Belarus Mission Day 07

Belarus Mission

Day 7

By Peter Ruck

I spent the day with Yauheni. We had no meetings or preaching planned. We had toast and English Marmalade and some special pancakes Yuli had made.

Olga joined us to help translate the slide presentation of the various parts of the ministry at Christ Jesus Church in Minsk. I asked Yauheni to load them on my computer so I can share these with people. It took most of the morning to go through the presentation. We then took a break from it and Yuli and Yauheni took me to see a plot of land they had been given. It was at foundation level. A businessman, who is building a big house next to the plot, said he wanted a man of God living next door and gave it to him as a gift. Yauheni initially thought he would start building this himself, but he knew he would be travelling and preaching the gospel so much. In typical Yauheni fashion he said “by faith” you will be staying here next time you come!” Yauheni kept encouraging me to consider teaming up with him in the future with outreach in Europe. He shared how part of his ministry was working with churches and also planting churches.

Yauheni told me the story of how he went on a mission with a group of seven at the invitation of a man who had promised to meet them in Berlin and give them the rest of the money they needed. The group had no money and had only half a bottle of water between them. Yauheni started thinking about what he could do; he reminded himself of God’s provision. He went to the station and began to preach the Gospel in the street with the team. People were met and God provided money for them to get back to Minsk. Olga, like me, loved to hear these stories. He told another story about a Pastor he met while in Berlin, who preached in Russian. He told my friend that he would be stoned for preaching in Russian because the Germans hate them. Yauheni began to preach and the pastor was amazed at the Germans response and asked if he could try. 

We ended the afternoon going through more presentations with Olga, then, it was time to go over to the park with his two boys and play football with Uncle Peter and Daddy. We had supper and chatted for ages about lots of possibilities and experiences that gave Yulia a real challenge to translate for us. He brought me back to my hotel at 9.30pm, for my earliest night so far.