15 minute read
Paul & Sasha Shulga: Slavic ministry
PAUL & Sasha Shulga Ministering to Ukrainians, many others
Paul and Sasha Shulga helped launch a Slavic night at their church. The event was a success and there is now a “Slavic campus” at Caldwell Christian Faith Center, where Paul is pastor. The Shulgas are shown here with their two daughters: Abigail, 6, being held by her dad, and Adeline, 4, shown in her mom’s arms holding a small flower. (Photo by Lily Kuzmenko of Memories by Lily) By Gaye Bunderson
For anyone not familiar with the term “Slavic,” it’s time to become more aware. One Slavic nation is frequently in the news and most people have no doubt heard of it: Ukraine.
A population of Slavic people make their home in the Treasure Valley, having come here from one of a broad range of Slavic countries that includes: the West Slavs of Poland, Czech Republic, and Slovakia; the East Slavs of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine; and the South Slavs of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Montenegro, and Slovenia*. These people share a common culture, as well as many common languages.
Paul and Sasha Shulga are a Slavic American couple currently serving others in their community at the Caldwell Christian Faith Center at 301 S. 34th Ave. Paul was born in the U.S. after his parents immigrated here from Ukraine by way of Italy prior to his birth. Sasha came with her parents from Ukraine when she was 6 years old.
The Shulgas started a Slavic church campus roughly a year ago. Caldwell Christian Faith Center holds Sunday services at 9:30 and 11:15 a.m. The Slavic service is at 2 p.m.
Things changed dramatically for Slavic church members when Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 of this year. “Before, the people were not political. Now it’s a full-blown war, and people are affected by it – they have family members there who’ve been run out of their homes and bombed. People are concerned about the lives of their loved ones. It puts a different perspective when you talk to people who have family there,” Paul Shulga said.
On February 27 – a Sunday and just one day after the invasion – prayers for Ukraine were deeply heartfelt during all the services.
“The churches came together,” Paul continued, explaining the local Slavic population has gotten tremendous support from other churches and from the local community at large, including non-believers. Asked about Russian immigrants and descendants versus Ukrainian immigrants and descendants in the Treasure Valley and if there is any tension between the two groups, Paul replied: “There might be pockets of that somewhere, but not in my congregation. Russians here are not in favor of the war. Here we have definitely come together around the cause, not the culture or the country, and not the nationality but the injustice.
“We are praying over the whole region, not praying for any specific people. We are praying about innocent bloodshed. For the Slavic church, it is an important issue.”
Paul wasted no time in lifting the war-torn European region up to God. The same day as the Russian invasion, he led a group of 200 people in prayer on the steps of the Capitol Building in Boise. “There were Ukrainians, Russians, and people from the community,” he said.
During the specifically Slavic service at the church on Sunday, March 6, the Shulgas had developed a program that felt largely church-as-usual and included the blessing of five babies born to families in the congregation. Paul joked that, “We will build the Slavic campus one way or another” – and that included the very smallest and newest members.
A husband and wife, Yuriy and Lidia Buchinskiy, spoke briefly during the service. Yuriy was flying back to Ukraine to help where he could. Lidia still has family there. Later, in a phone interview, Lidia said of her time at Caldwell Christian Faith Center’s Slavic campus: “My church has become my family. I can’t imagine life without it. They have helped emotionally, financially, and spiritually. They call and ask, ‘What else can we pray for?’, and their prayers have been answered.”
For her, attending the church is not optional. “It’s essential,” she said. “It’s a lifeline right now.” [See the sidebar for more on the Buchinskiys.]
Many congregants of the Slavic campus are bilingual, including Paul and Sasha, who speak both English and Russian. Members include people from Romania, Ukraine, Armenia, and Moldova. “The church is centralized around a culture more than a language,” explained Paul. “I preach in English, with a full translation in Russian through headsets [if requested], so the worship is bilingual.”
About 150 Slavic people from throughout the valley attend services, and many of them are second or third generation Slavic people who don’t fully assimilate into American culture. “We are building a bridge between the American church and the Slavic culture, then there is no need for them to forfeit their cultural background,” Paul said.
For the CFC services held earlier in the day, there is a mix of all sorts of people as well. “America is the melting pot – there are bits and pieces of many cultures,” Paul said.
For example, many Hispanic people attend the church and, according to Paul, Hispanic culture is very similar to the Slavic culture in terms of “a close-knit community that is hospitalitydriven and family-driven.”
