Minsk class

Class

I have got to get rid of the pen! I didn't have a stroke.

Class

Irina


Class


Class

Mykola

Minsk 2008
I was my first day of class in Minsk and I have a great group of students. I have 10 in the class and 7 of them are going for a degree so Irena I have 7 students papers to read. With each student having to have written 5 papers each being several pages in length, that’s a lot of reading and interpreting. After dinner tonight Irena and I put our mind to it and we finished 4 students’ papers. Each one read out loud to me and then we discussed each of them to make sure I did understand what we written. That’s a lot of papers! I’m just glad I don’t have 25 in the class.
It was very warm here for the past two days, which is okay, but it’s a warmth that comes from being in a city not just being in the sun. And it’s a bit on the humid side also. The first night here I have to stay in a hotel so they can register me with the local authorities. I was on the eight floor and I could still here the street noise with the window open. Last night besides being on the hot side the mosquitoes had a feast on me, but I finally did manage to get some rest.
As I mentioned before I have a great group of students. They all come from Belarus except for Mykola, he comes from Ukraine, Kherson. I was in Kherson last year teaching this class, but he couldn’t make it then, but he was able to come up here this year and take it.
Okay, so as the week progresses and I get to know the students better, I will start writing about them and not about me!
We were able to get a good rapport right away. The first couple of class hours are always the hardest for me. The students are seeing if I really know my subject matter and I’m looking at who looks like they really understand what’s going on, and how looks lost. Everyone in this class was right there with me from the very beginning.

Irina is very good at translating. She went to college in the states in MO. I told her that Pam came from MO and asked if she ever had been to Hannibal while she was there. She said she had and even went home with one of her friends to a little town named Bethel. That happened to be the town that Pam came from. The town only has about 100 people in it and if the family has been there for awhile, everyone knows everyone. She couldn’t remember her friend’s last name, but I’m guessing if the family’s been there for awhile, Pam knows of them.

Several in the class understand English well enough to help in the translations when questions come up in between class. It’s a lot for the translator to not only translate the class material but then also be there for all the questions during the class breaks. So that’s been good for Irina.

As you can see by the pictures it’s a nice size class to teach. I really feel like I can get to know the students well. We eat breakfast, lunch and dinner together. But since some of the students live close by, the only time we are all

One of the assignments asks them to write about a Christian discipline they have done. Most of the students write about either giving money to someone who is impoverished or helping a family out by do something for them that the family badly needs done. I am always amazed at some of the stories that the students write about in this assignment. They have so little and yet they give, they give to help others who have even less. The result is almost always the same, by giving they are blessed. One student wrote about helping a family and then this family turns around and said some bad things about this person. After the first response of being mad this student realized that he must help them anyway. It was wrong to be angry, but it was very right to give and help and serve.

John

TALE OF TWO CITY .... CHURCHES

Last Sunday on Austrian TV I was watching a mass held at St. Augustine church in Vienna. But this wasn’t just church TV, it was actually a documentary on the use of classical music within the structure of a Sunday mass. The priest would chant his part and then the orchestra and choir would sing a classical piece based upon what was chanted. The music was always a part of a religious piece from either the Baroque or classical period.
There was beautiful music, within beautiful surroundings, beautifully put together, programmed and excellently performed. Some people would consider that heaven on earth. But as the camera panned the congregation I noticed that none of the congregation was participating in any physical or tangible way. It pretty much looked like there was no real outward participation going on. That is not to say however that people were not in a spiritual mood. I did noticed people with eyes closed, head bowed, or head looking upward as if towards God. What I did noticed though was that it looked more like it was inward focused. Nothing wrong with that. Introspection is needed. Introspection is good for the soul. It is very spiritual. But where was the corporate interaction? Other than standing at certain times and sitting other times the congregation as a whole did not reflect any togetherness as a church body. Each person was focused on their own thoughts and ideas. Instead of the music being incorporated into the worship service, instead of the music engaging the people into what was going on in the service, it seemed as if the music was interrupted by the priestly duties. It was as if a concert was being interrupted by a solo chant that had nothing in common with the music other than it was the same subject matter.
I’ve heard a lot about the importance of coming to church for just this idea. To come and meditate, think, reflect all without direction. This sounds like a great church service. But is it worship? When they close their eyes what’s going on behind the eyelids?
Right after that show another church related show came on. This one was in fact a worship service of another church in Vienna. The thing that caught my attention right away was the soccer ball up front. There was also a bouquet of flowers in the design of a soccer ball. Why, I asked myself would they have a soccer ball in the worship service, but then I realized that all this week Austria was hosting the Euro 2008 soccer tournament.
then in the middle of the service some of the young people came forward and started playing soccer in the middle of the aisle. The play ended with someone scoring a goal. Then there was a scripture read and then another play started in the aisle. After a foul was performed another scripture was read. Now I don’t speak German and understand even less, but I’m guessing the first scripture was about “pressing on towards the goal” what Paul was talking about, and maybe the second one had to do with the forgiveness of God when we make a mistake. Or maybe it was from Romans “the wages of sin (in this case a foul) is death!”
The congregation was singing contemporary songs along with other parts of the service for the congregation to participate in.
Here your mind was being directed to a specific thought rather then just being left to meditate on what you just heard. You were being directed to participate together in the same thought. Even in the homily a soccer ball was used as an object lesson.
Using a contemporary happening, the Euro 2008 soccer tournament in Austria was the vehicle by which the service moved.
I’m thinking who ever planned this worship service was on the ball. They understood the goal of the service. Okay I’ll stop before I go afoul…. Sorry I just can’t help myself.
And all this within the boundaries of a Catholic Mass. What a difference between the two churches in the same city.
John

