Ukraine Mission Trip

Ukraine Update #1

Dear Ukraine Mission Supporters and Friends:

We made it to Ukraine with minimal difficulties. We ancipated some additional delays with security tight after the London bombings, but with the exception of a delayed flight from Amsterdam to Kyiv, and a bit of air turbulence en route, everything went smoothly with our 17-hour travel day. Everyone held up well, even those for whom this was their first flight out of the US. Another blessing was that all of our luggage made it all the way to Kyiv, and our passport control and customs went smoothly when we arrived. Steve Benham, from Music in World Cultures and Oleksandr "Sasha" Kreschuk from the Christian Music Academy were here to greet us warmly, and we enjoyed the chance to finally sit down on the 35-minute coach bus ride into the city and to the Hotel Rus, where we are staying. A lovely Ukrainian buffet meal was ready for us to eat shortly after our arrival at the hotel, and then we all fell into bed, exhausted.

Sunday morning we participated in the service at Central Baptist Church, Kyiv. A few of us contributed special music in the service, accompanied by Heather Hood from Christ Presbyterian Church, and Paul Ramseyer brought a warm greeting and spiritual encouragement to the congregation on Colonial's behalf. Later that day, we met our Ukrainian singers who joined us for the first time in a joint rehearsal. We were also able to deliver our donated instruments for the Christian Music Academy today. It feels good to finally see some of our dreams come true.

Keep us in your prayers! God is at work here, and our spirits are soaring. Ukraine is alive and well and so are we! Slava Bohu (Praise the Lord)

All my best,
Tim Sawyer

UkrainE Update #2

Dear Ukraine Mission supporters and friends:

After an excellent first weekend in Kyiv, including a productive first rehearsal with our Ukrainian singers and instrumentalists, on Monday we headed to Rivne, halfway between Kyiv and L'viv in the western region of Ukraine. It was a long travel day interrupted by traffic which hindered our departure from Kyiv, and a broken belt in the bus which required its replacement in the middle of nowhere. Fortunately, our bus driver carries a variety of spare parts with him, since there are very few service stations in the more remote parts of the highway between Kyiv and Rivne. It added over an hour to our already delayed schedule, which put us arriving at 4pm for a 1:30pm lunch and 7pm concert. Needless to say, we were a little pressed for warmup and rehearsal time before our first concert. All's well that ends well, and it certainly did that evening.

Rivne is a city of about 300,000 (compared to Kyiv at nearly 3 million) so it has a much different rhythm and flavor from the capital - much more rural, provincial and slower-paced. But, the Second Baptist Church was quite full of appreciative church choir singers, conductors and other church leaders from the region, some of whom had attended the seminars put on by John Benham and I back in May at the Christian Music Academy in Kyiv. We were joined by a

talented young string quartet from L'viv and Luts'k, and together with our sacred choral repertoire, they and our other wonderful instrumentalists played Menotti, Albinoni, Skorik (famous living Ukrainian composer - the Aaron Copland of UKR) and joined us for Jesu, "Joy of Our Desiring". Another highlight was singing "How Great

Thou Art" simultaneously in English and Ukrainian.  Our evening ended with lavish meals and overnight stays with a number of church families, some with modest homes including (as did Heidi's and mine) a shower hut in the back yard, and an outdoor restroom (translation: Ukrainian outhouse with simple hole in the floor) which added to our adventures. Per Ukrainian custom, they rolled out the red carpet for us, and we had the privilege of sleeping in a young newlywed couple's bed, which they generously gave up for us as their guests - on the day before their departure for a two week honeymoon in the Crimean Peninsula! Now, that's hospitality.

Tuesday, we got back on the road for L'viv and actually arrived ahead of schedule. En route, we added to our tour memories by having several restroom stops with a view of the Wisconsin-like rolling hills and farmlands, and groves of trees which sheltered our activities. (I did say rest stops are fairly rare in rural western Ukraine, didn't I...? haven't done that since summer camp in 7th grade) Upon our arrival in this elegant city reminiscent of Vienna, the afternoon was spent eating lunch in charming little cafes, scoping out the city for future sightseeing on Wednesday and Thursday. A group dinner of borscht, cabbage rolls, unlimited Coke Light (Diet Coke, a bit rare here) and all the trimmings set us up for an excellent final rehearsal in Central Baptist Church, a former 16th century Lutheran church donated to the Baptist Union during the Communist era.

