Loved Of The LORD, as I go along I will drop in different activities that a Cowboy Missionary find themselves doing, this post being one. You might find this bizarre, yet it makes a general point to what follows.
While ministering in our own ‘Hood’ (Neighborhood back Home) some of the homeboys would tell me that they were going to a different town to get away from the influence of their peers and the supply of their addiction that was always stumbling them. Nevertheless, when I would see them months or years later, I would hear the same stories repeatedly. Finding themselves in a different place it was only hours, if not minutes that they would hook up with the same type of crowd.
This must be typical with almost any kind or type of crowd. Missionaries are not any different, especially when the turf is open, thirsty, and hungry. The former USSR having been closed to any Spiritual happening for, … (what was it, … 80 years?) was really open to any Preacher, Mystic or Charlatan that had a god type message. One could spot the SLC Boys, even without their bicycles. They were there on ‘Humanitarian Aid’ Visas.
The Saws being there less than a year had already made connections with several evangelical groups. When I arrived on the scene, they were in the process of setting up a conglomerate organization to pool information, mostly on how to thread the needle of Belarusian Bureaucracies and use the different resources that were available.
It was amazing to see how Baptists, Pentecostals, Word Of Faith, Salvation Army and several others including the “NonDenom-Denomination” that I wrote about earlier were coming together to Publish The Good News, of course in their own flavors. Hadley being somewhat affiliated with them, back home and Pat had hooked up with their Minsk Church and were all a part of it. It was working Great and The Ministries were contributing, mostly on how to go about registering with the (Government Agency) ‘Ministry Of Religious Affairs’. The SLC crowd had it figured out at the get go, as to skipping the Missions Registration and starting out with the Humanitarian Aid premise, and almost (If Not Outright) covertly introducing their Doctrine with their dispersing of aid. While discussing this during a meeting, it appeared as a possible way of skirting around the Biggest Hurdles and propagating The Gospel!
Soon there were containers coming in on a regular bases, and Pat somehow had us plugged in to the un-loading and stocking of clothes, foodstuffs and Medicine and in turn we partook of some of it to help in our Ministries. Everyone was generous and blessed to share!
Keep in mind that this was working great for the four months I was there. Yet for a closing note on this post; when my wife and I returned the following year, we found out that the ND-Denom had pulled out of the “Ministry Organization”, because Word Of Faith were a part of it! Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face, I was incredulous! The prejudice that was in The States finally made it self known in Belarus! How Sad!
OK Next week, some stories about the different ministries in action. i. e. Some Good News!
©2008
