Throw your translator from the Train!

I recently took a "journey to the center of Uraine", and I didn't meet any dinosaurs (except for a cute 2-year old boy who growled and chased me around the room). I was going to visit the town of Karlovka, near the famous battlefield of Poltava -- where the Russians beat the Swedes in a huge battle in 1709. Here, Peter the Great ended the world power of Sweden and began the imperial power of Russia.

But in the past few years, in this town of 20,000 people an hour from Poltava, God has been showing his power, raising up a church of 70 people -- totally self-funded, which has purchased and refurbished their own building and supports their own pastor. This church now wants to join the Presbyterians, because they think it is biblical.

I had the privilege to go see them and lead a 2-day seminar on a wide variety of themes they had requested: spiritual gifts, history of the Reformation, Reformed view of sacraments, church membership, role of women, etc. I had asked a fellow pastor to accompany me from Odessa, helping translate part of it and to help answer some questions. However, God had another plan.

I left home in Odessa in plenty of time to catch our overnight train, but the after-snow rush hour had jammed every street leading to the station. Even my wild taxi driver couldn't get through. I called George to want him I might not make it. As the time approached for our train to leave, I jumped out and ran the last three blocks, pushing my way through the station, and literally jumped on the last car as it started to roll. I called George, who had also just arrived, but my call was 10 seconds too late -- I would be going it alone!

Could I do it? I was facing an 8-hour seminar, starring: ME! I am comfortable in Russian to carry on normal conversation, but, could I hold their attention in such a long seminar? Would I seem like a child? Would my mistakes be unbearable? I simply cast myself on the Lord, even while in traffic and hoping to get to the train, trusting to His perfect plans. As it turned out, it was Great! They were so loving, so interested, so dedicated to the Lord, so patient, so hospitable, that the seminar was easy. It encouraged me to do more teaching and preaching without an interpreter, to hone my skills, and thus have a more direct connection with my listeners.

So, I taught the seminar without an interpreter, and without any linguistic preparation, and it was great. But the end was so humbling: they gave me gifts. I have decided this about hospitality in Ukraine: You just can't outgive a Ukrainian!

I came away from Karlovka thinking, "We have more to learn from them than they have to learn from us." In this economically depressed area, they have built the Body of Christ, survived a previous pastor's unethical behavior, manage to support a full-time pastor, etc. It is a model for thousands of other towns across Ukraine. May God give us wisdom to understand and use these methods to plant many other churches!

I was also in Karlovka to see two of our seminary students, the pastor and an elder. It was wonderful to meet their wives and children, and see them in their social context. This is the caliber of men God is bringing to us for training. Now, another of their men also wants to study in seminary (the dinosaur's father who leads the youth ministry). Who knows what ELSE God will build there?

On the train ride home, I had a ticket in open seating (plotzkart), which was a bit stranger than my normal monthly train rides to Kyiv. There were no doors, and shelves everywhere had people on them, and my feet stuck out into the narrow aisle so that anyone walking by would hit my feet and awaken me. The lights were on all night, too.
So, I arrived home tired, but happy. I was very sad that my translator and fellow pastor couldn't go, but God had other plans! He went to another distant church to give them communion. In every place, what a joy to see Jesus building his church as he promised!