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Russian Sentiment - Thank You for Leaving Us
By David Hueners

Pastor Vladimir attempted to tell me that he was thankful that I had come and stayed with him during these last few weeks in Saransk.  The sentiment was heart felt, but when the words came out in broken English they sounded to my ears like the title of this short piece.

“Thank you for leaving us” is what he said, but what he was trying to say was, “Thank your for living with us.”  Upon hearing his version I was surprised and found it humorous because I knew what he was trying to say.  He didn’t know how his statement had been understood until I explained to him that the words he used told me he was thankful that I was going away.   When I explained it to him he said,  “No! No! Dave…awh…English is so difficult.  Leave, Live sounds almost the same. (I helped by adding that the trees have leaves that leave the tree when they stop living and leave their home.) Just to clear things up for him. 

I realize that English is difficult for him and that Russian is very difficult for me to learn as well.  Thank God for our interpreters!  Slava Bogu!

This is just one small example of the fun we have in our relationships with our Russian brothers and sisters.  Many warm and tender friendships have developed with these dear people.  I truly enjoy our time together as we talk, share, sing, pray, witness and worship together during our short stay with them.  We are like family.

But now our time of being together is growing short.  Tomorrow I will leave by train to Moscow and will begin the long journey to home where I will see my family and friends again.  It is so great to carry in my heart the memory of all the lives that God has blessed me with.  That I might touch them and they me.  It is God’s design that we walk in this way bearing the Fruit of the Spirit.

As I leave I know that I will feel a sense of loss.  They will take me to the train station.  We will load our bags on the train.  Some time will be spent outside the train car on the platform where we will hug and say our good-byes to each other.  Then we depart.  We wave through the window of the train and they wave back.  It is an emotional time for all of us. 

Since I was there watching the American team leave on the train last week  I now can see the departure as they do.  From their perspective they see the train silently begin to move.  Then it begins to make a little noise.  The final waving of hands is made to the departing friends.  The train begins to gain speed and the sound of the metal wheels turning on the steel rails gets louder and louder.  Then, the last car of the train passes.  They are left behind in Saransk.  The end of the train fades into the distance and the sound of the wheels grows quieter and quieter and then there is silence.

At that point you have an empty feeling inside.  A sense of sorrow and loss.  Quite a normal human emotion, but magnified by seemingly romantic nature of the departure of the train with loved ones onboard.   They wonder will the Americans ever return?  All they have now is the memory of them.

In a sense when someone you love dies it is like they have left on a train.  You sense a feeling of loss and emptiness.  I experienced this when my mother passed away in June of 2000.  You know that they will not come back and that adds to your sorrow.

Are we left without hope?  Is the train our loved ones left on going anywhere?  It is the most profound question of life.

In the Bible when King David’s son died he said, “Can I bring him back again?  I will go to him, but he will not return to me.”  2 Samuel 12:23

David had hope that he would go to be with his son someday.  But where?

Followers of Jesus Christ believe that He is the Way to the Father.  Our death physically allows us to step from time into eternity and to touch the face of God.  Some leave this world before their loved ones. For a child of God we can say, as we stand on that train platform of this life, that our train to heaven will leave someday and we will go to be with Him.  What a joyous reunion it will be at Heaven’s depot as we step off of that train and reunite with those we love. Slava Bogu!

And we will be able to join with King David in praise to God and say “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow (has followed) me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever”  Psalm 23:6

Amen.