The Maidan remains a camp site for many protesters.
It seems to have become a community of its own within the city.
They wait for the end of corruption in government.
Category Archives: experience
Still weeping #pray for Ukraine
In the midst of a war memorial park in Kyiv there are a couple of bridge like structures worked into the park to give you the impression that you are underground. On either side of the sort-of tunnel that is created are bronze (?) statuary that, if it were painting, would be a mural. These are scenes from WW2. In the midst of the soldiers and partisans, the workers and farmers (this was the Soviet Union after all) is a lone figure.
I’ve seen her several times over the years, she always caught my eye, this matriarchal figure, but recent events made me realize that her heart is breaking again. She is still weeping.
Filed under Eastern Europe, experience, photos along the way, travel notes
Surprise!
Weeks ago when I was planning this trip there was discussion about dates and the the places I would preach.
Originally, I was to have been here a week earlier but as the plan developed and today was the Sunday I would be serving with the brothers.
As it turns out this was a baptism Sunday. Here are the 124 candidates for baptism who have had basic Christian training and have been examined as to the sincerity of their faith:
The Pentecostal church buildings in town were empty today because this is the Sunday when they all come together at the lake for singing, preaching and the baptisms. I am told there are several thousand on the hillside:
As I was saying hello to one of the pastors it hit me that had my schedule not changed I would have missed preaching at this event. I’m so glad that God is orchestrating my itinerary.
I’m told this is a bit of a higher number of baptisms and it was hypothesized that recent events are causing people to realize their need for a relationship with God.
The newly baptized believers then received a Bible that I urged them to read daily.
What will it take for us to realize and act on that need for God?
19th years ago: a genocide
19 years ago, there was a mass killing in Bosnia. Each year there are remains identified using DNA and then given a proper burial. In 2009 three of us drove to Srebrenica to remember the event and experience the memorial.
I made a brief film from that trip. Please click here to share in our experience.
The waffling of diplomats leading the UN effort at a “Safe Zone” is described by journalist Roger Cohen: “Into the night of July 10 he prevaricated, with NATO planes in the air waiting to strike. His attitude showed an extraordinary disregard for his men: he had ordered the Dutch into dangerous, and exposed, “blocking positions” with a pledge of air support in the event of an attack, only to renege on what he had promised. Having talked to General Zdravko Tolimir of the Serb army, the French general still doubted that the Serbs intended to take the town. At one point that evening, in the midst of a meeting of his crisis team called to discuss air attacks at Srebrenica, Janvier took a long telephone call; people at the meeting had the impression the call was from Paris. In the end the NATO planes returned to base; Srebrenica’s fate was sealed.
“The next morning Karremans assumed massive air attacks were on the way. Repeated requests for air support were made as the population of Srebrenica fled to the Dutch camp in a disused battery factory at Potočari, in the northern part of the enclave. It was almost noon, however, before Janvier, in Zagreb, finally signed a written order for an attack, and then it was to be limited to “any forces attacking the blocking UNPROFOR position south of Srebrenica and heavy weapons identified as shelling U. N. positions in Srebrenica town.” Such an order, so late, amounted to holding up an umbrella against a hurricane. That afternoon, one Serb tank was hit before NATO air attacks were called off with the Serbs threatening to kill all the Dutch hostages. The “safe area” of Srebrenica fell at four o’clock that afternoon. About twenty-five thousand Muslims, including over fifteen hundred men of military age, sought protection in or just outside the Dutch camp at Potočari. Another ten to fifteen thousand Muslim men set out northwestward in a desperate bid to walk across more than thirty miles of Serb-held territory into the safety of government-held territory south of Tuzla. (Hearts Grown Brutal: Sagas of Sarajevo
by Roger Cohen)
Ukraine journey part 1
I flew yesterday from a sunny Budapest to a rainy Kyiv. When I arrived I took a cab from the city airport and talked to the driver about Jesus. In our 20 minute conversation I could tell that peace was on this man’s mind. I avoided the subject of war that had been tearing up the eastern part of the country because I wanted this man to know Jesus loved him, died for him and was ready to forgive him and give him new life. We talked about the Bible and I suggested he read the Gospel of John. I told him about a church a friend of mine is part of on the western edge of town. I paid him, we shook hands and I went in search of an old friend who had a train ticket for me.
Over a decade ago, I was leading a group of students on mission in our partner camp in Ukraine. We were there for a week or so and the students performed a variety of tasks, primary of which was teaching English.
On that trip I had the opportunity to invest some time answering hard questions about God from an 17 year old. A couple of our team enjoyed hours of conversation with her about Jesus. After a few years we lost touch.
Yesterday (Thursday) I was blessed to catch up with her in Kyiv for about an hour as she had a train ticket for me. After an enjoyable time of catching up (which included showing plenty of my grandson pix) I briefly heard her first hand description of the events that have been occurring here since last fall.
She works downtown in a newspaper office so everyday she walked by the growing protests in the central square. She told me that the worst, of course, were the deaths that occurred at the height of the protests which had turned violent.
Those protests, you may remember (“how soon we forget”), led to the president fleeing the capital and then off to the “safety” of Russia. The parliament got busy making sweeping changes. These changes included appointing an interim president from among their number. An interim prime minister (also from their body) was then put in place who proceeded to initiate changes in the government. He remains in that office today having been kept on by the newly elected president.
