Knocking on the door is not enough. Walking through it when it opens is just as important.
This was my lesson yesterday night at Cherkassy National University when only three students showed up for my presentation. Apparently, the local Evangelical Church was too used to being denied access to the secular schools’ classrooms. When these doors opened wide and the University President “unexpectedly” gave the green light for them to bring in the FaithSearch Discovery presentation, nobody actually knew what to do with it. A couple of black-and-white half-page sized posters in poorly lighted hallways were definitely not enough to catch the students’ attention. After waiting for half an hour we decided to cancel the event. Please stop praying for the Lord to open the Russian or Ukrainian universities for the Gospel! He already does. Instead, start praying for the churches to be ready to walk into those doors!
Fortunately all three students were able to come again today–to the presentation at the Politechnical University, where it was announced throughout their student networks and on-campus Christian groups. Naturally, my classroom was full, participants were engaged and their questions/comments were truly inspirational and very encouraging. The Academic Dean said: “Thank you for helping us to recover from the ‘spiritual Chernobyl’ in our region by decontaminating the minds and hearts of these young men and women. Many are still suffering from that atheistic ‘fallout,’ and your material gives them a breath of fresh air.”
Twenty-five years ago Cherkassy received hundreds of families evacuated from the Chernobyl area. The day of December 15 is remembered here as the “Chernobyl V-Day” when the concrete sarcophagus was completed over the devastated power station.
A linguistics student wrote in her E-mail right after the class: “I have never looked at my faith from this perspective. I am sure that most of my believing friends never have either. I will be sharing the FaithSearch presentation on the CD with every person I meet starting tonight. Thank you for all the labor and creativity you put into the presentation! Special thanks for making it multi-lingual. Some people will only hear the truth in their mother tongue.”
I am almost out of the CDs by now but I am also very near the end of my trip: Moscow, where I have a small stash of CDs from the last time. Thank you for your prayers, especially for those of you who were praying for the weather: there was not a flake of snow for the last week!