Tomorrow night (Wednesday) we sing our concert in Central Baptist, and the following evening in the main city concert hall, known at the Organ Hall. We hope to have a predominantly believers audience on the first night, and then sing for their friends and neighbors and complete strangers on the following night. Pray that our music would

be an honest and effective witness to the love of Christ, a testimony to the Gospel, and will present a worthy bridge of American friendship that we are hoping to build with them. We continue to be a bit tired (still feeling jet lag) but our spirits still soar. Pray that God will lift our weary bodies/voices and continue to allow us to lift up His name and witness. Stay tuned for another update from L'viv in a couple of days.

For all of the Ukraine Mission Team -

All my best,
Tim Sawyer

Ukraine Update #3

Dear Ukraine ministry partners:

We are more than halfway through our trip, which is hard to believe! Here in the western Ukraine city of L'viv (with 1 million inhabitants), we have had two very meaningful and successful concerts on two successive evenings. The first was at the beautiful Central Baptist Church, formerly a German Lutheran church founded in 1529 in the heart of the Reformation which was abandoned when the Russians came. The current building was built in the 17th century, and has been magnificently restored by the Baptist Union. We ministered to a very full sanctuary of believers who listened intently for 2 and 1/2 hours as we sang, played, preached the Gospel and shared our hearts. Two memorable moments were when we sang two hymns together - How Great Thou Art, and Great Is Thy Faithfulness. We all sang robustly and simultaneously in English and Ukrainian and there were few dry eyes among mostly the Americans, including their conductor!

Our second concert was in the Organ Hall, the main concert hall here (the Orchestra Hall of L'viv, if you will) with magnificent acoustics. Last night was fellowship with believers and tonight a mixture of the churched and the unchurched, both were sweet. The Organ Hall concert ended with audience members stomping their feet rhythmically, asking for an encore. We were able to witness without saying very much at all - music has a way of working this way. Our instrumental forces added elegant chamber music of Dvorak, Randall Thompson, Miroslav Skorik (a living composer who is "the Aaron Copland of Ukraine") and Mozart. It was another glorious evening of making music, Soli Deo Gloria. We have blended together well, and the sound of the choir is now wonderfully unified, and our hearts are joined.

As we continue in our journeys here, I was reminded of this amazing astute observation by the church historian and writer Leonard Sweet who wrote:

There's something about human beings that needs to make music, something that insists on song. What we sing and how we sing reveals much of who we are, and entering into another's song and music provides a gateway into their world, which might be very different from our own... Whatever we can say with passion, we end up singing in some form. When our language is used to move beyond merely transmitting information, we come to the threshold of song. When life is deeply felt or perceived, music gives shape and voice to the very pattern of our experienced world.

And, we have been on that threshold many times as God's presence has come to us in song transcending and bridging our cultures. We have sung from deep places in ourselves into the open eyes and hearts of these dear older saints who have endured so much, and younger ones who have been told the stories. Our translators are in their early twenties, and were still young children when Communism fell. All are with us, grateful that we are here, and ready to receive our modest gifts with love. But they have no idea how much more we have already received from them than we have given. Our experiences in Ukraine have made us more aware of what these people have endured not only during the 20th century atheistic/antagonistic Communist era, but also during countless centuries of domination by those who have stolen from the rich Ukrainian land and resources, but not their soul. Case in point: here we have heard the account of how, during WWII the Germans brought in trucks and excavated, then loaded tons of the black, rich Ukrainian soil and transported it to Germany. In that year, Ukraine lost 5 feet of its topsoil, rumored to be 100 feet deep in some places! The soil here is still the most fertile in the world, having earned Ukraine the nickname "the bread basket of Europe." But the fertile soul of this country is also very much alive, and God is at work here. In light of that reality, these words to the old American Shaker hymn seem to resonate:

My life flows on in endless song above earth's lamentation;
I hear the real, through far-off, hymn that hails a new creation.
No storm can shake my inmost calm while to that rock I'm clinging;
While love is Lord o'er heaven and earth, how can I keep from singing?

