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Worship on the Move

aheckman — Thu, 25 Aug 2022 17:25:42 +0000

Worship on the Move aheckman Thu, 08/25/2022 - 17:25

Worship on the Move

AUGUST 25, 2022 · CHET BUSH

Though the biblical narrative often depicts the community of God as a people on the move, believers living within the reality of displacement face challenges as worshipers when forced to leave their homes and communities. For the District Superintendent of Ukraine, Volodymyr Masyuk, and his partner in life and ministry, Sylvia Cortez Masyuk, displacement in the midst of war presents obstacles for gathering with the community of faith and brings them to contemplate the hope of Christian worship: Resurrection.

In the early days of the conflict, displaced church members connected with one another through video calls from bomb shelters. “We collectively had this sense that we have to gather and pray together,” says Sylvia. They met daily until the moment when a significant number of members were forced to evacuate the city. Distance from their home, their country, and their church evoked feelings of exile. “This war threatens to separate us,” says Sylvia. “We believe that worship is a time to collectively seek the Lord and to be re-membered to God and to one another.”

“Worship—in terms of gathering regularly, singing, listening to a sermon—all of that has changed and in many ways isn’t happening [the way it once did],” says Volodymyr. “But the ways we are learning to connect and give and receive from one another is really a beautiful thing and a new way of being re-membered to one another that will forever change us.”

For Easter, the ministry couple returned to Kyiv where they met with Ukrainian believers for a sunrise service in a public park. The annual gathering marked a thirty-year tradition. This year, however, the couple noted how differently they experienced the service. Venturing into public space before daylight a mere hour after the lifting of the morning curfew felt like a courageous, if not defiant, act of faith in the face of imperialism. This year, the Ukrainian Superintendent preached resurrection from Luke 24, noting more poignantly than ever that the risen Christ bore the wounds of violence when he presented himself to the disciples.

A compelling reminder of the audacity Christian hope holds for the church came for Volodymyr in a news story featuring Ukrainian farmers who persisted in sowing seed in their fields during a season of war. They may not have a home to return to, he recounts, but they sow believing that the future holds promise for new creation. “It moved me to tears,” says Volodymyr as he confirms a central tenet of the gospel: “Death and destruction and war are not the end.”

“In many ways, …Christ is still revealing himself to us, especially so now,” affirms the couple. “Our prayer is that we will recognize him in the weight of this darkness, and find hope in the resurrected, wounded Christ.”

The United Nations Refugee Agency estimates that the number of forcibly displaced people around the world exceeds 84 million. To learn more about ways Nazarenes are responding to the crisis of displacement, visit ncm.org/refugeeimmigrantsupport. To learn more about compassionate ministry in response to the crisis in eastern Europe, visit ncm.org/Ukraine-Crisis.

This article originally printed in Holiness Today, and is shared with permission.

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Moldovan Church Sacrificing to Support People Displaced from Ukraine

aheckman — Wed, 23 Mar 2022 16:59:15 +0000

Moldovan Church Sacrificing to Support People Displaced from Ukraine aheckman Wed, 03/23/2022 - 16:59

Moldovan Church Sacrificing to Support People Displaced from Ukraine

MARCH 17, 2022 · GINA GRATE POTTENGER

Sergey and Irina Talalay, who first entered Moldova in 2008 as pioneer church planters, are leading the Moldovan church in self-sacrificial support for Ukrainians who have been flooding across the border since February 24.

In the first two days of the invasion of Ukraine, Nazarenes in Moldova hosted 36 people. By March 16, the small group of Nazarenes had assisted 700 people. And, although they’re working around the clock to help, and some church families have even given up entire apartments to displaced families, the church has no plans to stop giving anytime soon.

Hands of help across nationalities

Like other Ukraine-border nations, Moldova is a meeting point for cross-national relationships. Sergey is from Ukraine and Irina is from Russia. Their two sons are Moldovans, having been born there during their church planting mission.

“Since I myself am from Ukraine, I have a lot of friends, relatives, contacts and acquaintances from the Church of the Nazarene and other churches there,” Sergey said. “And, in this regard, on the first day of the beginning of this terrible war, I began to receive a lot of requests for help to which I, my family and our church responded instantly and did everything they could and even more.”

Helping around the clock

The sudden flood of refugees requires an immersive response.

“For the first 10 days from the beginning of the war, my wife and I slept for a maximum of two hours a day, doing various kinds of assistance to Ukrainians fleeing the war,” he said.

At all hours of the day and night, Sergey and two other church members have been driving to different points along the Ukraine-Moldova border to pick up refugees and transport them to Chisinau, then work to find them temporary housing.

