Lorraine and I like to watch a television series whose sponsor is a river cruise company. Before each show starts, there’s a commercial for the cruise line. There are shots of sunny days with the cruise ship floating down the European river.

My only actual contact with a river cruise was when we were at a summer camp ministry in Russia, back when that kind of thing was allowed. The campsite was situated by a wide, lovely river, and whenever we went down to the river, campers and leaders alike would wave at people aboard the cruise ships passing by and the passengers would wave back at us. This idyllic scene would have made a great commercial for the cruise company.

The camp leaders, however, wanted us to see something different, and for some reason, were eager to take us to the evangelical church in town.

Camp felt a long way from town, but it really wasn’t that far. It was just a short ride to the center where the church was, so they took us there for a short visit in between camps when one batch of campers had gone and other one would soon arrive.

We went in and the church had a display of its former pastors who had been arrested and sent to the Gulag. It was like a little museum. Each pastor had preached the gospel and been sent off to prison. Some died there. Others returned to some form of normal life. The church cherished them enough to remember them in this public way. It was the first thing you saw when you walked through the front doors.

This church and their persecuted pastors came to mind this week, as our Bible study looked at Paul writing to the church in Philippi while he was in prison. The mutual prayer support, the words of assurance, the call to faithful living and unity in Christ shine across the Roman world and through the ages to the church and those pastors in the Gulag, and to us.

I’ve read of different descriptions of Paul in prison, different ways the ancient world treated their criminals. Prisoners were chained, as Paul describes himself “in chains.” Sometimes attached at the foot, sometimes at the neck. The rooms that were dark, with little or no light and little or no air circulation. Unsanitary conditions would have been an understatement, with rats and vermin. Little or no food. Guards exacting bribes for food or better treatment.

Some house arrest situations seem not as horrific. A prisoner of lesser crimes awaiting trial might be held in house arrest, but always with a guard, allowed visitors and food. It wasn’t freedom exactly. For our modern life sensibilities, the upper-story prison would be plenty bad enough. Still, in was no picnic.

Whatever Paul faced, the chains, darkness, lack of privacy, toilet indignities and the mocking and beating from other prisoners or guards themselves--even just one or two of these would easily give our weak constitutions more than we can handle.

I think probably Paul experienced many prison variations over the course of his ministry. His witness to the imperial guard and the household of Caesar happened through chains.

This week, I received photos of another sort. A friend and missionary sent me a photo of pastors at his church in Ukraine. It was an ordination that took place at an outdoor service of thanks. Each man is kneeling and the pastors behind them are praying as they commit their lives and future work to God and his ministry at church. You can see the fervor and faith as they kneel and close their eyes looking forward to futures of ministry and gospel outreach. Something’s coming for each of them. They have a future.

What will become of these people called to ministry in time of war? What of their families and their congregations? How many will com to faith under the ministries of these men? They may also be called into military service--what then? What if their country falls to their invader? These are open questions as the nation of Ukraine calls up more men to fight in their war. Yet there they are kneeling in prayer and faith.

It’s not this life but the next that motivates. It’s not an earthly father but the heavenly one we honor and serve. It’s not bad news but good that is our message. May we each carry it and speak it in whatever this day brings. I look at these four men an saw, "Yes." God's path is best and they are all in. May we be too.

When we put on the glasses of faith, the lenses are dark. We are not yet seeing face to face, but with faith we know Jesus and follow him wherever the path may lead. Let us lean on his everlasting arms no matter what.

We celebrate and rejoice in Paul, even Paul in chains, we celebrate the pastors memorialized in the Russian church. We look forward with eager hearts to see how God will bless others through the pastors in Ukraine and us and and others all over the world, stepping forward, kneeling in service, willing to give themselves, body and soul, to Jesus and his gospel, our only hope and only reason to live at all.

For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have. Philippians 1:29-30

What have I to dread, what have I to fear,
Leaning on the everlasting arms?
I have blessed peace with my Lord so near,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.

Leaning, leaning,
Safe and secure from all alarms;
Leaning, leaning,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.