Reflections, one week later

At church Sunday, people kept asking me about my trip to Ukraine. Each time I found myself wishing I had a snappy two sentence answer that would summarize the experience in a way that captured their imaginations. (Maybe I also felt the need to justify a two week absence!) Usually I would simply say, "It was a great trip, and I'm still unpacking it." So let me continue to unpack it.

First of all, let me say that I don't believe in two week experts. I can't speak definitively about Ukrainian culture or Christianity; I can only speak out of my experience.

One reason I've found my time in Ukraine difficult to unpack is because it is a culture somewhat similar to my own. When I traveled to Uganda, the cultural differences were significant. So when people asked me, "What did you learn from them?" it was easier to answer than when someone asked me that a few days ago. I could point out the East African exuberance in worship, for example, as something I could learn from. But the Ukrainian worship climate made it feel a lot like leading a worship conference in a small town in the US: not a lot of understanding about worship, a traditional church base from which the younger folks are exploring/rebelling, and mass media worship industry filling the gap left by a lack of solid worship resources.

Even though our cultures are similar, I was struck once again by the things we take for granted in the US. For example, Dave and I accompanied George to the men's prayer breakfast at the church. I asked the half dozen men what kinds of things they struggled with and praying for, expecting the standard US answers of family, sex, and work. But one of the things they found extremely difficult was not taking or giving bribes. It seems that bribes lubricate most business dealings in Ukraine, and not taking part in that system puts them at a huge disadvantage. They had to count the cost of their faith, quite literally.

Another big issue we encountered was the Ukrainian church's relationship to the West. I was not surprised to find out that Western hymns and praise songs were a bulk of the Evangelical repertoire in Ukraine. What was surprising was how narrowly focused on Gospel hymns (Fanny Crosby, et al) their hymn repertoire was, and that their praise repertoire was more oriented toward Hillsong than Nashville. Some of that is changing with the recent release of a small collection of Ukrainian worship songs, but it's still a significant factor.

Another part of the Ukrainian relationship to the West is its dependence on Western money. The reality is that a new church won't get built unless it's funded from the outside. It was interesting to me that the Ukrainians are very aware of the way this financial support affects their worship. In a session discussing the Nairobi Statement on Worship and Culture, money kept coming up as a force that applies constant pressure on their decision making. I'm still chewing on this: how does money influence our theology of worship?

Finally, the trip to Ukraine drove home once again the need for good worship training. Dave and I led sessions on the basics of worship--things we've heard and taught hundreds of times--but you could see lights going on around the room as people heard these ideas for the first time. Worship as formation, worshipers as participants rather than audience, using the Psalms in worship--all of these were being heard with fresh ears. The closing worship service, though modest by Calvin Worship Symposium standards, was clearly a door opening to a whole new world for those who took part.

There is clearly a need. Maybe the need can be addressed by a book on the basics of worship. Maybe Dave and Greg will take their show on the road. Maybe these mini-symposiums will be supplemented by a seminary style curriculum on worship. As we close this particular chapter, it will be interesting to see where God moves next.

"Heaven Is My Home, Doubtless...

...but Halifax is my haven."  That line from Canadian poet Bliss Carman has been a favourite of mine for exactly ten years.  And I sure am happy to be back in my haven.  For that was one long trip back.  Our flight from Budapest to Frankfurt was delayed 1.5 hours, and our layover in Frankfurt was only 1 hour to begin with.  So we missed that flight.  Everything in Frankfurt was backed up, due probably to a possible impending strike by air traffic controllers.  No available flights to Canada anymore that day.  So Lufthansa put us up in a 5-star Hilton.  Then today we flew to London and then directly to Halifax, though that last flight also ran late.  Two treats today: when flying into London we were able to see Wimbledon's grounds, and flying to Canada we took the "north route" and were able to see Greenland.

The funny story in the Frankfurt airport is that simply because we had come from Budapest, an airport staff person asked us to lead a Hungarian family and an elderly Romanian couple (the 2 parties didn't know each other) through the airport workings.  So we became this merry band of travelers, none of whom could understand each other, and all that in a German airport.  How we managed to help them, I'll never know, but it seemed to all work out.  The family had 3 boys, and they latched on to Lian - sound familiar?

