Conference Prep

Sarah's last post of the Vroeges and I preparing for the conference was perhaps a little misleading. It was definitely more spontaneous fun than preparation. Specifically, we were creating spoof Kuyperian love songs and turning praise songs into heavy metal ballads. There you have it. The truth.

Preparation for the conference in Mukachevo begins in earnest today, as tomorrow is the conference. Dave and I have our sessions prepared and Angi, our translator, is finishing work on our handouts. (I always feel sorry for anyone translating me...) Now we need to finalize song selection. There are a whole host of Western hymns and praise songs translated into Russian and Ukrainian, so I'm confident we'll find some common ground. We'll probably also teach a few new simple songs in English, and maybe even get adventurous and lead some worship songs written by Ukrainian songwriters.

What continues to impress me is the amount of cultural baggage that goes along with ideas that are relatively neutral in our North American culture. For example, in the US "Reformed" is a theological framework. The Grand Rapids/CRC version of it has a bit of Dutch culture attached to it, but it's nothing a hip Louisville Christian couldn't get over. Here, "Reformed" is connected with Hungarian Reformed, which carries a lot of cultural weight: Hungarian ethnicity, historical conflicts, specific worship practices. (The fact is that I've only been here three days, so I'm no expert. I only know that when I sat down with George and Angi to work on the translation, a lot of surprising words were red flagged.) So I'm hoping Dave and I can navigate this unfamiliar territory successfully.

Another thing that has me thinking is the differences between the Christian life in the US and Ukraine, both "Christian" countries. At a men's breakfast yesterday morning at the Mukachevo church, we talked about what living out our faith looked like. The men talked about being ostracized for not observing Orthodox saint days, having difficulty getting things done because they're unwilling to take and give bribes, and having their families consider their desire for a personal faith in Jesus as belonging to a sect. My description of the dangers of complacency and the temptations of wealth seemed pretty petty in comparison.

Obviously, there is a lot of work to be done, which is, of course, also true in my own culture. I sometimes feel as if my contribution--music and worship--is insignificant in comparison to the larger task at hand. Is teaching a song really going to make Mukachevo a better place? On the other hand, God has used stranger things. So I'll simply offer what I have and trust that God will use it.