Curiosity Opens The Door To Teaching

Several of the Christians here learned about Christ incidentally because of their interest in the English language. Masha and Alexander, the two who have been doing the translating for us this week, are among them, and Nena, who we had dinner with on Thursday, also met Charles Gant as a result of her interest in our language. Like Masha, she teaches English here in Russia. (Nena and her daughter, Katia/Katie, made a trip to the United States in 2000. They attended a singing school in Oklahoma and also visited Texas, Nevada and Arizona.)

Jeff's Saturday lecture in Dzerzinsk sparked the curiosity of yet another Russian who is interested in English, and we hope that it might lead to another conversion down the road. Three people attended the lecture. One was an older man who only spoke Russian, and another worked at the library where we held the lecture. The third was Sergei, a 20-year-old physics student who just happened to be in the library that day studying and heard English being spoken in the next room. He was curious, so he came to meet us Americans, and he stayed for the lecture.

After Jeff finished his talk, which focused on how we can know the Bible is God's word and not just a bunch of unrelated books written by nearly 40 men over 1,500 years, Sergei had several good questions about the subject matter. He clearly had listened to the lecture and was interested in hearing more. He also lamented that we had not advertised the forum in the newspaper or something because he thinks his family might have attended.

Sergei joined us for lunch at a pizza place (a relatively new but apparently popular dining option in Russia), where we talked more about both America and God's word. Jeff sketched his traditional timeline and gave a copy of it to Sergei, who walked with us to the bus station nearby and then actually decided to take the hour-long bus ride with us back to Nizhny for the Bible class that evening. When class began, Jeff gave Sergei an American Bible to try to follow the study, and Sergei asked if it was a gift. Jeff said if Sergei promised to read it, then yes, that's exactly what it was. He agreed.

The first questions Jeff addressed in class were ones Sergei had asked while on the bus: How long does it take for people to come to believe there is a God? And what does it take to believe the Bible is God's word? Lena's answer: "It depends on the heart condition."

Jeff agreed and cited two extremes in the stories of Nathanael and Thomas. Nathanael, who wondered aloud what good could come from Nazareth, believed almost instantaneously that Jesus was the Christ after he met Jesus (John 1:43-51). But after Christ was resurrected, Thomas doubted that fact and insisted on seeing and feeling the wounds in Jesus' side before he believed. He wanted solid evidence (John 20:24-29).

Jeff noted three passages that teach it should be very easy for an honest heart to believe that God exists. All of those passages -- Acts 14:17; Rom. 1:18-20; and Psalms 19 -- talk about the evidence of creation that is around us every day to prove that God exists. Only people with hard hearts fail to see it. It may take different people different amounts of time to accept the Bible as God's word, however. To reach that point, they must be willing to hear the truth and thus gain faith.

Of all of the Christians in Russia who first became interested in the Bible because of their interest in English, it took several years of teaching and studying before they were converted. It may take just as long for Sergei to reach that point if he sticks with it, so let's all pray that God is patient with him.

One positive sign is that at the end of the evening class Saturday, after Sergei had spent the better part of a day with Christians, he still seemed interested. Asked if he might attend future studies, he said this: "It is difficult because everything is so new to me, but I think I shouldn't stop now." Pray that he doesn't ever stop examining God's word and his own heart.