(Journal Version)
A journey of a thousand miles, as the saying goes, begins with a single step, and truly it looks like a hamster running in a wheel. Most of us humans are like hamsters: step after step, millions of steps, round after round, spinning quickly in a squeaky wheel, going nowhere until we fly out of it, and another wheel spins us again. "Vanity of vanities," it is written in the book of Ecclesiastes, "all is vanity." This is nothing new.
Our hearts long for a true journey—one that transforms the soul. And so we read about it and write stories: Homer's Odyssey, Dante's unforgettable descent through seven circles of hell and then into paradise, Gulliver's Travels, the Voyage of the Voyage Maker from Narnia to the edge of the world, Frodo's agonizing journey to Mordor in The Lord of the Rings. The heroes in these stories are always changed, and their authors strive to inspire us to seek the same transformation! Some do. Most of us continue to spin in our wheels and dream...
But sometimes the hamster (ahem, the human) receives a vision or calling and truly changes. His steps lead him somewhere. His Creator draws his heart—sometimes through joy, sometimes through suffering—and the human finds direction and purpose. And these people change, and the world changes with them.
They catch the landscape of history and those faithful servants who were called, and they answered that call. They are not famous and not perfect, but they matter greatly. We see Abraham, called by God from the land of moon worship, to go to a place he did not know. Moses leaves the desert to save a nation of slaves and leads them to freedom for forty years. The Wise Men from the East follow the Star to worship the Eternal King. Paul travels throughout the Roman world to proclaim the Savior he once persecuted. The Pilgrims on the Mayflower faced the dangers of the sea and wild, foreign land (many of them died) to serve the God they loved.
As a pastor of the "Living Faith" church in McAllen, Texas, it has been a privilege for me to know one of these traveling people, and it is a great honor when he asked me to write a foreword to his book. Dr. George Amegin is not the kind of impressive man who makes you look up to him from below. True travelers often aren't. They are more like hobbits than superheroes; they are simple people whom you would probably not look at twice on the street. But as soon as you meet them, talk with them, and get to know them better, you see the depth of a person whose life has calling and direction, and it is not the life of a hamster spinning on a wheel.
The journey the author writes about in this book spans more than one generation. It begins in Russian Siberia, driven by poverty and deadly cold. It is accompanied by agonizing separation from family, homelessness, and hardship. The pioneers of the Amegin family carve their path through China, across turbulent seas—to the United States. It is a journey of growing faith, shaped in a harsh world swept by two world wars, economic upheaval, and the rise of the red hammer of communism.
In these severe trials, the hand of God moves again and again, touching the hearts of people at the right moment, bringing about certain "coincidences" that those who pray so often see.
When I read these pages of memories, I could not move or stir: I read and saw how God creates and shapes the Amegin family with His patient hand—year after year, tirelessly, examining the traces left in the souls of people whom I love and respect. Dr. Amegin has blessed me immeasurably both as a professional storyteller and as an excellent ophthalmologist who has cared for my eyes so I could read more. He is equally faithful in his service, helping the Theological Seminary in Edinburgh, where I teach. He still today fills the evening service with the beautiful sound of his trumpet. His daughter Natasha has also been a great joy and inspiration to me and to others in the church. I hope and pray that you, dear readers, do not rush as you travel through this book. May God touch you as He has touched me, touch you with that flame that will inspire you to leave the spinning wheel and embark on your own journey!
