Staff Missionary Reports
Reports and Experiences of the Godspeed
Staff
Kiev, The Second Sunday
Dear friends and family,
This will be lengthy; we have seen and felt much this past week.
Central Ukraine region, sights and sounds:
An agricultural area, large fields of crops in varying stages
of production even as we approach winter. Modern mechanical harvesters
bring in vast amounts of corn, while individual villagers are
seen gleaning the fields after them. Truckloads of potatoes, old
couples sitting by the roadside selling buckets of apples, pears,
peppers. I try to keep my eye on such activity, as contemplating
the road can be heart-stopping. On the two-lane highway between
Kiev and Cherkassy, occupied by trucks, the occasional motorcycle
complete with sidecar, and small and smaller cars in various states
of disrepair (and thus speed), progress is apparently dependent
on the driver's ability to maintain velocity while passing every
other car as close to oncoming traffic as possible.
We cross the Dnepr river, as wide as our home-state Chesapeake
Bay. The shores are peppered with fishermen; earlier in the week
we had been treated to a freshly caught six pound local pike,
baked whole on a pan half its size. It was superb, exceeded only
by the hospitality and generosity of those who prepared and shared
it with us. These people know how to eat, and love, well.
Since our last writing, two locations: a sanatorium on the outskirts
of Kiev Monday through Thursday noon, where we gave ten hours
of lectures on marriage to 20+ couples. In between lectures (meaning
all remaining waking hours) we met with most of the couples individually
in consultation: never a dull moment. Thursday afternoon we traveled
to Cherkassy, where we stayed at a family home, I spoke at their
local church, and we met with the missionary team and other friends
individually, returning to Kiev today.
In Cherkassy, our first time to stay in a less urban Ukrainian
home: a handsome couple, two beautiful daughters (six year old,
eighteen month old), one babushka (grandmother), one very productive
back yard garden, 16 chickens, one kitten, and an ongoing procession
of friends of all ages. There is room for little more, but love
fills in the spaces and flows over it all. We felt as if we had
come home.
Scripture came alive for us this week many times. A few examples:
"Do not turn to mediums or spiritists, do not not seek them
out…" After my talk to a mixed (believers, non-believers,
and befuddled) crowd at the church in Cherkassy, an elderly woman
asks to speak with us privately. Her concerns about her adult
daughter's marriage situation seemed sincere, but there was something
harsh and artificial about her presentation. We find out she (like
many in a country where the occult is a subject of much curiosity)
had been attending a new-age church, a mixture of Christian thought,
belief in reincarnation, chakras, and other syncretistic theology.
"My beloved is mine, and I am his..." A different type
of blessing for us: we meet with a young couple married only two
months, their behaviors toward each other still on honeymoon.
I had met the man last year at a singles conference, and had known
him then as relatively non-communicative, not so now. I find out
that he comes from a "believer's" family, meaning that
his parents were Christians during Soviet times. During childhood,
he suffered taunts and derision, so he learned to be quiet about
his feelings. Now a missionary, happily married and able to serve
Christ openly, his joy is becoming evident.
"He hears the cry of the afflicted…" A young couple
brings their three month old son to the conference, even though
just the week before he had suffered a spontaneous intestinal
blockage which was potentially life threatening. His parents are
frightened and react to each cry with fear of recurrence. Their
room is next to ours; late one night we are awakened first by
his crying and then by a frantic knock on the door. An examination
by the psychiatrist armed only with stethoscope and ignorance
of pediatrics reveals a very uncomfortable baby with a taut and
tender belly and a tendency to regurgitate everything on my shirt.
1 a.m. in a different country outside of the city in a different
language: what to do? The father begins to pray, and we approach
the problem from the opposite (vs. the mouth) end of said baby.
Without using graphic detail, summary: removal of a large amount
of barium left over from the radiological procedures done the
previous week. Baby relieved. Parents calmed. Psychiatrist speechless.
God good.
"…a man shall leave his father and mother…",
"…a wife must see to it that she respects her husband…",
"…husbands, love your wives…" It seems harder
to follow scriptural principle in some parts of the world. It
is difficult to leave parents when poverty dictates three generations
must live in the same two bedroom flat. A wife physically abused
weekly by her alcoholic husband but having no place to go to for
safety (again, poverty and a dearth of resources) struggles to
respect him. It is difficult to know how to express love to a
woman when a man has never seen any affection expressed in his
family of origin, never having heard the words "I love you"
after he was four years old, and then only once that he recalls.
"You shall be My witnesses…" We returned to Kiev
exhausted, to find that there were other couples who were waiting
to see us. While I met with one couple, Karen was asked to meet
with a young woman, a non-believer who was thinking of leaving
her husband because of constant conflict. They had started coming
to a nearby church seeking some form of direction, and one of
the members thought it would be good for the lady to speak with
Karen. The result of that meeting: a new sister in Christ. After
the young woman prayed to accept Christ as Lord of her life, Karen
met the husband briefly who indicated he, too, was anxious to
know how to change his life. They will be meeting today with a
couple from their church who will take over. They now have hope.
"Like cold water to a weary soul, so is good news from a
distant land" As I downloaded a week's worth of e-mail, we
were blessed by the notes and letters from so many of you. We
leave this evening for home, and to hopefully be able to thank
you in other ways for your prayers for and thoughts of us over
the past two weeks. We are richly, richly blessed.
Godspeed,
Barney, for Karen
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