by Rev. D. A. Ross
The mission journey to Eastern Europe by myself and Mr A. Macrae, Dundee, last October, was accomplished without too much difficulty. At one border there was a heated dispute between border guards and a church charity group from Switzerland; but at the same time we ourselves were not without our troubles with another difficult border guard who, if he had had his way, would have retained our customs papers, so essential for border crossings. However, in the Lord’s kind providence, we retrieved our papers after much silent prayer to the Most High and protracted, determined pleadings with the guard, who seemed to us to be a very mischievous person. We had arrived at this border at 5.30 pm, after having been on the road from early morning, but it was 4.30 am before we finally got to bed in a hotel a few miles beyond the border. While it may seem to some that we were hard done by, our experience was nothing in comparison to what others have to put up with. A local young man told us that he was three days at a border, which seems to be a common experience for heavy vehicle drivers. Thankfully, for us, other borders were easily crossed and border officials generally were very helpful.
Having travelled the usual 5000 miles and more, from the time we left Scotland to our return, we are thankful to the Most High for granting safe travel.
As well as having had the opportunity to preach the gospel, we delivered our load of goods at various places, on a journey that took us through Hungary, Ukraine, Moldavia, Romania and Czechoslovakia. There is, we believe, genuine appreciation for the goods we delivered which included the usual Bibles, religious literature, medicines, food and clothing.
At Kishinev, the capital of Moldavia we gave a quantity of clothing, food, medicines and literature to an orphanage which has a Christian teacher involved in running it. The staff were deeply appreciative and pleaded with us to return with more help if possible. Particular reference was made to the Mother’s Catechism in Russian as that which would be useful among the Russian speaking children in this and other orphanages. It is hoped, God willing, that Alasdair Macrae, Dundee, and Edward Ross from Lochcarron, will go to Moldavia in March with a load of aid and religious literature for the orphanages. While the van for transporting the load to Moldavia will be donated, it is evident that there are numerous other expenses in connection with such a mercy mission.
There is undoubtedly much need for the Church to be involved, we believe, in the distribution of material help, but our principal aim is to spread the Word of God. Indeed, one Romanian pastor said to me, “The important matter is that sound religious literature be sent to Romania. We managed, prior to the revolution, to obtain adequate provision for our bodies and continue to do so. Please send us Bibles especially.”
A Pastor in Hungary writes, “Thank you very much for the gift of Bibles you gave us. Out of the hundred, I have given 80 to the Hungarian Reformed Church in the Ukraine, and reserved 20 here for distribution . . . your gift is welcome. Before the revolution our problem was lack of Bibles, now in these days of inflation it is lack of money. You might be interested to know that the monthly income of an old age pensioner would buy only about nine Family Bibles (though active church members have a fifty per cent discount), and the amount of money which church members undertake to pay annually to the church would only buy half a Bible. So you can see how much we appreciate your gift. — I would like as many as you can send.”
Another pastor writes, “At the present time here in Hungary there is a great need for Bibles free of charge. We can evangelize freely anywhere and everywhere we want, and we have brothers and sisters in Christ who evangelize in schools and orphanages. For this work we need tracts and Bibles free of charge. But here we do not have a possibility to give financial support for the work.” The Free Presbyterian Church is deeply indebted to the Trinitarian Bible Society for the help it gave for our last visit, providing a large grant of 2000 Hungarian Bibles. We hope that they will be in a position to continue such valuable work. A Bible in Hungary costs about £1.50, which gives some idea of the amount of money received by the old age pensioners mentioned above.
One pastor in Kiev, writing to the Free Presbyterian Church in connection with our last visit to the Ukraine, says, “We are very happy to pass on to you, via your servants the brother Donald Ross and the brother Alexander Macrae, our sincere thanks for the humanitarian help which you sent to our church. We also thank the Lord Jesus Christ, that in this difficult time for our country, He has disposed your hearts to generous sacrifice. Your help is a big support to us at this time.”
The Mother’s Catechism which was translated into Russian and which we took to the Ukraine had a good reception and we hope it will be much used to increase Bible knowledge. We hope, God willing, to proceed early this year with the printing of the Shorter Catechism with proof texts in Russian. The translation was done by the Russian Reformation Foundation.
We trust that all who have so liberally contributed in various ways to our mission work in Eastern Europe, will feel that the work is well worth their continued support, and we hope that others will join them in helping to help others. Above everything pray that the Lord would graciously bless His Word which we distributed, and also the preaching as opportunity arises. Even if we were to do everything possible in our seeking to comply with the commission, “In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thy hand,” Eccl. 11: 6, that would not of itself bring one sinner to Christ. Not until God by His Holy Spirit breathes on the dry bones can we expect to see any fruit from the sowing of the good seed of the kingdom. The promise is that we shall reap sooner or later. “He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.” Psalm 126: 6.