Another Russian Protestant Church

This past Sunday I took Rayna and Colsen to another Russian-speaking church where our landlord, Victor, is one of the pastors. He, and another gentleman I met named Paul, have asked me to come and visit their church and they would translate for me. They have a really nice church building (built by Victor’s father), and so on a cold Sunday it was nice to have a warm place to visit. Many buildings, especially where there are large spaces, are not adequately heated.

As the service started, I was pleasantly surprised that after singing the first song in Russian the second song was sung in Romanian. This was “pleasant” because we are learning Romania and I could actually understand some of the song and read some of the words that were projected on the screen. Looking at Russian words with Cyrillic letters is like Greek to me (as the saying goes). I’m sure there are many obvious grammar rules and songs in the Russian language that are consistent (unlike English), but reading and listening to Russian song or speech is still a mystery to me.

Anyway after a couple of songs and a couple of long poems in Russian (apparently anyone can notify the pastor if they want to recite a poem during the church service), a man stood up and presented a sermon in Romanian. This was another pleasant surprise. My friend Paul translated this sermon to me and I could make out some of it on my own. It was a short, concise sermon and relatively to the point. I learned during this part of the service that the church is trying to reach out to Romanian speakers so they are conducting part of the service in Romanian. BUT, to my surprise this Romanian sermon was not a substitute to the standard Russian parts of the service.

After the kids were dismissed to Sunday school, I thought “This is odd…the kids are leaving so close to the end of the service,” and then there was a time of announcements where a gentlemen told of an upcoming women’s meeting that day at noon (the service began at a little after 10 and it was about 11:20 at this point). Rayna and Colsen stayed with me because Sunday school in Russian would be a challenge, and I thought the service was about over. To my surprise after a time of prayer the SECOND sermon began in Russian (the Romanian sermon was simply an addition to the standard service). Well, I thought that this is OK…I can handle another sermon with two kids starting to get a little impatient (because they can’t understand anything), for the service should be over soon…the women have to meet in 30 minutes and they will need time to get to where they are going. Well to my surprise the Russian sermon was a little over an hour, and then we had to have a closing hymn and prayer.

We ended up hanging out in the lobby for the last 30 minutes as the kids had to go to the bathroom and it was too disruptive to get in and out of the service (and they had lost patience listening to a very passionate man speak unintelligible words for 30 minutes).

Another interesting cross-cultural experience…