TO RUSSIA WITH LOVE
By Sammy Poole |
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When
Harrell Canning casually asked if I
had a passport I had no idea that his question was the beginning of a journey to what Ronald Reagan had referred to as,
“The evil empire.” But God moves in mysterious
ways his wonders to perform. Harrell had been invited to distribute Bibles in
Russia, but didn’t have a passport, and my passport had expired.
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We made a trip to the passport office to get one for him, and to renew mine. As it turned out, he didn’t get to go --
but I did.
It was an opportunity of a lifetime! Taking the Word of God to people who for so
long had been deprived of it. |
{Click photo to view a larger image of Harrell Canning,
CEO of ICCA and Board Member of Good Shepherd Ministries.) |
As I told people I was going, though I didn’t have the funds to do so, people from California to New England began sending some money to help me.
Soon I was eagerly boarding a plane in Charlotte to meet the other team members in New York.
The flight took us to Moscow, initially, via Helsinki, Finland. We picked up Bibles at the airport in Helsinki, and were soon in the city known for its history, atheism, and caviar.
The airport was a pathetic monument to communism. A dark example of the fruits of oppression. There were soldiers everywhere, along with sad-faced Soviets, and a
bathroom that wasn’t fit for human use. I made the best of our
first steps in Russia, however, by giving candy bars to the soldiers, and the poor lady who slowly pushed a mop across the floor.
We stayed at the Cosmos Hotel in
Moscow, and it wasn’t too bad. We were given hotel passes in exchange for our passports, while we were there. We quickly learned that Russians were eager to trade items of theirs for things we had from America. Button down collared shirts were of special interest, as was perfume. |
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We attended the Moscow
Circus, and the audience sat so close to the one ring, that, we felt like part of the show. Trapeze artists swung over our heads, polar bears danced close by, and the ring was converted into an ice skating rink, and a swimming pool, in
remarkable time. We distributed Bibles everywhere we
went and the Russians would run after us, asking for Bibles.
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We attended Moscow’s First Baptist Church on Sunday morning, and
James Blackwood
(below, right) of the famous Blackwood Brothers
Quartet, and his son Billy, sang.
I was called upon to lead our group in a song. The sanctuary was designed to seat a few hundred, but there were people standing in the aisles so
tightly they could not remove their heavy coats. They took turns sitting during the three
hour service.
(CLICK TO
VIEW LARGER IMAGES)
Whether in palaces, museums, on the streets - even the
Palace of
Catherine the
Great, I was free to hand out Bibles. That would be frowned upon in many places in America, but I never felt threatened there. People hugged and kissed me, and one lady came looking for me to give me a gift in return for the Bible: three pieces of hard
Russian
candy. She placed them in my hand and said, in Russian:
“Take this; this is a gift!”
(Facade of The
Palace of Catherine the Great)
They sang many songs we knew, but in their language. Songs like: “Ring the Bells of Heaven,” “Count Your Many Blessings,” and “God Be With You Till We Meet Again.” Our voices blended, though our languages were different. For a few divine moments, our hearts were
one.
In Kiev, the capitol of the Ukraine, it was my pleasure to
sing, “It Is Well With My Soul,” and to share my cancer testimony. One of the Ukrainian women came to our bus to search for me, as she, too, had been touched by the hand of the Lord when she had cancer. The church gave us a
dinner and presented to those of us who are ministers beautifully
embroidered table cloths.
From Kiev, we flew the unpleasant skies of Aeroflot Airlines, to Leningrad. There, we had time to visit the famous
Hermitage
Museum, and the palace of Catherine the Great, in the town of Pushkin. Russian caviar inspired me to write a poem:
“When You Wish Upon A Star, Do Not Wish for Caviar!”
We also visited the famous cathedrals St.
Isaacs, and St.
Basils. Some of the magnificent cathedrals had, during the days of spiritual
oppression and darkness that communism had brought with it,
been used to house horses. Yet, we were told that some of the atheist
leaders had their children baptized -- just to be sure.
While in Russia, I had the opportunity to lead a German girl to the Lord in the hotel lobby. It all began with a
smile and 'a candy bar.'
It has been said, “The cream always rises to the top,” but in
Russia it has been the dregs of human nature, who have covered an otherwise great
nation with war, greed, poverty and pain.
The wealth of the czars and the opulence of the ruling class was
staggering, while the hopeless feeling of the masses grows.
We saw millions of dollars of rubble, encased in glass, and lighted for effect. All these excesses are surely an indictment of the evil heart of mankind when God is not a part of it. |
