Belarus Choir to visit area...With a song in their heart

In their home country of Belarus, they cannot speak the name "Jesus" aloud. They can listen to a missionary's stories about "a man who is a friend to all," and other stories of "a man who tells us to love everyone," but the Son of God's name is unspoken.

It was through missionary work that Dexter First Baptist Church Worship Pastor Rich Lee, and now others within the local community, came to know the people of Belarus.

Next Thursday, Oct. 13, many of those people with whom local volunteers have become acquainted over the past few years, will be coming to Dexter to perform as part of the Belarus National Christian Choir Tour.

"In Belarus," Lee explains, "less than one percent of the population is Evangelical Christian."

Eastern Orthodox makes up 80 percent of the population. Fourteen percent are Catholic, while a small percent is Protestant. Others are Autocephalous Orthodox, Jewish, Muslim and Hinduism.

It is with that in mind that Lee began his travels to Belarus in the summer of 2008.

"While we're not allowed to share testimony," Lee notes, "we can tell the story of Jesus and tell them if they want to learn more, they can ask us questions and we can tell them about "this friend."

Officially, the Republic of Belarus is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. The country has been governed by authoritarian leadership since 1994 and its citizens live with significant restrictions in their daily life. Belarusian and Russian are the two primary languages in the country, but more and more Belarussians are striving to learn English.

It is understandable, says Lee, why they want to learn English.

Lee says the Belorussians have told him, "If we learn English, we can go anywhere."

"That's a big part of our work there," he explains. "We teach the English language."

English is actually taught, as well, within the Belarus school systems, Lee says. "It's their ticket to the world beyond Belarus."

Most of those to whom Lee and other missionaries have taught English say they want some day to travel to the U.S. or to Australia to seek better jobs and new experiences.

On each visit, Lee takes part in teaching young adults, teenagers and a small number of seniors, the English language. He has instructed four classes a day while there, with about 60 students in each class. Nearly all expressed an interest in leaving the country to make a better life for their families, he says.

With a special interest in music, Rich Lee and others who have chosen to travel annually to Belarus, were eventually led to members of the Belarus National Christian Choir. The group is made up of nearly three dozen musicians and singers from a number of different churches in the country.

Lee recalls his Belorussian visit in 2008 when the severity of the country's religious freedoms, or lack of, hit home.

"It was our first rehearsal with the choir," Lee remembers, "and the KGB showed up with AK47s. It was a tense few moments while they listened to us practice."

Since that time, local missionaries have paid further visits to Belarus, usually during the summer months. With each visit, they learn more about the National Christian Choir. Most are professional musicians, Lee notes. One, he says, is the director of the Army band for Belarus.

Through their association with the work of local missionaries, the Belarus National Christian Choir will be making a stop in Dexter next week, performing at First Baptist at 6:30 Thursday night, Oct. 13, where they will meet up with some familiar faces.

Their tour marks the fifth time they've come to the states to perform, but their Dexter visit will be a first.

The local First Baptist choir will be singing two songs in Russian with the group from Belarus. While most of the visiting choir will be performing in Russian, English translations will be projected on overhead screens, Lee says. The performance is free to the public.

The group will spend several weeks in the country, performing in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and Missouri. Their concerts are funded through donations from U.S. churches, and their current tour is to raise money to further ministries in Belarus.