The Naughty and the Nice

Once again during this Christmas season, we have read many articles and watched TV Christmas specials decrying the commercial nature of Christmas and trying to determine what is the real meaning of Christmas. This morning in Norway, in the Christmas Day worship service in the Kragerø United Methodist Church, the pastor, Harald Olsen, made an interesting comment about that icon of Christmas materialism, Santa Claus. Everyone knows what Santa is about. He has a twice checked list of all the Nice and Naughty Children, bringing gifts to the Nice Children and a lump of coal in the stocking for the Naughty Ones. Doesn’t that make perfect sense? Shouldn’t only the deserving be eligible to be on Santa’s list for a gift?

But that is the exact opposite attitude God has in gift giving on Christmas: God’s gift, Jesus, is expressly for all the Naughty Boys and Girls, to give us the opportunity to reconcile ourselves with God and the world around us through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. No one is so naughty, so poor, so lost, so unworthy, so sinful to be ineligible for God’s Christmas list. God seeks us all and rejoicing is heard throughout heaven when anyone of us takes the Gift.

Merry Christmas! And may you be an instrument of delivering God's Gift to the world.

Sergei

We finally heard about Sergei. Sergei is the young man who had been coming to our street children center for a number of years but is now in prison, serving a too long term for minor theft. The story of his trial is in our last newsletter. In Ukraine, if you are accused of a crime, you are held in a holding center for those awaiting their trials. There doesn't seem to be concept of bail. If you are convicted in the crime, then you will continue to be held in the holding center until it is determined to which prison you will be sent, depending on the severity of your crime. You cannot visit or officially communicate with a prisoner (read here about unofficial communication) until they are assigned to a prison. And notification of which prison they are in is only given by letter and the letter at last arrived.

We heard rumors that Sergei would be going to a prison near the airport, which would have been great for visiting often, but in fact, his prison is near Rivno, about 200 miles from Kiev. By Ukraine standards, this is not too bad, since the policy is reported to be to send the prisoner as far away from the place they committed the crime as possible, reputedly to break up criminal connections. So now we await more information so we can arrange a visit.

Busy Fall

Time has flown as we have had many trips outside the Ukraine this fall. Now I have just returned from a 1 week trip to Switzerland and Germany where I was involved in two meetings: One was a 2 day meeting with three other missionaries to look over the new mission initiatives of GBGM which have begun in the last 15 years in order to review their strengths and weaknesses and discuss how we as missionaries could use our experience to help make upcoming mission initiatives better. We met in Interlaken, Switzerland, a very pretty place.

The next meeting was in Braunfels, Germany, where all the District Superintendents of Europe met with their respective Bishops in discussing the future of the UMC in Europe. Assisting us was Bishop Shnase from Missouri Conference who gave us lectures on the Five Principles of Fruitful Congregations: Radical Hospitality, Passionate Worship, Intentional Faith Development, Risk-taking Mission and Extravagant Generosity. The discussions were very much in line with the other conferences and meetings where I have been this fall. Now it is time to implement these ideas! It is great to be home in Kiev. Here is the Braunfels town square:

Here are a few more pictures from the trip. But our trips are not completely over for 2007: Helen left this morning for Moscow to attend the Eurasia Episcopal Area Financial Committee as the Ukraine and Moldova Annual Conference representative.

No promises for an easy ride.

We have been home in Kiev for over a week and now are in the midst of a pastor's meeting. All of our pastors come together twice a year at our apartment for a time of prayer, fellowship and planning for our district.

But just before the meeting started today, I got some bad news: our new street children center was broken into for the second time this week. Thankfully, we had not put too much expensive things into the center, just tables, chairs and some of the humanitarian aid. Sunday, the first time they broke in, the thieves stole some humanitarian aid clothes, cleaning supplies, an electric hot water boiler, toilet paper(!) and some of the medicine we were given during our free medical clinic. The second time, though, they pulled out our washing machine, dryer and dish washer in an attempt to try to steal them, but then must have abandoned the thought. They did this time steal the stove top we had and a 10 year old microwave. Again, two electric hot water boilers were stolen (replacements for the one stolen Sunday), most of the rest of the humanitarian aid clothing, the replacement cleaning supplies and...toilet paper. Also two chairs were taken. The police investigated, but said since the most expensive thing stolen was the stove top, only around $300, they really wouldn't pursue it too much. Also sad is that a few simple portable DVD players owned by the children and stored at the center were taken. Sometimes it seems they just don't get a break.

We now have 2 guards staying at the center at night and between the two break-ins, we ordered an alarm system, though a phone has to be installed before the alarm can be put in. We have also ordered bars for our windows. Please pray for Svetlana, our daily director, as the burden of dealing with the police, etc., has been on her.

