Well, yesterday certainly lived up to its expectations. We had a wonderful time of fellowship at Pastor Jaroslaw's church. Bruce brought the morning message at John the Precursor Church, which literally meets in a renovated garage! It was a wonderful service celebrating Reformation Day, all in Belarussian not Russian. The church is very nationalistic in their approach to recognizing the historic and reformational past of the country. They had special music, skits from costumed adults and children, and, after the service, everyone sat down to cake, sweets, and fruit in celebration. Wow! We don't even celebrate reformation like that in our American churches. Bruce's message was well-received, though he was worried later that he spoke below their level when we were reminded that 80% of the congregation was college-educated and 20% were university professors! Both percentages are extremely high for Belarussian churches and society in general. But, it was really just fine, and there were many church members who approached us with excellent questions. I was approached by two physicists (!) who wanted my opinion on 1) President Bush's assistance and benefit to evangelicals in America and the world; 2) the war Iraq; 3) human cloning; 4) movies like Terminator and Lord of the Rings; and 5) heavy metal music like Metallica. Yikes! Just your run-of-the-mill conversations in the course of reformation ministry! But what gracious and curious people. We loved it.
After church, we drove with Jaroslaw, Antonin, and Mikhail, our interpreter, 100 kilometers to Njasvizh. After two police stops within 15 minutes of each other, we arrived unscathed. The second stop was merely a license check. The first stop was for speeding, and Bruce and I cracked up when Jaroslaw said, in all seriousness, that he simply told the officer, "Forgive, and you will be forgiven." Apparently, he was convicted, because Jaroslaw got off with a warning! Njasvizh is a small village in western Belarus where Radziwill the Black built his palace, and where much of the reformation of Belarus in its golden age of the 16th century was begun. Simon Budny, a local priest, was also instrumental and had the first publishing house that turned out Protestant works. There is a statue of him outside the Farny Polish Cathedral that we toured, Polish because this whole region of Belarus was Poland until WWII. Just beyond the church is the original gate to the Radziwill Palace Fortress and the start of a long driveway up to the palace itself. We arrived around sundown, and it was simply beautiful to walk the long drive, around the lake, and right up the doors of the palace. Built at the end of the 16th century, it still stands and is being restored to its former glory. During Soviet times, it was commandeered and made into a sanatorium. Isn't that something?! The palace of a believer and reformational hero made into a mental hospital! Just like the Soviets to stick it in the eye of Christians. Now, however, its history is better known once more, and it was a marvelous thing to see. The only problem was that it was freezing! The temperature was about 25°, and the wind blowing off of the lake made it even worse. But, we survived. On the way back to Minsk, Mikhail, who is a 21 year-old university senior majoring in teaching with specialties in English and history, peppered Bruce with questions about what he feels is his real calling, attending seminary and becoming a pastor. Pretty cool.
After we arrived back in Minsk, we went back to the church house and spent three-and-a-half wonderful hours having dinner and talking about the Lord, homeschooling, Belarus, and all things reformational with Jaroslaw and his wife, Natasha, Antonin and his wife, Natasha (pattern?), and Andrew and his wife, ?. They are so hungry to know how to homeschool and continue this work of reformation in their country. They also served us wonderful and traditional Belarussian food! Mashed potatoes, breaded pork chops, cold sausages, fruit, fruit juice, bread, and salads. The salads are unlike anything we have at home and take a little daring on my part to try some of them. For this particular meal, we had a mayonnaise-based salad with little bits of ham, carrots, peas, and cheese--not so bad--and/but another that was diced carrots, red peppers, and tomatoes. Yeah, that one was interesting, but I can proudly say that I ate all of my portion without an instant chasing of water to get it down! The evening was just great.
As I write now, we are on the plane to Vienna, connecting on to Bucharest. It was another sweet time today with Jaroslaw, Boris and Bela, and the staff of Church of Jesus Christ. We spent about three hours with them in the CJC office answering questions, offering suggestions, and getting a feel for where they stand in the reformation implementation and how we can help going forward. We ate another wonderful lunch with similar food as last night, and then got to tour the new music studio that they have built in the basement of the church building (really just a very large house). It is just another outreach center for them, and they are allowing Christian bands to use it as a base of ministry. Dima Petrovsky from Psalmyary designed and runs the studio, and he was there. So, it was very nice to see him once again and get to talk for a little while longer. The band is coming back to the States in the spring of '06, and we are going to try to work it out for them to perform at KPC. Excellent!
After that, it was time to leave for the airport and on to Romania. It was a bittersweet goodbye with our dear friends here. I would like to think that I will be back in Minsk very soon, but I never know what the Lord has and how His calendar lines up with mine. I have really come to love this country and its people. It is very often that I think of Minsk in my daily life and wonder how the churches and pastors that we've met here are doing. They are just so passionate about the Lord and His work. This land will be reformed, because they are setting it in motion each and every day, and in every sphere of life. I wish that you all who are reading this could join me on a trip to see their wonderful spirits, their incredibly passionate worship, and their love for their own land. It is repression that builds desperation and desperation that builds passion. I admire them so much and wish that we in America could have only a small portion of the zeal that they carry. I can't wait to be in Minsk again.
More to come...
