From the May-August 2011 Issue
Advantages of Morning and Challenges of Night
Volodymyr and Oksana Kostyshyn
Watchman, what is left of the night?” The watchman replies, “Morning is coming, but also the night…” (Isaiah 21:11,12)
These words from Isaiah come to my mind as I think about our current situation with the gospel witness in Ternopil, Ukraine. We live in a country that has probably the most loyal law on freedom of conscience and religious beliefs in all the former Soviet Union, and it might be true to say even in modern Europe. This is one of the biggest benefits we enjoy in Ukraine.
It may look like a good opportunity for preaching the Gospel and people responding to it – and we do have a number of different ministries going on. I call this the morning of God’s grace. But the ministry of the Word of God is not always accepted as we expect. There may be different reasons for this, but the main one still remains the same – the darkness of night in the sinful heart.
“Morning is coming…”
For us as believers it is the morning of opportunity in spreading the gospel in our country and even abroad. It is good to see the rise of an interest among evangelicals in the biblical doctrine of grace. And not only an interest, but a desire to have it preached, taught and applied in the life of the church in general and the believer in particular. A growing number of conferences and participants is a testimony to this. The quantity of good books published in recent years and at present, is also a real help.
With regard to books, however, personally I would like to see more of them published in the Ukrainian language. Sometimes I hear justification for Russian translations because this means a much greater potential number of readers. Yes, it is true that many people in Ukraine can read and speak Russian, especially those who live in the central and eastern parts of our country. But on the other hand we have millions who just cannot, or who have difficulties with reading in Russian, and their case is being silently ignored.
Another goodness of God’s morning is a growing number of people going from Ukraine to the countries of Asia and Africa with the gospel message. In Ternopil there is a Mission School that has the particular goal to raise a missionary movement in Ukraine that would take the Word of God to Muslims in the world. Our church has been in continual prayer support of their work since their beginning in 2003. The school welcomes students from Ukraine and Islamic countries for an eight-month course of theological studies. Those who are from Islamic countries go back to their homes. Most of them are in the ministry, often in real danger of imprisonment or losing their life. A recent case was the imprisonment for four years of a pastor in Turkmenistan. At the moment there are five Ukrainian missionaries, graduates of the school, who are living in Kenya, ministering to the poor and outcasts.
“but also the night…”
The reality of night is obvious too. It is really very much like in the book of Isaiah. The situation in his time was far from optimistic. There was a watchman, a minister of the Word of God, but not many seemed to pay attention to his message. Out of the spiritual darkness there was a call to the watchman; it sounds like a call for hope: “Watchman, what is left of the night?” Will things change? How long have we to wait? And the reply was astonishing: “Morning is coming, but also the night…” – things might be different, but not for you. Because you are continuing in sin, darkness will remain for you.
This is the present reality for many here. Some time ago an American pastor and his wife paid a short visit to us in Ternopil. They came to Ukraine to teach in Kyiv Seminary and have been living in Kyiv for a couple of years now. It was evening and we were having a tour of the city centre. There we have the main Greek-Catholic cathedral and I wanted to show them inside. People were leaving the building and we had to wait. As we were waiting, our American friends just couldn’t believe how big the number of young people attending the service was. It might look optimistic to some, but in fact it is not.
The sad reality is that year after year we get more and more idolatry and even occult practice within so-called traditional churches. Every Sunday their church buildings are packed. It looks like a sincere search for God, but in fact it is not. Many just use the idea of God for their own political, health, wealth or other reasons. If the Word of God is being presented to them sometimes they seem to listen, to pay attention. But as soon as they realize that their thinking needs to change from what it was before, that this is different from “traditional belief”, then they are frightened. Many, if not most, would prefer not to think at all, rather than question the truthfulness of what they believe and what they practise. And this makes the night even darker for them.
Yes, in spite of all the political instability, we do continue to have freedom in our beliefs, we enjoy God’s mercy and experience His blessings, but how we long to see light breaking through the darkness of people’s hearts. Will it ever happen? God knows! And we pray to Him for it to be so!