WITNESS TO HISTORY 1979-2019
Assisting God’s People in East-Central Europe, Russia, Armenia During the Late Soviet and Early Post-Soviet Years
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Witness to History is a presentation of a specific era in world history when the world watched with trepidation as the Imperial order of Tsarist Russia, over the course of several explosive, revolutionary years under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin, fell to the powerful force of radical socialism, to become the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). The narrative combines historical records gleaned from Early Stalinist and Middle Soviet Khrushchev Eras prior to the 1970s; with firsthand accounts of Christian churches and individuals (at the time of my arrival on the scene) during the years of structural-societal convalescence under Communist Party Leader Leonid Brezhnev; the miraculous-transformational Late Soviet years of reform under Mikhail Gorbachev and heady-tumultuous Post-Soviet tenure of Boris Yeltsin; all the way to the current long-standing---and now clearly brutal New Soviet---leadership of Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin. Witness to History is a spiritual narrative of believers from the West coming to assist God’s people in the East, living (trapped!) under the extreme political duress of the militant Marxist-Leninist system. It is a personal expose on the God-given privilege of having been called to Christian service in tumultuous times, of being an outsider looking in at life within the closed, militaristic Soviet Satellite states of East-Central Europe. It is a cross-cultural glimpse through the eyes of Western Christians attempting to meaningfully assist Eastern Christians despite very different historic, cultural, experiential journeys. It is a spiritual expose on the God-given task of commending brothers and sisters in the Suffering Church to the One who cares deeply for His own---in whatever earthly, historic circumstances they find themselves. It is a presentation of a rare and magnificent privilege of meeting up-close and personal, scores of heroic Christians emerging triumphant through adversity---living through dangerous realities on the inside with few viable advocates (at least in the early years) to champion their cause, without Western passports in their possession, without Western embassies on the ready to fight for their rights in the case of harassment or imprisonment. Witness to History is an account of an era that readers will experience from the perspective of American evangelical Christianity, with its nuances, strengths, and accompanying worldwide conceptions and misconceptions. It is therefore a subjective account by someone invariably seeing, as it were, through specific personal, familial, faith, experiential, academic, missiological lenses. Yet it is hoped that a good measure of objectivity will nonetheless be evident as historic events are candidly portrayed as studied and experienced.
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About the Book
A Contemporary Personal Pioneer Missionary Narrative WITNESS TO HISTORY 1979-2019 Assisting God’s People in East-Central Europe, Russia, Armenia During the Late Soviet and Early Post-Soviet Years Witness to History 1979-2019 is a personal, narrative account of pioneering missionary service in the East-Central European Soviet Satellite states during the Late Soviet period, and in the Russian Federation during the Early Post-Soviet period. Historical records concerning Leninist, Stalinist, Khrushchev regimes gleaned prior to the 1970s, firsthand accounts of life under the Brezhnev regime, through the years of reform under Mikhail Gorbachev and the heady tenure of Boris Yeltsin---all the way to the current (and now clearly brutal New Soviet) tenure of Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin, combine to present the story of the God’s people under duress within the militant Marxist-Leninist system.
About the Author
Kaarina Ann Ham was raised in Western New York by parents committed to the Great Commission. Adolescent years took her family to New England where the missionary calling progressed. Undergraduate study at Eastern Nazarene College near Boston and graduate study at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena further nurtured the urge toward cross-cultural mission. 1979 marked the beginning of travels to the Soviet Union, followed by pioneering missionary service in the Soviet Satellite States of East-Central Europe during the 1980s, and a focus on the post-Soviet Russian Federation during the 1990s. In recent years, a deep tug at her heart has brought her to the Republic of Armenia. She is grateful for the privilege of pursuing this historic 40-year spiritual calling as God has prospered the journey from Boston to Pasadena to Chicago to Vienna to Moscow to Samara to Yerevan.