A LESSON IN GREETING ONE ANOTHER

Recently I made my usual, “1:00 am ‘twas the night before leaving for Russia” trip to Wal-Mart to pick up last minute items that I then rushed home to jam in my already-overweight suitcase to take to the orphanages. You know, important things like 20-packs of Big Red gum, bottles of Dr. Pepper, hot sauce and chips, peanut butter and of course, the gallon size hand sanitizer. It always amazes me how I can go to Wal-Mart to buy one item and seem to walk out with 20.

It never fails, every time I shop after midnight, the lines at Wal-Mart seem to be doubly long. I grabbed a magazine and leaned up against my cart. It was going to be a while waiting for the poor lady who had to run so many people through the register. I looked at the lady for a moment and wondered about her life. I watched as people got impatient with her and treated her so unkindly. One man told her to hurry up. Her eyes seemed tired and sad. She must have been about 60 years old.

I thought about going to one of the self-service lines, but decided to wait it out. Finally, it was my turn to be rung up. As I looked down in my cart, I visualized the children, teens and adults from Penza, Russia I was going to see in a couple of days. I laid the merchandise on the turn-belt and thought how I would be greeted when I arrived in Penza on the train…

If you have ever gone to Russia with Spoken For, then you know what I am talking about. After a long plane ride over the pond that connects America to Europe, you arrive in Russia with a 9 hour time change. As a person debarks the plane, they feel as if they have been at an all-night jr. high lock-in. All you want to do is stretch out and sleep. But then you’re faced with long lines in Passport Control and Customs. If you’re lucky, your luggage makes it in one piece. Then you board a bus and drive through busy streets and more lines. Then, finally, at about 8pm, you get to stretch out on a bed on the train and close your eyes for 13 hours. Morning seems to come quickly. It’s off to the bathroom to throw some water on your face and then grab a cup of hot tea or coffee. Then the adrenaline begins to rush as the train pulls into Penza. Who or what will be waiting at the train station is unknown. All a person knows is that they are almost to their final destination: Penza. The place they have heard about for months.

I have made dozens of trips to Penza, and every time, as the train slowly glides into the station and the brakes bring it to a halt, I and the hundreds of travelers who have gone with me over the years have always been greeted by familiar smiling faces. Sometimes as many as 50 people are waiting to greet us as we come off the train. They are ready with hugs, flowers, candies, and a love that only comes from knowing Jesus. The believers in Penza do not have a lot of earthly possessions. But what they do have is the love of Jesus to share and they do this by the way they greet and serve their guests and each other.

We are commanded in the Bible to greet one another with a holy kiss. In our culture today, if we tried to do this we would probably be decked and laid out flat. We may not greet with a holy kiss, but we can learn to smile and have excitement and joy when we see one another. I have learned this from my brothers and sisters in Russia. They never miss a moment to come and greet my friends and me and when we leave, they are always at the train station to say, “until we meet again”. Teens, children, older people, husbands and wives, youth from the church and the orphanages, officials, pastors, friends, you name it, they are there.

As I greeted the lady behind the counter at Wal-Mart, I smiled and said hello. She did not look up and responded with a quiet, “hi”. I asked her how her night was going. She said she was tired. I then thanked her for her work. She paused, looked up, and said, “thank you.” I asked her if I could pray for her. A tear welled up in her eye and she said, “that would be so nice”. So, I prayed for her and she again said, “thank you”… only with a smile this time.

I could have gone through the self-service line and missed this opportunity. The next time we head for the self-service line, maybe we should stop and ask ourselves… if we do that, who will that lady or man get to talk with? May we never give up greeting one another as God has commanded us to greet.

::Scott Werntz

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