Christ.
I feel like He revealed a side of Him that I have never seen before.
God is so good!
I’m in love!
I thank Him daily for putting 72 complete strangers into my life that have become like family over night.
I can’t wait to see His powerful hand sweep over the nations during our 11 months.
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Posted in General Posts by Marina Razumovsky on 1/23/2012
About a week ago my roommate comes to me with a fundraising idea (she’s AMAZING like that). She told me that I should go to the smaller, local churches in my area and see if they would let me speak in front of the congregation regarding my mission trip and then take a small offering at the end or maybe have them sponsor me monthly. I told her I wasn’t sure about that and I’ve never done anything like that before (basically making excuses). She looked up at me and said “You are now a missionary and this is what missionaries do.”
Whoa!
Talk about an eye opener!
I knew that I was going on a mission trip but I didn’t realize that it made me a missionary.
I was thinking maybe like 5 months into the trip, when I’m in Africa, surrounded by orphans, miracles happening left and right, ONLY THEN would I be qualified to see myself as one.
Nope!
(mis·sion·ar·y -
One who is sent on a mission, especially one sent to do
religious or charitable work in a territory or foreign country.)
I may not be on the field yet but for the next few months God will continue to do His work in me.
Preparing me to fully serve in obedience to Him,
so that when the time comes I am ready and not just getting started.
David A. Bednar could not have said it any better
"...the single most important thing you can do to prepare for a call to serve is to become a missionary long before you go on a mission."
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Posted in Support by Marina Razumovsky on 1/16/2012
I feel that this is necessary and it has to be written but it definitely wasn’t easy for me.
I’ve stared at an empty screen for a while now.
Scanning my mind for the right words.
Trying to think of any excuse possible to bypass this post.
The only thing that comes to mind are the words from James, “you do not have because you do not ask”.
So here I am asking YOU to keep me in your prayers
AND
(pushing this uncomfortable feeling aside) …..(Oh no here it comes) …. for your financial support.
Before you give I need you to know….
I am not taking this trip lightly.
I did not decide this over night. So much prayer has been put into this.
This is not going be just a random vacation to explore the world outside the states.
I am going into a very difficult year of ministry. I am leaving family, friends, my job, selling everything I owe and am going to serve the Lord.
And I give you my word when I say that I will not waste time on this trip but will work hard to serve God’s children. Whatever is thrown at me I will do for the Lord. You can trust me with that because I love Jesus and am going out of obedience.
Would you please prayerfully consider whipping out your purse, wallet or jar of quarters right now to support me?
Your donation is going to go beyond the few moments it takes you to give.
You are giving to 11 months of spreading the Word to ears that have never heard the Good News, loving the unloved, healing the sick and in every other way that God tells me to serve.
I need 140 people to donate a onetime gift of $100
OR
You can split it up for the next 6 months and give ONLY $17 a month (Jan, Feb, March, April, May, June) and with that I will be fully funded!
Will you support me today? You can click “support me” in the upper left hand corner.
Jesus loves you and I know that He will bless you in an incredible way! Even if you can’t donate please take a few seconds to pray for me.
Thank you all for taking time to read this! Love you much and EXHALE this blog wasn’t that scary to write now that it’s finished. Peace has filled my heart and I know that God is taking care of me and He will do this in a way that will cause me to step back and glorify Him because only He could have done it!
-Marina (your Russian missionary)
Other ways to give…
Donate gift cards/items to be auctioned off/baked goods for my silent auction fundraiser in March
Fund my international health insurance for $384
Donate old, unneeded household items to be sold at my garage sale
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Posted in General Posts by Marina Razumovsky on 1/1/2012
It use to be 9 and now it’s 6!
Only 6 whole months left in the states! 6 months before I depart to my first country!
6 months left to spend with family and friends, to watch my only niece grow and learn to talk, to fundraise, to work an hourly job punching in and out for my shift, to go shopping anytime I want, to drink water and not worry about catching something, to eat anything I crave, to sleep on a comfy bed, and to use a shower and toilet (instead of the lovely holes and buckets I’ve been reading about on here).
6 months left to live life as I know it.
Couple days ago I met with Rachel (an amazing friend that the Lord has put into my life) to start planning 2 fundraisers she had in mind. I brought a pen and a pad of paper and filled up the sheet in no time with everything that we had to do to make this happen. Couple of days ago it seemed that there was all the time in the world. I kept thinking to myself “next year we are going to do this fundraiser, I still have time.” This morning I woke up and realized next year was here. SO MUCH TO DO!
