Faith: The Abyss We All Face

By Bill Becknell

A successful American surgeon gives away everything he owns and moves to Russia to keep a promise he made to God when he was fourteen. . . and finds unexpected joy.
 
Doctor Bill Becknell moved to Russia and, despite not speaking the language, began providing medical care to people in the villages above the Arctic Circle. He traveled by truck, snowmobile, reindeer sleigh, and helicopter to reach people who had never seen a doctor or heard about Jesus—people who told him that they’ve been waiting all their lives for someone to explain who created the stars in the night sky. Every trip he made was an adventure. Despite extreme hardships, brokenness, sacrifices, and even near-death experiences along the road, Bill discovered that God has an unfailing love that is beyond comprehension.
 
This is the true story of one man’s journey to confront and understand the suffering, pain, confusion, and despair that challenge our lives. Sorrow is a part of living, but how we handle the tragedy in our lives makes all the difference. This book was written to encourage us not to be afraid to step into the unknown abyss of faith.
 
“This book about battles of faith . . . will be an encouragement to everyone who reads it.” —Ingeborg Fuhrhop-Stetzler, president, Agape Germany

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Nov 17, 2014
• ISBN: 9781630474171

Bill Becknell

Dr. Bill Becknell was a successful Surgeon in Eastern Kentucky, living what he believed was the ideal Christian life with his wife and children when tragedy struck and destroyed everything he loved. The one thing that survived, and became stronger, was his faith. He watched the Soviet empire crumble and after two years of praying and fasting he decided to keep a promise he made to God at the age of fourteen while he was dying. He gave away all his worldly goods and arrived in Russia with his only remaining possessions---thirteen boxes and a promise that God would take care of him. He has written hundreds of newsletters, emails, blogs and comments from Russia and collected more than ten thousand amazing and beautiful photos from his travels to these remote and isolated places. He has traveled across Russia on every conceivable type of transportation imaginable from reindeer sleighs, horses, canoes, fishing boats, broken cars, vans, jeeps, trucks, trains, and buses, as well as on foot, sometimes without sleeping for days. And he has lived with the indigenous people on the Tundra and the Taiga in order to share God’s Love with them. He has been interviewed on the NBC Today Show by Jane Pauley and by the Crossroads Canadian Christian TV network. He has had numerous radio, newspaper and journal interviews and has preached at many churches across the USA.

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

the promise

it was cold . . .

I mean . . . "really" cold . . .

It was the middle of winter in Russia, and tonight the temperature was less than -30 C. I had never been in weather this severe in my entire life. We were well above the Arctic Circle on this night . . . or maybe it was day? I couldn’t tell. Because daylight does not exist here from December through January.

Here I was, standing in this frozen desert with my new, heavy-duty Arctic LL Bean goose down coat, and feeling very out of place. My hood was up, my gloves were on, and I was shaking inside from the cold and the anxiety.

I was standing outside a small frost-covered metal building on the edge of the tundra. Off in the distance was nothing but white. I could not even see a horizon. A light misty snow was falling slowly past a lonely streetlight on the edge of the civilized world, and the men inside the building were busy preparing our reindeer sleds.

I had just asked a question and I really wanted to know the answer.

Why are we leaving at midnight, instead of in the morning?

Our tundra guide said, We are leaving at midnight so that the lakes and rivers will be frozen. This way there is less chance that we will fall through the ice.

Our tundra guide was 100% serious! This was not a joke or some unnecessary comment. Above is a photo I took of a memorial marker to a man who fell through the ice the week before we traveled this way!

That was not very comforting or what I wanted to hear! I wish I hadn’t asked.

Our host handed us some very stinky reindeer skins to put on and we climbed onto the sleigh, and suddenly, we were off with a jerk. Our host was waving good-bye to us, and his image quickly faded into the snowy mist. Within a few seconds, his figure was gone.

We were now racing across the frozen tundra in the middle of the night on the back of a wooden reindeer sleigh pulled by a Russian snowmobile that was ready to give up and die at any minute. The distant lights of the small settlement could be seen inside the snow cloud that quickly faded behind us. A snowy mist escaped from under the front of the snowmobile to circle around and surround us in an icy cloud of snow