Perhaps I should tell part of that story. While motoring along posting occasional devotional piece and blogging other materials from my extensive file system, I receive an inquiry from Olga in Russia about information on D. S. Warner. That really intrigued me. I discovered Olga was of German descent and born in Kazakhstan to a mixed marriage. She wrote me from Russia. I already had a missionary friend in St Petersburg, Russia and was greatly interested in fostering better relations between the U.S. and Russia,but this is a whole other story.
It goes back to the seventies at Grand Junction, MI camp meeting and my Michigan roots where I had German friends with WWII experiences in Russia. I learned that Olga had some American education and had been in America. She was the only English-educated member of a German colony of D. S. Warner followers from Astana, Kazakhstan. I learned there was a longstanding Church of God camp meeting there, frequently attended by members of our German Church of God in Canada where my friend Kurt Pudel lives.
In meeting some of Kurt's friends, I learned they included people who had been to Astana. I also found a friendship with a young Kazak bible school student, now the married pastor of an independent church somewhere in that region. I disovered Olga belonged to a small colony of independent Church of God Germans who had migrated north from Astana to a small farm community not two hundred miles west of Moscow, a trip of 1700 miles.
There, they established a small farm colony. If I remember, they built a dairy farm and a cheese factory. Making farm products and employing local Russians, they revitalized this dying village into a viable community. Here, they they live and work among the Russians whom they wish to evangelize via camp meetings, occasional religious efforts, and online digital publications, utilizing early publications from the Gospel Trumpet.
For a time, I corresponded with their leader, Pastor Andre. I tried to connect them to Anderson, Indiana and our national leadership but had little success with that. I think we found it difficult to understand each other with our cultural differences and not being able to converse face to face. He seemed like a good brother. Olga married Pastor Andre and is his chief translator and I still ontact her occasionally and will continue to do so.
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With time, I connected with Sara Nongbet in Shillong. a much respected friend, and with numerous other Meghalayans. I became obcessed with the story of J.M. Roy, a cohort of John AD Khan, but best known to the American church as J M Nichols-Roy.
I had long known of Nichols-Roy, the Indian friend of Khan, and their founding of the Church of God mission in India. I did not understand the occasional cultural conflict between them and the Anderson Missionary Board, Today I understand that Khan and Roy founded our India Missions in India proper and also in Assam and to the Northeast (Assam and the Bengali area). I also understand today that JM Nichols-Roy founded our Church of God in Meghalaya/Assam and it is a freestanding indigenous church today that is self-governing, self-supporting, and self-propagating. It has had a free-standing relationship with The Church of God, Anderson, IN since 1973 when one of their young pastors came to America, preached at Anderson camp meeting, graduated from Anderson School of Theology, and returned to lead the church back home. This is a whole story in itself and is well reviewed by their Historian.
While this was all unfolding on my Facebook account, I continued friending in Africa, where I now have friends in Nigeria and East Africa. There is Noel Barumwete a young married housewife and mother who serves her 100+member church constituency in the Congo. She accepted her position after being duly elected (the first female in a male dominated culture) after the male leadership had colluded with the government and defrauded the church of much of their infrastructure, leaving many congregations meeting in the open air.
I have made numerous friends in Uganda, young men like Fred Kwewago, a young pastor who lives in or near Jinja. I have learned much about our Church of God global work through men like Solomon Shihundu and Gilbert Barasa (and Nyokabe) in Kenya; Administrater Emmanuel in Milawi, and missionary Stevenson's of Uganda et al.
This is not to omit friends in the Philippines, and elsewhere. Through Philippine friends like Edwin Epal and Eddie Viray, I have gained entry to SE Asia and connected with individuals like German Missionary Andre Makel who is building a bible college in SE Asia. Andre and I discuss our early pioneers often, but there are other friends in this global network. Friends like Don Armstrong are deeply appreciated for their work with our Global missions.
I must say, dear friends all, I am missing you greatly while I am off o f Facebook. I only hope I can get reconnected with both Facebook and with every one of you. After nine decades of thinking differently, I no longer think of myself as being such a solitary and introspective person. YOU are constantly in my prayers. We have a meaningful message of a personal relationship with a Risen Savior . As John Wesley pointed out so often; this relationship was best described by Jesus himself as a two-step summary of the Law and the Gospel: love God supremely; love your neighbor as yourself.
If we could do this globally, we could once more return to a humanity that thinks more of friending one another than fighting one another, as our current autocratic President seems prone to do. Stay safe and well dear friends. Keep your distance. Practice good health measures and be blessed as you walk in the sunlight of truth.
This is walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com
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