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…