MOM

My friend Donnie Freeman, when he lived in Kyiv, used to regularly discuss MOM, the Ministry of Misery. His thesis was that there is a secret arm of the Ukrainian government (most likely a group of bureaucrats who were not informed that the Soviet Union collapsed) that works to make life miserable for the average Ukrainian citizen. M.O.M. was hard at work this weekend. While Lena was studying, I decided to go to the Center Saturday afternoon to do some work there. I arrived and there was only electricity in the first-floor toilets and on the second floor. No computers, in other words. I called around and Sergiy learned that someone had been welding in our building and blew the fuse for about half the building. I have just come from the closed post office--arrived 40 minutes late. The electricity was restored later in the evening. Sunday night after church Lena was going to study again so I decided to return to the UEC to do the work I had planned to do Saturday night. Again, no electricity in the room I needed it in. Again, it would be restored in a few hours. Again, a little extra misery.

We did have a great Sunday evening service though with a good group and a couple of visitors. Several students showed up that hadn't been there in a while. We also have about a 20% absentee rate for our regular members--some go home on the weekend, others have to work, sometimes they go to the morning service, it's also sick season. So it was great to have so many.

I preached about grace being the soil in which our lives need to grow in order to produce the right kind of fruit (from Colossians). Though we didn't know it, the communion devotional also came from Colossians. Seems God was trying to tell us something. Or it's just coincidence. But as Gandalf made clear to Frodo in The Fellowship of the Ring, if it happened, it was meant to be. Take that in your theological teeth and chew on that a while. I think we westerners just think too much about some things. We need to just let the paradox be and get on with living the kingdom. Not really trying to be anti-intellectual, I just wonder sometimes if intellectual pursuits don't sometimes become substitutes for actually following Jesus Christ.