Ministry in the Czech Republic

On Monday, May 3, I flew to Prague, Czech Republic to visit Pastor Slava and to explore opportunities for SAC to do ministry work in this part of the former Soviet Union.  My plan was to fly there Monday evening, explore on Tuesday, and then fly back to the USA on Wednesday. 

It was a two-hour flight from St. Petersburg to Prague.  Pastor Slava was there to meet me in the airport and we drove 2 hours to his home in the northwest part of the country in Teplice.  This town grew up around a women’s Benedictine monastery in the mid-twelfth century.  It’s known as a famous spa town and for its hot springs.  The district surrounding the town has a population of 128 thousand.  The hills to the north mark the German border.  The lush greenery, plant life and rolling hills remind me of northwest Oregon.  Yet Slava told me that the Czech Republic is very atheistic and that this district was the most atheistic in the country.  With all the beauty around them, I guess they don’t see a need for God.

Slava had made arrangements with a lady from his church that had a large apartment and would allow me to stay there.  When we arrived, Irina had dinner ready for us.  Irina is a healthy 78-year-old widow who had the energy of a 50 year old!  She spoke Czech and some Russian.  Slava translated from Czech until he left.  Then she and I had to speak in Russian!  Before Slava left, we took a walk around the city square at twilight.  It was comfortable and beautiful to walk around this old well-kept city. 

The next morning Slava arrived at 10:15am while Irina and I were having a nice conversation.  Slava said, are you ready to go?  You are speaking at a school in 15 minutes!  This was my opportunity to “flex” and be ready for anything!  I grabbed a few things I thought I might need and we raced to the school.

This High School was an Economic Business Academy with 330 students age 15-19 years old.  I would be speaking to two classes of third year students at this four-year school.  Most of the students had a couple of years of English and they wanted me to speak in English with them and to get them to ask me questions about America, culture, Texas, and hopefully religion. 

No one had told the kids I was coming, so when I came into the class it was a complete surprise.  Many were shy and didn’t know what to say.  But I tried to break the ice and went around the room and introduced myself to each student.  They all told me their name in English.  I told them where I was from and how to say “Hi” in Texas.  They all learned a new English word… “Howdy”!

Questions started to come and I would “pick” students to ask me a question.  They would form their questions and ask things like, “What kind of car do you drive?”, “What do you think of Obama?”, or “How long was the flight?”.  One girl who had little English training asked me after being whispered to by a friend asked, “How are you?”  I replied, “I’m fine”!  :-)

 

I would look for an opportunity to share about God and what they believed in the Bible.  None of them had read any part of the Bible, yet they were open to what I had to say about it.  When I asked one 18-year-old boy about the need for God he just said he didn’t need Him.  Slava had said they were very atheistic, but that even if they didn’t agree with you, they wanted to hear and learn more about your perspective. 

 

Between the two classes, the principal took me to the school tower.  From there we could see the whole town and walk around on the outside-railed ledge.  It was a spectacular view! 

After speaking to the second class, we departed and had lunch at a Russian café.  After visiting down town to exchange money and going by the Chamber of Commerce we went to Slava’s apartment to have afternoon tea.  There we rested and shared about what could be done in Teplice.  At around 7pm we went back to Irina’s home and had dinner.  I was stuffed!  Slava left at about 9pm and would return at 1:30am to take me to the airport.  The flight left at 6am and I had to be at the airport at 3am. 

 

We had a great conversation in the middle of the night on the way to the airport.  We even stopped at a newly opened McDonalds to get coffee for the ride into Prague.  We prayed together, talked about examples of prayer, and answers to prayer.  We also talked about disappointments and how church groups would come in with grand strategies, when what was really needed was simple lasting and ongoing relationships.  In the military vernacular we would say they needed, “Boots on the ground”. 

I’m convinced that SAC can minister effectively in the Czech Republic and it can start with this school.  The principal is very open to us and knows we would come in and share the Gospel.  I don’t have a grand strategy, but just to invite people to come and join with us to build relationship for Christ in the community of Teplice, Czech Republic this fall.  Look for upcoming mission trip dates to the Czech Republic to minister to young people with open minds!  

Helping a Broken Church

When I arrived in Sosnovo, I began hearing about the problems of the local Baptist Church and it’s decline over the last several months.  It was sad to hear the various situations and the decisions that had been made that lead to a disintegration of what had been a great Christian fellowship and a point of light in this community.  SAC has always tried to work through and with the local church as a further outreach to lift up the local church.  However, relations and support of the Day Center by the Sosnovo church has declined since the departure of Pastor Slava three years ago. 

