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Voices-only Wednesday: ‘There’s a Stirring’ in Ukraine
In a suburb of Kiev, Ukraine, Christians, including many living in exile from the conflict in the eastern part of their country, rehearse during a holiday singing camp. The songs are about Jesus rising from the dead. Look for Erik Tryggestad’s reports from Ukraine, coming soon.
Posted by The Christian Chronicle on Sunday, April 12, 2015
IRPIN, Ukraine — In the midst of a terrible conflict, Ukrainian Christians gathered in this suburb of Kiev to lift their voices in praise to the Creator.
Welcome to Voices-only Wednesday. For this special edition, I’m including a few videos I shot during a singing camp for Ukrainian Christians. A professional videographer recorded the festival, so look for better-looking-and-sounding versions of these videos soon.
Many of the Christians who participated come from Churches of Christ in eastern Ukraine, currently under the control of pro-Russian separatists who have dubbed the region the Donetsk People’s Republic. See our earlier coverage of the impact this has had on Churches of Christ in the region, and look for more reports soon.
Stan Bryan, a Christian rancher in northeastern Oklahoma, directs the camp. He ministers for a small Church of Christ across the border in Kansas and helped to plant the Petrovsky Church of Christ in Donetsk — once the largest Church of Christ in the country. Now soldiers from the DPR occupy the church’s building and its members meet in secret in apartments across the city.
I met a lot of heroes in Kiev — people who have fled the conflict and revitalized Churches of Christ in central Ukraine, church members who are serving the refugees. I’ll report on them soon.
Meanwhile, enjoy this rendition of “There’s a Stirring” from the camp.
Here is a video I posted on our Facebook page. The women sing the text from Isaiah 53 as the rest of the singers respond, “Holy God, holy strength, holy immortal one, have mercy on us.”
“I love to hear them singing the Scriptures,” Bryan said. “I want so much for our churches in Ukraine and in America to also learn to sing Scripture like this.”
Here’s a quick video from the Ukrainian singing conference in Irpin, a suburb of Kyiv, where Christians (including refugees from the war-torn east) praised God in their native tongue. I shot this with my phone. I’ll post some professional-grade stuff from the videographer when it’s available. –ET
Posted by The Christian Chronicle on Monday, April 13, 2015
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