70. 1983: Orientation to Acceptance

From this point on it's going to be difficult, because I have to go largely by memory and what scattered pieces of written information I have. This first part isn't so crucial, but eventually details will be pretty important, so I'll do my best to recreate what happene

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So we left off that I had decided to apply to go with European Christin Mission. I was accepted to their orientation, which was just the first step in the process and was not a guarantee that I would be accepted (or, I suppose, I could also have at that point not to proceed). I think I also mentioned that that week-long orientation took place June 1985.

I mentioned here that one political/economic jab at Communist countries, but other than that (which I may not have thought much of at the time, anyway, actually) I really liked what I saw and I liked the people and the spirit of the organization.

I guess it was pretty much what you'd expect in that kind of a situation. There were 12 of us applicants, including some couples, all interested in different parts of the mission's operation. Our formal classroom-type sessions included such topics as: Bible study, European studies, cultural adjustments, church planting, strategy, religions, mission structure, and finances, for example, all of which we were tested on. We also had social events and individual meetings with the leadership, where we could get to know each other better and discuss relevant topics of interest.

It was actually a very busy time and went by quickly. There were a couple other things about this time that might bear noting here.

The first one is a little ironic and only indirectly actually relates to the mission, something that happened on my way to the orientation. To get to the orientation I had to cross the Canadian border. Now you understand, this isn't supposed to be like going through Check Point Charlie or leaving the USSR escorted by gun-toting border patrol in the middle of the night. But here I was trying to get into Canada with a passport and whatever other ID they might request... and, oh no! Christian literature! Yes, I had difficulties entering Canada when my stacks of Christian literature was discovered in my trunk. Believe you me, I never expected this kind of thing, but there I was having to argue with a border guard because I had too much Christian literature. Maybe Canada is in need of missionaries more than Europe.

The issue was that when this literature was discovered I was asked what it was for, so I told him I was going to an orientation. So he locked onto that and asked if it was a school or if it was for work, and I really got the nth degree on that one. At least in Germany (West) I could be a student there for 89 days or less and not have to have a visa, but 7 days in Canada is enough to warrant a lot of suspicion. I eventually got through the border, though, literature intact.

The other thing was that during my turn having a private meeting with the leadership one thing I do remember mentioning is how I had so arduously looked around to select them and I'm afraid I did mention a few things about SGA, although I can't remember what exactly I said. Generally speaking, in job interviews (which this was sort of, if you think about it) you shouldn't knock previous employers. I think the point in me bringing that up, though, was not so much to knock SGA (and what about all those horrid responses - or non-responders - to my questionnaire!) but to express my desire to make sure I find a mission that shares my values and approach to missions.

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I'm going to quote from my human rights report again (a lot of what I wrote was mainly background information as a lead up to the main "human rights" issues):

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During Candidates' Course we had "lessons" introducing us to the mission and European missions (ECM works in many countries in West Europe... as well as in Eastern Europe). We also had opportunities to use the skills we might need in working with ECM... Generally a decision would be made as to acceptance for work with the mission and specific assignment by the end of the week.

During a couple of meetings with board members (formal & informal meetings) I was honest when asked about why I wasn't pursuing work with SGA. I think this reputation followed me to Vienna. It's one thing to avoid spilling genuine 'professional' secrets, it's another to be required to be quiet in the face of unethical dealings. Many evangelizal ministries, especially non-denominational or interdenominational ones are really under no ecclesiastical authority - are not accountable to anyone. Therefore it is not difficult to see ow such organizations could easily go awry and be undetected as such for some time...

These issues that I discussed with the Board members I had long since discussed with people at SGA, including one talk I had (I requested it) with Peter Deyneka, Jr. I got no indication that there was any intention on their part to change, but they wanted to (evidently) keep these matters secret.

At the end of Candidates' Course I was told that since I had gotten my application in late they couldn't give me an answer right away. Later, I learned that the BEE Board, Ester European Council (of ECM) and ECM's International Board of Directors all had to meet at their appointed times to make a decision regarding my application.

I didn't learn until 5 months later that I was accepted to work with [the composite mission in Vienna] as the assistant director's secretary for a 2-year term. During those 5 months I lived with my parents and worked as a bookkeeper.

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I'll leave off there for now. I'll take you through my deputation time (right up to before I leave for Vienna) and then we'll look at another file before starting in on my time in Vienna.

