April 7, 1997

In this region of the globe, to date, 11 articles from the Good News magazine have been translated into Russian. Also, we have overdubbed English-language sermon tapes into Russian for our Estonian, Finnish and Lithuanian brethren. A few people in Australia are also requesting literature in the Russian language. The first request for The Good News in Russia came from Moscow.

 

Russia

 

Before the Feast of Tabernacles last year, we made contact again with Petersburg Television (formerly Leningrad Television), and have maintained those connections because the TV station may review Church materials for possible airing in the future.

While in St. Petersburg we spoke with Sergei Golenski at the Russian Federal Internet, which will provide the Church with free Web space for a Russian-language site. We would like to post the Russian translations of our literature on this site. Pertinent material from the www.ucg.org Web page will be translated into Russian, along with information peculiar to the Russian site, such as a listing of the sermon tapes available in their native language.

Our current articles in Russian have been translated by Dmitrii Ganibalov in St. Petersburg, Russia, and Nadya Bodansky at Stanford University in California. Dr. Ivan Chornij, who formerly translated Church literature, helps with edits. From each issue of the Good News magazine we choose two to four articles that we feel would be most helpful to our audience. To date, the articles have been sent to the members of our Estonian congregation, Katri Sults in Finland, Henrikas Klovas in Lithuania, and the Sabbatarians in Western Ukraine.

For now the articles are formatted in a rudimentary way but we are working on a standard format that can be applied to all articles. Darlene Reddaway, living in San Jose, California, has given enormous effort in the work of reproducing and mailing translated material to interested parties.

Tina Englebart, wife of Ozzie Englebart (pastor of several congregations in Arkansas), is fluent in Russian and is starting to become involved with the literature reproduction and mailing functions.

Estonia

 

Peter Shenton (who pastors congregations in the United Kingdom and Scandinavia) and I have been working together to look after a group of brethren in Estonia. Mr. Shenton has traveled to Estonia every few months while visiting Scandinavia and is visiting next on April 10. Six of these people came to England to keep the Feast of Tabernacles last fall.

Current plans are to keep part of the Feast of Tabernacles in Estonia this year. There is a new person attending and we have a few who need to be baptized and counseled in Russian. All Estonians speak Russian since they were part of the U.S.S.R. until Estonia declared independence in the early part of this decade.

Darlene Reddaway is in constant contact with these people and sends them literature, tapes (mostly by Bill Bradford and Brian Orchard), and gives them lots of encouragement.

 

Ukraine

 

Our relationships and friendships with people in Eastern Europe is progressing steadily.

Last April we renewed our contacts face to face with Sabbatarians in Western Ukraine. We discussed possible ways for literature to be distributed among people that can only read Ukrainian and Russian. The Sabbatarians have made new beginnings like we have and want to reproduce literature that the United Church of God has written.

Since my visit last April, our brethren in Garden Grove and Redlands, California, have donated money to Sabbatarian Mission Nazareth to purchase a laser printer which they will use with a russified version of Microsoft Word to translate, print and distribute literature.

The Sabbatarians live in an impoverished country that has become even poorer since the dissolution of the U.S.S.R. Many of our brethren in the West have wondered what we could do to help them physically.

Since July of last year we have been able to send them fifty tons of life-sustaining humanitarian aid in three containers, the last one arriving in mid-February. The items included large quantities of rice, flour, macaroni, over-the-counter drugs, antibiotics, clothing, sewing machines, eyeglasses and much more. The value of this help exceeded $500,000. We were able to do this by using existing charities and governmental agencies. The U.S. government has completely paid the $27,000 for shipping through a foreign-aid program called Operation Support Freedom.

One of the most notable aid items were nine dental chairs and related equipment that were shipped through the resourceful work of Sue Johns, wife of dentist and local church elder Jim Johns of central Pennsylvania. Dental care where the Sabbatarians live is almost nonexistent. Mission Nazareth is remodeling some of its facilities into a clinic to help their people and others in the community.

Also, large-print Russian Bibles were shipped by our Boston congregation. They regard large-print Bibles as a treasure because so few people are able to get eyeglasses.

 

Tajikistan

 

A new development has taken place in connection with our friends in Western Ukraine. Sabbatarians are being persecuted by Moslem fundamentalists in Tajikistan, a country in central Asia bordering Afghanistan. The situation is becoming acute. Since Tajikistan gained independence, Moslems have taken revenge on their former masters. Russians and others are being terrorized and killed. There is no future for the Sabbatarians in Tajikistan. They are the great-grandchildren of those who were settled there in Stalinist pre–World War II times.

The Sabbatarians in Khust, Ukraine, are in the process of helping relocate 250 Ukrainians from in and around the capital of Tajikistan, Dushanbe. The situation has been complicated by a civil war among the various Islamic factions. Now Afghanistan is becoming embroiled in the conflict.

Our friends in Ukraine have told me that it was providential that the volume of aid was coming from the United States at a time when it was most needed. They, who themselves desperately need the help, are going to use a good portion of it for the refugees coming from Tajikistan. It’s a challenge for them to find housing for all these people among other families. The relocation process is being planned to take place shortly.

 

Lithuania

As of mid-February, Henrikas Klovas in Kaunas, Lithuania, has decided to associate himself with the United Church of God, an International Association. Major motivating factors were the sermon tapes and translated literature.

Henrikas was baptized in 1991 in Germany at the Feast of Tabernacles. He was unable to keep Passover last year with any brethren. We are working on obtaining his visa to Germany so he can keep the Passover with the brethren there. He speaks German, Russian and Lithuanian. Henrikas will be receiving literature in German and in Russian—this way he can pass it on to others as needed.

We work with constraints of time, distance, money and language. But we have been able to further the Word of God.

We will keep informing you about what’s taking place in Eastern Europe and the Baltics.

Victor Kubik