This newly elected government, and the temporary one it replaced, made a decidedly westward turn. Since being elected, the new president has signed an agreement with the EU that was the very agreement the now displaced president almost signed. It was that act, of not signing the EU agreement, that started the protests back in the autumn that led to his ouster.
It is said that the reason the former president changed his mind about EU partnership was a threat or a promise (or both) by the Russians. Once he was gone things began happening and counter protests began in the Russian speaking eastern regions. This, in an amazingly fast time frame, led to the annexation of the Crimean region into Russia. Hopeful of the same, protests began in other eastern Ukrainian cities.
After several months, a few false starts, and the loss of many of their members to pro-Russian fighters (likely led by Russian para-military and equipped by Russia smuggling arms across the border. Now, it appears the Ukrainian military are slowly regaining control in the east.
But my friend told me that things in Luhansk (a city prominent in the pro-Russian insurgency) were still bad. Her family had come from there when she was 10 and a friend of her mother’s was actually leaving there this weekend.
This woman is fleeing the “war with Russia” (as I’ve heard it described) that continues in pockets of eastern Ukraine. She told me that several times a day explosions are the reality in Luhansk and other places for Ukrainians. Some people who don’t have friends in western Ukraine have fled to Russia to refugee camps.
The long border with Russia is supposedly being secured. It has likely been the source of weapons used by the anti-Kyiv rebels in these pro-Russian enclaves.
It is into this context that I have come to gain a deeper insight into this situation and see how the gospel is making a difference and think about how it should be.
I will be asking a few leaders these two questions:
How has the crisis affected the church?
and
How has the church inserted the gospel into the crisis?
As of this post I have had one response. It was over a dinner of stuffed cabbage, layered salad, minced meat cakes and pizza (yeah, it surprised me too). This pastor told me that the crisis had driven the church to its knees. 12 different meetings per week for pray, wether it be a daily lunch meeting at church or a late afternoon house meeting or fulfilling a commitment on a prayer chain, for months these people have prayed.
Will it take war on your soil to make you pray?
Filed under culture, Eastern Europe, experience, shifts, travel notes
“go through”
I got off my overnight flight from Washington to London in pretty good shape. (Yes, I’m writing at 2 am since my body clock thinks it’s 8pm.) The reason I was in pretty good shape was that I had been upgraded to the business section to make room in economy for someone. It would seem that my miles status plays in my favor when flights are oversold and they need to move people around to open space. Regular customers who have certain point status move toward the front of the plane to open seats for passengers who have tickets but no seats. In this case I was the beneficiary of the oversold flight. By moving me and a couple of other people around, a family of four got seats! And I got better rest. I am thankful.
Now I have been building points for a while and had gained some perks (like skipping lines and such) but had never yet risen to the level to go and hang out in the lounge.
The lounge, I had heard, was this welcoming, restful place where there were spacious comfortable chairs, ample food and beverage of all kinds and people taking away dirty dishes as soon as you finished (yes, I said dishes), wifi, TV, tables to work at, computers to work at, and get this… USA plugs for charging gadgets, no need to dig for adapters. I had even heard that these places were quiet. That concept of quiet is absent from any airport I’ve ever spent four hours in, especially Heathrow terminal 3.
The main way people gain access to the lounge, it seems, is to buy a business or first class ticket. If you’ve ever, out of curiosity, checked the price on these tickets, you know why I fly economy. But that ticket price gets you a lot if you can afford it: space, comfort, better food (brought to you in courses not just on a tray), and service. And I don’t mean a little better. I mean you get all the attention you could wish for. If you can afford it, you really can get what you pay for, and you get the lounge.
Friends who were more frequent flyers than I had told me about these places and I hoped to see and experience it one day when I had enough points to reach that level (that’s the other way in, go up through the frequent flyer program). But I had not seen such a place.
Until yeaterday.
The way to gain entrance is to be invited in. There is an airline employee at the front who examines your boarding pass. See, your boarding pass contains a good deal more information about you than just your name, date, gate, flight and seat numbers. If you’re a member of the mileage program, it also tells your level. My boarding pass stated that I was one level below entry. I was not quite good enough.
It has become my routine to go to a paid lounge (for those who don’t have the proper credentials but wish the perks of a lounge and are willing to part with about $60 for a couple hours service) to take a shower. For about $15 I can grab a shower and put on clean clothes and it really makes the rest of the traveling day way more pleasant. Just beyond the entrance to this paid lounge, which is actually a pub with a buffet, is the entrance to the lounge.
My dad used to say “the worst they can say is ‘no.'”
So I went in and spoke to the gatekeeper. He check my membership number, looked on his computer, saw my status, listened to my request, asked for my boarding pass, looked back at the computer, and said…
“Go through.”
Whoa. I went through, away from the crowds, the noise, into a restful place where there is space, quiet and USA plugs to charge my gadgets.
See, I didn’t really measure up to get in. I didn’t deserve to go in to this place of plenty, quiet and rest. The guy at the desk extended grace.
Someday, if there were to be a gate keeper in heaven who asked me why he should let me in, I’d tell them, because of the work of Jesus that I have faith in, Jesus has invited me in. I don’t measure up. I don’t have enough points, but He’s the owner, he made the place, paid for my ticket, and invited me in.
If there were such a gatekeeper, and after death you found yourself there and we’re asked why you should be allowed to enter that place of rest, what would you say?
kingdom travelin' 