Good night!

~ Meg

57. 1984

I returned to the States Dec. 4, 1983 from the 6 months in Europe. On the 8th I met with Rom at the SGA home office, and left on the 14th for Seattle to spend Christmas with my family. That one appointment is the only thing I have marked in my calendar for this time.

My time in Seattle, though, was very busy and I have mostly social appointments in my calendar, although there was one speaking engagement also.
From here I will quote directly from the human rights report I wrote 15 years ago (text in brackets were written today):

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When I returned [to the city where I was studying] I shared a floor of a house with a girl from church. I worked part-time at Pizza Hut and pat-time at SGA in their library.

[omitting section describing my work and a couple classes I audited.]

I had already decided that I wasn't going to work long-term with SGA, so in the spring of '84 I sent out a questionnaire and a letter introducing myself to 40 missions [the list I'd gathered in England, perhaps supplemented by addresses collected working in the SGA library]. I got responses from maybe 2/3 of the missions. Several responses were downright rude and some insinuated that maybe I was a spy. I had tried to work the questionnaire sensitively so that they would understand that I was just trying to make a wise decision as to which mission to work with. Topics included theology, philosophy of management, and what they thought the biggest needs were in E.. Europe. They certainly and enough information about myself to verify my identity if they wanted to, felt they needed to. Unfortunately, I had to leave these letters in Seattle with I left Jan. 1992 [for Russia].

I did get two responses that interested me: one from Child Evangelism Fellowship and the other from European Christian Mission. They both seemed to have godly responses to my questions and their work interested me. It took some time, though, to make up my mind.

In the meantime, I had decided to return to [Bible school] for another year of schooling in Bible and theology. So in August 1984 I moves into the dorm. I also left SGA, including their emigrant work, and Pizza Hut. I left Pizza Hut because they were too far from campus where I was living, especially for late night commutes. I worked instead at [a Bible society office] two days a week.

Some time during that year I decided I wanted to pursue women's ministry in Eastern Europe, so I decided to apply to ECM. I already had a little taste of such work from the emigre work... I managed to get my application in in time to be accepted for the week long candidate's course [on the West Coast in June of 1985]"

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I'll leave off here, because before we go into the next segment of my life I want to review some more articles.

Today we covered a lot of time, though, from Dec. 1983 to June 1985. Not a lot happened, relatively speaking, but I'll just pinpoint the relevant highlights here.

I had two contracts for the library work at SGA and the second one involved more types of work, including using my language skills to compile a monthly packet of articles, mostly from other missions' newsletters, which was sent to each of the locations where SGA had work, so that the workers could be kept abreast of things going on relevant to their work, but not necessarily involving SGA per se. I translated articles not in English for this packet.

I didn't realize this until it came time to do my taxes, but as a contract worker for them no taxes were taken out, so I was responsible for all the taxes. This put me in a bit of a bind because I was a student and didn't have a lot of money.

While I was a Bible school student again I led the European Prayer Focus group with another co-leader; I led the East European parts and the other person led the West European topics. Since I wasn't doing the Russian emigrant work any more, I needed a different ministry, because we all had to have ministries each semester. So one semester I worked the crisis hotline, where people could call in with various crises. We had lists of resources we could recommend for people who needed it, and we did a lot of just listening too. The other semester I was on a street evangelism team. We were given a section of the city to cover and every week we went out going door to door witnessing. I enjoyed both of those ministries, and also leading the focus group.

The responses to that letter I sent out really floored me. It was like there was an industry-wide paranoia or something. In my introductory letter I told them about my background and they could very easily have called SGA or others to validate that I was who I said I was. It was wild. Maybe that should have been a wake-up call regarding things to come. I still believed that there must be organizations working in that part of the world that had a different mindset than SGA.

Maybe this is a good place to explain how and why SGA was so powerful amongst missions to the East Bloc. SGA's roots were mostly from the USSR. They had a lot of native speakers / nationals in the mission and their research, education, publishing and radio work put them sort of at the heart of work in that part of the world, so other missions often looked to them for expertise. At least that was my impression of them; they were also one of the 5 founding missions for the organization I was with in Vienna. A lot (but certainly not all) of mission at that time focused more on smuggling in literature and material help to strapped believers.

I think that's about it for now. If I think of something else I can add it later.

~ Meg