Conflicting thoughts

Sunday, November 21, 2010, 7:45am local time – Minsk, Belarus

Sunday morning, time to worship and fellowship.  The heavy lifting of teaching is done, and we’re on the down hill side of the trip.  This is always kind of a bittersweet time for me, as I realize that my time here is drawing to a close.  I was reading an email from my sweet wife this morning and had such an odd feeling, a twisting argument deep within.  How can I so enjoy being here and doing this work, so live for the opportunities to walk in this part of my calling, and yet miss my family and want to be home with them?  It’s such a dilemma.  People have often asked me if I could see myself here on a long-term basis, even living here.  I’ve always answered ‘no’ and still feel that way.  God is not calling me to be a full-time missionary.  And the same time, I feel like I could do this, in this short-term model, every month.  Then, there is this fact that I think of my family constantly and long to be home with them.  I can’t imagine being apart from them on a regular basis, and I’m eager to be home soon.  It’s an interesting dilemma that I’m sure people who have served on the mission field or in ministry for much longer than I have wrestle with.  More to come…

Heroes

Friday, November 18, 2010, 7:15pm local time – Minsk, Belarus

I talked to a hero today.  Very rarely does one have the opportunity to meet a true hero, to talk to one face-to-face, and see the spirit in their eyes.  Today was such a day for me.

Picture yourself at 18 years old.  You’re a rising star on the junior national soccer team and known by many across the nation.  Unlike most of your friends, you have the ability and occasion to travel widely and enjoy the perks that come with semi-celebrity.  Your story hardly ends there, however.  During this time, you become a Christian and begin to drink deeply of the cup of Biblical worldview and discipleship.  This leads in turn to a burning desire to protest the current political situation in your country and lead other youth in these protests and activism to affect changes in religious freedom.  If your country is Belarus, you are now headed for deep trouble.

The person I talked with today has just such a story.  Because of his public profile, his conversion, and subsequent involvement in reformational political activism, the authorities were infuriated.  He was arrested numerous times and his belongings were searched and seized.  He was summarily dismissed from the state university and stripped of his athletic position.  These intrusions and arrests were accompanied by beatings so severe that he was hospitalized on more than one occasion.  As a final insult and an attempt to bring him fully to heel, the state forcibly conscripted him into the army and  stationed him in a remote outpost reserved for troublemakers and those soldiers needing severe discipline.

That might be enough to break one’s spirit, wouldn’t it?  It certainly might break mine.  This hero didn’t break, though.  Even from his military isolation—which once again included beatings so debilitating they required hospitalization—he wrote of his faith and his vision for a free country built on Biblical models for law and respect for human rights.

If anyone has earned the hero moniker, it is he.  He endured and even thrived under repression as he kept his eyes on the hills from where he knew his Help came.  He is out of the army now, but bears permanent physical scars as a reminder of his dissent.  He continues to struggle with the government and their perpetual harassment.  Yet he eagerly involves himself in this reformation movement and seeks to learn so that he can more effectively lead in the future.  It is an amazing and humbling story.  Did I mention that this man, this hero, is still in his very early 20s?  He is quiet and unassuming with an unnerving shyness that belies his inner strength and conviction.  He is a miracle and gift of God to his nation.  I talked to a hero today.  …and, oh yeah, my teaching on economics went fine, too.  More to come…

