The Lamb

Animal sacrifice is all through the Bible. It was the practice laid out by God for His people in the Old Testament to atone for their sins and seek God's forgiveness. For people whose livelihood depended on raising livestock for food, milk, offspring, pelts, etc., to give up one of their animals for this ritual -- in fact, the most perfect ones -- was really a sacrifice for them in terms of losing all that the animal provided them to live. It wasn't just a symbolic act.

Yet, when Jesus came -- God Himself in the form of a man -- and walked among us, He made the ultimate sacrifice of His very life for us so that never again would humankind need to kill animals to repent of our sins. Jesus' sacrifice was for all of us, for all time.  That is why throughout the New Testament, He is often referred to as The Lamb.

For those of us in the West who mostly eat meat that we've purchased pre-cut and packaged at a grocery store, it's hard to understand what it really means that we consume living creatures for our own well-being.

In this culture, it is still a common practice at special occasions for someone to give up one of his lambs for a family or village feast. Often the men will gather around the animal and pray over it before the slaughter. All are expected to stand and watch the moment of the animal's death, in respect for its sacrifice. Then, the men and women participate in skinning the animal, removing its organs and cooking the meat slowly for several hours in a wood-fired covered bowl or pit. When it is finished, everyone sits on the floor and eats the meat and broth mixed with rice, along with other special foods.

The eldest or most honored man takes the head of the lamb and removes parts of the head and gifts them to people, explaining how this part of the animal symbolizes a character trait and wishing for that person to experience this trait. For instance, if the man gives the ear to a boy, he might say that he wishes the boy to have good ears to hear the wisdom of others and to learn and grow from this wisdom. Or if he gives the lip of the lamb to a young woman, he might say that he wishes all her words to be gentle and kind.

"Anna", the national leader of our people in this country, explained to me that many people here believe that Jesus is an American or a Russian god. They view our faith as something foreign that doesn't belong in their culture and traditions. So, Anna has found ways to see the Christian meanings within her people's cultural practices, and to incorporate those cultural practices into the life of the believers. The feast of the lamb is one of those practices.

Our team had the honor to witness this sacrifice of the lamb and to spend time with other believers during a feast ceremony here in Central Asia this week. It was interesting to see how the group related the slaughter of the animal to the death of Jesus for our sins, and used the feast as an opportunity to celebrate and remember what Jesus has done for us. It was also interesting to see how they related the gifting of the parts of the head in terms of fruits of the Spirit that they wished for the young people and children present.

Although it was hard to witness the death of a living animal, our group felt incredibly honored and privileged that the believers here would share their cultural practice with us, and that together, although we speak different languages, we could all celebrate the sacrifice of the Lamb and the freedom we now know in Jesus.

Report from Central Asia

Greetings from Central Asia!

I am about halfway through a two-week media mission trip with four Olivet Nazarene University media students, on a story-gathering trip in two neighboring countries.

The trip is partially the result of my visit to Olivet last fall, when I was given the opportunity to speak in four different communications classes about how to use journalism, PR and media in missions. Heather Attig McLaughlin, who grew up in the youth group at church with my husband Andrew, is a professor in media there now. She had previously wanted to put together a mission trip to the Eurasia Region, so we talked about that before I visited the school. Missionary Scott Rainey, who leads the CIS Field, of which Central Asia District is a part, asked if we would come to these two countries to gather video and written testimonies, to encourage the believers and also lead a young adult media camp. His idea was that we could teach young adults how to use their smart phones to film and edit short videos that they could use to share their faith with their friends. It was the perfect idea for this small team! Also joining us are Nancy, a leader from Olivet, and Natasha, a Ukrainian who is serving as our tranlastor.

We spent the first four days in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, where we have a church. We filmed two testimonies, and I also interviewed two additional people for written articles. We also have done a lot of videography for our archives for future videos, and photography.

It’s been a great experience so far. The church people were amazing in hosting us. They put us in a very good hostel and two women from the church prepared our meals each day. They were delicious and allowed us to try a very different kind of Russian-influenced cuisine from what we are used to. Nick, a member of the worship team at church, who is also a freelance media professional, hung out with us each day, showed us around the city, took us out for late night shooting, taught us Russian words, and explained the culture and what it is like to be a Christian in Kazakhstan. We have learned a lot!

The students have great attitudes, have been incredibly flexible, and know what they’re doing with videography. I can’t wait to see how these finished videos turn out! They even edited together a one-minute preview of Nick’s story, which we were asked to share in church on Sunday morning. It was fun to see a bit of what the students have learned in their program at Olivet.

We also enjoyed being part of worship with our brothers and sisters on Sunday morning. It was a small but faithful group.

We have learned that in Kazakhstan there have traditionally been three ethnic or “national” groups – Korean ancestry, Russian ancestry and native Kazakhs. In this culture, your ethnicity determines your religion. If you are Korean, you might be Protestant Christian. Russians are Orthodox Christian if they are religious. Kazakhs are nominally Muslim. It is not acceptable to change your religion. It is also illegal to proselytize, particularly if you’re Christian.

