Memoirs of Chernobyl (7) - Tuzhar, Chernobyl region

When we arrived in Tuzhar, Pastor Aleksander Bogdan welcomed us with a big smile, especially when he was surprised by the visit of an old classmate of his from their theological training days in Kiev.

The Church of Christ for Everybody was planted in the village of Tuzhar some time before Pastor Aleksander moved up there 7 years ago. Small but active church presence reminded me of the churches I visited in Fukushima earlier this year.

When Pastor Aleksander was first called to shepherd this church in Tuzhar, a village located on the boarder with Belarus and also close to the Chernobyl nuclear plant, he received a promise of God's healing on the land from the Old Testament. It is clearly demonstrated - not only written in the wall, but also in his life together with his congregation.

"If my people, who are called by my name, 

will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, 

then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place."

(2 Chronicle 7:14, 15)

Before we sat down to listen to the stories of two ladies in the village who lived through the whole time since the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl, we were very warmly received with delicious local Ukrainian food, cooked with vegetables all grown locally. They loved their locally grown produce - a sign of God's promise of healing on their land.

(from left to right) Pastor Aleksander, Maria and her neighbor, myself and Myroslava

I had simple two questions.

• What do you remember about the disaster? What happened? 
• Why did you stay instead of moving out?   

But, I knew the answer was not that simple - Home.
"It's our home. We have nowhere else to go."

25 years after the disaster, Tuzhar is now gaining vitality as a community again with the increasing number of families with young children. As we were leaving the church, we saw a couple of boys riding on their bicycles. Pastor Aleksander greeted them as one of them came to wave at us. Another sign of God's healing on the land.

Memoirs of Chernobyl (6) - Travel Companions

Pastor Vacilli works as a taxi driver and he loves the fact that he has such a flexible job that he can meet his church members whenever they need him wherever they might be throughout the week, not just on Sunday service. He had worked in a shoe factory before the Soviet Union collapsed and remembers 'the old days' when persecution of the church was normal and believers would meet in forests, sing hymns quietly and share the word of God secretly. When you see the big smile on his face today, it seems pretty hard to believe such a past existed in the land where it now seems to be the source of vibrant church movements going on in all corners of Ukraine. Perhaps, I wonder if the suffering they went through in those early years provided a fertile ground on which today's younger generation can stand, like Myroslava, my translator on this trip to Tuzhar, who loves her theological studies in the seminary where I was visiting earlier in Kiev and wants to sing jazz in New York city for God's glory.

Pastor Vacilli

Myroslava

In Pastor Vacilli's taxi, three of us drove over 500 KM to get to Tuzhar from Ozadivka, then back to Kiev on one day. We shared many stories, and heard Mira sing Ukrainian folk songs for us and enjoyed the full moon together on the way back to Tuzhar.

Ozadivka (pointed with pen), approximately 200 KM away from Kiev (marked in red in the center of the map)

Tuzhar, 100 KM north of Kiev and near the 30 KM zone from Chernobyl nuclear plant.

Poverty and isolation.
That's what appears first on the surface of the land of former communist countries.

But its people, made in the image of God, fulfilling their God-given call on their lives bring out the beauty of God's good creation all together; whether a local church pastor driving a taxi or a seminary student dreaming of singing Jazz in a New York stage.

Memoirs of Chernobyl (5) - Maria, an evacuee from Chernobyl (Part Two)

(continued story from the last entry)

Loss of home and being told to move out with no preparation and no plans. Maria tearfully recalls her painful journey she had been on for the last 20 years.

Church is our new home.
Maria shares her hope in Christ for people in Japan.

"Take good care of your health, and have patience too. It is difficult," as she painstakingly remembers.

After our brief meeting, Maria gave us a bagful of walnuts she picked from her yard as we were leaving her house, one of many identical buildings laid in rows of this relocation village in the middle of full autumn foliage.

Memoirs of Chernobyl (4) - Maria, an evacuee from Chernobyl (Part One)

After the short visit to the hospital building that was turned into a children's camp facility, we headed to the neighbourhood to meet with a family who moved from Chernobyl.

Maria lives alone now and started coming to church a few years after she moved to Ozadivka at the end of an year long struggle with her health and healing from that illness. She shared with us her memory of what happened in the community when the Chernobyl explosion happened.

Memoirs of Chernobyl (3) - Ozadivka, Berdychiv District, Ukraine

Bishop Petro Zaliznii met us in Kiev and drove to Berdychiv on Tuesday evening of October 12. He is well known in Berdychiv district and he's particularly known as "a man of charity" because his commitment to love God and love neighbour. Having been a pentecostal pastor for a long time, including significant years of leading underground churches before the Iron curtain fell, Pastor Petro understands very well what it means to lead congregations through suffering and dark times in history. After Ukraine became independent, he continued his church work with much zeal and freedom that came through the political changes in the nation. He started a charitable organization in his district of Berdychiv to help children relocated from Chernobyl area. Ozadivka is a village in Berdychiv district, about 200 KM southeast of Kiev. This is where the government (the former Soviet Union gov't in this case) moved a whole village from Chernobyl area (near the 30 KM zone of exclusion) nearly 20 years ago.

From Berdychiv district town to Ozadivka village was about an hour drive through vast fields.

 
After the communism collapsed the Ukrainian government divided and distributed all of its land to everyone; some too poor to farm alone or to rent heavy equipments and sold their land to somewhat richer folks. Mostly unable to think individualistically - the fact that life depends upon their own ability to plan, utilize and control resources. People seemed to be quite nostalgic about the old days; neighbours working in collective farms; someone else (the government) worrying about their future. People I met and talked to seemed to remember the disaster with much pain and also with bitterness toward the government that the government did not, still does not do much.

