Today is October 11 and the short Fall season seems to be coming to an abrupt end. The weatherman promises snow today. Some promise, eh ? Hooray ( note the lack of enthusiasm ).
But I can muster enthusiasm for my next story.
Daniel Sobelev, the 26 year old District President of the Siberia for the
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria, our church partner, was married this
past week. The wedding took place at St. Mary's Lutheran in St. Petersburg.
Saanta, his wife, is a native of Riga, Latvia and was teaching Latvian in the
villages of the Krasnoyarsk region of Siberia. ( Krasnoyarsk is about a four
and half hour flight east of Moscow ). Daniel met her while on the rounds
visiting his congregations in the villages. Many Latvians were exiled in the
Soviet years and not all have made it back to the now free and democratic
Latvia. There are many people of Lutheran heritage scattered throughout the
enormous land mass known as Siberia, including Germans, Estonians, Finns and
Latvians.
Daniel himself began founding congregations when he was only 18. I can't exactly remember what I was doing at 18 ( don't go there, family and friends ! ) but I'm sure I wasn't founding congregations. It goes a long way to explaining why a young man of Daniel's age could be a District President; his maturity belies his years. The Sobelev's will honeymoon in Israel, and given the security situation there today it may not be everyone's idea of a honeymoon, but the Sobelev's are different people. Their Christian faith and spirituality is central to their character and so a visit to the land where our Lord walked is a natural desire. Daniel's Jewish roots also played a role in the decision, too.
Georgian Students Enter Theological Institute
The Caucasus region of southern Russia and the nation of Georgia has historically been a cauldron of heated emotions boiling over at various intervals. Beslan was only the latest of such tragedies that have beset this area of the world. In the early 1990s, the Abkhazia region of Georgia, bordering on the Black Sea, was enveloped by a cruel and bloody civil war. Irakly Litvinenko was only a young boy, but he and his family fled to the Georgian capital of Tbilisi. It was also during this time that Zviadi Charkviani became a Christian and experienced a serious challenge to his faith. His brother was murdered, and in the hill country of Georgia where Zviadi comes from, it was expected of a family member to avenge the death of one of his kin. As a Christian, Zviadi heeded the call of our Lord to turn the other cheek. Reflecting on just these two lives from my relatively benign childhood in Michigan makes me feel somewhat sheltered to say the least. Above: Daniel and Saanta
Now thanks to LCMS World Mission ( with the active support of Gary Thies ) along with the recognized RSO ( Recognized Service Organization of LCMS World Mission ) Orphan Grain Train, we are able to fund the studies of four Georgian students at the Ingrian Lutheran Theological Institute in Kolteshi. Sufficient funds were needed for rooms at the institute, visas necessary for foreigners in Russia, travel fees and meals. In addition, I will have the pleasure of teaching them and other new students in November when I lead a course entitled "Introduction to the New Testament." Below left: Georgian students Zviadi and Tea Charkviani in front, behind them Rostam Dagadze and Irakly Livinenko ( left to right )
It
is a continuing marvel, when looked at from a historical perspective, that
Russians and Georgians are now studying side by side given the current
tensions between the two countries and the improbable breakup of the Soviet
Union. Dr. Robert Kolb reminded me of that with his trademark tongue-in-cheek
remark during our September seminar held in Moscow. As we were discussing the
current potential of evangelization in the Middle East, he said," Why would we
think that we could send missionaries to the Middle East ? That's as crazy as
sending missionaries to places like Moscow." Yes, much has changed.
In a conversation with Irakli, I was reminded of all the recent changes that have provided new opportunties for proclaiming the Gospel. A budding film maker himself, he and I discussed a film shot in the mid-1980s by famed Georgian director Tengiz Abuladze. The film was called "Repentance." Many citizens of Russia spoke of its influence when it was first shown here in 1987. Those were the heady days of Mikhail Gorbachev's glasnost ( "openness"- referring to free speech ) and perestroika ( "restructuring"- referring to the economy ) programs, words that became familiar to most Americans. The film highlights a dictator who looks like both Stalin and Hitler, and whose corpse continues to re-appear throughout the city in various places causing the townspeople considerable embarrassment. The people of the city rebury him again and again, only to have him pop back up. The deeper concept presented by Abuladze is that the communist past, represented by the dictator's corpse, continues to haunt the peoples of the Soviet Union and they continue to supress it again and again.The movie ends with a little old lady coming up to the home of a wealthy young couple and asking directions to the church. The couple is in the process of cutting a cake which is in the form of a church. They tell the lady that the church has been closed for many years. Her reply: "Why keep the road if it doesn't lead to the church ?" For 1987 this was still a bold statement to make in a movie filmed in the Soviet Union. It was moreover ironic in that the little old lady was a famous actress who died a few weeks after the film came to theaters. Since her husband was a Communist writer who accused others of imaginary crimes, life imitated art as many speculated that she was making her own act of repentance with this film.
After all these years the existence of the church is a testament to the fact that ultimately the gates of hell will not prevail against it, just as our Lord promised. After all these years, as the accompanying photograph makes clear, the road of Life still leads to the church of Jesus Christ.
Below: The road to St. George's Lutheran in Kolteshi
Prayer
Requests
Please pray for God's blessings on the marriage of Daniel and Saanta Sobelev
Thank the Lord for a successful seminar in Moscow with Dr. Robert Kolb and myself leading participants from the Ingrian Lutheran Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Russia and Other States ( German background )
Pray for God's blessings on the study and adjustment of our Georgian friends to life at the theological institute in Kolteshi
Pray for the Lord's blessings on my travel and teaching--- from October 18-22 in the Siberian region of Buryatia ( on the border of Mongolia ), travel to Helsinki for a new visa on October 27, and for my course in Kolteshi beginning November 3
E-mail address: hmatvei@rol.ru or heise@eamail.net
Mailing address- Evangelical Lutheran Ministries;
Attn: Matthew Heise, International Post Office, Box 76;
37 Varshavskoye Shosse; 131000 Moscow, RUSSIA