Our soup kitchen opens in Moscow
Our soup kitchen opens in Moscow
When British Airways flight 872 touched down at Moscow’s International Airport in July 1992, we knew that this was a prophecy coming to pass. For years I had felt a stirring in my heart, and the strange words “Russia Mission” had begun to make a way through to my consciousness. Living Water Community had prepared to respond to that call. “It’s not enough f r you to be my servant, to restore the tribes of Jacob … I shall make you a light to the nations so that my salvation may reach the ends of the earth.” (Is. 49:6). These words of Isaiah have frequently, over the years, confirmed many of the prophecies that the Lord has spoken to our community.
“Have I not told you be strong and stand firm? Be fearless and undaunted for go where you may, Yahweh your God is with you.” (Joshua 1:9) Another special and powerful verse of scripture that the Lord speaks to me continually.
So, with this confirmation of God’s Word together with a series of Mary and God-incidences over the ten previous months, we were in Moscow!
Our first impressions set the tone for our mission: a dimly lit arrival hall, long queues, many people in a small area waiting, and “one American dollar” for a baggage trolley. There is no need to go through the green line. They search you anyway.
Our drive into the center of the city was exciting, nerve-racking, awesome and fearful. Eventually we arrived at Remisova Piat. The word of the seminarian who met us at the airport came back to us, “What! Three months? You are a brave bunch!” Soon we were settled in our apartment “Dom Marie” which consisted of seven rooms with double bunks (one or two per room), two toilets and baths – not exactly Western style but they did the job with difficulty; a very small kitchen with few utensils and a small stove and refrigerator.
“Dom Marie” was to become a true “Home of Mary”. A home of love and friendship, prayer and Eucharist. Clean and scrub, work and work, yes, that was our offering; but also a home where many fellow missionaries would find a bed, a hot meal, a smile, a community at prayer. “Dom Marie” would renew them for their journeys, not so easy in this vast land of souls waiting for the Word of God, waiting for the light!
From the four corners of the earth Our Lady called her disciples to gather for a chance to share, how she wanted special disciples for this work in her land of Russia – to re-evangelize, to bring again the name of her Blessed Son, Jesus Christ, to the lips and hearts of her people. And soon the reign of Her Immaculate Heart and the Sacred Heart of her Son would begin a new era of peace in the world. What an awesome privilege for us, for our Community. To be chosen as one of her disciples, and to be chosen to run her Home where they would all gather. Thank you, Holy Mother, for your call. All my heart could say was, “Lord, I am not worthy…..”
We all know that it is alleged that Our Blessed Mother is appearing in many parts of the world today, and to many different people. During our three months, we had another privilege of welcoming into Dom Marie two of these visionaries. We also had the privilege of our Blessed Mother appearing, on two occasions, at our prayer meeting and in our little chapel, after the Eucharist one day.
“Your presence here has been requested by the Father,” she said to our Community.
“My dear ones, know that this is not the end of the mission but only the beginning.”
As Wednesday is our Community prayer meeting day at home, we joined them in Moscow by beginning a Wednesday prayer meeting. On the first day, we took our guitars, steelpan and voices, together with a short Russian song taught to us by one of our two beautiful Russian teachers in Trinidad. We also took rosaries, pamphlets on how to say the Rosary in Russian and went to the little park near our apartment building. We began to sing. Soon the Word and Song spread, and we had a circle of babushkas and others around us.
This was the beginning of a little Community that we worked with continually for three months, at least three times a week. We taught them how to pray, how to pray the Rosary, gave them a “Life in the Spirit” Seminar and began a soup kitchen for the poor and needy. On the night before we left, one of the ladies said, “We are crying and we are sad to see you go because you have come from far away and taught us how to love – you taught us how to love God and each other – we never used to talk to each other and now we are like a family and care for each other.”
This was our mission for this little community. Together with the Social Organisation in Moscow called Dom Marie, we visited shut-ins, taught them to pray, helped clean their apartments and offered whatever assistance they needed. We also packaged foodstuffs and clothes for the poor and delivered these via different means, not the least being public transport buses. Seminars with the workers of Dom Marie Organisation and a group of recovering addicts brought to our mission the ‘whole person development programmes” of the West.
“Go out to the whole world and proclaim the Good News!”
The command of Jesus and the mission of the church, and naturally of missionaries.
Arbat Ulitza is the main flea market in Moscow where thousands of people walk every day buying oddities, souvenirs or maybe they are just walking to enjoy a little freedom. It is not uncommon to hear groups signing, people “soap boxing” on Arbat Street. The missionaries from Trinidad and Tobago, ably supported by our A-class, God-sent, Russian interpreter, joined the bandwagon and had some very powerful hours of evangelizing there. Handing out rosaries and bibles during our ministry, with altar calls and times of healing prayer were all part of this most incredible ministry. For as long as we could stand to minister in the rain or freezing weather, there would be men, women and young people eager to hear the Word of God, learning how to pray, giving their lives to Jesus.
Finally, in our last year, we moved out from Moscow to work in a little village in the south of Russia. This was one of the biggest challenges as we had no translator and had to really make it on our own. A wonderful life where we had to grow all our food or depend on the kindness of neighbours for many of our supplies. There was no grocery to go to and buy goods. Tremendous blessings flowed in this little place and God did a mighty work with us and through us. One could appreciate the words of the psalmist: “As a deer yearns for running water, so my soul thirsts for you, my God.” (Psalm 43)
What a thirst for God. What a longing. Something I have never seen, no inhibitions, no fear, no holding back, just that desire for God, that thirst for the God who comes, for the God of mercy, the God of love.
We know of poverty in the world through television, but the poverty you experience in Russia is one with no faith. It is hopeless poverty. In the slums of Calcutta, there is faith. In the barrios of South America, there is faith. And where there is faith, there is hope. In Russia, there is no faith, no hope. This, for me, was the most painful experience of our short mission, the total emptiness, hopelessness of a people, to see the blank faces of your sisters and brothers, the pain and suffering of their lives reflected in their eyes.
There are nine million people in the city of Moscow. You are never alone on the streets – people, people, people. All day, the metro, which is the best thing in Moscow, is full of people (an average of five million travel) but even in the midst of all these people, there is loneliness, sadness, the pain of the broken body of Jesus everywhere. For us, we could hear the cry of Jesus, “I thirst,” coming from the souls of these beautiful people, and our response, through the grace of God: “Oh, come to the water all you who are thirsty; though you have no money, come. Buy corn without money, and eat, and, at no cost, wine and milk … Pay attention, come to me; listen, and your soul will live.” (Isaiah 55:1, 3)
Thank you, Jesus and Mary, for giving us this soul-moving opportunity and the grace to respond to your call. Thanks, too, to all the dear sisters and brothers who have supported this mission.
From left: Rosemary, Jenni & Louie picking berries in
their back year in Seminovski