At Caldwell Christian Faith Center, the Shulgas seek to establish a tight-knit fellowship. “People are more comfortable in a church where someone is going to understand you, and you have common experiences,” they said.
So how was a specifically Slavic campus established?
Paul explained: “Lead Pastor Jordan Hodges believed that God’s Kingdom is not about one people group, so this is all part of a bigger community church.” Christian Faith Center, in all, has 6 locations and 7 campuses between the Treasure Valley and a location in Orville, Calif.
However, the part that Paul and Sasha played in launching a uniquely Slavic service can’t be understated. “It’s all our fault,” Paul said with a smile.
Both he and Sasha were youth leaders at one point. “Then, about 4 or 5 years ago, we felt a call for our people stuck between two cultures. One year after we helped plant Christian Faith Center in Boise, we thought, ‘Let’s do a Slavic night’. We did and 200 people showed up. We answered a need in our community. We can reach that demographic and be a bridge point,” Paul said.
“We provide a place for people,” Sasha confirmed.
The married couple with two children serve the church and their community together. But the main beauty of the Caldwell Christian Faith Center is its complete lack of exclusivity. All are welcome. And all come.
Paul explained: “Part of the vision is that it is not only Slavic people but also Latino, Asian, American. Anyone can come. My goal is to be able to preach something that God has put into my heart that touches someone in his or her 80s, or someone who is a teenager. That’s how Jesus did it. He was surrounded by children and many people of all ages and walks of life.
“We have a varied congregation. About a third are seniors and the rest are young families and Latino young adults. People will stay at a church if they ‘see themselves’.”
Paul likened the diverse congregation to Jesus casting out His net and pulling in all kinds of fish. “I embrace my culture. That is a strength of a church: multiple generations and multiple kinds of people. That is the Kingdom of God. We’ve seen people get saved, baptized. We’ve seen families that haven’t come to church in years.”
Though the Shulgas are personally acquainted with religious freedoms from residing in America, the older members of their families lived a different experience. Said Paul: “My greatgrandfather was sent to the labor camps for being Christian.”
Family members got in trouble for merely owning a Bible, and both Shulgas agreed, “Many were imprisoned for their faith.”
Ultimately, the Shulgas’ primary focus for all three services in the church is, like all good churches, helping parishioners know God and His love.
“It’s about saving souls. Jesus is the only one who can save – save the hungry, thirsty, and dying. My heart was to have one church. As it is written, ‘every nation and tribe and people and language’ (Revelation 7:9). We offer a service to the Slavic population; it’s a niche we’ve been given. But our priority is to build the Kingdom,” Paul said. n
For more information, go to https://experiencecfc.com/ caldwell/.
*Information from https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/slavic-countries
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CHOOSING to Love A distinction between ‘trusts’, ‘believes’
By Daniel Bobinski
Note: In March of 2020 I decided to use this space to focus on God’s greatest command. If you’re connecting with this series for the first time and would like to read the earlier columns on this topic, I encourage you to visit Christian Living’s website to read the whole series. Visit https://www.christianlivingmag.com/columns/ John 3:16
We’re continuing the final stretch of our study on how the Apostle Paul defines agape (ahGAH-pay). Agape is Koine Greek for the English word “love” that Jesus used when He told us to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Over the past few years we’ve reviewed almost all the words and phrases used by the Apostle Paul as he defines agape in 1 Corinthians 13 (starting with love is patient, love is kind, etc.), and we have just a few left.
In this installment we’re looking at the word that most often gets translated as believes. The Greek word is pisteuō (pronounced pist-yoo’-o). It’s translated as love “always believes” in just about every translation, but a few different takes on the word exist. Those are the New International Version (which uses “love always trusts”) and the New Living Translation (which uses “love never loses faith”). Every other translation uses the word “believes.”
This makes sense, because of the 247 times the word pisteuō is used in the New Testament, 239 of those times it gets translated as “believes.” The thing that I first want to point out is what is meant by pisteuō, and for that I want to lean on the translation we find in the New International Version: Love always trusts.
It’s one thing to look at a chair and say you believe it will hold you up. But if you don’t sit down in the chair because deep down you’re concerned about its sturdiness, then your statement of belief is rather hollow. Let me offer a different example. The Story of the Acrobat
In the 1800’s, a French acrobat named Jean François Gravelet, better known as Monsieur Charles Blondin, became known as the man who could cross Niagara Falls on a tightrope. In fact, he crossed Niagara Falls on a tightrope more than 300 times.
