Westbrook Police Detective Tim Gardner and his wife, Carre, are starting a new career together – as missionaries helping Russian orphans and street kids in Moscow.

The two plan to quit their jobs and move to Russia, along with their three children, by August 2007. They’re looking to make a lifetime career of it.

Over the next year, they’ll be working full time to raise the rest of the money they need and also trying to learn Russian. They plan to leave Westbrook this summer for two semesters of Russian at a school in South Carolina. Meanwhile, they’ll be working with World Venture, the missionary organization they’re affiliated with, to raise the rest of their budget and iron out the logistics of their move.

They’ll be going in five year cycles, four years in Moscow, then one year back in the United States to touch base with their sponsors. Their mission is an indefinite one – the Gardners hope to do this for the rest of their working careers. They’ll be counting on their strong faith to get them through. Carre Gardner said it’s a combination of a sense of adventure and a sense of obedience to God that’s driving them to go.

Tim Gardner said they both realize the magnitude of their undertaking, and they know how hard it’s going to be. They’ll have to adjust to life in another country, along with their kids, and also to a demanding career. He said many people who work missions helping children tend to burn out after a few years.

“You bet it’s going to be tough. It’s already tough,” he said. “Do I think of the sacrifice? Yes.”

Gardner said he and his wife’s conviction in what they’re doing and their strong religious faith will have to carry them through. He believes it will. He said this mission to Russia isn’t something the Baptist couple decided on a whim.

“I wanted to be a missionary since I was a little kid,” said Carre Gardner. She said she grew up reading about missionaries and thought it seemed like an exciting life.

Tim Gardner said while he was growing up, his parents often invited missionary couples that visited their church to their home. He said some of them were even from World Venture.

“Does it make sense for Carre to stop working and me to stop working and pull our children out of school and move to Moscow? No, it’s crazy,” said Gardner. “But I grew up in a home, as did my wife, where…the idea of missions wasn’t a foreign idea. These missionaries were normal people with global vision.”

‘Don’t want to live that way’

The seeds for the mission to Russia were planted for the Gardners when they were in college together in 1991. A speaker came to Cedarville College (now Cedarville University) in Ohio, where the couple met, and spoke of the troubles in Russia after the fall of communism. Tim and Carre Gardner said when they saw how things were in that country, they made a conscious decision to help the Russian people one day.

“On the one hand we view Russia as a superpower, but they have development problems of an emerging nation,” said Tim Gardner.

He said the Russians have few soup kitchens and very few crisis pregnancy centers. He also said the country has a disproportionately large amount of orphans and street kids. He said it affected he and his wife very much to see the way Russians were living after the Iron Curtain fell and the western world had a view into the country.

Between that day in college and now, the Gardners married, began careers, and had children. “Life happened,” said Tim Gardner. The couple lived in upstate New York, where Carre Gardner is from, for a few years, and then moved to Maine, where Tim Gardner grew up.

He’s been a police officer since 1998, while his wife has worked as a nurse at Maine Medical Center. They both say their work experiences, which have forced them to see unpleasant things, should be helpful in their mission work.

“We’ve seen a lot of horrible things, and we’re not panicky people,” said Carre Gardner.

By 2004, the couple realized that time was passing them by and they still hadn’t served out what they felt was a true calling. Tim Gardner said they decided it was time “to fish or cut bait.” They looked into different organizations and decided on World Venture.

In April 2004, they traveled to Moscow for a week, during which time they had to decide whether the mission was something they really wanted to do. Gardner said he got a definitive answer to that question during the week there. He said they felt God was calling them to Russia.

“As a nurse, I see people die all the time,” said Carre Gardner. “When they die with regret, it’s really sad. We don’t want to live that way.”

‘Unstained by the world’

The Gardners came back from the Moscow trip and signed up with World Venture the following week. The couple underwent an intense testing and interview period to see if they were capable of handling the rigors of mission work. Tim Gardner said it was the most intense testing he’s ever undergone.

Andy Sporhrer, a director at World Venture who worked with the Gardners during their application process, said the organization looks for people with a sincere personal love of God and desire to help others relate to God and to help in the their personal struggles.

“They’re a great family and seem to know how to make time for their children in the midst of a busy schedule,” said Sporhrer. Also, “they’re able to see the big picture. That will be significant.”

After that, the Gardners decided they wanted to help orphans and street kids, which is something World Venture doesn’t normally do. Tim Gardner said making the choice to help kids was an easy one.

They researched the numbers of orphans and street kids in Russia – estimates of 500,000 orphans and 1,000,000 street kids in a country with half the population of the United States, according to Tim Gardner – then they found a passage in the Bible that seemed to direct them to help the children.

James 1:27 says, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”

Children reluctant

Tim Gardner said he and his wife went to Moscow in April 2004 wondering how they could take their three children away from everything they knew. He said after a week of prayer and contemplation, it felt as though God was calling them. After that week, he said he didn’t see how they could not do this for their children – to give them this experience.

“I feel like it’s going to be nothing but good for them,” said Carre Gardner of Sarah, 10; Miles, 9, and Mark, 6. “Hopefully it will breed in them compassion.”

She said they want to offer the kids every opportunity they could have here. The school where they’ll be starting in fall 2007 is a school for children of expatriate businessmen and missionaries. She said the Hinkson Christian Academy scores in the 95th percentile of SAT scores and has 100 percent college acceptance.

Both parents admit the kids didn’t want to go at first, but now they seem to be coming around.

“I sort of want to go, and I sort of don’t,” said 10-year-old Sarah, although she admits she wants to go more than she originally did. “The more I learn about Russia, the more I want to go.”

All three kids admit they’re a little nervous about going. They’re all looking forward to getting the dog their parents have promised them when they get there, though. Nine-year-old Miles is looking forward to “eating Russian candy, and going to a new school.”

Six-year old Mark said he doesn’t want to go and thinks it’ll be hard to learn a new language. But he’s looking forward to getting the dog.

Affection and life skills

The couple has received commitments for nearly 50 percent of the money they’ll need to make the mission possible. The money is coming in the form of donations by sponsors, who will continue to donate periodically over the course of the mission.

World Venture, which based the budget on other missions currently operating in Moscow, worked out the amount the Gardners would need for their mission. The Gardners need to raise 100 percent of the money, which is why they’re choosing to stop working and work on raising the money full-time until they leave.

They’re not quite sure what exactly the mission work will entail other than they’ll probably work in orphanages and try to set up a storefront in Moscow where street kids can receive food, shelter, and minimal healthcare. Gardner said he assumed they would work with other missions as well.

One thing the couple knows for sure is that their mission will be twofold: spiritual teaching and practical help. “Filling their bellies, showing them affection, teaching them life skills,” said Tim Gardner. “How to make it in society.”

Sporhrer said he believes the two parts of the mission are equally important. “Without the spiritual side, there’s only temporary aide,” he said. “But without the compassionate human side of things, it’s hard for people who are starving and hurting to listen about God.”

The Gardner family will be moving to Moscow, Russia, to begin life as missionaries. Clockwise from bottom left, Miles, Sarah, Tim, Carre, and Mark.

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