Archives for April 2014

En route from Saratov to Nalchik via Moscow. This Northern Caucasus city popped-up on my schedule rather unexpectedly while visiting with a Moscow based Navigators’ missionary and being introduced to a Baptist pastor-evangelist with a heart for reaching out to Muslims. I am now flying to his mission’ office to present the FaithSearch Discovery material and to hear their suggestions and recommendations on how it could be better tailored to address the Muslim populations of South-Eastern Russia and the “–Stans”.

This “theme” has become more and more present in my recent teaching experience as I travel to the areas where Islam is present and even predominant. My most recent and still very memorable episode took place only three days ago in the city of Penza where I was training an overbooked classroom of public school teachers in integrating our materials in their history and humanities curricula. Something was telling me that not everybody in the group was happy and comfortable with what they were seeing and hearing. I also noticed that two young teachers were missing in the classroom after a short break. The answer came from the conference host only after the presentation: “These two teachers are Muslims and they didn’t want to be seen attending this kind of event. But don’t you worry, they stayed behind the doors and listened to the whole presentation!” Standing in the hallway behind the doors for almost two hours?! There must have been something that caught their attention in the first part of the presentation… Praise the Lord!

I definitely need to work on my material to make in more culture sensitive and appropriate to the Muslim ear, especially after receiving an invitation to Kazan, where I already had a chance to teach last year at the Orthodox Church Youth conference. This time they want me to speak at the regional teachers’ training where most of my audience will be Muslims. I don’t think they will all be willing to listen from the hallway but will simply kick me out if I am not well prepared and my material is not contextualized to their culture. I pray that the Lord will lead me to the right people and good resources in the next few months as I develop a new version of FaithSearch Discovery especially addressing the needs and issues of my future audiences if/when He opens this door of opportunity for the FaithSearch Russian Ministry.

My other prayerful desire is that the nationalistic hysteria in the Russian official media does not become predominant in the minds and in the hearts of Russians. I praise the Lord that I have not yet seen or sensed any of it in my teachers’ and students’ audiences. They all take the political news reports with a traditional sense of humor and a healthy measure of skepticism. My FaithSearch Discovery presentation also helps them in addressing some of these issues as it provides the tools and skills for analyzing the evidence, for checking the sources and for discerning the truth from deception and propaganda.

My train is now slowing down before Paveletsky Terminal in Moscow. I will have two hours in my relatives’ apartment to take a shower, to repack my backpack, to check my e-mail and to post this blog entry before I leave for my flight to Nalchik. I will then only be an hour away from one of the best ski resorts in Russia but that will have to wait until some other time…

En route from Saratov to Nalchik via Moscow. This Northern Caucasus city popped-up on my schedule rather unexpectedly while visiting with a Moscow based Navigators’ missionary and being introduced to a Baptist pastor-evangelist with a heart for reaching out to Muslims. I am now flying to his mission’ office to present the FaithSearch Discovery material and to hear their suggestions and recommendations on how it could be better tailored to address the Muslim populations of South-Eastern Russia and the “–Stans”.

This “theme” has become more and more present in my recent teaching experience as I travel to the areas where Islam is present and even predominant. My most recent and still very memorable episode took place only three days ago in the city of Penza where I was training an overbooked classroom of public school teachers in integrating our materials in their history and humanities curricula. Something was telling me that not everybody in the group was happy and comfortable with what they were seeing and hearing. I also noticed that two young teachers were missing in the classroom after a short break. The answer came from the conference host only after the presentation: “These two teachers are Muslims and they didn’t want to be seen attending this kind of event. But don’t you worry, they stayed behind the doors and listened to the whole presentation!” Standing in the hallway behind the doors for almost two hours?! There must have been something that caught their attention in the first part of the presentation… Praise the Lord!

I definitely need to work on my material to make in more culture sensitive and appropriate to the Muslim ear, especially after receiving an invitation to Kazan, where I already had a chance to teach last year at the Orthodox Church Youth conference. This time they want me to speak at the regional teachers’ training where most of my audience will be Muslims. I don’t think they will all be willing to listen from the hallway but will simply kick me out if I am not well prepared and my material is not contextualized to their culture. I pray that the Lord will lead me to the right people and good resources in the next few months as I develop a new version of FaithSearch Discovery especially addressing the needs and issues of my future audiences if/when He opens this door of opportunity for the FaithSearch Russian Ministry.

My other prayerful desire is that the nationalistic hysteria in the Russian official media does not become predominant in the minds and in the hearts of Russians. I praise the Lord that I have not yet seen or sensed any of it in my teachers’ and students’ audiences. They all take the political news reports with a traditional sense of humor and a healthy measure of skepticism. My FaithSearch Discovery presentation also helps them in addressing some of these issues as it provides the tools and skills for analyzing the evidence, for checking the sources and for discerning the truth from deception and propaganda.

My train is now slowing down before Paveletsky Terminal in Moscow. I will have two hours in my relatives’ apartment to take a shower, to repack my backpack, to check my e-mail and to post this blog entry before I leave for my flight to Nalchik. I will then only be an hour away from one of the best ski resorts in Russia but that will have to wait until some other time…

It is becoming a good tradition for me to celebrate Pascha in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia. Last year, the city was still pretty much covered in snow and I even had a chance to ski here. Today, during the midnight procession around the church I was in short sleeves and a light breeze was not even strong enough to blow off the candles in peoples’ hands. And then, at midnight, a huge crowd shouted at the top of their lungs – “Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!” What a scene! The street traffic stopped, the bells ringing, hundreds of people standing with candles in and around the city cathedral their faces shining with joy and crying out endless times: “Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!”

What a great finale for my week of teaching in Krasnoyarsk! Many of these men and women attended my FaithSearch Discovery presentations during that week where we looked at the facts of Christ’s life, death and, yes, resurrection from historical perspective. We studied the manuscript evidence for the validity of the Gospel story and established the historicity of the New Testament narratives. Now, as the Paschal service progressed and these very facts were mentioned in the course of the worship I was catching so many of these people looking at me and at each other (almost winking!): Yes, we know it! Yes, it is true indeed!

Some of them later shared with me the very special experience they had celebrating Pascha this year – not as a nice church tradition, not as a merely theological concept, not as a beautiful moral parable but as a fact of history!

I am leaving Krasnoyarsk tomorrow morning for Moscow energized and encouraged by these testimonies.

It is becoming a good tradition for me to celebrate Pascha in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia. Last year, the city was still pretty much covered in snow and I even had a chance to ski here. Today, during the midnight procession around the church I was in short sleeves and a light breeze was not even strong enough to blow off the candles in peoples’ hands. And then, at midnight, a huge crowd shouted at the top of their lungs – “Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!” What a scene! The street traffic stopped, the bells ringing, hundreds of people standing with candles in and around the city cathedral their faces shining with joy and crying out endless times: “Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!”

What a great finale for my week of teaching in Krasnoyarsk! Many of these men and women attended my FaithSearch Discovery presentations during that week where we looked at the facts of Christ’s life, death and, yes, resurrection from historical perspective. We studied the manuscript evidence for the validity of the Gospel story and established the historicity of the New Testament narratives. Now, as the Paschal service progressed and these very facts were mentioned in the course of the worship I was catching so many of these people looking at me and at each other (almost winking!): Yes, we know it! Yes, it is true indeed!

Some of them later shared with me the very special experience they had celebrating Pascha this year – not as a nice church tradition, not as a merely theological concept, not as a beautiful moral parable but as a fact of history!

I am leaving Krasnoyarsk tomorrow morning for Moscow energized and encouraged by these testimonies.