Balancing for Blondin was like a gift from God. Not only did he walk the rope by himself, he would walk backwards and even cross with a bag over his head. He would carry people on his back while he did it. He even pushed a wheelbarrow across on the tightrope.
Legend has it that one time after Blondin pushed a wheelbarrow across the tightrope, someone in the crowd praised him, saying, “I believe you can take anything across the falls.” To that, Blondin is alleged to have responded, “If you believe that, get into the wheelbarrow and I will take you across.” As one might imagine, the onlooker declined.
That story illustrates the difference between “believing” something can happen and “trusting” something can happen. If the onlooker had true pisteuō, he would have gotten into the wheelbarrow. In other words, saying you believe in something is one thing; believing to the point of trusting your life with it is something completely different. It is interesting to know that one of the most famous verses in the world also uses pisteuō, and that’s John 3:16. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Daniel Bobinski Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” The word believes in that verse is pisteuō. If we use “trusts” instead of “believes,” it sounds like this: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever trusts in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” It’s like getting into a wheelbarrow that Jesus is pushing because we truly pisteuō Him. It’s like saying, “I trust You with my life, Jesus – take me where You want me to go.” That concept stands in stark contrast to what demons might say, and it’s why we need to be careful when we hear someone say the phrase, “I believe in Christ.” After all, Satan and his minions believe that Christ exists, but they don’t put their trust in Him. They don’t pisteuō. The Command to Trust With this concept in mind, we can look at the command to “love the Lord” and say pisteuō the Lord. We can trust Him and rely on Him 100%. Remember, that is not a suggestion; it’s a command. And Jesus said that loving the Lord is the greatest command. Naturally, the second-most important command is to love our neighbors as ourselves. However, that begs the question, can I really trust and rely on myself? It’s a fair inquiry, and I recommend that people not trust in the flesh because the flesh is weak. With that being true, then how can we pisteuō our neighbors “like ourselves?” My answer is only mine, but I believe if I have invited the Holy Spirit into my life, then I can rely on and trust the Holy Spirit living inside of me to work God’s will in my life. I can pisteuō myself because I am already dead to self and alive in Christ. And, combined with the agape attribute of patience, I can also trust (or pisteuō) “my neighbors” – who are the rest of mankind. I can trust that by praying and trusting God to use me in the way He wants, then the people with whom we interact are the people God has decided to place in my path. Out of all of this, I believe the most important part is to regularly trust God 100% that He has you in his wheelbarrow and He is not going to let you fall. And as this passage says, always do that. n Dr. Daniel Bobinski is an award-winning and best-selling author and a popular speaker at conferences and retreats. Reach him at danielbobinski@protonmail.com or (208) 375-7606.
WEDNESDAY’S Child Mistee, age 15, loves all things artistic
The following information is provided by Wednesday’s Child, an organization that helps Idaho foster children find permanent homes.
Meet 15-year-old Mistee. With a flare for the dramatic, this spirited young lady has hopes of being adopted soon. Energetic, spunky, outgoing, and creative are a few words that best describe her.
Mistee appreciates the finer arts of dancing, singing, acting, and admiring artwork. Though she isn’t currently on a dance team, she would really like to join one. She is very proud to be a part of her school’s drama club and debate team; and if she could travel anywhere in the world, she would go to Paris and Hollywood to admire the amazing art. A family that is ready to embrace and cheer on her vibrant personality will be a great fit for her.
Mistee really enjoys spending time with her friends, and she says that her friends think she’s sweet and that they have a lot of fun together doing art projects and talking about anime. She dreams of going to college and getting an art degree. She works hard on her current schoolwork and is very successful when she puts her mind to focusing on what’s in front of her.
Mistee would do best as the youngest or only child in the home and would thrive in a home with routine and opportunities for her to express her artsy and dramatic sides. Her Permanency Team is open to a two-parent home, or possibly a single-parent family where there is a great support system in place.
Caregivers who are TBRI-trained, or those with a strong understanding of what is needed to successfully parent children who have experienced trauma, will be a wonderful match for her.
Mistee is ready to be adopted soon. If you think that you could provide her with the Forever Home she deserves, inquire about her at www.idahowednedayschild.org or contact Recruitment Coordinator Shawn White at swhite52@ewu.edu or cell 208-488-8989 if you have specific questions. n
Mistee
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