At times I will admit that it does get overwhelming. Not only do I have to raise funds to cover this entire trip but I need to buy all this camping gear, pay for international health insurance, get a bunch of vaccines and extra passport photos. And I have limited time to do it in. BUT I have never been happier. My walk with Jesus has become so strong! I praise Him through all the trials that have come upon me since I’ve gotten accepted for WR. My faith is getting stronger, my prayer life is getting powerful, new relationships are being made daily and I can see and I mean SEE that He has everything planned out for my life and that HE will provide everything that I need for this trip!
5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
and lean not on your own understanding;
6 in all your ways acknowledge Him,
and He shall direct your paths.
Proverbs 3:5-6
I know I have a long ways to go in such a short amount of time and some days with be harder than others and it may not even seem possible but I will press forward! And believe it or not but I am so thankful that this hasn’t been as easy journey for me so far. I have been going through trial, after trial, after trial and the finances are barely there and it makes me happy! Satan has tried everything to scare me. But like it teaches us in the Bible…
2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know thatthe testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
James 1:2-4
Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer;
Romans 12:12
I am beyond excited for this New Year! I can’t wait to see how God is going to come through! I am ready for His name to be glorified and to become His hands and feet, to go where He tells me to go and to serve Him the entire time!
6 months of preparation left? Bring it on!
Happy New Year!
Be assured, if you walk with Him and look to Him, and expect help from Him, He will never fail you.
–George Mueller
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Posted in General Posts by Marina Razumovsky on 12/5/2011
(This blog is way over due! Can’t believe after reading hundreds of blogs I’m finally writing my own!)
When I was first introduced to the WR website, the blogs I was most interested in reading were the ones on how all these racers were called to missions. The stories were all so interesting and unique and I found myself comparing my story to theirs. Throughout the next couple of weeks God quickly opened my eyes…
STOP. COMPARING. YOURSELF.
My story isn’t like everyone else’s. It’s my very own. Written by Jesus and He is far too creative. No “copy & paste” for Him!
Was I called to missions? YES!
What’s MY story? Glad you asked
Missions have always interested me. I was all ears when it came to stories from the field. Loved to help friends raise funds for their trips, shop for last minute travel items, supported them financially and always kept them in prayer. I’ve tried to go on missions years ago and it just never worked out. God would shut one door after another.
I didn’t understand.
So I pushed the idea to the side and tried to ignore this “tug” for missions on my heart and started to pursue a career in the medical field. After two semesters, I ended up moving to Sacramento, CA and enrolled in a surgical technology program. During the next 18 months God really began to move in my life! He had moved me half way across the country, away from all my loved ones and just completely isolated me from everything. Instead of moving to this new city and making tons of friends, God started to remove the friends I did have completely out of my life!
I was alone, alone.
I didn’t understand. Why was all this happening to me!
Then God, once again, opened my eyes. You see, I have a tendency so run to people for everything and when that doesn’t work out ONLY THEN would I remember God and turn to Him.
So…
My life – my friends – my family + isolation = A personal, intimate relationship with GOD!
He became my friend! He comforted me! I started to run to God with everything and not towards my friends. I finally went out and bought a huge study bible and fell in love with reading the word. I would look forward to Sunday morning services and watched podcasts all throughout the week. I used my hour long drives to work to talk to God. I was in love!
I finally understood Matthew 22:37-38
Jesus said to him, “‘you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’[d]38This is the first and great commandment.
During my last month of school I read the book Crazy Love (must read) and remember crying out to God to send things into my life that would require me to live by faith. The desire for missions returned. Only this time stronger. It was no longer a gentle “tug” but more like someone had their hand around my heart, squeezing it until it ached. That got my attention! I once again began pursing missions.
Called and emailed a bunch of different organizations. Even applied for a 2 week mission trip to Uganda at my church but once again God started to close every single door. I remember the night I had to email the church and tell them I couldn’t go to Uganda, I cried for hours. I was pretty much yelling when I prayed that night.
“I completely surrendered to You! I only want Your will for my life! Why did you put this desire on my heart but keep closing every door? WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?” (Yea it was a pretty intense night)
Couple of days later I was introduced to World Race and I was hooked! Read blog after blog. Watched all the videos I could get my hands on. Felt God stirring my heart. And instead of applying first, I prayed about it and requested a brochure from them.
After much prayer I finally applied for the world race! I felt that God confirmed it over and over again that this is what He had been preparing me for all this time. I was getting upset when all of those 2 week long mission trips that I applied for didn’t go through. And now I am preparing to leave the states to serve God for 11 months in 11 different countries! WOW! God is good and it just reminds me how small I am.
I will be leaving my family, friends and the only life I know and yes it’s kind of scary. I need to raise A LOT of money but God has laid it on my heart that He has everything lined up for me: the people that will pray for, encourage and support me. I just need to step out in faith and give it all up to Him. He keeps His promises and this is what He has called me to.
These last 18 months have been really hard with lots of questions!
But now I UNDERSTAND!
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