For a couple of years I had heard how the church needed another pastor like Slava.  He lived there and knew and witnessed to the people.  Currently, they have a student preacher come from St. Petersburg every Sunday to deliver a message, but he is not there to “Sheppard” the flock of believers.  As a result, the flock has dispersed and the “wolves” in the community have consumed some. 

Some of the problems include:

-  The church paid for meals for the kids at the Day Center through a local café who gave yesterday’s leftovers, but this support has stopped.

-  The building occupied by the church and the Day Center had been available for sale, but the church didn’t take advantage of this and now the sanctuary room where the church met has been closed by the mayor, unoccupied, and subsequently had flooding due to recently installed city supplied heaters.  The church must meet in apartments.

-  A self-appointed church council has made decisions without a church vote.

-  Three members are specifically causing dissention among other church members.

-  Youth Sunday School has been recently closed as leadership didn’t see the need.

-  Complaints against Nadezhda about her teaching occurred without observation.

-  Accusations have occurred against members without investigation.  

-  The church has disassociated themselves with the Day Center ministry.

As a result:

-  Membership has declined from 26 members to 18 members

-  One member returned to drinking

-  Some members refuse to go to church anymore, and opt for a Wednesday evening Bible study held at the Day Center.

-  No outreach program, no Sunday School, and the church is not working with the Day Center.

-  No church building due to in attention.

Normally, I would stay out of the local church politics and problems.  However, the closing of Sunday School disturbed me and the lack working together with the Day Center was a deep concern.  So, on Wednesday, April 28, I set up a meeting with the “Bishop” of the Central Baptist Church in St. Petersburg.  In Russia, the Bishop is the leader of all churches and pastors of the 38 Baptist churches in the Leningrad Region surrounding St. Petersburg.  Sometimes as an “outsider”, I can serve as a catalyst to get conversations going and problems out in the open.  Several in Sosnovo were afraid to approach the Bishop with their concerns.  Much of that is due to Russian culture and their authoritarian environment. 

We all met at St. Petersburg Christian University.  Victor Sipko, the Bishop of Central Baptist Church, was very friendly and responsive to our concerns.  I emphasized with him that I wasn’t there to place blame, but only to give the facts that I knew and let him resolve the issues.  He listened very carefully and asked Nadezhda, the director of the Day Center, several questions.  He called Shamil, the current Sosnovo preacher to verify some information.  The meeting lasted about 50 minutes. 

As we all left the building and walked toward the metro station, Nadezhda kept proclaiming… “Praise God”!  She was happy all these things were now out in the open.  A follow-up meeting is planned in Sosnovo on Tuesday, May 11, with Victor Sipko, Nadezhda, and Shamil.  Later that day they will meet with the mayor to discuss use of the building. 

My hope and prayer is that the Sosnovo Baptist Church will be on the road to recovery and again become a place of warm Christian fellowship and that they will join together with the Day Center in outreach to connect the youth of Sosnovo with God’s Kingdom.  

Sosnovo Day Center

This is our 5th year working at the Sosnovo Day Center. It’s seen a lot of trials and obstacles these past 5 years and it seems even more so during the last 2 years. Despite these issues, the Day Center continues to be a light of hop to these at-risk children in the Sosnovo community.

This year we had again invited Pastor Slava from the Czech Republic to join us on this mission trip. Pastor Slava used to be the pastor of the church in Sosnovo and was and still is greatly loved and missed by the community. Unfortunately, the Icelandic Volcano prevented him from flying and coming to be with us. For me, it felt like someone was missing the whole week.

We stayed at the small hotel that we had stayed at in the past. It was under new management and they were working to renovate a section of the hotel into a store that had previously been a gathering room for our team to enjoy tea and prepare our ministry things for the next day. As it turned out, the rooms were not being renovated, but the rest of the hotel was! When we got there, there were no working heaters in the room. They had to go get the previously installed electric heaters and set them up on a block of wood in front of the new heaters. I guess the new heaters hadn’t been fully connected up yet. The most precarious thing was getting to our rooms. New outside steps were under construction and then there was no floor between the entrance and the hall to the rooms! That first night we had to straddle the support beams balancing our suitcases to make it there! It was quite a circus!

My son Sergey had made arrangements with Andre, a long time volunteer with the Day Center, to have the team eat at his home. Lunch and sometimes breakfast was at his home. Ladies from the church would come to Andre’s home to cook our lunch in the morning. Breakfast items were usually brought in the morning (meat, cheese, bread) while other things had been bought by Sergey at a large store called “Lenta” (much like Wal-Mart) in St. Petersburg. Thanks to Sergey, Andre, and all the ladies who helped cook for our team!