Astana is a beautiful, new, clean city with a lot of advanced technology and beautiful, creative architecture. The capital was established just 20 years ago, so all the buildings are brand new, funded by revenue for the sale of oil. It is one of the world’s few planned cities. The population is about 1 million.

Monday, we flew from Astana to another country on the district. We will move around a bit here, traveling to a couple locations to spend time with Nazarene believers and hear their stories. We have gotten to hear a bit from Scott about their backgrounds and how God has worked in their lives. I can’t wait to hear the full stories with all the details! We’ll also worship with them on Sunday, and run the two-day media camp here. The Olivet students have already prepared training materials and a sample video so they can teach them what they have been learning at university, using their smart phones.

I am really grateful for all those who have been praying for us. Several team members have had slight stomach or sinus problems, but overall everyone has been healthy, despite a continuing lack of sleep as we have kept tight schedules with late nights or early mornings. We have had smooth travels and all our equipment has worked flawlessly, and we’ve had good group cohesion and unity with lots of laughter and fun conversation.

The people you meet: New friends from Croatia

If you saw our newsletter in April (hint, join our Facebook group), you saw that I started writing about the people that we meet through our life and ministry in the UK and Eurasia Region.

This week, we met two wonderful women from Croatia.

Our good friend Betsy Scott (left), a Nazarene missionary in Croatia with her husband Dave, and two children, J.J. and Emma, brought two of her good friends and fellow church planters to Nazarene Theological College this week for what NTC calls an "intensive class."

Background: Intensive classes meet four or five days in one week, all day, and squeeze a semester worth of material into that week. Then a follow-up essay is due later, which is the entirety of the grade in the class. Some of the students from this past year have stayed in town for the intensive classes, and other people, like our Croatian friends, have traveled in specifically for this educational opportunity.


I had the unexpected pleasure of being able to spend some time with these women -- Sanja and Dalia -- and hear more about their stories over meals and an interview.

Sanja (right in photo) is an entrepreneur, selling natural food cakes in Croatia, and is passionate about holistic health and clean eating. She met Christ about 20 years ago and, as a natural extrovert, she is also passionate about sharing Jesus with others, but has struggled to know how to do this appropriately in the Croatian context. Early on, she and others would go door to door and knock, or stand on street corners preaching. When this did not work, she became discouraged.

About a year or two ago, Sanja met Betsy because their sons were in the same class. She learned that Betsy was starting a Bible study for women, and Sanja enthusiastically joined. She fell in love with the doctrines and biblical beliefs of the Church of the Nazarene, which is a new church in Croatia. Although Sanja had been a committed Christian for many years, she felt that she was simply floating in her faith, without a firm foundation, and didn't know how to grow deeper than she had already grown. But what she was learning in the Bible study took her deeper while giving her a more firm foundation in her faith

Sanja joined the Scotts' church planting team, and is one of the leaders of The Valuing Life ministry, which the group created to meet once a month, giving women from Zagreb a place where they can share about their crafts and creations and sell them to others. As Croatia is struggling economically, and women don't always have work opportunities, Valuing Life allows them to showcase their creative work and also earn some income. It is also a time to discuss faith and get to know other women, whether they're Christian or non Christian.

When Sanja learned that there was the opportunity for her to study theology in a deeper and more focused way through two of our Nazarene educational institutions in Europe, she leapt at the chance to study. She took the evangelism intensive this week, which gave her many new ideas about how she could share her faith in more culturally appropriate ways for Croatia.

Dalia is completing her PhD in environmental management, and is passionate about science and creation and how this intersects with theology and Christian practice. She learned about the Nazarene Bible study from Sanja. Dalia had been feeling a deep need to understand God more and to grow deeper in her faith, so she felt the Bible study was the answer to her need.

Dalia has become captivated by Wesleyan theology, which is the source of the distinctive doctrine of the Church of the Nazarene, particularly the understanding of holiness in Christian living and relationship with God. She has read numerous books on Wesley and translated a booklet called Nazarene Essentials into Croatian. Dalia is very interested in pursuing a master's degree in theology.

Sanja and Dalia are part of the core team which is planting the Church of the Nazarene in Croatia. Dave and Betsy have been working there with a variety of volunteers for about five years, and after all the team's hard work in networking, developing relationships, and creating spaces for informal spiritual discussion, there is now the first Nazarene church in Zagreb -- a God-thing in a culture where Protestants make up less than 1 percent of the population.

Riding a double decker bus for the first time.

Selfies with Mexican food.

I had a great time showing the three women around Didsbury where we live. Andrew and I took Betsy to the Curry Mile for dinner and conversation one evening. On Thursday evening, I took all three on our standard double-decker buses (their first time to ride in a bus with a second level) into the city center for Mexican food (think Chipotle knock-off) and a bit of shopping.

These beautiful ladies are smart, ambitious, and loads of fun, and it brought some unexpected pleasure into the week to have them here and to be able to share our current home with new people and talk about how God has been working in all our lives.