What though the tempest 'round me roar, I hear the truth. It liveth.
What though the darkness 'round me close, songs in the night it giveth.
No storm can shake my inmost calm while to that rock I'm clinging;
While love is Lord o'er heaven and earth, how can I keep from singing?

The Song goes on. How can we keep from singing?

Serving with you,
with the Colonial Chorale and friends
Tim Sawyer

Ukraine Update #4

Dear Ukraine Ministry Partners and Shareholders:

We are finally back in Kyiv after a wonderful few days in L'viv (as you have previously heard).

After leaving L'viv, we made another fascinating sojourn back into the rich farm country of east central Ukraine. En route to Dubno, we visited a 17th century Polish castle with a fascinating history and priceless historical contents. Later, we would visit the high holy site of the Orthodox monastery and church at Pochayiv, begun in 980 A.D., the Russian Orthodox equivalent of Jerusalem to the Jews or Mecca to the Muslims. The majority of the Ukrainians among us had never visited, so we were on equal footing in this experience. It was both a fascinating and disturbing experience, for even in the midst of the opulent splendor of such a worshipful place we did not feel welcome. The stench of Orthodox legalism and mistrust was clearly seen and felt. Before entering the compound, any male wearing shorts was given large black pants to cover his legs, and women in slacks were given a similar skirt to wrap around themselves. All women (regardless of marital status) were required to wear head coverings. In stark contrast to our American religious pluralism, perhaps the most disturbing discovery of all was the sign inside the church matter of factly prohibiting Orthodox congregants to even pray for a long list of those not baptized into the "only true church" - the Russian Orthodox church. That list included all Protestants, Pentecostals and Catholic believers (but not Jews and Muslims), a list into which we Congregational, Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian and Baptist believers were all lumped together in our non-Orthodox "otherness." It was a reminder of rampant legalism and reckless religious exclusivity without true Biblical foundation, and of the power and control the Orthodox church continues to have over their people in this region of the country. It only served to help us to celebrate the freedom we have in Christ, and to clearly show the challenges the loving and freeing Gospel of Jesus Christ still has in being heard in certain regions of Ukraine.

Upon our arrival in Dubno we were (once again) treated to a lavish meal put on by the church women. The evening concert of worship was also well attended, with a full church and warm fellowship (it was hot, too!). Pastor Sviatoslav who leads this vibrant congregation in a rather small city despite many challenges, is a resolute and faithful man, an assistant to the Baptist Bishop who presides over 100+ churches (Houses of Prayer) in the region. The main challenge to the church is the loss of over 40 members of the congregation (all belonging to one extended family) who have recently emigrated to the United States. It's hard to imagine a church of this size losing 40 people in one fell swoop! Nevetheless, their hospitality and warm welcome we will never forget. After our concert in Dubno, we drove one hour further to Rivne for a second homestay night with our host families from earlier in the week. How wonderful it was to see them all again, and to be welcomed back more like family members than house guests. We got to see all of Christian Music Academy rector Oleksandr "Sasha" Kreschuk's children and wife Ira whose home is in Rivne.

Early Saturday next morning, we headed back to Kyiv. The weather has continued to be idyllic during our time here - mostly in the mid- to upper 70's with low humidity and beautiful sunny, blue skies. This weather has been a great blessing due to the inoperative air conditioning in our bus. Upon our arrival in Kyiv we visited the very moving WWII Museum, for the first time having the chance to see the war from the Russian perspective, where Ukraine alone suffered upwards of 9 million deaths, both military and civilian. We took pictures in front of the American and Russian tanks, bound together as one, which stand in front of this impressive and dramatic museum.

The tanks not only provide a symbol of American collaboration with the USSR which helped defeat the German Nazis in the war. In present tense, for us, they are a symbol of our ministry tour in Ukraine and the friendships we have made here.

After this experience, we enjoyed an evening to sample Ukrainian cuisine and culture on Kreschatyk Street, the main gathering place for intense nightlife. There was much revelry and drinking in the city center surrounding Independence Square, where 100,000 Ukrainians gathered just last year during the Orange Revolution to sing the Hymn for Ukraine and pray the Lord's Prayer. Kyiv is a city of great contradictions.

So, we are on the "home stretch" and in 48 hours will set foot back on American soil. There will be one final update regarding our final days in Ukraine. Keep us in your prayers - we're not all the way home yet!