Seeing Asher was a joy.  He keeps hugging us.

With so much thankfulness for the last 2 weeks,

Dave

Group Photo

We joked about nearly becoming family after two weeks of living, eating, working, and traveling together.  So, here's a picture of the "twins" and the rest of us!

The "twins," Dave and Greg, with Carrie, Lian and the de Vuyst family

I can't think of any clever title for this blog post.  Where are Greg and Dave when you need them?  Oh, yeah, they're on the plane traveling far, far away from us - getting back to their true families! 

Going Global

Okay, two posts in one day.

Guess who we met yesterday?  We were at The Heroes' Square, minding our own business, when someone asked us whether we would be willing to take a picture of him and his three companions.  Of course.  After snapping the picture, we got to talking to them, and it turns out we just met Krit Kraichitti, Ambassador of Thailand in Hungary.  Yes, indeed (and here's a better pic of him, when he was still ambassador-delgate).  His three companions were his wife, and their good friends, the husband of which is the head of some neurosurgery institute in Thailand.  (Sorry, friends, he said there was nothing he could do for me.)

Ukraine, Russia, Hungary ... but who'd have guessed Thailand?  I love eastern Europe!

Dave

I'll post a pic of us with them real soon.  Gotta run for the plane right now.

Shaped by a Blessing

I think I never blogged about our Sunday worship with the Mukachevo congregation.  Greg did another amazing job leading the worship music.  I sometimes wished I could have pursued a musical vocation much further than I ever did, and so Greg's graciousness and patience with me while I joined him in music-making is a real blessing to me. Thanks, Greg - it's been a pleasure serving with and learning from you!

I preached on 2 Corinthians 13:11-14 (verses 11-13, in some translations), with the focus being on the blessing in the last verse: "May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all." It's worth noting that the last verse is ... the last verse. The last verse of these two long letters to the Corinthians, to this messed-up church. The Corinthians had problems with the apostle Paul, with each other, with the gospel message itself.  And Paul deals with all that head-on.  And yet, for all of their problems, Paul doesn’t give up on them.   Paul doesn’t think they’re beyond God’s reach, have somehow put themselves outside of God’s grace.  No, he writes to them these important letters, these long letters, as an appeal to receive and live the love he knows they know in Jesus Christ.  And then the last possible words he can say to them, on behalf of his and their Lord, are: “Christ’s grace be with you, God’s love shape you, the Spirit’s fellowship be what you’re known for.”  To exactly this sort of people who have all sorts of problems – problems with God and problems with each other – comes this life-shaping blessing. These are not flowery words; they are words to combat evil – to erase gracelessness, to put a stop to hate, to bring together people who are divisive, isolated, and fragmented.  He wants them to be a congregation shaped by God’s blessing.

George wondered whether in the future there couldn't be an entire conference in Ukraine devoted to the topic of how our worship (worship services) ought to shape the lives we live: 

• As God greets us with grace in worship, so we need to receive God’s grace and peace in our daily lives.  
• As God’s grace frees us to confess our sins in worship, so God’s grace and peace frees us to live repentant lives every day.  
• As God’s Word builds us up as God’s people, makes us into God’s people in worship, so God’s Word should be central to our daily living, each one of us.  
• As we offer money in worship to the God who gave us everything anyway, so our whole lives should be offered to God in service and love.  
• As the Lord’s Supper makes visible God’s grace to us in Christ’s death and resurrection, so we need to live with eyes wide open to all of the amazing ways that Christ meets us in daily life. He is real, he is alive.

...And God’s blessing shapes us to live lives that are shaped like these things, like worship.

We'll see, George. 

The Lord bless and keep you and your congregation,

Dave

Buda ... pest!

It is Monday morning in Budapest!  Or should I say Buda ... pest?  I've learned that there were once two cities, one named Buda and the other named Pest, and they were joined to make the Budapest we now all know and love.

