A couple of years ago my friend’s Olenka and Stepan were getting married. Through some unexpected last minutes changes (the sort of which that would have put most American brides into cardiac arrest, but that Stepan and Olenka seemed to face with the same grace and aplomb that they continue to show every day all these years since their wedding) the wedding was held outdoors because the building they had reserved had been given to another couple for their wedding on the same day!
So, the result was the first of many weddings that our church in Kyiv, Ukraine would begin to hold out of doors. Something that is common in the states was new here and the result was wonderful. It was beautiful and simple, like so many things I have been blessed to enjoy here in Ukraine.
This is what I remember of that day. The bride walked down a tree-lined leafy canopied “aisle”, white wooden pegs stuck in the ground and draped with satiny white cloth billowing in the breeze marked out the bride’s path. At the end of her path waited our pastor, George Markey, with his trademark grin spreading from ear to ear. George loved weddings. (And it was a good thing, because those years we had about 28 weddings in around 2 ½ years!)
The wedding went off without a hitch and then there was a buffet, (or “furshette” as they call it here using the French word) and the cutting of the cake, etc. The bride and groom had wanted dancing, but the only discs that were on hand were some cheesy cowboy worship music (sorry if that’s your style) and the same Italian (or was it Spanish?) romantic, almost flamenco style music that had played as the bride walked down the aisle. It was beautiful music and so that disc got played over and over.
The bride and groom danced and a few other brave souls joined in. I love to dance and was goofing around doing my best flamenco / Persian / Swing Dance moves (none of which I can do with any real competency!). George was trying to get his wife Pam to join him and she didn’t seem too keen on the idea. She looked over at me and said “Cara, dance with him. He wants to dance. Dance with him”.
Well, it’s one thing to dance with someone else’s husband. It’s another if he’s your pastor. A little on the awkward side for me. :) But this was George, so we “tore up the carpet” (or is it “cut a rug”…inside joke for some old friends).…suffice to say, we had fun…because George liked to dance.
Don’t get me wrong. George could be a very serious man. He was serious about the things of God, that was his life. He was serious about his family. After Jesus, Pam and his children and grandchildren were the loves of his life.
And George wasn’t a goof-off, he worked. He worked hard at various jobs in the states even as a pastor so the church wouldn’t have to worry about his salary and so they would have more to give to missions. He worked hard in Ukraine, establishing a church, discipling that church, setting up and breaking down everything needed for Sunday services for that church in our rented building in Kyiv. He hauled water from the community well up to their apartment and he helped neighbors haul potatoes, groceries, whatever up to their apartments on the 10th floor, the 11th floor, or the 15th floor where his own apt. was (often up the stairs because the elevator would be broken!) .
And George sacrificed. He left his country, his friends and his language to go somewhere that he never would completely learn the language, a fact that often pained him because it meant he was limited in how much he could help and love people.
George was willing to do the hard things, the brave things. But in the middle of everything George danced.
He would be the first to dance and get everyone else to dance along with him. They say “it ain’t over till the fat lady sings” but for our church conferences here in Ukraine it was more like “it ain’t over till George dances”!
You have to understand, our church loves to worship (partly because George was a worshipper and he instilled that in our congregation), and our music is upbeat and lively, but we’re not exactly dancers. Not on Sunday morning, and not even really during our yearly conferences.
But by the end of the conference, as we sang and worshipped our Lord, full of joy for the things that God had done in people’s hearts in just those few short days, George would begin to dance. Hands raised up he’d start to sway. And then he’d either take the hand of someone and dance around or others - knowing that with this as in so many things that George would lead - would come to him and around the hall they’d go.
Now if you’re not a dancing Christian (and as I’ve said, we’re not really either!), or not a Christian at all, you may read this and think “silly emotionalism”. And not to be rude to you, but I think George would agree with me when I say, how sad for you.
When King David brought the Ark of God’s Covenant home to rest at last he was so happy that he danced for joy, too. In the streets even! His wife Michal saw him and the Bible says she was filled with contempt for him. She was ashamed of him. How sad for her.
How sad that she didn’t understand what David knew and what George knew…that the wisdom of the world is as foolishness to God, and those things of God that seem foolish to men are wiser and more precious than most men will ever know on this earth.
Recently when the church here in Kyiv gathered to pray for Pam and all the Markey children, spouses, grandchildren, etc. (they are quite a sizeable clan) I was remembering my dance with George that day at the wedding. As my mind wandered I thought about why Pam would have encouraged her husband to dance with me.
The first answer was obvious, it brought him such great joy, and why should she deny him that just because she didn’t want to? But then I was reminded why we even dance at all at weddings - to bring joy to the bride and groom. And who was George’s bride and groom? Who is Pam’s and mine and all who call upon the name of Christ? Our bridegroom is Jesus himself and we, the Church universal, are his bride. George lived to serve and to please his eternal bride and groom.
So Pam loaned George, gave him up, if you will, on that lovely wedding day to honor and to please the bride and groom….and in doing so she gave George great joy. (As George was an amazing man, Pam is an equally amazing woman). And now George has gone to be with Jesus face to face.
George died recently from complications resulting from pancreatic necrosis. He fell ill in Bishkek, Kyrgistan where he and Pam and their last two children living at home (out of 9!) had gone to help build the church there with the families of two of their daughters.
And so now Pam has had to give him up again….for the sake of the bride and the joy of the groom. If it was better for the bride - the church both here in Ukraine, in Bishkek and all those all around the world who either came to know the Lord or grew in our love for him as a result of George’s ministry -for George to have remained here with us (as hard as it is for me to comprehend intellectually), I know that he would still be with us. But that was not God’s plan. Somehow, our all-knowing, all-loving God felt that George’s time to come home was now.
But once again, Pam has only loaned George. She, and all of us who anxiously wait for the day when we too will be with our Lord in Heaven, will enjoy George’s smile, love, and big bear hugs again one day at another wedding, the wedding feast of the Lamb that the Bible says waits for all those whose names are written in the book of life.
George died as he lived…honoring the bride, giving glory to the groom…and dancing. Those of us that danced with him didn’t always know where he was leading, and George didn’t always know himself! He listened to the sound of a heavenly tune and went where it took him.
His head was in the clouds, as some have said, and he danced where his heart lead him…and oh are we so thankful for the results! It wasn’t always a studied, graceful ballet, but rather a lively, vigorous jig or two-step that was full of joy and enthusiasm. George sometimes swung you around fast, you had to move quick to keep up!
George loved to remind those who had just given their hearts to the Lord that the Bible tells us that “all the angels in heaven rejoiced when even one sinner repents and turns to God”. And I can’t help but think that now each time as that rejoicing starts up, there’s one smiling Indiana farmer leading the conga line. David’s wife Michal would have been ashamed, but I was proud to have danced with George and I look forward to doing so again on the other side. So save a dance for me, ok, George?
**For more specific information about George's life and his passing and how to help the family with the extreme medical bills and expenses for evacuating George from Kyrgistan, click on http://www.ccmukraine.org/forum
