“The service is going to just be in Russian, it will be boring for you guys, so you’ll just attend the afternoon ministries (services).”
Above is a paraphrase of the conversation our contact had with one of our leaders last night.
After last night’s concert we got home late and finished dinner even later, I don’t think we started crawling into bed until nearly midnight. I think we were all equally relieved to find out we would now have the morning off.
Well it’s currently 12pm, we have about 45 minutes until we are supposed to be ready to leave for church. There’s just one problem… somehow we have already been at church for 30 minutes.
Flashback to how we got here:
Erin came running into the room a little before 11am to inform us that our ride was already here. So after a quick scramble to get dressed and ready (minus my forgotten deodorant, of course) we ran out the door to the screaming of a Russian/English blend of “Let’s go! Let’s go!� So frantically we hop in the cars and we are off, flying to the church. We arrive to the same expo center where last night’s concert was, and we make our way to the empty seats near the front behind the church goers who were on time.
After our contact finished sharing something or another in Russian he came down to where we were after introducing another pastor who would be continuing the message. Our contact then had us move to the back of this giant room so we could have translation. Somewhere amidst the background information on this pastor we were told we will be attending another service at 2pm that this pastor is leading, a healing service.
But to be honest, it’s after 12pm, I’m hungry and all I can think is … I hope they feed us before the healing service. It doesn’t seem too promising yet …
Currently our translator has just asked us to turn to the book of “Jacob� in the Bible. We think he means James …
About 1:30pm, service finally ends after an intense light show accompanying one of the final songs. It’s like a seizure for your eyeballs. Anyways, I’m glad we packed a lunch and there was a supermarket nearby to get enough food to feed the 14 of us – a piece of bread, a couple small slices of salami, and some pretzel rings – lunch of champions.
2pm-ish, service starts again – some sort of healing service, not too sure what’s going to happen here, but there are three times as many people here for this service. All I know is we are here and every time they say “Americanseâ€� or something like that, they’re talking about us.
Well this service just opened with worship – a yelling, dancing, clapping, jumping worship. Even 70-80 something year old grandpa is over there jumping around for Jesus. I feel like I ask myself often, “where am I?â€�
Aside from the fancy high tech sound, lights, and equipment … I find myself thinking I could basically be in Africa right now. Well … except for the overwhelming number of white people. Basically just because of the cardio worship and marathon church. I think we have a third service today too … but maybe that’s another misunderstanding waiting to happen … maybe …
The pastors try and tell some funny stories during their sermon … I’m sure they’re funny, the audience laughs, but somewhere in translation I don’t know what’s funny …
Finally around 3:40pm the preaching ends and we all stand up to pray. Many in need of healing go to the front while some remain in their seats around the auditorium. The pastor proceeds to pray for healing. I don’t know exactly what he prays but after a while they invite people to give testimonies of healing. I don’t know exactly what was healed today, but healing happened. As the service was wrapping up, the praise band played and the choir sang as people continued to pray for healing for one another.
4:30pm, we begin wrapping up the second service; our leaders are in discussion regarding the third service…
Thankfully the third service is taken off our agenda because it wouldn’t start until 6pm, and we still needed to cook dinner. So off we went with our “tour guide� to catch the van-bus back. We finally get a bus at the station close to 5:30pm and made our way home.
6:20pm … we have arrived. Time for showers, cooking dinner, cleaning dishes, and team meetings…
10:30pm, finally done for the night.
This month is already starting to remind me of that one time in Kenya, but something is different and I think it’s me. The girl who landed in Nairobi, Kenya, ten months ago is not the girl here in Transnistria this month.
… and this is only day two and a half.
