You raise a great issue about being an outsider. It seems like there are always going to be times when the meeting for the real “in” crowd will always happen. However, over time, effort, and a lot of blessing from God, it is possible that people share your viewpoint during these locals-only meetings and then report back about what happened. While this is just a small example, we can move toward being this acceptable outsider. As one of these, we can be faithful in the process of seeing one or more disciples made that can then go in the name of Christ as an insider. From observation of others and my own experience, I have learned that it is best if these disciples don’t bring a lot of baggage with them. For this reason, we find the disciples in the harvest. It may take longer to get a result…but in this way there is a result…and it has potential for large future ramifications.

It broke my heart a few months ago when I met an American living in Russia who had never heard of Dostoevsky.

I think the biggest question my wife and I have at the moment are “will we ALWAYS be an outsider?” We have friends here in Moscow, and a solid number that we would consider very close friends, but even then we still deal with the fact that there’s something separating us. One of the ways we are combating this is just learning as much about the culture as we can. Kind of a no-brainer, but we’ve been trying to go further. Knowing literature goes such a long way. It’s come in very handy on many occasions.