Lenoid and Galina last year cooked for our entire team and would bring us out to their dacha for lunch and dinner. Our team, that included several volunteers, was lager this time and so meals were held at Andre’s home. Nevertheless, one evening we were all invited out to Lenoid’s home for dinner. It’s always a great fellowship and he always fires up the “Samovar”, the big Russian tea pot where the water is heated with pine cones and coals. Lenoid and Galina have been tremendous hosts!

Early in the week, I stood at a bus stop waiting with Sergey for our bus to come to go to the other side of town. A young teenager walked past me starring at me and I recognized him. He was one of the kids I knew at the Sosnovo Orphanage. Since I had no team members last year and I know the orphanage was going through a transition, SAC hasn’t visited the orphanage in a couple of years. I went to greet him. He’s now 14 years old, but he remembered me. He was a little shy and he didn’t seem to have that joyful smile I remembered when I had seen him last at the orphanage two years ago. I reminded him that God loved him and he nodded slightly in agreement.

One morning, we went to visit the Sosnovo Orphanage. It had moved from its location in the town of Sosnovo to a new location about 20 minutes away. I wanted to visit Rayisa the Director to reconnect and to see the new location. About 3 weeks ago, the kindergarten that was occupying the building traded locations with the building in Sosnovo. The building we had worked at in Sosnovo is now a kindergarten. The new location for the orphanage is one train stop south at stop #69 of Sosnovo. It is very hard to get there. The roads are not paved for the 3 kilometers drive from the main road. It is very hard for the staff to even get to work. Taxi to this location from Sosnovo is 300p, or about $10 each way. With salaries less than 15,000p a month, I’m surprised that people continue to work there. Conditions there are worse than at their other location. There is no sports hall and no general hall to have activities for the kids like dance and other extra-curricular activities. Rayisa told me that even though the kids helped with the move, the kids are depressed and “don’t care about their lives anymore”. One boy that I know and remember tried to commit suicide by jumping from the roof. It was the same boy I saw at the bus stop. Please pray for these kids at the Sosnovo Orphanage.

In the Day Center, the kids had been waiting with anticipation for us come for a long time. They knew us and we’ve seen several of the kids grow up as they continue to come to the Day Center. They also know that I’m there to bring crafts, play games, and lead them in a Bible Lesson. Each day I brought a lesson that had us doing a game and then a short study in God’s word that related to the game. Kids like it when I do a game and bring a short Bible lesson. More of Biblical truth is absorbed with kids if they hear one truth and then have the rest of the day to think about it. Kids here are very resistant to “preaching” and usually tune out or don’t attend at all unless there are activities that are geared to their age and interest.

One new activity that really interested the older kids was building clocks. I had bought the quartz movements, hands, and numbers for the kids to build wall clocks. Sergey and I went to the store and bought some wood for them to design their own wall clock and then I would help them install the mechanism. Many kids had never used a saber saw before. It was good experience for them to use a power saw and drill (with my supervision) and to be able to create their own clocks!

On this trip I found out that Andre has kids over to his home each Saturday evening for a time of fellowship, singing, and Bible study. This weekly youth club meeting was something SAC has wanted to see happen as a further way to promote the church and have the Day Center and the church work together. Out of his own pocket, Andre spends about 200 rubles a week (~$7) for food to encourage these kids to come. Recently, the Sosnovo church had stopped having Sunday School (another problem) for children and this has become another way to reach the kids.

Andre is also busy beginning a drug rehab program. He invites drug users who want to quit to his home. He talks about addiction and leads them in a devotional that addresses the issue of drug addiction. We were there one morning after breakfast and Andre had a meeting of these men. While we were there we encouraged them and fellowshipped with them. One of the men there had retired from the military after 20 years of service. He was a former Major in the Russian Army. I told him I too had been in the military and had served for 7 years. He stretched out his hand immediately to shake the hand of a fellow soldier. He shared his struggles and seemed to find a sense of hope in our meeting.

On the last day, I was able to share the Gospel with them again. I was glad to see almost all the hands raise when I asked if they had asked Jesus into their lives. I’m convinced that if the Day Center was not there, these kids would go through life without hope and without knowing the saving grace of Jesus. With the Day Center, despite all the tribulations they continue to go through, it’s an effort well worth the cost. Thanks to Nadezhda’s dedication to work there every day to bring this love of Christ to these children in this community. Please pray that the obstacles, daily problems, and forces of evil working against her will not overpower the hope that is brought to these kids through her leadership of the Day Center in Sosnovo.