We got into town last night, enjoyed seeing some of the city from George's high-speed van - like Hero Square and the palace and the Chain Bridge, and then onto a city bus and off to a most amazing Hungarian dinner.  It was another enormous meal.  Carrie had oven-baked stuffed camembert with lemon-olive asparagus, Lian had Bavarian white sausage with sweet mustard and a pretzel, and, get ready, I had crispy knuckle of pork with Bavarian cabbage and napkin dumplings.  Whoowee, you haven't eaten until you've had knuckle of pork.  (And no jokes about Hungary and hungry; they've heard them all.)  But today we'll walk it off, exploring the city.

Thanks to all of you who've emailed us.  I understand some of you are having problems posting comments to our blog.  Greg and I disabled that feature so that people couldn't argue with what we said - ha ha.  (Seriously, I don't know why it's not working.)

You might want to check Sarah' blog today, to see what a blessing Lian was in Ukraine.

Well, time to step out of our lovely B&B and out into Buda ... pest!

Dave

Leading the Leaders

Greg led a session for musicians on how to lead a congregation in worship.   Here's "Lord I Lift Your Name on High" in Russian. 

It's Not Over Until...

... you see some pictures.  It's true, Dave and Greg really were here in Ukraine.  Now we have the pictures to prove it.  Here are some of the worship symposium in Kyiv.

It's the End of the Conference as We Know It (and I feel weepy)

Greg leading worship music, after talking about stuff.

We're back in Mukachevo. Yesterday morning Greg presented on various musical topics ("stuff," as you'll remember). I presented on being a pastoral worship leader - not a pastor, but pastoral. Then we closed with a worship service - a service which was a real gift from God.

A few of the conference participants, under Greg's leadership, led us musically and truly helped us worship God.

At the end of worship, as I was about to give the blessing, I became quite emotional - having to say good-bye to these new Ukrainian and Russian friends in Christ whom I may never see again. I hadn't expected to feel that way. No doubt I was tired : ) , but definitely also God had drawn us together in rich fellowship.

Me preaching with George interpreting.

Saying farewell was also touching. One participant grabbed a translator and came up to me afterward and made a point of saying that he's aware that in their culture their faces are often quite stern looking, but he assured me that's just their culture and that Greg and I should know that they appreciated our presentations very much. Indeed, most of the men gave us embraces before they left!

Pastor Robert, Lian, me, Greg, and Valya braving our way home.

Today was another wild ride on the roads of Ukraine back to Mukachevo (Pastor George sure knows how to strengthen a person's faith life!), where Abigail, Matthew, and Elizabeth de Vuyst greeted us with what we're learning is they're customary enthusiasm and volume. Four-year old Elizabeth, it seems, was upset earlier in the day because she's so small. Her point was proved later when she ran to her mom with a bruise on her head and when Sarah asked her what had happened, Elizabeth said, "I bumped into the floor." (Apparently another time, when the sun was shining in her eyes, Elizabeth was heard to say, "The sun is in my way." I do not want to mess with that child.)

Tomorrow we worship our God with the Mukachevo church one more time, and then off to Budapest, Hungary (not Romania, Carrie!) to enjoy that city for a day.

Peace,

Dave

How Can I Keep from Blogging?

It is Friday morning in Ukraine. Yawn. Stretch. Shake the willies out.

Yesterday, therefore, was Thursday. What a day! What shall I talk about?

Shall I talk about Andrei, a musician who works as plumber by day and in his spare time reaches out to children with boxes of needed items and with the gospel when it's possible?

Shall I talk about Christina, who traveled away from her eight-month old daughter, Shekinah (think Old Testament!), to come to this conference?

Shall I talk about Julieann, who plays guitar and piano and who sings and took a 13-hour train ride to be here?

Shall I talk about Robert who's soon to be ordained as a pastor and lives in a tiny apartment with his wife and 1-year old son, Andrei, so that he can serve Christ in Mukachevo?

Shall I talk about Vitaly, a Baptist pastor well east of Kiev who's been serving his congregation for the last five years?

Shall I talk about Arpy, who is trying to farm the land here though there's so little knowledge and help available and who plans to start an orphanage? (And about whom I dreamt last night was a gang leader fighting another gang to save me from leprosy. Um, no, I won't write about that.)

Shall I talk about Greg, who helpfully wanted to tell conference participants that "in my session tomorrow I will talk about stuff" and when the translator rightfully gave him a funny look about what on earth he meant he shouted at her, "You have to say it! You're the translator!" (Don't worry: he wasn't quite as rude as it may sound on a blog; we were all getting pretty giggly by the end of the day.)

