A Bridge for the Gospel

Pastor Sergei is an SGA-supported missionary in Belarus who works with orphan children through support from Orphans Reborn. These children have suffered much, and their view of this world is confused and heartbreaking.

One young girl stood out to him. “I saw a girl named Angelina, who was older than the other children. She had unusual things that were attached to her right ear. When I looked closer, I saw that they were rings and there were three crosses hanging from them. This was a little symbolic and led me to the idea that in the Gospels, we read about three crosses on Mount Golgotha.

This gave me a reason to talk with Angelina about the events of distant times described in the Gospels. We read all the places in the Bible where the event of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and two criminals is mentioned. I especially drew Angelina’s attention to the fact that Jesus, being crucified on the cross, asked the Heavenly Father to forgive people for their sinful actions.

We read that Jesus forgave one of the criminals who realized his guilt and turned to Jesus with a small request to ‘remember him in the kingdom of God.’ Jesus treated the criminal favourably, forgiving him all his sins and accepting him into heaven.

At the end of our conversation, Angelina said, ‘I would like to be this forgiven criminal, because everything is not all right with me either, I am a big sinner.’ But what was also interesting was that on Angelina’s left ear there was only one similar cross hanging, and this reminded me of the words of Jesus, ‘Take up your cross and follow me.’ We read in the Gospel, Luke 9:23-26, where Jesus speaks these words to the people who surrounded Him.

We speculated a little about what these words could mean for us today. I also touched on the topic of repentance, forgiveness of sins, and following Jesus. Angelina said, ‘I need to think about all this, maybe I can follow Jesus. I would also like to go to heaven. Thank you for telling me about this.’

In a short moment, a young heart opened in trust to Sergei and seemed open to learn more.

May each of us too see differences in people, not as signs of cultural conformance, but as points of conversation for building bridges for the Gospel.