A Cookout

It felt like I was back home for awhile. The staff here had a cookout yesterday afternoon. Games and grilling. One of the guys made the target boards for Corn Hole. Now I'm from New York - alright LonGisland and if it wasn't for my two sons-in-law, one from Ohio and the other from Kentucky, I wouldn't have any idea what it was. But thanks to both of them who made their own boards I now know and play the game. All of us were put into pairs and we played double elimination. As you can see they weren't too far apart so it was not too difficult to get the bean bag into the hole. But it was fun for all. Notice what the winners were given, a box of ice cream bars called Magnums. Ice cream like this is almost gold around here. Not too many food items that are eaten really cold. Most of the ice cream is really soft by the time you get to eat it.

I have to say some of the meat was a little different than I was used too. A hot dog wrapped in ham (bacon) and injected with a cheese filling, it's called a Kasekrainer and it's one of Vienna's favorite fast foods. You can find Wurstelstands all over Vienna selling this. If you do decide to get hamburger meat make sure it's not meat already mixed with pork. That's good for a meatloaf, but not good if you like your hamburgs rear like I do. We did manage to find chopped meat to make our patties. Lot's of cheeses here and I mean LOTS, but you have to look a little to find just plan American cheese to put on top of your burger. Which only makes sense knowing that we are in Austria, and not America. It's called Toast Cheese. Just like your plain white bread, it's called Toast also. With so many other breads to choose from, why would you even consider wanting white bread anyway! I like my simmels! Very similar to the hard rolls we get on LonGisland!

Anyway here are some pictures from the cookout. Notice the two playing boards one is the American side and the other is the Austrian side.

Also,I took some pictures of some snails crawling up a wall. I noticed them when we were leaving. You can see one of them on it's way to some "food" that was growing out of the wall. I can't even imagine what that stuff was, and I don't want to know either.

Okay the pictures: Look at the third picture and then the fourth. If you look real close you can see the two red bags that Pam got in the hole

Oh yeah, one more thing, we finished moving ALL the books in the library this morning. I guess between Yulia, Pam and me we moved about 30,000 books.

Tomorrow is my last day of getting all my stuff together before I leave for Minsk on Sunday.

John

Ever see a chapel being towed by a VW?

I hang my head and say, "Yeah, that's what I meant to say. What Alex just said!" Actually what he said, kind of backs up my point though. Not a lot of books were written, because you were either 'born' into the faith. Or you just went to meetings with some one. That's how my grandfather John E. Sarno became a Christian. He went to a Billy Sunday meeting back in the early 1900's. Started going to the First Italian Baptist Church in Brooklyn. Boy, talk about an oxymoron of a name. You just don't put Italian and Baptist together like that! But that's another story, for a rainy day... kind of like today is... so.... Nope, I won't bother you with the details. Long story short, I started going to the Christian Church in Ronkonkoma, NY when it was first started by Elmer Kile. The church moved to Nesconset a year later. He was riding around our neighborhood towing a little chapel behind his car. That summer he started with a VBS program, and the very next year, with just a hand full ov people he bought land and stated to build a church building. There's your evangelism back in the suburbs in the 50's and 60's. I guess VBS was still going string into the 70's even.
John

