Me and Pastor Mikizh
with the LCMS purchased house just in front of the new church building.
Home > Meet the Missionaries > Newsletters > Heise > November 2006
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Me and Pastor Mikizh
with the LCMS purchased house just in front of the new church building.
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30 hour train rides can be pretty taxing, especially when you've got a nasty sore throat, but I was eager to return to Mordovia after an absence of 10 years. I had first visited this Central Russian republic when I was an ESL coordinator for LCMS World Mission in 1996. Not knowing Russian very well at that time, I smiled a lot and laughed at jokes of which I had no comprehension. (Yes, pretty much like I am now. I mean in English). Recently Pastor Mikizh Mishin invited me to represent our mission on October 29 for the celebration of his congregation's 15 years of existence. Only a few months after the fall of the USSR in August 1991, Mikizh and several others formed the first Lutheran church in Mordovia. Just as then, Mikizh's congregation still worships in Russian and Mordovian, which is known in its own language as Moksha. There are also some translations into Erzya, another language of this region. These languages (Moksha and Erzya) are part of the Finno-Ugric language branch, so Finland's Lutheran mission societies often work here as they are ethnic and linguistic cousins.
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Don't miss it!----Revs.
Mehl and Dimitroff, now on display at the State Museum of Mordovia
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Remembering St. Paul's admonition to be a Jew to the Jew and a Greek to the Greek, I made a point of emphasizing my Hungarian heritage this weekend. (Hungarian is also related to these languages, but in its current form far more distant from Finnish than Moksha-Erzya). The LCMS has had a long relationship with Mikizh of which he is very aware and ever grateful. He recalls our missionaries Jim Dimitroff and Mike Murphy making a visit in the early 90s to see how the mission could assist him in bringing the Gospel to his people. That was followed up by Rev. Doug Reinders and me exploring possibilities for cooperation in 1996. Out of these visits, Mikizh's congregation was able to purchase a house which they turned into a church. Soon they outgrew that and with the aid of Finnish mission groups built a large church just a few years ago. Mikizh also remembers fondly missionaries John Mehl and Brent Smith, Dr. Robert Kolb who taught him on many occasions, as well as Oleg Kravets who tried to get him the Good News Journal in Russian for his congregation.
On Saturday Mikizh arranged a gathering at the State Museum of Mordovia for the unveiling of an art exhibit by fellow Lutheran and member Anatoly Kiryakin. Anatoly became acquainted with Mikizh at a cultural gathering for Mordovians in Moscow where he was studying art in the early 1990s. Their friendship grew and Anatoly later became an active member of the congregation. His exhibit gave him a forum to show Lutherans as those whose faith blended well with Mordovian culture. For this exhibit Anatoly drew realistic depictions of missionary figures associated with Mordovia. The Mordovian television channel even covered the exhibition, allowing me my 15 minutes of Mordovian fame during an interview. But beforehand as I was strolling through the museum admiring Anatoly's work, I got the strange feeling that someone familiar was staring at me. Imagine my surprise as I saw good friends John Mehl and Jim Dimitroff looking down over my shoulder. As impressive as the artwork was, I gently told Anatoly that John Mehl was about 6'3", while his taller depiction of Jim should be, well, a little less than 6'3". (I'm sure that Jim is beaming right now with this unexpected gain in height!). Since he had made the drawings from pictures, Anatoly wasn't aware of their respective heights. We all got a good chuckle out of it. In fact, though, the entire weekend I was excited by how our Mordovian Lutherans witnessed to their faith through culture: art,song and language. Anatoly hopes to continue to express his faith through the talent that God has clearly blessed him with. (Note: For more of Anatoly's drawings and other pictures related to Mordovian Lutheranism, please check out our website at www.lcmsrussia.org. Hopefully we will have these pictures up by the middle of November when our webmaster is back from vacation).