Singing the Song of deliverance and freedom in Christ,

The Ukraine Ministry Team

Ukraine Update #5

Dear Ukraine Ministry Partners and Shareholders:

It's hard to believe we are in the final 24 hour "home stretch" of our Ukraine adventure. Our final Sunday here was absolutely jam-packed with activity - I think we experienced the equivalent of three days in one. In all my years of touring, I don't ever remember a day quite this full. Our schedule was carefully laid out to insure that we could fit three concerts into one Sunday, but little did we know the adventures awaiting us which could never appear on our printed itinerary. This is a long one, but worth it!

Our day began on the bus, heading into a rural region of the city of Kyiv called Darnitsa for the 10am Worship Service #1. Darnitsa had been a region designated by the communists as an official atheist section of the city. By God's grace a towering man of faith named Pastor Kunets felt called to start a church there, and informed the communists that this was his plan. He experienced untold resistance and hardship in doing it, but today there stands the House of Prayer in Darnitsa, built by hand, one brick at a time. We thought we were to be a small part of the service, but it wasn't long before it became clear that, in typical

Ukrainian Baptist improvisational style, Pastor Kunets wanted us to sing almost all of our repertoire, calling on both Oleksandr "Sasha" Kreschuk and Steve Benham to preach, and also for our instrumentalists to add their music to the mix. It was my task to lead the hymns and for Heather to play (in gospel style). Our former Baptist souls soared as together we sang How Great Thou Art, What A Friend We Have in Jesus, When the Roll is Called Up Yonder, Blessed Assurance and one other UKR Baptist-style hymn unfamiliar to us. Needless to say, it was a full 2+ hour service, with our anthems continually punctuated with "Slava bohu" (Praise the Lord) but never any applause. We could feel their warm Christian fellowship, and it was also quite warm in this "little country church on the edge of town." Early in the service, on Ukrainian woman fainted and members made a stretcher out of four chairs and ceremoniously carried her out during my words of greeting and introduction to one of our songs. During the final hymn, young women of the church graciously came forward with rose bouquets for Heather, Sasha, Steve and I.

After the morning service, we boarded the bus to head for the Word of Life church, a relatively new urban sister church of Darnitsa located closer to the heart of the city. Our schedule told us we had very little time to travel across the city, arrive for lunch and participate in another service at 2:00pm. With an already full bus, about 15 Ukrainians had boarded the bus with us, standing in the aisles, and off we went on the country roads heading out of Darnitsa. We had not travelled for more than 3 blocks when we heard a large popping sound from under the bus, and it ground to a halt. A large rubber reservoir/piece of the bus's air shocks had broken and we were immobilized. As the bus driver began his repairs, we off-loaded the bus, and stood together on a warm but breezy Sunday afternoon in the shade of cherry trees as a hasty Plan B was formulated. The elder, resolute Pastor Kunets, undaunted, commandeered two smaller yellow city buses, which appeared within just a few minutes seemingly out of nowhere to bring us to the Word of Life church. Little did we know that in the midst of a difficulty, we would know that this was actually a blessing. As we approached the church, we realized that our larger bus would never have navigated the steep incline of several blocks up to the level of the church, poised high above the city. We were just a few minutes late for lunch, and ready to begin Worship Service #2.

With a brand new sanctuary still under construction, we gathered in a relatively small room on the upper floor. From the windows of this main worship room, we had a clear view of the towering Orthodox Pechersk Lavra monastery, and the gleaming stainless steel 300+ feet tall Rodina Mat, a "Statue of Liberty-like" statue built by Russia at the request of Leonid Brezhnev to be a symbol of "friendship" with Ukraine just 10 years before the fall of communism. It was a symbol of the challenges the evangelical church faces here, as these believers seek to be a bridge of God's love and freedom in Christ, made difficult by the controlling Orthodox church and the lingering effects of decades of

communist oppression. Located high on a hill itself, from the Word of Life church one can also see the largest part of residential Kyiv across the Dnipro river. This is the city for which the church is in prayer and active in evangelistic outreach. Pastored by the son-in-law of Pastor Kunets, who also helped found the Word of Life church, we

participated in another warm service where we sang several anthems, Sasha and Steve preached, and the main sermon was brought by the head of the Ukrainian Central Intelligence Agency, a recent convert to Christianity. Imagine this happening in the USA!! :-)

