Entry 22: 7 November, 2011
On Sunday I had the opportunity to go the International Christian Fellowship, the church with which the Brays have been working in Moscow. After over two months of being apart from church family, it was wonderful to be back worshiping with fellow believers. The congregation consists of people from all over the world (Russia, Britain, Ireland, Scotland, Australia, Central Africa, the Philippines, America, etc.), some who speak Russian, some who do not. The service is conducted in English with simultaneous translation into Russian. One of the songs sung was “How Great Thou Art” which we sang in English and then Russian. It is one of those songs which I grew up hearing and singing frequently, and despite its beautiful lyrics, it has become rather complacent for me over the last few years. Singing it in Russia really made me pay attention to the words, and it was like a whole new song for me again. Unfortunately we only sang once verse this way. I'm going to have to find all of the lyrics in Russian.
I hadn't realized how much I was missing Christian fellowship and praising God through worship. I found myself having to hold back tears in a lot of the songs because, having been out of the routine of attending church, I was paying more attention to the words of songs and what was being said. One song we sang had the line, “Break my heart for what breaks Yours [Lord].” A week or so ago I found a sermon on youtube about worship and how easy it is for us to be insincere and just sing the words. This line really convicted me, and to be honest, it was hard for me to sing. I don't know if I can find it in my heart to sing that line honestly. I know there is so much in this world that breaks God's heart, and I don't think that my heart could handle all that breaks His. Such a thing is not to be asked for lightly. I sometimes wonder what our worship services would sound like if we were actually incapable of singing something we did not mean and intended whole-heartedly. What would we be left singing? This has been a conviction of mine as of late.
Oleg, who delivered the sermon Sunday, gave a really good message from John 14 about how our home is in God. Oleg's English is flawless and nearly accentless, which was highly impressive. In addition, he is also blind, so I had the privilege of watching a preacher preach using a Braille Bible. I really enjoyed being at church. It is such a comfort that, no matter how far you go from home, you can always find home in the church family. Praise God!
I remember a similar sense of belonging when we first found the (as in, one and only) christian church in the town where we were with the Peace Corps in Thailand. There, the congregation and the service were all in Thai, but the message was clear all the same.
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