Being a liturgy geek, shall I turn my questions into hymn references? What language shall I borrow? What wondrous love? How can I keep from blogging?

By the way, one reason for starting the blog the way I did is to show that there are so many people I've met here and that it is amazing how much you can talk with a person across the boundary of language! (Of course, this is assuming I understood them.) (And all name-spellings are my best guesses.)

Greg and I each gave three presentations yesterday. Greg on the historical streams of worship (from his illustrious book; buy a copy, feed his children for another day), the Nairobi Statement, and an open rehearsal with the musicians who'll accompany us for our closing worship service today. Greg's presentation on the Nairobi Statement was super. It's all about Christ and culture - which got me thinking about Christ's incarnation. I think I nailed my Advent sermon series during that session! It seems to me that each of the four gospel accounts may have something to say about how Jesus Christ and the gospel is contextualized - or not - in culture.... Come to All Nations Church in December to hear more! : )

I presented on "Vertical Habits," the Psalms, and Meditating on God's Word through Scripture memorization and Lectio Divina. The Psalms session appeared to really get people interested. I talked about different aspects of worship that the Psalms teach us, and together we brainstormed about instances in the Psalms - what joy to search the Scriptures together! (Though there is a challenge with fact that, in the Russian Bible, the Psalms are numbered and versified differently. But no problem for Familiar-with-Catholic-Bible-and-Ancient-Hebrew-Literate Pastor (my new superhero identity): the Old Testament also versifies the Psalms differently than English and the Catholic Bible also numbers the Psalms differently and, from what I can tell, in both instances the same ways as the Russian Bible. So all I had to do was establish a little conversion table with my superpowers. No problem for Familiar-with-Catholic-Bible-and-Ancient-Hebrew-Literate Pastor.)

Today, Greg presents on stuff, I present on leading pastorally in worship, and then we close with a worship service at which Greg will lead music and I'll preach. In the afternoon we hope to see the famous Monastery Caves. I look forward to going out doors again - it'll be the first time since Tuesday. My, my, it's been busy.

Another day in Ukraine, another picture-less blog from Dave,

The Good Twin.

Good Morning, Ukraine

Gooooood morning, Ukraine!

I'm up early, to prepare for the day. Not much time to blog, I'm afraid.

Yesterday, things got off to a rollicking start (yes, Ukrainians can rollick as well as anyone). My evil twin, Greg, spent a few minutes ironing out the meanings of the word "worship" in English and Russian. Once he had their rapt attention, I moved in to talk about some biblical themes of worship: worship and theology go hand-in-hand, worship is remembering (à la Psalm 136), worship is dialogic, worship depends on the Holy Spirit, worship is fellowship (Acts 2:42-47), and worship is eschatological (Revelation 5). Riveting stuff, no? But don't you worry, we stopped plenty of times for conference participants to discuss among themselves with prepared questions.

After a break, Greg then went onstage to talk about a trinitarian view of worship (a graceful view, I'd say). Why don't we just let him blog about that?

In the evening, we had two local guests - an Orthodox priest and a Baptist music leader, both of whom are extremely knowledgeable and well-respected in their respective traditions. To my shame, I did not understand their names and so can't share them here. To my delight, what they said fit nicely with what Greg and I are doing.

Then I slept.

New day.

More later.

Dave

PS. I really do understand that pictures are valuable in blog posts. I just don't have them on the computer I blog on. Yes, I know that Greg and Sarah's posts are the most popular, but perhaps they are just pandering to the masses with those visuals, don't you think, O highly-sophisticated blog followers?

Worship and our Christian Life

When we worship God, we probably don’t usually talk about worship. We just do it. And mostly that’s right. Some times, though, it's helpful to talk about things, in order to enter them more fully, do them more actively. So, last Sunday, when we worshiped with the Mukachevo CRC, there wasn't one sermon, but 6 of them. But they were short ones! Before each act of worship, I briefly preached about it, how it is part of the picture of our life with God. I preached before God's Greeting, the Confession, the Word, Intercessory Prayer, the Offering, and the Blessing.

