Farming & Famine

Growing up in the Mississippi Delta it was not at all unusual to drive at least 2-3 hours in any direction and not see anything but flat farmland as far as the eye could see. From even the slightest ridge one could see for miles. At one time the Delta was covered in ancient bottomland hardwoods but by the time I was around they had been reduced to a few sparse windrows and small patches of 2nd and 3rd growth woods.

Drive for 1o minutes out of Kyiv and you encounter stretches of vast fertile, mostly flat (but sometimes slightly rolling) farmland that rivals the mid-western US and fairly dwarfs my MS Delta homeland.

This past weekend I accompanied some IMB friends to a tiny village a couple hours NE of Kyiv to work in a garden. A local Pastor in Kyiv recently bought the property that has a 100 year old home and barn and perhaps 3-4 acres of land. Just like I saw in Lugansk last year, nearly every homestead has a sizeable backyard for gardening.

Here's the thought I was struck with (and today's history primer). The land here is SO fertile- it was considered the breadbasket of the former Soviet Union. An old Ukrainian proverb has it that if you leave your spade standing in the soil, you'll grow Spades!!

There are large farms now, but all in all it is still much closer to the MS Delta of old that was once covered with small family farms (and large plantations too).

So...the history lesson. Following the Russian Revolution in the 20's, Stalin engineered a "Forced Famine", the Holodomor in Ukraine in 1932-33. The stated goal was to force small landowners and farmers (peasants) into large collective farms sort of synoymous with communism. To this day Russia mostly denies any intent to force a famine and refers to the period of history as a severe natural event. But at least 18 countries have gone on record to agree with Ukraine that it was engineered and was a crime against humanity- a genocide meant to dispel Ukrainian nationalism. In just 15-18 short months as many as 10 million people died. One history book I looked at said at the height of the famine, 17 people died per minute...25,000 per day. 1/3 of those that died were children. Many of the old men and Babushkas alive today survived this horrible event.

As I spent a few hours in the countryside the scale of such an event blew me away. We are talking about a farmland half the size of Texas yet Stalin was able to so effectively enforce the collectivization of grains and crops and other food sources so as to wipe out up to 25% of the population in some regions, and even higher in some villages. One book I read said this, "...any attempts to grind grain or collect crops from the vegetable gardens were regarded as a crime against the State and punished by execution by firing squad."

So I was tilling the earth in this little garden, considering that a seed dropped anywhere in the yard would yield something...and then I was considering all the gardens throughout the surrounding countryside...and trying to imagine what it would be like to be under penalty of death to pluck a stalk for myself. Crazy.

A Few Thoughts- Easter, etc

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was able to enjoy two weeks of Easter- April 12- the same Easter those of you in the Western World enjoyed, and April 19- Easter according to the Orthodox Calendar.

This is not my first time- actually my third time to be overseas during Easter. It's always interesting! Here are a few observations.

My favorite Easter tradition over here is the very common greeting: "Christ is Risen" and the appropriate response, "Indeed He is Risen"...often repeated 3 times. It's much cooler than just saying "Happy Easter"!

Another cool tradition is that Orthodox Christians begin taking baskets of (usually traditional) foods to church on the Saturday night prior to Easter Sunday to be blessed by a Priest- all in preparation for a really big family meal after church on Sunday morning- in many cases, these Christians have observed Lent so "breaking the fast" is a big deal. So all night long you see families going to church together to have their food blessed. I could make an observation about how there's really no need for them to stand in line to do that...that they are a Priesthood of Believers and they can ask the Lord to bless their meal themselves if they want to...but then again...who am I to judge...in the States our baskets are filled with plastic grass, plastic eggs and chocolate bunnies!!!

One thing I have to remind myself of is that there are amazing, committed, solid followers of Jesus within the Eastern, Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox traditions. And there are some that are caught up in a system of rules and traditions and have no concept of a personal relationship with Christ.

Wait a minute... that pretty much describes Christianity back home too doesn't it?

Twice in the past week I've heard or seen a reference to an apparently famous Ukrainian proverb: "Hope Dies Last". At first blush it would seem synonymous with our "Hope Springs Eternal". But as I read about the history of Ukraine and experience the culture more each day, as I observe and hear about the generally fatalistic attitude that people in this part of the world have- I can see that there's a difference in the two proverbs. "Hope Dies Last" seems to me to imply that, though it may be the last thing to go...it can in fact, die. The history of the Ukrainian people, especially in the last century is tragic. During WW1, during post Russian Revolution, WW2 and the Communist years that followed...this country lost more people than any other country in Europe- maybe the world. They've lost hope many times. Pray with me that Jesus, the Hope of Glory, is made known and made famous throughout this land.

Easter Week

Two Easters in 8 Days! Last Sunday of course was Easter in the Western World, celebrated by the English speaking churches here as well. This coming Sunday is Easter according to the Eastern Orthodox Calendar. I haven't decided yet if I want to go to an English or Russian speaking service. In any case, I do want to go downtown near the Russian Orthodox Monastery just to observe. I understand people by the thousands will be there to have baskets of food blessed in preparation for big family meals on Easter Sunday that will mark the end of the Fasts associated with Lent.

In accordance with the upcoming holiday (Holy Day) I will not have class on Monday and I'm trying to decide what I want to do with a long weekend. I'm waiting on Customs/DHL to clear a package that was sent for a World Racer to me; if it clears by Thursday, then I may book a train for Lugansk on Friday and deliver the package in person while visiting friends down there. I still want to go to Odessa and to Crimea sometime too.

This coming Friday is our 2nd Schoolwide "Cobrania" or meeting. It's a fellowship time for students from all the classes to share a little of what we're learning- in Russian, followed by a traditional Ukrainian meal. You may recall that during our first such meeting I basically said, in Russian, "I'm Clinton from the US, from Mississippi. I'm studying the Russian Language. After that I don't know what I'll do"

This time I'll say something like, "I want to recite 2 verses from the Bible, John 3:16 and Jeremiah 29:11" and then I'll proceed to quote them from memory...in Russian mind you and THEN I plan to sing Matt Redmon's "Blessed Be The Name", also in Russian. Don't be too impressed- I really don't know enough Russian to formulate such sentences; I'm just being a parrot. The trick I guess is to say it all correctly!