Ministry under challenging conditions

One of the reasons we wanted to go to eastern Europe was to experience some of the challenges that people face in difficult circumstances. In Canada, we often talk about all the obstacles to the church. I've really had my eyes opened since being in Bulgaria.

On Monday we went with David Leistrum and Stilian, another ministry leader from the church in Stara Zagora, to visit a community in Nova Zagora that is populated by Turkish speaking people. It was like driving into another world -- Ramshackle houses, dirt roads teeming with people, animals and trash. We stopped outside a gate behind which was the home of Pastor Simeon and his wife Janka. This is Simeon and Janka with their three youngest children, Maria, Islam and Yussef.

Once inside I was surprised at how clean and well-kept their home was, in contrast to the surroundings outside. They invited us into their living room where there were refreshments waiting. With David as our interpreter, we asked them to tell us the story of our church.

Simeon and Janka have seven children. Their oldest daughter is 25. She was born with crossed eyes. When she was five years old, a visitor came and said "You know, there is Someone who can help her" -- meaning Jesus. As a Muslim, Simeon didn't want to go to their church, but he told his wife to go and find out more. He learned that many of her family had become Christians.

"One day," he said "they invited me to go and for some reason, I decided to accept. They said, 'Let's pray,' but I didn't even know how to pray or who this Jesus was. But as they prayed, I found myself weeping and felt a warmth and a joy in my heart. When we came home, I vowed before God and promised my wife that I would go to church. The next night, I went up for prayer. I was such a beginner! These people were so nice, so pleasant, and I was a sinner among them. But I prayed and saw a vision of angels and heard a voice saying, "Believe in me.' I answered, 'Lord, I don't know church that had started up in the neighborhood, but being Muslim, she waif you even exist or not, but I believe, and I know that when I go home, my child will be healed. I came home in tears, leaving my wife at church, and saw my little girl asleep. I woke her, she rubbed her eyes three times, looked at me and said, 'What do you want, Daddy?' Her eyes were straight. I went back to the church to get my wife and my faith was strong from that time on."

Simeon related how his son, who was born with a hearing impairment, was also healed.

We were joined by Slav, another of the pastors at the church. They spoke about the kind of life that people lead in this community. 95% of the people are unemployed. Most have very little access to health care. A woman in the church requires medication for extreme hypertension and had to get a loan (from a loan shark, not a bank) to pay for it. This only increased her stress. The church managed to scrape together enough funds to pay off her loan, but conditions are such that many people are sick.

It occurred to me that in affluent societies we have the privilege of having theoretical debates about the plausibility of divine healing. For these people, it is what they have. Slav said that the healings and the miracles that take place among them are one of the strongest attractions to the church. As in New Testament times, people are suffering and longing for someone to make them whole, and who are we to argue?

We asked about how people's lives were changed when they came to faith in Christ. A recurrent theme is that they give up drinking. These people are called Turks, but we heard that they are really Turkish speaking Roma (Gypsies), who, like North American First Nations, are devastated by the effects of alcoholism.

But they also spoke about changes in family relationships. Their inherited culture is highly patriarchal. Women are completely under the domination of their husbands. When people join the church, it's usually the whole family, because women and children won't come without the husband and father's permission, and when he decides to join, they follow.

Simeon answered this question like this: "At our church, we proclaim the Word of God. We tell people the story of God creating Eve from Adam's rib. We tell them that God did not create Eve from Adam's foot so that she would be crushed by him, or from his head so that she would rule over him, but from his rib so that they would be close to one another's heart. My wife and I are in partnership. We discuss things and when she has the better idea, we follow her way." They said that Janka is preparing to leave for Italy to work in the harvest for three months so that they will have the funds to support their ministry among their people.

We asked if there was tension in the community when people become Christians. "Not really," they said. They can't evangelize aggressively, but on the whole people respect the decision. However, Stilian told us that he was accosted by a knife-wielding man when he was visiting. It's a pretty dangerous place to live. "The devil is always trying to scare us," Simeon said, "but we are not afraid. God will take care of us."

We were so moved by the dignity and quiet strength of these people of faith.

More lessons in trust

One thing this trip has done is to bring us into contact with people who really do live by faith. So often, when we have asked people why they think they are where the are, the answer has been "Because this is where God has called me to be." These are people who are completely sensible and down to earth, they are completely unself-conscious about their conviction that God is guiding them.

Over lunch today, Dorothy Tarrant told us a story. She got an email last year from a woman in Pakistan who is Roman Catholic, inquiring about coming to Sighisoara to volunteer. She realized, she said, that Veritas wouldn't normally get volunteers from Pakistan, but she believed God was calling her and she had something to offer. She said that relatives who lived in Europe had offered to pay her way.

Dorothy thought that having a volunteer from a country even poorer than Romania had some real positives and began to look into it. But immediately there were visa problems. Romania considers Pakistan a "negative country" and Veritas would be required to post a 2500 Euro bond in case they decided to deport her. Dorothy figured at that point that the idea was a non-starter because they didn't have that kind of money sitting around.

But then she said she woke up in the middle of the night with the story from 1 Kings about the widow of Zarephath in her mind. That's the story of Elijah visiting a poor widow who is not an ISraelite at the height of a famine. He asks her for something to eat. She replies that she only has enough flour and oil to make one last meal for her and her son, after which they will lie down and die. Elijah says "Make something for me first, and there will be enough." And miraculously the oil and the flour are replenished every day.

Dorothy said it was like God was saying to her, "I have plans to bring this woman to you. Who are you to say we can't afford to put aside this money. Do it and I will provide." So she got the money together. As it turned out, the Romanian immigration authorities didn't even ask for the money. The Pakistani woman came and was a real blessing to the work here.

This is one of the most important lessons I'm going to take home with me. I have realized how obsessed I have become with trying to eliminate every element of risk before I do anything. I'm going to take home with me not only this story of faith, but many others.