“From the first day, our people opened their houses to refugees; some even completely gave away their apartments after moving out to live with relatives. In the first week of the war, we managed to help more than 300 refugees from Ukraine.”

Currently, the church members are continuing to meet people at the borders, where long lines have formed and many people wait two or three days to be allowed across the border. Then, the church helps them find temporary shelter across the city or in the church building.

They are also helping people find transport, including sometimes purchasing tickets, so that some can travel further into Europe.

Moldova pressed to meet all urgent needs

Food and hygiene support are among the most urgent needs, including diapers, baby wipes and baby food.

“Moldova is a very small and very poor country. Therefore, it cannot cope with the flow of refugees who come here from Ukraine,” Sergey said.

The Moldovan government has hastily organized shelters for refugees in sports arenas, exhibition complexes and other facilities, often cramming 300 to 500 people together.

While people are with them in Chisinau, the church is helping fill the gaps by providing food, medicine and personal hygiene products directly to individuals, since many fled home with few belongings.

Real people, real stories

The church members have taken time to hear people’s stories as they journey alongside them for a short time.

Aleksey is a 17-year-old who has been staying with the Talalays for more than two weeks.

Aleksey talked about how he had been studying and serving in the church worship team in Vinnitsa before the invasion. His relatives live in Mariupol, in the south, which remains under siege. For two weeks he has had no information about his family, including his mother, sister and her baby.

And then there is 35-year-old Oksana, a single mother of two children aged 5 and 7. She had been renting an apartment in Kyiv until the invasion.

“When I returned from work, I saw a lock on the doors of the rented apartment and a note from the owner that read, ‘We left, the apartment is no longer for rent,’” she told them.

With few options, Oksana fled to Moldova with her children but without any belongings or legal documents.

The church has also been assisting a seven-member family from Chernihiv, including elderly grandparents, and a mother with three young children. Their home was destroyed by rocket fire.

“But they are happy because none of them were at home at that the time, and no one was hurt,” Sergey said. “I am very grateful to our local church; although it is small, it has a very big heart.”

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Learn more and give to support this compassionate work: ncm.org/ukraine-crisis

Reprinted with permission from Church of the Nazarene Eurasia.

Photos: Pastor Sergey Talalay

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Coffee and Community: A Moldovan Church Ministers to Those Facing Addiction

Grace Tia — Thu, 25 Feb 2021 08:27:33 +0000

Coffee and Community: A Moldovan Church Ministers to Those Facing Addiction Grace Tia Thu, 02/25/2021 - 08:27

Coffee and Community: A Moldovan Church Ministers to Those Facing Addiction

With a population of just 2.6 million people, the Eastern European country of Moldova has the dubious honor of the world’s highest alcohol consumption rate. It’s no surprise, then, that this former Soviet nation also claims the highest rate of alcohol-linked deaths, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). One in four deaths is blamed on alcohol, compared with a world average of one in 20, Time magazine reports.

Although the government has taken measures to curb addiction, these efforts have fallen far short. Worse, there are just not enough places where Moldovans can turn for help in achieving lasting sobriety.

To meet the needs of those struggling with addiction, a Nazarene church in Moldova is working to extend hope and healing through a Coffee House ministry and weekly visits to a narcotics detoxification center. At the center, the Chisinau Church of the Nazarene members chat with residents, sharing about God’s power to break the chains of addiction. Each visit, they invite those who are interested to attend the church’s weekly Coffee House ministry, where they can find out more.

At the Coffee House meetings, support is formed through casual conversations over tea, coffee, and cookies. Next, the attendees settle around different tables to discuss prepared questions “... related to addiction, deliverance, inner struggles, and so on,” Pastor Sergey Talalay describes.

The meetings also include a time of worship and testimony, featuring stories from those who have been freed from active addiction and found hope in Christ. Talalay himself witnesses to 16 years of sobriety after 10 years of narcotics abuse.

“When God gave me freedom, I promised to serve the same people as I once was,” he says.

At one recent visit to the detox center, the ministry volunteers saw a man with whom they’d had coffee conversations before.

“He had been told many times about God's love and the opportunity to change his life,” Pastor Talalay recalls. “But, on this special day, we asked if he would like us to pray for him, and he agreed.”

After they prayed, the man told Talalay that he was ready to go to a rehabilitation center. “This man has now been living without addiction for more than a year,” Talalay says. “He was baptized and visits drug treatment clinics with us.”

It wasn’t the cup of coffee that changed his life, though that may have been how the journey began. It is Jesus who brings such lasting transformation.

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