Thursday, October 25, 2007 – 2:42AM EST – on the road between Timisoara and Oradea, Romania (9:42AM)
I’m so sorry that it’s been a while since I updated you on what’s been happening. It’s funny that in Belarus where our Internet access is limited that I can update more easily than in Romania where we Internet access in our hotel room. Since we arrived in Romania late on Monday night—actually early Tuesday morning—we’ve been pretty busy, so I haven’t been able to write.
I wish that I could give you all the detail of what we’ve seen and done over the last few days, but it’s not really possible to fully describe everything. One really has to be over here to get a feel for how these people live and worship. The wealth of western Europe is slowly creeping over to eastern Europe, and Belarus and Romania have gotten just a small taste. Each time we’re here, things have changed a little, and it’s encouraging to work with Christians here who want to not just change but reform their countries.
We finished our time in Belarus with a great church service Sunday night and meeting with various leaders Monday morning. Both were sweet times of fellowship and sharing our hearts for the future of Belarus. It always seems that our time in Belarus is never long enough. I just love being there. It’s a throwback to the Soviet Union, and the language is difficult, but the spirit of reform is so strong and our friends there are so wonderful. God has opened incredible doors for us there, and the Christians of the country are so zealous and seeking of reform. I’m already missing it and waiting for the next opportunity to go back.
On the way to our Monday morning meeting with key leaders in Minsk, we had the great privilege to stop and absorb a little of the spirit of a really sacred place. Just off the ring road in one area of Minsk is a place called Kurapaty. Between 1937 and 1939, Stalin and his henchmen in Belarus, took the Jews, the elites, and others they deemed undesirable to the forest and shot them execution style. Today, Kurapaty is a memorial site maintained by private donations and volunteers in honor of the nearly 200,000 people that were exterminated there. For hundreds of yards through the forest there are memorial crosses and markers. It was cold, the air was misty, and we could hardly speak as we pondered what occurred there. Pits are all around where mass graves were found and the earth caved in on the piles of bones. The government of Belarus won’t officially acknowledge what occurred there, they purposefully built a highway through the center of the site, and there is near constant vandalism from nationalists. So many volunteers have worked to keep it as a reminder of man’s inhumanity to man and as a caution to never let it happen again.
Following our departure from Belarus, I had another chance to visit one of my favorite places, Vienna. We had a four hour layover between our flights from Minsk to Timisoara, so Bruce and I hopped the train into Vienna for a little sightseeing and leg-stretching. It was briskly cold, perfect for walking around an old European city! We poked our heads into Stephansdom, the huge cathedral in the center of the city, and St. Peter’s Church, a beautiful slightly smaller cathedral around the corner. On the way back to the train, we saw part of the city wall from the 1500s where the Viennese fought off the Turks and stopped the spread of Islam into Europe into the 1600s. Very cool. Minsk is an interesting city, but I certainly wouldn’t call it beautiful. Vienna is beautiful and stunning. I love it more every time.
That takes us up to Romania where we’re into our third day and second city. More to come…
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