Themes

Friday, November 18, 2010, 3:13pm local time – Minsk, Belarus

Each time our teams travel to Belarus and Eastern Europe, the Lord seems to give us a theme.  It’s not something we ever purposefully seek or collectively talk about.  It just tends to be something that emerges within a short time of arriving.  Last night after we arrived and I pitched my hammock at the hotel (see previous post), we attended a prayer meeting at the church of our regular partners.  It was a time of worship and prayer and similar to those meetings we’ve attended upon arriving for the past several trips.  The pastor invited us to feel free to share any word from the Lord that we felt we were given during worship.  I am not typically one who receives a direct communication from the Lord in situations like these, but the worship was just so good that I couldn’t help get lost in it.  I was worshipping and praying when I was drawn to Psalm 116:7.  Be at rest, o my soul.  For the Lord has been good to you.  This short verse was such an encouragement to me!  I had been struggling still with my teaching time, what to cover, if I was truly prepared, etc.  The verse and others that came along with it and were referenced in the footnotes of my Bible just crystalized things for me.  The fantastic thing, though, was that the Lord was speaking similar things to the rest of our team and other members of the church that were in attendance.  Within the space of 45 minutes, several people spoke words of encouragement and exhortation that God was providing a paternal covering to the people of Belarus and that they can be at peace as they continue in their spiritual and political struggles.  The final word was from a women who encouraged the church here to provide a covering for the needy in society in a tangible way through meeting their physical needs.  My heart absolutely leapt, because that was the theme that I felt the Lord gave me for my economics teaching just before we left home to travel here!

My writings here can never capture the experience our team has as we travel and minister here.  Reading back over this post, I can easily see that I have failed to communicate what I really intend with this post.  Rest assured that your prayers for us are being effective, and that God is already moving.  We’ve been here only 24 hours now, and He is revealing His message for this people at this time.  I’m up to teach in a couple of hours.  I’ll let you know how it goes.  More to come…

Camping

Friday, November 18, 2010, 08:11am local time – Minsk, Belarus

Part of the thrill of travel is trying new things.  Always one for a travel adventure, I had a brand new experience here in Belarus last night.  I went camping for the first time.  After so many hours of travel and activities our first afternoon here, my team and I were ready to turn in for some sleep before starting the heavy lifting of teaching this weekend.  Things were to be a little different this trip, though.  My bed was a hammock last night.  With enough blankets, I figured I wouldn’t be too cold, and I was sleepy enough that any old bed would have been sufficient.  So, I folded myself in thirds, tucked the blankets up under my chin to keep out the Minsk late November cold, selected a position that in which I thought I could be comfortably locked for about seven hours—I certainly wasn’t going to be turning from side to side in a hammock—and slipped quietly off into the land of hazy dreams and magical refreshment as crickets chirped happily outside.

My alarm chirped at 7:00 this morning, and I awoke to realize that I was in fact in a hotel room and my hammock was in fact a cot.  You see, when we checked into the hotel yesterday afternoon our reservation had been messed up.  Instead of a double room and two singles, they had listed us as needing two doubles…and no other rooms were available.  When you have three guys and a single women on the team, that obviously isn’t going work out comfortably for everyone in any combination.  It ended up with we three guys bunking up in one room with an extra cot for the lucky third occupant.  In reality, the cot was plenty comfortable, a little saggy perhaps, but comfortable.  I slept solidly all night and awoke with my back intact and functioning fully this morning.

 

Even getting back to the hotel from the prayer meeting last night was an adventure as our car battery died while on the main ring road (like our interstates).  We waited for a while in the dark and cold for another ride but everyone was comfortable and the conversation was wonderful.  Really, any journey is bound to turn into an adventure when you’re going where the Lord sends you, especially when it’s eastern Europe!  (The prayer meeting was absolutely wonderful, and I have much to share about it.)  More to come…

Not a self portrait…

Wednesday, November 17, 2010, 7:24am local time - Virginia Beach, Virginia

I suppose one is comfortable traveling to a somewhat hostile foreign land when the thing you’re most concerned with is the security screening at the airport!  I leave today for another trip to Belarus, and I’m very excited at what the Lord has in store.  We will be putting up some framing on the foundations that we’ve laying over the past few years.  Going to Belarus is always a bit of the adventure, but I really am not nervous about it.  I’m not nervous about airport security either.  That’s just about the only thing that I’ve thought twice about.  I am so eager to get back in the game overseas!  Remind me to tell you about the t-shirt I might have to get.  More to come…