Breaking down Loneliness

Roberta Bustin is our other host in Sighisoara. She's from Arkansas and speaks with a gorgeous southern accent, even when she's speaking Romanian! Roberta retired from teaching chemistry at a Nazarene college twelve years ago, and decided in her retirement to come to Romania and plant churches!

One of her responsibilities is as the leader of a Nazarene congregation in Sighisoara. She also leads a church plant in a village about 30 minutes from the town. Roberta led us up and down over Sighisoara's famous cobbled streets (currently all torn up as part of a never-ending "improvements to the infrastructure" of the citadel area, which has been going on for several years now with no end in sight) to her little church building in a pleasant neighborhood.

What she wanted us to see was the club the church runs for elderly folks. Many are quite poor, they live alone, and without the church they would be almost completely isolated. The church is open each day from 10 till 12, and they can come and socialize, drink coffee, have their blood pressure taken, and receive a time of precious human contact. We were greeted by Mia who runs the program. Each of the seniors shook hands and gave us a hearty "Buna ziua!" (Good day.)
So much of what Christ calls us to do is very simple -- to open our eyes to those in need and simply to love them. The church may not be able to meet every need, but it is such a simple thing to overcome the loneliness and isolation that would otherwise be the daily lot of these folks. As a result of coming to the seniors club, many have joined the church, extending their "family" further.

Czech hospitality

Dave Patty, who told us about Malenovice, said we should go to the church he attends in Frydlant nad Ostravici, a town of about 10,000, 15 minutes from our hotel. The only hitch was that both he and his wife Connie wouldn't be there this past weekend. But, they said, there are lots of wonderful people who speak English.

Both Diane and I are good with languages, and everywhere we've been we can kind of puzzle things out based on our knowledge of French and German. But I have to tell you, Czech is a totally different ball of wax. There is almost nothing recognizable about either the sound or appearance of Czech.

So going to a Czech worship service, not knowing who would be there or if we would understand a blessed word was a bit of a leap of faith. But we've discovered on this trip that if we just go for it and take that leap, wonderful things happen.

Church was to be at 4 p.m., so we booked a taxi to pick us up at 3:30 and drop us off at -- who knows where? The taxi pulled up in front of a squarish building that could have been a house, an office, or a small community center. There was a sign over the door and we asked our taxi driver what it said. "House of gardeners" he replied, cryptically.

A man, woman and little boy came along just as we stepped out of the cab. "Do you speak Czech?" he asked in very good English. "Not at all," we said. "But we heard there was church here." "I'm Lubo," he replied, "I pastor the church. Come and join us."

Lubo was full of apologies. "It's summer. Many people are away, and most of our youth are away working at English camps. So there may not be many people here." At 3:55, there was Lubo, his two daughters who were leading the music, his wife and an older lady who may have been her mother (not sure.) But, by 4, about 20 people had arrived, (down from an average of 60) including young families, a Korean man with his little boy, and an American from Mobile, Alabama, named Charlotte. Charlotte heard us from the other side of the room and came over. "I heard you speaking English!" she said.

Before the service, Lubo said, "I'm afraid you won't get much of the service without some help," so he called over a woman in her 30s named Marcela. "Here, Marcela will translate for you." Marcela is Czech, but lived in England and speaks very good English. She sat between us and provided us with simultaneous translation!

Lubo's daughters led a couple of songs which we immediately recognized as "I Could Sing of your Love Forever" and "Here I Am To Worship" -- in Slovak. There was a time of sharing concerns for people in the congregation. Two young women were driving to a camp in Romania when their car was rear-ended and totaled. We prayed for them as well as for others.

The Scripture text was Ephesians 4: 11-16. The sermon was on how God equips the church with people who have gifts for prophecy, apostleship, teaching and evangelism. Lubo told a story of when he was a teacher. He had an especially recalcitrant student who wanted a better mark than his work deserved. In dealing with this student, Lubo eventually had an opportunity to share with him his faith in Christ and the young man, full of attitude, became a Christian.

After the service, Lubo told us that the congregation is really struggling with how to extend hospitality to non-Czech speakers. They have a lot of visitors and feel compelled to find ways to make them feel at home. That's what Marcela did for us and we told him how welcomed we had felt. And I thought, "Wow, how attentive are we in our churches to people who 'speak a different language?'"

Il Song, the Korean man, wanted to talk to me when he found out we were Canadians. "My son is playing hockey!" he told me, and showed me some pictures on his iPhone.

Our taxi was waiting, but Lubo said, "We must pray for you before you leave." And so he did.

Earlier in the day on Sunday, part of me wanted to say, "We don't know where the church is, who will be there or what it will be like. Maybe we should just spend the day at the hotel." We were both so glad we went and so blessed by this wonderful Christian community in a little Czech town.

Taking it easy

Since last Wednesday, we've been having an amazing and relaxing time with our friends Tony and Carol Cooper and their daughter Claire who live in a beautiful old Victorian farm house, just outside the charming village of South Nutfield in Surrey.

We met Tony and Carol two years ago in Bermuda. They are a wonderful Christian couple and fantastic hosts.

This morning we took the train into London and attended Holy Trinity Brompton Church, known around the world as the home of the Alpha course. They have four services -- 9:30, 11:30, 5 and 7. We opted for 9:30. We arrived just after 9 on a glorious summer day and we warmly welcomed by several very young people who were part of a hospitality team who provided me with my first cup of coffee.

We discovered that this was the family service that most of the young children attend. The church soon filled up with young families. There were 300-400 in attendance. Nicky Gumbel, the vicar and inspiration behind the Alpha course, welcomed everyone and prayed and then the most high energy service I've been at for a long time commenced. It was clearly geared to holding the interest of children, but with a message that parents and other adults could relate to. Nicky returned at the end to bless us on our way, and we were done in just under an hour.

Here we are with Nicky Gumbel.

Today was the start of something called Big Summer Sunday. The old church yard (cemetery) has been turned into a beautiful green space. They had bouncy castles and pedal cars and food and drinks set up for the community to come and enjoy. People from the church brought picnics and were sitting together eating.

We were recognized by a couple who sat in front of us in church. They invited us to join them. They lead a "pastorate" which is kind of a cluster group -- bigger than a small group -- of which there are several at HTB. They told us a few things that we didn't know about HTB.

As long ago as 1985, HTB began the practice of sending out teams of people to other Anglican churches that have either closed or are on the verge of closing to revitalize them. One nearby church is St. Paul's Onslow Square which is now part of a two-congregation parish with HTB. The services between the two are staggered by 30 minutes -- 9 at St. Paul's, 9:30 at HTB, etc. Nicky starts and ends each service and rides his bike back and forth between the two!!

We also learned that each service has a different focus. The 9 a.m. service at St. Paul's is quite traditional with organ and choir, in recognition of the fact that there are still many people for whom traditional worship is very nourishing. Transitioning churches need to remember that. The 7 p.m. service is where many (not all) of the younger adults attend.

HTB is now launching another revitalization initiative at a church in Brighton that seats 900+ and has about 20 in attendance. A group from HTB is committing themselves to going in and reestablishing an energetic ministry in that place.

HTB has become a kind of centre of spiritual energy through the phenomenon of the Alpha course and the other ministries that have spun off from it. There are a lot of people in my own denomination who are really suspicious of Alpha because it doesn't fit into a particular "inclusivity" ethos. But so many of the churches we've visited are infectiously welcoming because they have a passion for the Gospel of Christ who was radically welcoming. I also know that the Alpha course brought the faith of several people in my church to life. It was the first time they encountered faith as a life-transforming power and it's made a huge difference in our congregation.