John White - Developing Church Leadership in the Russian Speaking World DCU, Prospect Ilicha 106-A, Donetsk 83059, UKRAINE February 2005 011-38062-345-5342 | jwhite@alumni.princeton.edu | http://www.marucheck.net/jw
I just had my first chance to visit a Ukrainian doctor. I know you’re envious - and probably wondering how I’ve managed to avoid them for four years. Thanks for praying.
Anyway, I seemed to have an eye infection, so I went to an eye clinic which was quite professional. They diagnosed my problem and told me to take five different medicines, including two different eye drops every hour for the next five days. I also had to treat my one uninfected eye, just to make sure the problem didn’t spread. As you might imagine, this didn’t leave too much time for work, so I got a nice five-day vacation, living from eye drop to eye drop. I am feeling better now.
In the midst of my treatment, I began to think that Ukraine has been through a similar process of healing in these recent times of political turmoil. The two “eyes” of Ukraine, East and West, have seen things differently. Both have needed medicine, one eye perhaps more than the other. And, more healing is surely still needed. But in the end, the hope is that both eyes will be healthy and see the same thing. Well, perhaps not exactly the same thing; our two eyes do offer us slightly different views, giving us the miracle of “perspective.”
At DCU, we try to give our students even more “eyes” to see through. I’m just finishing grading 15-20 page papers my students wrote last semester for my “Contextualization” class. I’m meeting with each student individually to talk about how well they analyzed a particular group of people (some examples being children at an orphanage, Chinese students studying at the National University, and alcoholics at a rehabilitation center), and how well they made the gospel (God’s perspective) clear to them in their context. I want each student to first see the world as this group does, then to see God through their eyes.
Although the eyes of Ukraine have focused much of their attention on the masses of people and tents in Kiev, and to a lesser extent in Donetsk, some have surprisingly looked at DCU. In honoring the “Day of the Student,” DCU was invited to join a banquet with other universities around Donetsk to share about its work and vision. It was exciting to see the DCU President, teachers, and students on TV share our special vision for education.
We also hope to cause the eyes of the local church to turn this coming spring. This May 6-8 we plan to hold a Youth Missionary Festival to celebrate missions and encourage young people to consider God’s call for missionary work. We hope to gather 500 people from local churches and beyond to listen to special speakers and meet with various missions agencies. It won’t be on the scale of the missions conference at Urbana, but we do hope that God might use it in some small way to focus youth, and the entire church, more on missions. We would very much appreciate your prayers.
Thank you, and may God bless your eyes and heart to see His plans for you,
John