As we were approaching to the village, there was a small garden dedicated to the 25th anniversary of Chernobyl disaster. 

The old Soviet government promised people with housing, schools, and a hospital in the new village, but after the collapse of communism, the new Ukrainian government was too weak to keep up with all the promises. There we went to the old unfinished hospital building that the Ukraine government could not finish. The local government sought after Pastor Petro as they thought he could put it to a good use for local community so they sold the building at a lower price to the church. Since then the church has been operating camps for children and also has a vision to move forward.

Memoirs of Chernobyl (2) - Chernobyl Museum (Part Two)

On December 15, 2000, more than 14 years after the explosion, the nuclear plant was finally shut down. 

The plant stays closed for over 10 years now, and the zone of exclusion (30 KM zone) is now being reopen for tourists soon, but  not in October when I was there.  The lives of many people have changed for ever. Many lives were lost and many still suffer. As a photo journalist put it, it was an act of self destruction by the humanity. 

This poem below was written by Launa, an unknown poet. It is poignant.

Uprooted: Yet from these strange ashes hope will rise

By Launa

If a man’s thoughts dye his soul

What kind of stain do his deeds leave?

A hazardous spill on himself and upon the laps of others

Who share the same air

Breathing in and out

In and out

Now there’s bitterness that abounds

In the bread basket to the north

Uprooted family trees with forgotten people

In yellowed photos dangling down

Wooden cradles set ablaze

In the forest

Where blue light sprang from place to place

Luminescent

Deadly beautiful

Reminiscent of sparklers

Cracking at a May Day parade

The rain has become hot tears pouring down

Falling down

Dropping to the earth

The fragmented rivulets on a musical score

Splash on these paper lives, fragile and all to brief

The muffled sobbing is a melody

But only to the ears of Him unseen

It’s an aria of the heart that sings a Capella

The high pitched notes of pain

Yes he who suffers much speaks a wordless language

It transcends dialects, country lines

And political ideologies

Uprooted, yet not alone

I have seen lives irrevocably changed

In one moment in time

From one thoughtless choice, a careless decision

Leaving ancient villages empty

Doors are swinging on squeaky hinges

For all eternity plus seven years more

And the plastic dolls of stolen youth

Sit on dust covered window panes

Vacantly gazing at the loss…

Uprooted, yet not alone

Heartbreak and tragedy

Are no respecter of persons, traditions, religion

Or plans 

It is blinded by skin color

And the coins in one’s purse

I have been told that fear is like rust

That eats away hope, little by little

Corroding all confidence

This invisible acid obliterates desire

Until we are mere shells with nothing left inside…

Uprooted, yet not alone

I believe that love is a salve

To be spread on the wound to heal and soothe

Able to mend the innermost places

That are hidden from man

Faith causes that page to turn

Just because today’s sunshine is blocked out by the clouds

Doesn’t mean the sun is gone

If God seems silent

It doesn’t mean he has left us

Or doesn’t hear our cries

Perhaps we are the ones who are not listening

To the voice that is gentle and low

Tender and always near

We must be quiet and still

He is here

And anxious to woo us to Him life a lover

He will be revealed once more ….

Uprooted, yet not alone

There is a day that dawns upon all of our broken lives

That we are able to see clearly

If we look with unjaded eyes

We can see that we are all people with ruined dreams

With unrealized plans

Yes, somehow they can fit perfectly

Into His bigger picture

And will be breathtakingly beautiful

In time…

Uprooted, yet never alone

From these strange ashes

Hope will rise!

Memoirs of Chernobyl (1) - Chernobyl Museum (Part One)

I had a chance to visit Ukraine for three days last month for another project I am working on at the moment. After my official visit at the Ukrainian Evangelical Seminary, I spent the second half of my time covering about 500 KM of road travel (map) on a whirlwind tour between three places related to the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986. My purpose was to see what lessons I might be able to pass to Fukushima and it was indeed a very fruitful trip and worth being on the dirt road for 10 hours or so.

The three places I visited are:
First, the Ukrainian National Chernobyl Museum in Kiev, the capital city of Ukraine. 
Second, Ozadivka village in Berdychiv District, about 200 KM southwest of Kiev. This is one of the areas where the former Soviet government relocated residents within the 30 KM zone from the Chernobyl nuclear plant.
Third, Tuzhar village in Chernobyl region, 100 KM northeast of Kiev and close to the 30 KM zone from the Chernobyl nuclear plant.

I am only writing this nearly a month after my visit as my preparation for my third visit to Fukushima in a week. Fukshima disappeared from the international media for a while and now it started to surface again. Why? I will gradually write about this as the dates come closer for me to be in that Land of Good News again!

This week, I will focus on remembering Chernobyl and I will start with the Chernobyl Museum.  An interesting fact to note is this - it was built last year and largely by donation from Japan. Why? The last nuclear crisis of this scale the world had experienced before Chernobyl was Hiroshima and Nagasaki. People of Japan offered significant assistance. It was built last year, a year before 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. Who could have imagined that people would come to this place again, but now to seek a voice of wisdom and experience from the shared experience of deep suffering and pain?

Remembering. Truth matters.

Just like Holocaust and other tragic events in history, the most important thing is to remember what happened.  I took a few photos and recorded a few video clip in the museum.

This is what happened on the early morning of April 26, 1986. (A film made with a replica of the plant)

The government did not disclose the accident immediately and started evacuating people a few days later without giving them full information. May Day Parade took place 4 days after the explosion and even in high risks of radiation poisoning. Foreign media started to cover the issue.