Our final event of the day - Worship Service #3, brought us back to Central Baptist Church in Kyiv, where we started our journey over a week ago. This service was only 1:30 long, quite well attended for a hot Sunday evening, and we were welcomed warmly. No one fainted from the heat, with the exception of one close call in the soprano section... A great surprise was the appearance of a delegation of our Minnesota counterparts in the touring choir Evangelion. We shared the words of God with our hearts and our music, and together, we, our Ukrainian counterparts in the ranks of the choir and our instrumental ensemble found our best level of ministry yet. It was a wonderful way to sing our final concert of worship, and the room resonated with the sounds of our final benediction: "The Lord Bless You and Keep You" which made us think of home, and worshiping in our own warm Meetinghouse next Sunday! Slava Bohu.

After the service, we all gathered together for one last meal at the church - a joyful victory celebration with traditional Ukrainian food, Coke products (cold!!) songs, laughter, tears and tributes as only a Ukrainian meal can call forth. Our Ukrainians serenaded us with carols and hymns in their native tongue, and many gifts, hugs, pictures, Colonial t-shirts and loving words were exchanged. We said goodbye to many of our Ukrainian musicians who had to catch their trains back to their homes in western Ukraine. Tonight will be our last chance to get a good night's sleep...Stay tuned for one FINAL Ukrainian update from Amsterdam!

How can we keep from singing?

Tim Sawyer (for all of us)

Final Ukraine Update

Dear Ukraine Supporters and Shareholders:

Our final full day in Ukraine - Monday, July 19 was a bit slower paced that previous. We spent the day visiting the somber and moving Chernobyl Museum, toured St. Michael's and St. Andrew's churches and
meandered down the winding St. Andrew's descent, the street known as a place to purchase wonderful trinkets and artworks. The day culminated in a concert which we attended, presented by Evangelion and members of the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra at the Organ Hall (former Polish Catholic church turned concert hall). It was an inspiring concert, featuring Bach's Cantata #140 "Wachet auf" as well as American hymns and spirituals. Perhaps the most moving moment was the finale of the concert - a setting of "America, the Beautiful" set together with "Prayer for Ukraine." This latter piece has a long history in Ukraine, and most recently with the Orange Revolution. It was so memorable to see everyone in the room ceremoniously stand during the singing of that hymn which they revere. It was also great to be together with believers from Minnesota who are also committed to investing in the souls of the people of Ukraine.

Our final travel day - Tuesday, July 20 began at the crack of dawn as we boarded the bus at 4:15am to head to Boryspil Airport. We checked in and moved through Passport Control, ready to board our flight to
Amsterdam, and then head on to Minneapolis. Little did we know that our tour motto "Cheerful and flexible" would be stretched to its thinnest place since we left on July 8. For a variety of reasons, our flight was
delayed and we sat in the plane for two and a half hours - from the time we boarded at 6:45am until our eventual departure at 9:15am. Because of this delay, the group missed its flight to Minneapolis. This was the most significant setback we had experienced during our entire trip. So, we all had to be re-booked on a variety of flights. A handful of the group got to leave today, but the majority of us will return on Wednesday at various departure times. They all hopefully enjoyed a good night's sleep in Amsterdam Hotel Ibis, compliments of Ukraine International Airline. By the end of the day Wednesday, no doubt we should all be
back in Minneapolis, safe and sound.

This has been a life-changing experience, and words are barely adequate to fully describe all that we have experienced here. As time goes by, we hope we can develop the vocabulary to share what is in our hearts
and memories. Later in the fall, we will present a report with many photos and a traditional Ukrainian lunch on a Sunday afternoon, to which you will be invited. Stay tuned for this.

What though the tempest 'round me roar, I hear the truth. It liveth.
What though the darkness 'round me close, songs in the night it giveth.
No storm can shake my inmost calm while to that rock I'm clinging;
While love is Lord o?er heaven and earth, how can I keep from singing?

Singing the Song with you,
Tim Sawyer (for the entire Colonial/CPC Ukraine Music Ministry Team)

 

 

Return to Home