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Sunday, January 31, 2010

"Prayer for Ukraine" song

I just returned from a short ministry trip to the city of Chernivitsi in western Ukraine. On our way there, our group of 8 sang various kids' songs (as practice) and worshipped together on the train. One was this song, a very beautiful prayer for Ukraine. I realized it sounded familiar because I had seen the video of the KCA kids singing it at graduation last year.

With the upcoming election on the 7th (the second part of it), a change in leadership may mean more difficulties for missionaries and church workers here. Yanukovich is pro-Russian (rather than pro-West), and believes that the Orthodox church is the only way to salvation, and all other Christian denominations are sects. Please pray for this run-off election (a candidate has to win by more than 50%, and there were at least 5 candidates on the first day of voting), and that God's name will be glorified.




Below are the lyrics in Ukrainian (a language that I don't really understand) and a rough English translation from this site.

Молитва за Україну

Моя молитва нехай лине
До Тебе, наче фіміам.
І серце лине без зупину
В чудовий Твій небесний храм.

Боже, я молю за Україну,
Боже, молю тебе за людей,
Ти їх прости,
Ти їх спаси,
І милість Твою нам яви.
Боже, я знаю,
Що Ти будеш з нами
В храмі Твоєму під небесами
Радість і мир Ти дарував,
Життя для людей віддав,
В Книгу Життя нас записав!

В Своєму Слові Живому,
Ти для людей ведіння дав,
Щоб люди всі молились Богу,
Що на Хресті за нас вмирав.

In English:

May my prayer go
To you like the aroma of incense
And the heart drawn without ceasing
Into your glorious heavenly temple

God, I pray for Ukraine
God, I pray for its people
May you forgive them
May you save them
And show us your mercy
God, I know you are going to be with us
In your temple under the heavens
You gifted us with your joy and peace
You gave your life for the people
You inscribed us in the Book of Life

In your Living Word
You laid out the vision for life
So that all the people would pray to God
To the one who died for them on the cross

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Christmas, take 2

Hi everyone,

I have now returned to Ukraine for KCA's spring semester, and was able to celebrate Christmas with my "family" here. It is great to be back, and I haven't had much jet lag.

Today the temperature was above freezing, which has its advantages and disadvantages. It means the ice and snow are melting, which makes walking easier, but that means there are lots of puddles and those puddles will freeze again overnight.

It has felt like a bit of a time warp, since I am celebrating Christmas again. Today I got an email from someone at Nazarene headquarters, and was confused, thinking, "It's a holiday--why is she emailing me today?"

Below is a brief summary of some of the Ukrainian Christmas happenings.

Christmas Eve (January 6)

I joined the Wrights, Skinners, Stoddards, and Mannas at the Skinners' apartment for a fun-filled evening of conversation, Photo Booth (with Kate and Megan), dinner, music and singing, and Turbo Cranium.

We shared many stories and much laughter!

Church Service: Кристос народився! (Christ is born!)
This morning, our church held a Christmas service, which was not like a regular Sunday service. It was a mixture of congregational singing, the praise team singing, Scripture readings, object lessons, and the usual sermon, offering, and pastoral prayer. (The following details are not in order of how they happened, but as I think of them now.)

We sang Angels We Have Heard on High, Joy to the World, and Days of Elijah as a congregation, and the praise team sang many more songs, including Mary Did You Know, O Holy Night, Silent Night, O Come O Come Emmanuel, and Be Thou My Vision. Josh S. also played a song on his guitar!

Our scripture passages included those from Genesis 1 (God creating man), Genesis 9 (God's covenant with Noah), Isaiah, Luke 2, John 1:1-14. I had never heard the passage about God's covenant with Noah connected with Christmas before, nor had I really seen a connection of Christmas (Christ's first coming) with Christ's second coming. Of course, Christ was born in order to die, and He rose from the grave, and is going to come again--but in all the Christmas sermons I've heard, I don't think any of them have mentioned Christ's second coming.

A special offering was taken for House of James 1 and 2, located in Selishe, Vinnitsya oblast. The kids of HOJ will be in Kiev this Sunday for a special children's program. In summer 2008, Nadine and I were able to tour HOJ 1 and meet the house parents and a few of the kids. We didn't get to stay long, but I hope to meet the kids again this weekend.

During the Sunday school section, Pastor Vova had the kids light each of the Advent candles and reviewed their meanings (hope, joy, love, and something else). At the end of the service, he talked about the symbolism of the candy cane, and gave one to everyone attending the service.

