| Return |

20/20 Hindsight: Trusting God
When We Don’t Have the Vantage Point
of Our Final Destination

An interview with Missionary Dianna Lang

WIM: Dianna, you were called to be a missionary at age 10, yet originally your husband Rick didn’t share that same calling. Did you ever doubt your call? What helped you to hold on when it seemed like your call might never become a reality?

Lang: I remember while pastoring with Rick, in the town of Cresco, Iowa, asking God if I truly heard from Him as a child of 10 years old. There was such certainty in my heart that I was to be a missionary, yet because my husband did not have a calling in missions, I began to question my missionary calling. I decided the next best thing was to see pastoring as my life’s service. Why couldn’t it be considered missions work? Of course, pastoring is part of my journey with joys and sorrows, the building of my faith, lessons and testings along the way. One of those lessons the Lord taught me during this time is that it is not what we “see” in the physical but what we “see” in the supernatural that builds our faith and gives direction on the journey.

God changed my situation by doing something miraculous in my husband’s life. It was autumn of 1986, and God called our small church to prayer. Going to church to pray became a daily event. It was there that Rick was moved to “pray around the world.” He would begin to pray for the USA and work his prayers around the world, never getting past the gigantic country of the former Soviet Union. It was there he would stop and spend the rest of his prayer time interceding. Then came a day of questioning God, ”Why can’t I get beyond this point?” We laugh now and say, “In one of Rick’s weakest moments he gave in to the nudging of the Holy Spirit and said, ‘Yes Lord, if Russia ever opens up to missionaries, I will go.” A short time later, he shared with me what God was doing in his heart. “Dianna,” he said, “God has called me to go to Russia as a missionary. Will you go with me?” My missionary call was renewed at that very moment. Of course I said yes.

WIM: From the point that your husband felt called to missions, God graciously shared a series of visions with the two of you, giving specific directions and confirmation. Would you tell us about this?

Lang: During the winter and spring of 1987, Rick continued to ask God for direction and the whereabouts of our future ministry. God answered him with two visions.

The first vision took the form of a dark colored map. Not knowing the geography of Russia, Rick ran to the world map. From the center of Mongolia came an arm, like a windshield wiper, turning a land area white to the far east and on to the north. Rick inquired of God what this meant and God answered him by asking, “What is it that you’ve been praying for?” It was the location. Through God’s goodness, He gave Rick the location of where we were to concentrate our work: from the Ural Mountain Range to the Arctic Circle and to the far east of Russia/Siberia.

The second vision took the form of a road sign jutting out of a mountainside. The language on this sign was unclear to Rick, yet he believed that this had to do with our location in Siberia. This time it took about 13 years before Rick would come to understand the vision. One day while traveling and evangelizing with some Russian pastors in the Irkutsk and Burayte regions, God quickened Rick with remembrance of this vision. Then amazingly, as he drove into the city of Ulan Ude “the road sign jutting out of a mountainside” was right before him. Rick knew without question that this was the interpretation of the vision of spring of 1987. We were to base in a city called Ulan Ude.

While I was glad that Rick had been directed by God for our life in missions, I wanted confirmation too. I wanted a specific calling to Russia for myself. Thus, I spent time at the altar and in the Word at our second pastorate, 1989-1991, in Nevada, Iowa. It was through prayer and seeking God that He continued to give me reassurance of my missionary call to Russia, along with giving me this vision of the hunger of Russian people. It was a picture of stacks and stacks of concrete apartment buildings, not distinguished one from the other. All of the windows to these apartments were opened wide with hands lifted up to heaven.

It wasn’t until we landed in Moscow, Russia, in the autumn of 1992, and were asked by our area director to move to the Baltic Republic of Lithuania to do pioneer work, that this vision came back to me. When we arrived, it was an exact picture of what I had seen in my vision, the construction and architecture of a Communist neighborhood. And it was the exact picture of people starving for answers and for a relationship with God. It is true, the response of people to the preaching of the gospel those first few years in Lithuania was astounding! It was normal to see a vast amount of people come forward at the invitation to the altar with only a handful of people remaining in their seats in a full auditorium. God’s mighty works were before us everywhere we went and in everything we did.

WIM: Even though you had complete assurance that you were in the will of God, were there still times that it was hard to carry out the work?

Although we witnessed incredible works of God, we found ourselves totally dependent on our Lithuanian Christians and the Lord, in a place of utter isolation. We experienced the hard tests along with the good times. I recall that every day my faith and hope was put to the test. I didn’t know one thing about my future and what was in store. We had to deal with sickness, pain, living in a country undergoing a time of political and economic depression, cultural misunderstandings, learning a foreign culture and language, allowing a son to go to one year of boarding school, the feeling of being left all alone, and the list goes on. Still to this day, I don’t know what the future holds for me, my husband, our children, for those I love, or for this nation I serve. As a matter of fact, none of us do. Yet despite it all, I’ve learned to put my trust in God on this journey and I trust that He will accomplish His will. The challenge for me is to stay faithful.

WIM: After your first missionary term, you faced another test of your call?

We were nearing the end of our first furlough home, when just 2 months before packing up and leaving for Moscow, we received devastating news. Rick was diagnosed with a brain tumor. I must admit, in times like these, it is easy to question, to look at the physical and not look with eyes of faith for the future promise. Thankfully, the Holy Spirit was our protector and encourager in those days. Hearing the news of his brain tumor, a lie from Satan began gnawing in Rick’s mind, “You will never again return to the mission field and see hundreds of people repenting at the altar.” Rick ran to the church, and there gathered around the altar in prayer were all the pastors and staff of First Assembly. Rick was prayed for, the lie was exposed, and he was set free to trust God.

During this time of physical testing our faith never wavered. We knew that God would prove himself faithful as He had in the past. Although others questioned and asked if now was time to take a pastorate and be satisfied with the term served in Lithuania, we knew it was time to see the hand of God deliver us to serve another 4-year term in Russia. The intense 9-hour surgery was performed and the grueling 10 months of physical therapy were finished. At long last, we boarded the plane headed for Moscow, Russia.

I could share a large number of examples of testings and victories while on our journey at every destination juncture. Right now, in Siberia, we are in the stage of empty nest with all of our young adult children stateside. Being so far away (in miles) from them is a real test. This is another place in the road that we have yet to learn and trust God in.

WIM: Do you have any words of advice to share with women who may have been given a vision from God, yet have not had the privilege of seeing it fulfilled in their lives?

To be people whose life’s journey is compatible with God’s purposes, our faith must be characterized by “being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). The calling of God and the dreams He places in one’s heart give stability and focus in what is unseen. Especially in the times of uncertainty and changing circumstances in our lives, we can be sure and hope in what God has spoken for the duration of life’s journey.

Being a Christian and a woman in ministry is not to be misunderstood in thinking all is bliss when in service for the Lord. Let’s not be naïve; there are plenty of hard times on the journey. During these times, I believe a key is endurance, or passionate patience. As Romans 5:3,4 states, “We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience/endurance in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next.” I love this verse! My husband and I patiently endured (although at times, we would find ourselves in a state of impatience). We believe that what God has told us is true, and we are continuing in the direction God set out for us. Our faith grows and we are excited in what God will do next on our journey together.

• home
• about us
• resources
• women in ministry
• faq
• past themes
• contact us