NEWSLETTER.

Belarus has never before experienced a single-event tragedy of this magnitude.  In case you haven’t heard about it in the news, the fifty-two were trampled to death as two thousand others tried to cram into the metro station.  It all happened in a period of about ten minutes.

Usually when I hear of these tragedies (which happen not-so infrequently if you consider the whole world), I think something like, “Oh, that’s terrible,” then I’ll proceed with my daily goings-on.  But this one has affected me more than others.  Maybe it’s because I live here and can feel the ramifications more than others.  Maybe it’s because I was invited to the concert about two hours before by some new acquaintances and for some reason or another I declined.  Whatever the reason, it has affected me as it has affected the people here greatly.

Reactions to instances like these reach far and are range from the accusatory to depression.  Most have come to the conclusion that fifty-two lives have been lost for nothing.  Many are blaming various things, such as a lack of order.  One student told me about an international student who after the tragedy cursed the Belarussians as savages because they let something like this happen.

Can any good emerge from a tragedy of this magnitude?  As Christians, I think our answer has to be yes.  We have to believe that God can work even in the worst of situations, and I believe He already is here in Minsk, in the midst of a national disaster.  You see one problem I see over and over with students here  is that they think that they will live forever.  Important decisions like what to do with the Person of Christ are things they can put off until they are older, or so they suppose.

It is my prayer that God will use this catastrophe to cause students to examine their own lives, and its fragility.  Please pray with me that Belarusian students will see the urgency of having a relationship with God, and that in a world full of death, that He is the only true Life. 

But life does go on, now is our busiest time of the year because we have so many extra hands and feet in Minsk.  Over thirty American students are here for six weeks this summer to help us in ministry by sharing the Gospel with as many people as possible across the city.  They have been a real boost to our ministry in more than a few ways.

One of those ways is the involvement of our key Belarussian students with this project.  We have invited our students to be involved with this project by not just serving as translators, but actually doing evangelism with us and reaching their own fellow students for Christ.  The American students who are here (for many it’s their first time overseas) are also learning to take steps of faith in culture that’s totally foreign to them.  They will learn many lessons in the remaining few weeks, many of them hard.  But they will take home with them a renewed vision for the world, and hopefully leave behind and abundant harvest.