Belarus, initial reflections.

So let me tell you about Belarus, which was one amazing time.

First, I'll share one of my highlights. The orphanage.

The orphanage was amazing on multiple levels. Just dwell on this a moment: children with physical and/or mental handicaps. 200 children, in a small, poor, rural village in a wintry country. They have occasional visitors, but only have 1 group (my church) that goes there every year. We only stay for about 4 hours.

You know, we all intellectualize out the wazoo about theology and love and what-not. But for once, there was no need or room or time to intellectualize anything. There was one thing needed: to give and show love. To demonstrate love.

And this makes some people very uncomfortable.

We don't hug on, touch, kiss people all the time. In fact, some people go about their lives, every day, without getting or giving a single hug. In fact, a lot of times this is normal for me. In fact, if I started handing out hugs and giving kisses to my girlfriends, for example, they might get weirded out. But when you are facing 200 children who are never touched, are never hugged, never have someone to hold onto, you have no option but to touch, hug, and hold as many of them as you can. Smiling was contagious. I gave a smile to every kid I saw, I reached out just to touch them on the arm, or invited them to sit in my lap or walk with me down the hall holding hands. Touch transcended the language barrier, it became our common tongue, our way of communication.

This way of loving felt easy, almost natural. For once, I felt as though I were experiencing James 1:27 - "Pure and undefiled religion is this, to visit orphans and widows in their distress." Furthermore, there was no intellectualizing of this verse involved to "get it". We were able to "be" Christ for 4 hours, loving them as Christ would; but there is only one who can be a Father to the fatherless in our absence.

There was Katya who wrapped her arm around my waist to escort me to her classroom. There was Christina who held my hand the entire time we walked on the tour of their living quarters. There was Nasta who climbed in my lap, and her little friends who kept exclaiming (in Russian) "We heard you were coming, we knew you were coming, but we didn't believe you were actually going to come! And now you are here, you came at last!" Lots of great memories. More to come...