Just a question

I've been working with Pam in the Library here. Since Pam and I have been coming over in 2001 the library has tripled in size physically, and just over doubled in size in the amount of books we now have. Ever since TCMI wanted to get its accreditation from HLC (the Higher Learning Commission, the academic arm of North Central Accrediting Association) they have had to put more books in the library. That's part of Pam's responsibility. This past year they put an addition on to the library and she is in the process of moving books, spreading them out over two rooms of library shelves. So I've been moving books in the morning.
Here's the 'thought'. While I was moving books, I noticed that the books I was moving were in the 'History' section of the Dewey Decimal system*. The next section I started moving was a section of books on 'Evangelism'. I was struck by the fact of how small the evangelism section was. Now I know that there have been far more years of history then of Christian evangelism, but I also noticed that most of them were only published with in the last half of the 20th century. Surely evangelism has been going on for at least 2000 years. But where are all the 'old' books on it? I guess it was either thought of as a personal responsibility or the pastor was the only one responsible for it. But it wasn't until the 70's and later did it become a subject that needed to be written about. Did it only now become something that must be done? How come we now need books to help us talk to others about Christ? Why is it was now need to read books to help us relate to others?
Just a question.
John
* Dewey Decimal System......... Give me Library of Congress ANY DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wein Worship Seminar

I had my worship seminar today with CIG church in Vienna. I have been having an on going email exchange with Mary Prokop who is working with the worship team people there at the church. Mary is the wife of Rob Prokop the lead pastor. When they are in the states they sometimes attend Mountain. And when Pam and I are in Austria Pam we attend CIG (which stands for Christian International Fellowship). We've been talking about me coming and doing this seminar for just about a year now, and we finally made it happen.

I drove about 20 K to SCS which is a very big shopping center just outside of Vienna. Rob and Mary picked me up at the Micky Dee's there and they drove me into Vienna. I can drive in New York City no problem, but I'm not ready to tackle Wien yet.

We started at about 10:00 this morning and went to after 2:00, with Lunch squeezed in the middle. As I was teaching the class you can tell that they knew why they were part of the worship team. It wasn't just because they knew how to sing, or play and instrument, or run the sound or even knew about the latest electronic gadget that could be used in worship, it was because of their heart for worship that they were in the worship ministry.

One of the sessions really went deep into personal heart issues and at the very end of that session one of the people asked if we could have a time of prayer, because what was just discussed needed to be thought about in a prayerful manner. It was a great time of worship!


There were several people there from the states and as we talked to each other we realized that we knew some of the same people back in the states. It's amazing how small the world is in Christ. Actually I'd like to change that saying. Louis Hall a wonderful brother in the Lord was talking to me just last Sunday when I used that phrase. He stopped and corrected me. He said It's not that it is a small world, but that the body of Christ is very large. Yes, I do believe that the body of Christ is huge! What a wonderful way of refreshing an old worn out saying.
What a wonderful day today was! Full of worship and new found friends, brothers and sisters in Christ.


Here are some pictures of today.
Michael, recording the seminar

Lunch time

Lunch time

Rob (far left) and Mary

See, I do teach!

Austria

Monday - Thursday
Monday May 26, well actually it’s Thursday now. We arrived on Tuesday, safely and about 15 minutes late. Not bad for an 8 hour trip that started 40 minutes late. Gail Oliver took us to the airport leaving her family behind, on Memorial Day no less. What a servant’s heart she has.

The plane ride was very uneventful and even quiet. Pam likes the aisle and I like a window, so we had an empty seat between us… for about 10 minutes. Then our seat neighbor arrived. I found out later in our conversations that he was from Kosovo but had moved here to the states about 15 years ago. Actually he said that he is Albanian, but had moved to Kosovo because of the war.
I broke out the world map that was in the airline magazine and ask him many questions about that area of the world. Someplace in my ancestry besides being Italian, I am also a little bit Albanian. So I pronounced the one word that my father had heard from his father and was told that it was a mix of Albanian and Italian. He then looked at me with a grin on his face and then pronounced something very similar and said that it was what a grandmother would say to a child when she wanted to scold him. Leave it to my grandparents to pass on a word like that!

Today is Thursday and it seems like we have been here awhile now, even though it’s only been two full days. We are staying in the Gate Haus. As you can see it’s not very big. It has a kitchen (rather small), full bath and living room downstairs, and a bedroom and half bath upstairs. The ceiling upstairs… well let’s put it this way, I can touch the ceiling. It’s like a big doll house. The Sattelbach is just on the other side of the road. We can hear it all the time.

Yesterday we had a cook out for anyone that wanted to. We met the new family here at TCMI, Justine and Beth Higgins. Beth’s parents, Jim and Peggy Conner were a part of the TCM family back in the 70’s-80’s. Jim was also on the TCM board and currently teaches for TCMI as an adjunct professor.

Saturday I go and teach a Worship Seminar for CIG, International Christian Fellowship. It’s the church Pam and I attend when we are over here. The lead pastor Rob Prokop and his wife Mary sometimes attend MCC when they are back in the states.

Well, that’s it for now. We are here safely. I’m reading and studying for the worship seminar and my first class in Belarus.
John
This is the front of the Gate Haus.

This is the side from the road


Sattelbach stream
across the road
from the gate haus. Stair case leading to the bedroom. I'm at the far wall.



As you can see, it's quite small, but it works for us!
jts