St. John's Downtown

While in America, just before we attended the Russia Initiative Conference at Church of the Resurrection in Kansas City and after our Georgetown visit, we were able to make a one day visit to St. John's Downtown United Methodist Church in Houston, TX. As mentioned previously, this church has around 9,000 members in which 3,000 are homeless or former homeless. We wanted to see how this church has been able to blend a congregation of homeless poor, middle class and wealthy people.

When we arrived at the church, we waited for the pastor since he was preforming the funeral of a 21 year old member of the church who had been shot in gang-related violence. The neighborhood around the church is not an easy one to work in. After the funeral, the pastor, Rudy Rasmus, greeted us with hugs and warm welcome, spending the rest of the day with us showing us the church and its ministries.

Two points stood out as he related how this church has managed to grow while still maintaining its blended character. One was of "extreme welcome". Since homeless people are refused entry to so many places, it is difficult for them to "challenge the door", that is, get up enough courage to actually walk inside the church. To ease this, St. John's Downtown has a 3 tier welcoming system. People called Ambassadors are on the street around the church before services to invite people with hugs and handshakes to come on in. Greeters are inside the door to give more hugs,
information and direct people to the sanctuary. Ushers in the sanctuary then give more hugs and show people to their seats. We were told you probably would get hugged 5 or 6 times before you actually sit down. This sense of welcome gets people, especially the poor and homeless, over the barrier of entry to a new place. The second point was "to never compromise the vision of the church". The vision of St. John's is to be a place for all people of all economic and social classes. As any church becomes more successful, the pressure to accommodate the church to those who give the most financially is always present. It takes a lot of work to guarantee equal access to the pews for all in a church which crosses economic and social classes. We hope to remember these points as we begin our "equal access" church in the Dosvitok Children's Center building.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our trip to America is over and we are back in Kiev. Well, I am back and Helen arrives today. She had a meeting with the Northern European Central Conference Board of Drug and Alcohol Concerns (the same board where we met 14 years ago) in Germany and is probably landing at the airport as I write these words. With all the flurry of activity and being outside the United States, it is hard to believe that today is Thanksgiving.

And we do have a lot for which to be thankful. We are very thankful for the generous support we have received for our ministry in Ukraine, both financially and spiritually. Between conferences we were able to visit First United Methodist Church of Georgetown, TX, just north of the state capital, Austin, who have been faithful supporters of our work, especially the Dosvitok street children ministry. You have heard Texas being called the Lone Star State, (one star in the state flag), but the Texas state motto is "Friendship". This motto was certainly lived up to by our wonderful hosts, James and Shirley Varner who have worked tirelessly in promoting our work in Georgetown. Here they are as we are about to enjoy one of Shirley's great meals.

Isn't it great to be able to sit outside and eat breakfast in November? We even got to go to the Alamo on the Saturday before we spoke at the church on Sunday.


More on our trip to America and what has happened in Kiev in the coming days.

Boy Howdy!

We have been in Texas over a week now. The Living Faith, Seeking Justice Conference in Ft. Worth, sponsored by the General Board of Church and Society, was very inspiring. One quote from a conference speaker:

"The Church is a lot like Noah's Ark, it may stink at times, but if you step out of it, you'll drown."

During the conference, there was some time to do some Texas things, like eat reel Texas bar-bee-que. Here are three happy Europeans chowing down on a moderate portion of ribs:

Helen, Dominic Schmidt from Germany, first time in USA and Finn Uth from Denmark.


The moderate portion of ribs. It was an all-you-can eat deal, by the way.


You sure can't get a ride like this in Germany:


Adam Hamilton, pastor of Church of the Resurrection which supports two of our churches in Ukraine and a main speaker at the Living Faith, Seeking Justice Conference commented on the fact the "sweet spot" of the United Methodist Church is our combining of the Evangelical and Social Gospels, how they cannot be separated. If we neglect either, the church does not do it's job. He quoted the General Rules, an official source for our doctrinal standards and which were the basic foundation of the Methodist Church:

Firstly: By doing no harm, by avoiding evil of every kind,

Secondly: By doing good; by being in every kind merciful after their power; as they have opportunity, doing good of every possible sort, and, as far as possible, to all men:

To their bodies, of the ability which God giveth, by giving food to the hungry, by clothing the naked, by visiting or helping them that are sick or in prison.

To their souls, by instructing, reproving, or exhorting all we have any intercourse with; trampling under foot that enthusiastic doctrine that "we are not to do good unless our hearts be free to it."

Thirdly: By attending upon all the ordinances of God; such are:
The public worship of God.
The ministry of the Word, either read or expounded.
The Supper of the Lord.
Family and private prayer.
Searching the Scriptures.
Fasting or abstinence.

A good foundation, let us build upon it.