Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 10, 1994 TAG: 9405100137
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ADRIENNE PETTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Cheerful and well-groomed, Tom wore blue slacks and a shirt, and Katherine was dressed in ivory, from her skirt and short-sleeved cotton sweater to her pearl earrings and necklace. Long, bouncy curls cascaded down her back, and her makeup was flawless.
It's hard to imagine this couple living in a place where bathing once a week is considered a luxury.
After almost a year of marriage, the Dowdys are trading their lives as full-time students for a three-month volunteer stint helping Russian Jews emigrate from the mountains of Ukraine to the desert of Israel.
By now, the Dowdys are on their way to London, where they will receive a week of training with the International Christian Embassy, the group sponsoring their trip. Then, they're off to Ukraine.
All their expenses are paid, except air travel and personal items.
The group organized the mission to rescue Russian Jews, less than 8 percent of the Ukrainian population, who face rising anti-Semitism and scapegoating because of the tenuous economic situation there. Last year, the inflation rate was 170 percent in the first quarter, according to the 1994 World Almanac.
As volunteers, they will serve as stewards and translators, helping people fill out immigration paperwork, negotiate the legal obstacles and take buses from their small towns to Kiev and Odessa, where they will board planes bound for Israel.
``This is not just a whim,'' Tom said. ``I believe God has been preparing myself and my wife all our lives for this.''
Tom has visited Russia twice and has ancestral ties there. His great-grandmother's family left Russia during the 1890s because of pogroms against Jews. Tom recently graduated from Ferrum College with a bachelor's degree in Russian studies.
``One of the factors that impacted our hearts was seeing 'Schindler's List,'" Tom said. ``God used someone who was basically a scoundrel, but still using him to save people's lives.''
Katherine speaks of her horror at what Holocaust victims endured. She recently took an eye-opening class on the subject at Roanoke College, where she will be a senior next year.
``This professor just kept saying, `What would you have done if you had been there?'" she said. ``I kept thinking, `My gosh, what would I have done to stop it?'"
Katherine seems more apprehensive than Tom about the trip. This is her first time out of the United States. Both sets of parents also are nervous about it.
At first, Katherine proposed postponing her senior year so they could stay in Ukraine for a year, but her parents objected.
It didn't help that Katherine's mother read in a program brochure that a neo-Nazi group had fired at a busload of student missionaries in Moldova.
The Dowdys are fully aware their lives could be in danger, but they say the same things could happen to them in Roanoke.
``There's a certain point where faith kicks in,'' Tom said. ``We believe God is going to take care of us.''
The Dowdys, who worship with the Church of the Holy Spirit, an evangelical Episcopal congregation, say they are not out to convert anyone.
``The only way to evangelize anybody is to show them by action; words are shallow,'' Tom said. But, he added, ``If God gives us the opportunity to verbally share, we'll do so.''
With Russian reforms having unleashed thousands of responsible and not-so-responsible religious crusaders, the Dowdys were careful to choose a group that was culturally sensitive and didn't push the teachings of a particular denomination.
Katherine pointed out that some cults have lured both American volunteers and Russian people by disguising themselves as Christian groups.
``You've got to be culturally sensitive,'' Tom said. ``We speak not just a different language, but a different culture.''
When they return, Katherine will resume her studies at Roanoke College, where she is an English major. Tom, who is certified to teach Russian, will look for a job.
by CNB