Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 25, 1993 TAG: 9311250365
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV2 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: MICHAEL CSOLLANY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
``They are so hungry spiritually,'' said the Pulaski County clerk of court. Lookabill was one of several New River Valley citizens who ventured to Russia, Hungary and Romania on a humanitarian and spiritual mission in August.
In addition to bringing nearly $100,000 in medical supplies, the group members distributed bilingual Bibles during its trip through the three former communist countries. They traveled under the auspices of World Help - an organization based in Forest, Va.
The assistance of people who travel through World Help does not end once they return to the United States, said Barbara Chrisley, a professor of Health Services at Radford University who also took the trip. ``The people who go on these trips just go back to their part of the country and they keep sending stuff over,'' she said.
Over the course of their stay, they gave out more than 80,000 Bibles. Lookabill said they gave out more than 5,000 in two hours on a street corner in Moscow. Many Muscovites came back and asked for more for friends and neighbors.
One faculty member at Moscow State University - excited to meet an American counterpart - conversed with Chrisley for several hours. The Russian professor asked for Bibles for all her students, which Chrisley said amazed her - that wouldn't have happened in an American public school.
Lookabill said it didn't matter which country they were in, crowds at churches were standing room only. When churchgoers got word that an American group was at the service, they promptly gave up their seats, he said.
Lookabill said there were Masses when crowds would gather several people deep outside the church to listen.
And to what did Lookabill account this strong belief?
``Years of persecution,'' he said.
Lookabill said the group may have found itself in religious history in the making.
The group's visit coincided with a debate in the Russian parliament seeking to crackdown on the influence of foreign religious groups in Russia.
There were those, many of whom had ties to the Russian Orthodox Church, who wanted an all-out ban.
Vernon Brewer, president of World Help and former dean at Liberty University, was called away from the group's activities to speak for 12 straight hours to Yuri Kladov, chief of staff to President Yeltsin.
Later that week, the bill cracking down down on foreign evangelicals was defeated.
Lookabill said he'd like to think World Help played a part in that defeat.
Chrisley and Lookabill said they learned a sense of perspective from their trip.
``I`m thankful, and I think we all learned not to take for granted what we have in this country,'' Chrisley said.
``It was like quantum leaping back into 1950,'' Lookabill said, describing a visit to a cancer hospital - the only one of five still operating in Moscow. The hospital had to reuse needles and syringes because they are in such short supply, he said.
``This building, by our hospital standards, would have been condemned,'' Chrisley said.
The group also visited an orphanage in Romania. Despite horror stories that have crossed the Atlantic about orphanages there, Lookabill said it was relatively well-kept, but a bit below American standards.
As a nutritionist, Chrisley was particularly interested in what Russians are eating. She didn't paint a pretty picture.
``I don't normally advise fast food, but we were glad to get to McDonald's in Moscow,'' she said. And that was only on the fourth day of the trip.
The group members' diet - considerably better because they were tourists - was basically ``lots of bread, potatoes, carrots,'' Chrisley said. There was some meat, she said, but usually blanketed in gravy and unrecognizable.
The group witnessed firsthand the difficulties most Muscovites have with food.
``We went to a grocery store, and there were empty shelves all over,'' Chrisley said. There were chickens just laying out on a shelf, unwrapped and not refrigerated, she said.
But humanitarian aid is making its way into the ordinary Russian's life, she said. She noticed several cans on Moscow shelves bearing the Food Lion logo.
Other amenities that Americans are accustomed to were few and far between in Russia.
``Toilet paper is in very short supply. And what they've got is more like a rough paper towel,'' Chrisley said.
The hotel the Americans stayed at - once again, considered elegant because it's for tourists only - had mismatched towels. They were clean, she said, but not changed every day like those in American hotels.
by CNB