Belarus, dosvidanya

Minsk, Belarus – Sunday, November 2, 2008 – 11:19pm local time

 

I promise you a shorter posting tonight since it’s late here already and we have to get ready for our departure tomorrow to Ukraine by way of one night in Latvia.

 

What a wonderful day we had today!  A, Y, A and O picked us up from the hotel for a morning and early afternoon of touring.  We always make a point of visiting some historical sites wherever we go so that we can get a better context and learn what is important to the people we’re working with.  In Belarus, in particular, this historical treasure hunting is important because the thrust of the group we work so closely with uses the teaching of the Christian history of Belarus to show the people what their modern day society can look like if they incorporate biblical principles in all spheres of life.  If you haven’t heard me talk about it previously, there is a strong movement to expose Christians here to their Protestant past, the so-called “Golden Age of Belarus” in the 15^th and 16^th centuries.  Protestantism came to Belarus through the royalty and transformed a warring, pagan backwoods into a thriving, wealthy, and peaceful power in Slavic Europe.  Each year, our team likes to visit one or two historical sites and learn a little more about their particular significance.  If we have a team member that is traveling here for the first time, as we do this time, we find that this is a very effective way to form relationships and educate ourselves.  Today we had the privilege of visiting Kryeva and Zhshlava (phonetic spellings—don’t hold me to correctness!).  We first tackled Kryeva to see still-standing ruins of a castle that was constructed when Belarus first became a Christian nation between 1385 and 1387.  The walls are broken down and full of holes but still stand 12 or 15 high in spots and encircle an area of about an acre.  The atmosphere was perfect to hear about the history of fighting factions and families—foggy, damp, and cold with a horse grazing right in the center of the walls.  The story was typical of European history, queens who couldn’t bear their kings an heir, arranged marriages across religions and countries, brothers fighting brothers, uncles imprisoning nephews.  All thoroughly delightful stuff!

 

We left Kryeva and drove about an hour southeast to Zhshlava.  This was one of the first towns of Belarus with documented settlement since the 900s.  Amazing.  Our primary focus was a Calvinist church built in the 1300s that has since been transferred from the Protestants to the Catholics to the Orthodox to the Soviets (who used it as a warehouse) back to the Orthodox who currently occupy it.  We poked our heads inside and watched a priest christen a little boy.  From the sounds of it, I couldn’t tell if the baby was being christened or circumcised!  Poor kid.  We talked briefly to an older lady who was doing the Stations of the Cross in the church.  She had a beautiful voice and was really sweet.  She told us that she “knew a Protestant lady once but she moved to the States.”  Orthodox is most certainly the primary religion here!  We were finally driven out of Zhshlava by hurricane force winds and heavy mist that froze us to the bone.  It was about 45 degrees today.

 

The highlight of the day, however, was something I can’t really write freely about.  We had a late lunch with some friends that we work closely with and then went to a church service.  Because of security concerns, I can’t say too much but it was such an encouraging and edifying time of praise and worship, a fantastic message, and a great time of being with friends.  We went out to dinner afterward and spent two wonderful hours telling jokes, talking about church, telling of our observations from the trip, and just enjoying being together.  What a delight!

 

We wrap up the Belarus leg with a meeting tomorrow morning, and then we’re off to Riga for a night!  I’ll write from there.  More to come.

 

Scott