Downtown
After church, Josh, Robyn, Dougie, and I made our way through the slush and ice down Artema for a few blocks then caught a bus. We walked down to Khreschatyk, which was closed to cars today. Walking down the road was a lot easier--less slushy and icy--than on the sidewalks.

We spotted these carolers, dressed in what I assume are traditional costumes. I don't know the significance of the 8-pointed stars, but we have one hanging in our church too.

Christmas Dinner
The entire Kiev missions team (I think) plus a few folks met at TGI Friday's for lunch together. We had the Wrights, Skinners, Trino, Josh/Robyn, Sabine (who works at the Eurasia Regional Office), Dougie, Saskia (another volunteer) and her cousins, and myself.

In terms of nationalities represented: American, Dutch, German, Scottish, Costa Rican. I enjoy being with people from all over the world. :)

The Carolers
Around 6:45 pm, well after I'd gotten home, our doorbell rang. I assumed it was Jodi coming back from school, and though I looked out the peephole, I couldn't see anything because our light bulb burnt out.

When I opened the door, two young girls were standing there. They said something in Russian, most of which I didn't understand. I told them, "I don't speak a lot of Russian," but somehow invited them in.

They proceeded to recite something and then sing a tune; I recognized only a few words, and had never heard the tune before. Fortunately, my friend Zee was able to name the song with the 2 words I recognized, and find it on Youtube for me.

Here is the song that the girls sang. Another teacher at KCA tells me that the song means "rejoice the earth, God's child is born" and starts with "good evening to you landlord, set the tables, the guests will come," etc. etc.

Afterwards, I somehow knew that I should invite them in for some sort of dessert/sweets or something, but since they didn't seem to be coming in any further, I told them I had a little American candy (конфета) and grabbed some of my butterscotch candy.

As they left, they said "Merry Christmas" (in English; I can't remember if they said it in Russian too). In retrospect, it felt almost like trick-or-treating (since I gave them candy), and I think I knew to give them something sweet to eat was because I read it on someone's blog (either someone else in Ukraine, or someone in Russia, or possibly even someone in Romania--I follow so many blogs...).

What a lovely surprise!

Conclusion
Within my experiences thus far in Ukraine, I don't have a complete picture of the traditions, their origins, and their significance. For more information about Ukrainian Christmas traditions, visit this blog.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Ways to be active in prayer for missions

Even if you are unable to go on a cross-cultural missions trip, or financially support missionaries, you can still support us and be involved in missions through your prayers.

The following ideas were taken from World Gospel Mission's magazine The Call, and can be found online here.

1. Select a missionary whose work and daily life are accessible to you. Privately, each morning or evening, pray with fervent desire that your missionary will be blessed.

2. Give prayerful consideration to your life and to all the people in it. Is there any group of people, nation, or race against whom your heart is hardened or whom you struggle to understand or love? Study this group, and learn more about them and their history.

3. Jesus commanded His disciples to begin their missions work in Jerusalem. What center of power is there to which you submit? The national capital? Your school? Your family? Whoever it is, contact them and ask them specifically how you can pray for them. Later, contact them again and ask how things are going in the area where you prayed.

4. Each day for a month, start your morning with a sincere plea to God to make clear His will for your life. Do not argue or bargain—just ask God to show you what He wants.

Friday, January 1, 2010

Redemption of culture

From "Credemption," an article on boundless.org:
Edgar says also that redemptive engagement happens through redirecting or redefining cultural patterns affected by the Fall, such as Paul's interaction with Greek philosophy, and contemporary efforts, such as Prospect 1, to use art to rebuild New Orleans.

We could say that there's both external and internal redemptive engagement. The external redeems visible culture; the internal redeems our invisible relationship with culture.

In his book Culture Making, Andy Crouch has advocated not only the redemption of culture, but also the making of culture — good culture for an infinitely good Creator. Instead of simply condemning, critiquing, consuming, and copying culture, the way forward is to create a good alternative. Otherwise, we are simply left at square one, with very little Christian progress in various cultures.

I suggest that we engage culture redemptively and creatively. Instead of choosing between the two, what would it look like for us to bring a redemptive worldview into our workplace, where we bring a gospel perspective upon a problem or person, while also working well to generate new solutions and answers?

What I would like to learn....

In what ways has the Church of the Nazarene in the former Soviet Union utilized the Slavic culture and Eastern Orthodox heritage to point people toward a relationship with Christ and holy living?

To what degree(s) is the Church integrated into or separated from mainstream culture?

How can I be involved with people that are not at all connected with the church? How do I get out of my "bubble"?

How can I express the gospel in a way that is accurate but not treated like a consumer product?