Fyodor Fyodorovich
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Me and Fyodor Fyodorovich
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The next day while we were waiting to go to lunch, an elderly parishioner sidled up to me in order to introduce himself. Fyodor Fyodorovich was born in 1938 of ethnic Mordovian parents but lived amongst Russians. As a result he ended up speaking Russian except during the war years when his mother spoke Mordovian with him while his father was at the front fighting the Nazis. Fyodor soon forgot his ethnic language when something resembling normalcy returned to Russia. Nonetheless throughout his life he had always felt a keen sense of his Mordovian heritage but only with the fall of the USSR did he have the chance to rediscover the language of his early years. He did so through Mikizh's congregation by reading the Bible in Mordovian and as he told me, came to faith in Jesus in the process. I am no longer surprised at such stories, having heard them before in regards to different languages. The theme of the weekend, though, was clearly impressing itself upon me: God does indeed use culture for His purposes!
One thing most Americans don't realize is that Russia is truly a melting pot of various languages and peoples. It is not a country populated by one homogenous ethnic group known as Russians. It is encouraging to me that our partners in the Lutheran Church of Ingria are more than eager to preach the Gospel to these peoples in their heart language. Fyodor Fyodorovich clearly felt as though he was now reading and speaking in his natural language, but even better yet, he for the last nine years has been a faithful believer in our Lord ! The service on Sunday was in essence a celebration of 15 years of God's blessings to the congregation as well as a Reformation Day service. I participated and provided the English vocals while Finns spoke in their language while Mikizh covered Russian, Moksha, and Erzya. Martin Luther would have been proud to see that God's Word was being proclaimed in a variety of tongues.
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Celebration of Mordovian
culture
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After the service on Sunday we repaired to a local school, run by the sister of the president of Mordovia (and a frequent visitor to Mikizh's Sunday services). We had the opportunity to listen to a native Mordovian musical ensemble. The music was simply otherworldly, reminding me of the peculiar form of music in the U.S.A. known as "harp-singing." After an ample and satisfying dinner served at the school, a young lady named Yanna came up to me and in almost unaccented English spoke of her plans to get practical work experience in America next summer. She has attended Mikizh's services several times and expressed a desire to become a regular parishioner. Her request of me was to inform her as to the location of LCMS parishes. She would like to attend services next summer, so when she finds out where she will work I may be informing some of you about connecting her to one of our parishes.
Before I left for Moscow on Sunday night, Mikizh shared his wish to extend the mission work into a village called Kovylkino, 100 kms from his hometown of Saransk. Several of the youth had traveled from that village for the weekend church celebrations, but it is simply too far to make the trip every Sunday. Mikizh drives there on occasion in his battered old Oka car, but desires to purchase a house for regular Sunday services. The house would cost about 15,000 dollars. Indeed one of the most heartening experiences for me this past weekend was to see the large number of youth participating and singing joyfully throughout the weekend. The people in this area of Russia are largely unchurched and the youth struggle with living Christian lives in a culture that too often debases such a lifestyle. Mikizh knows that the Lord is using him and is a tireless servant of the church. He continually reminds people that God's Word provides the foundation for our lives. Pray that the Lord will continue to use brother Mikizh mightily, that He will grant him strength and opportunities to spread the Gospel throughout Mordovia.
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Mordovian Lutheran youth
group singing spiritual songs
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Prayer Requests:
E-mail: matveih@yahoo.com
Mailing address - Evangelical Lutheran Ministries; Attn: Matthew Heise, International Post Office, Box 76; 37 Varshavskoye Shosse; 104000 Moscow, RUSSIA
To support my work financially, you June send a tax-deductible gift to: LCMS World Mission, 1333 S. Kirkwood Rd., St. Louis, MO 63122-7295. Make checks payable to LCMS World Mission. Mark checks "Support of Matthew Heise."
If you would like to partner with me in my ministry with ongoing support as an individual or congregation, please contact Debra Feenstra for information on Together in Mission or Mission Senders at 1-800-248-1930 Ext. 1651 or Debra.Feenstra@lcms.org Thank you and God bless you!
Home > Meet the Missionaries > Newsletters > Heise > November 2006