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The traditions of the 13th are fading fast, but Russians love
holidays and celebrations, especially in the cold, hard months
of winter. This year, winter has been particularly hard.
It is good to celebrate the birth of Christ again and again.
Of course, we as a family had our traditional Christmas celebration
on the 25th, followed by a New Year's celebration at church, complete
with fireworks. We then carried Meg out to Oryol for a Christmas
holiday camp, while we traveled to nearby Plavsk for their New
Year's celebration. Meg stayed in Oryol for a week and had a wonderful
time at camp with her Russian friends and a member of our home
congregation, who had also come. They then celebrated Christmas
again on the 7th with caroling and worship. This past Sunday,
the day before Old New Year, our family traveled to Venyov and
experienced Christmas yet again.
Venyov is a small city that is a three hours drive from Moscow.
There is a small Baptist church there, one of the partners in
the Twinning Program. The church is actually part of a farmstead.
The young pastor, Igor, and his family have a house behind the
church and manage a small farm with which they support their growing
family. My children love going to Venyov because of the animals—cows,
chickens, dogs, etc. It was this winter visit that brought the
Christmas story home to me in a new way this year.
I bought a manger scene this year at the market, hand-carved
and beautiful in its simplicity. Grisha, our tutor, and I had
gone over the vocabulary for the different pieces, including the
word for stable (khlev). I heard this word again as Sasha, a deacon
in the Venyov church, got up to speak last Sunday. Sasha is a
young man, but his smile, with gaps that should be teeth, reveals
a life that is aging him early. His Russian is very clear and
easy to understand. I sat listening as he began to talk about
the birth in the stable (khlev)—"conditions not fit
for a human," he said. He was talking about how completely
God had humbled Himself for our sake and how we needed to respond.
It was a simple sermon with a good message. After lunch with the
pastor and his family, the children wanted to see the khlev. Igor
would not take them out until he had first had a chance to go
out and clean it up. When we got out there, he had scrubbed the
floor, but it was still a stable - a small stable full of animals
(three cows, a newborn calf, many chickens and a barn cat). Cows
get really dirty during the winter. There is only so much cleaning
one person can do in such a short time. Driving home that afternoon,
thinking about Sasha's words, I realized, these people really
understand the stable setting of Christ's birth—not fit for
a human. And this was for our sake. May we all remember to celebrate
the birth of our Savior again and again.
We wish you all the peace and blessings of our Lord in the New
Year.
Ellen, Al, Allison, Meg & Emma Smith
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