It's all Russian to me

I recently heard the story about a former local missionary to Dnipropetrovsk who has since moved to Lviv. When he first came to Dnipropetrovsk he put a great deal of effort into learning Russian to be able to speak to people here, after all it is the most commonly spoken language [although Ukrainian is fully understood and most people can speak it] but it made sense to learn the language that is more commonly spoken, is more widespread around the world and has more teaching resources based around it.

After a few years having set up a church here in Dnipropetrovsk he set of for pastures new, Lviv. For those who don't know Lviv is very far to the west of the Ukraine and was the base of the Ukrainian resistance during the sovet era. what therefore happen to our missionary is no surprise really.

A chart showing how common Ukrainian is as a first language. [from 2001 census]

When he started to preach to people in Lviv no one was listening. When he asked them why they replied that they didn't want to know about the Russian Jesus, they wanted to know about the Ukrainian Jesus. The simple fact that the preacher was speaking in a language that although all his listeners understood and could even speak in it, wasn't their language created a barrier that stopped them listening to the gospel.

In the end he did learn Ukrainian as well and has now seen a church plant established in Lviv and even knows people who insist that Jesus was Ukrainian!

There are so many things that can be taken out of this story, the dividing factors of language in the Ukraine, about how important it is to choose the words we say when we are speaking to different audiences...etc

However I think the biggest thing to take out of this story is how everyone wants God/Jesus who applies to them and not the standard happy meal Jesus with the free toy/salvation.

Thank God that we have a real God who does relate to us as individuals.