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- We are a team of people trying to reach people in Ufa and Bashkortostan in Russia. It is no small task and we want your support!
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Sunday, June 19, 2011
Moments of Realization
8:52 PM | Posted by
TeamUfa
Being an American in Ufa, you finally realize you will (almost) always be a “foreigner.” The two amazing things I realized as a foreigner in Ufa were first how different everything is and second how much it is the same. For one, the difference in cultures makes you to see what is actually from the LORD and what we simply made up. I realized that my idea of what is salvation was rather culturally conditioned. For example, telling a family member back home how one young lady became a believer, I was asked, “so who did she pray with?”
“She didn’t” was my answer, without much hesitation. But it made me think. Why is praying with someone part of the plan of salvation? To be sure, repenting of sin is necessary, but… many believers come to repentance in their heart without the flagship sinner’s prayer, said kneeling with someone who explained the gospel. Salvation comes by believing, and manifests itself in one’s confession and one’s good works. That can look a lot different than we think. Being in an Orthodox Christian country accentuates this. One very fervent believer in a local church was raised orthodox (like most Russians), started coming to the protestant church two years ago, and has been growing closer to GOD and getting involved with ministries for these two years. When did she believe? Who knows. Does it matter? She believes now. By the way, the Orthodox church places more emphasis on the process of salvation and the protestant church more on the moment of salvation. But both are clearly Biblical.
My whole time in Russia was filled with moments of realization like this. Once while attending a house church that meets in the evening on Sundays, I paused in worship at the realization that I was the only one there raised in the (protestant) church. Everyone else was a convert, including the leader. By the way, if I recall, fewer than 1% of the population are protestant believers.
We believers in Ufa repeat to each other that the culture here makes sharing the gospel difficult, and that if you preach to strangers, almost no one will listen. Surprisingly after my stay, I feel that’s even more true than I did before. Things simply don’t work like that here. This is not a hard fast rule, but generally people are hostile to things unfamiliar--so it takes them a long time to trust the messenger and then they might listen to the message.
But the beauty of beauties comes not in seeing the differences between the cultures, but in seeing what is the same. In the midst of everything, the Christians in Ufa are passionate about people believing in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Praying together with Russian believers, one can sense the unity in focus that the HOLY SPIRIT, common to all believers, is bringing. Many of the songs that the Russian believers sing are simply translations of songs I have long known, and even the others carry the same heart of worship in their words. There is fervor among the believers for the gospel to spread wildly in the city. Perhaps the most precious thing I come from Ufa with is the experience of such unity for the gospel, sometimes with someone whom I just met but who shares the same HOLY SPIRIT with me. As someone said, there is “one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.”
To GOD be the glory.
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