Today is Wednesday. Greg's birthday! So clearly this is the most important day of our time in Ukraine (said the good twin. Yes, the similarities between Greg and I do not end with our faces. We look the same, joke the same, like liturgy the same, ... both of our wives are into boxing. Why, just this morning I put on socks and noticed that the brand is MacGREGor. I'm telling you, when I wake up I have to check whether I'm Greg or Dave.).

I have to share a couple of amusing comments from yesterday as we explored Kiev. In the centre of the city, all manner of things were on the already busy sidewalks, and I sarcastically said to George, "Why do they even bother making sidewalks?" To which he replied, "Where else would people park their cars?" Later, at a restaurant, Carrie asked George to ask the waitress what was in a certain dish on the menu. The waitress explained to George in Russian, and Carrie asked George, "So, what's in it?" George hesitated. Finally he said, "If I tell you what's in it, you won't want to order it."

Today, the conference begins. Please pray for us!

Dave

Happy Birthday, Greg!

Greg is celebrating his birthday today!  It's bound to be one of a kind. 

"Happy birthday, Greg.  Thank you for giving of your time, gifts, and talents to serve here in Ukraine!" - Sarah 

A Place to Belong

On Sunday we led worship at the Christian Reformed Church of Mukachevo. Unlike many of the churches in Ukraine, the church attempts to stress its identity as a Christian gathering in the Reformed tradition, as opposed to the many denominations who place a high value on their ethnic identity.

Being a small church that welcomes all (Ukrainian, Russian, Hungarian) they are sometimes viewed with suspicion--seen as a sect--by those who are only familiar with the country's established denominations. But this "come one, come all" approach also results in a nice vibe, as all sorts of people come together to worship Christ. It's a nice mix: young, old, educated, dropouts, theologically trained, new believers. There is even a regular attender who is somewhat of an anomaly in Ukrainian culture: a 30 year old autistic woman who attends with her mother. Her mother says that church is one of the few places her daughter is at peace.

It struck me as I looked around the congregation Sunday that though this is a different culture and a people who speak a language I don't understand, we share a desire to belong. Too often, that belonging is based on race or social status. But in a church like this, the belonging is based on Jesus Christ. It is belonging to a family. And like a family, everyone is accepted regardless of how smart they are or what they've achieved.

It's a congregation of less than 50, so they don't have many musicians. Instead, they usually sing along to pre-recorded tracks. So it was fun to be able to treat them to live music for a Sunday. We sang a combination of translated hymns and modern praise songs, and even learned a Ukrainian worship song and ended with the Caribbean "Halle, Halle, Halle."

Mukachevo Conference

Dave and Greg did a fantastic job of leading the worship conference on Saturday.  It was a small group, mostly from the Mukachevo CRC, but we were all challenged to grow in our understanding of worship.  

Pastor George introduces Dave and Greg

Leading worship songs with Valya

Pastor Dave leads two sessions

Greg leads one session

Ok, so I admit, there was one person who found it boring

Worship and Words

Yesterday was a conference held in the Mukachevo CRC's building, where Greg and I presented. This morning was a worship service with them, at which Greg led music and I preached. What a joy to be with these friends in Christ!

When I began my first presentation yesterday, I thought I'd try to say "good morning" to them in Ukrainian. I had practiced long and hard. But when I said what I thought were the correct sounds, the room was quiet and there were a lot of puzzled faces looking my way. What had actually come out of my mouth was "good year." D-oh!

The language challenges didn't end there. In English, our word "worship" can mean at least three distinct things (praise time, a worship service, all-of-life service), but in Russian, there are different words for these realities. You'd think that would be helpful, but it's not when I use the word "worship" and the translator isn't sure which meaning I mean. If the translator uses the Russian "praise time" when I mean the Sunday morning event, there can be a lot of confusion on listeners' parts, ... and I won't even know it. Tricky stuff. Our hosts, George and Sarah de Vuyst, have been excellent in helping Greg and me navigate these things.

Some Russian words are easier for us Anglos to recognize - like "Jesus" and "Amen." What a gift!

More later. It's time for Thai food in Ukraine. : ) (And pics will be posted soon.)

Dave