Tom's Blog's and Books Archives: First

By Tom Wacaster

I made my first trip into the former Soviet Russia in 1994. Accompanied by an elder at the congregation where I worked, we traveled to Barnaul in eastern Siberia, where we would meet up with two other Americans, and a Ukrainian born preacher who would be conducting the open meetings each evening, while we would be teaching English classes at the local university using the Bible as our text book. Six months previous, several Americans had conducted the first of many campaigns into that city, as well as other cities strategically located throughout Russia. Barnaul is located 2,200 miles and three time zones east of Moscow. We arrived into Moscow in the early morning, and our flight to Barnaul would not depart for more than 12 hours. Although both of us were tired and worn out from the long flight from Houston to Moscow, we decided to accept the offer from our host in Moscow to visit some of the sites in and around Moscow. We visited Red Square, the Kremlin, ate at McDonalds in downtown Moscow (the first and only one of its kind in Russia at the time), and around 5:00 we managed to get some rest at a prearranged location overlooking the Moskva River. The day’s activities were among the many ‘firsts’ we would experience on this three week trip into Russia.

The last ten days during that mission trip in the fall of 1994 took us to Omsk, Russia. Omsk has a population of more than 1.5 million, and is the largest city east of the Ural Mountains after Novosibirsk. We were the first Americans to enter that city in more than 75 years. We were greeted with great fan-fare. The local television station had a crew there to film our arrival, and along with city officials, we were escorted to the homes of our hosts. I must admit that we were treated with royalty while we were in that city, something that certainly was a first in my lifetime. Omsk was a military town, and so I had a large number of retired military personal attend my lectures at the University. Our class room was designed to hold approximately 75 students, but with the publicity, we were not able to accompany the large crowds that wanted to attend and hear the lessons. Literally, people stood at the door leaning in so as to catch a word or two that I was speaking. I even observed one young university student lying on the floor with his head poked into the room between the legs of those who crowded the doorway. Students, adults, and people from every walk of life actually stood outside the windows in freezing cold weather and, with the windows cracked open to let in some fresh air to help cool the room, they would listen with rapt attention at a message that many of them may very well have been hearing for the first time in their life! It was a thrill to them as much as it was to me. The ‘firsts’ kept mounting up. It was my first time to Omsk; my first time to speak to a crowd of non-Christians that large; my first to speak to such a large group of university students; and my first to actually visit in the home of a retired military general of any nation, much less a nation with which we almost went to war over what is now known as the 1962 Cuban crisis. I look back with fond memories on that first trip into Russia. I made several more trips to Russia over the years to preach the gospel: Nizhny Novgorod, Ukta, Pechora, Vorkuta, and Syktyvkar, to name just a few. But the unique thing about that trip into Barnaul and Omsk was that they were my first of many trips into Russia.

There is something special about doing a thing for the first time; or being the first to accomplish a task. Charles Lindberg, Neil Armstrong, the Wright brothers, John Glenn, Thomas Edison, Johannes Gutenberg, Christian Barnard, and Jonas Salk. They all have one thing in common. Each one of them was the ‘first’ to accomplish a memorable and significant task in world history. These men made their mark in history.

As I reflect upon the life of our Lord, there were many things that were no doubt a ‘first’ to Him. But I want us to concentrate for a moment on the multitudes of people with whom He came in contact. Imagine, if you will, the ‘firsts’ they experienced. Mary was the first to know about the incarnation and the role she would play in giving birth to the Savior. When Jesus was twelve He entered into the Temple and astounded the teachers with His understanding. Although they did not, yea could not, appreciate the full extent of what they heard that day, they were “amazed” none the less (Luke 2:46-47). John the Baptist was the first to herald the earthly ministry of the Lord. Following the Lord’s baptism and temptation in the wilderness, the citizens of Galilee were the first to hear the Lord as He taught in their synagogues (Luke 4:14). Someone heard the Lord’s first sermon; someone saw the Lord’s first miracle; someone was the first recipient of one of the Lord’s miraculous expressions of His compassion; someone saw the very first resurrection from the dead.

When the Lord comes again, I wonder who will be the first to arrive at the Lord’s side? Who will be the first to pass through one of the twelve gates into that heavenly home? Who will be the first to greet Paul, or Peter? Fanny J. Crosby once said, “If I were to stand at the beginning of my life with the privilege of making a single request of God, I think it would be this: ‘My Father, let me walk through the earth in physical darkness. With physical sight, you look into many a face, some of them touched with beauty, some of them lighted with joy; but the first face I would see is the face of Jesus.” What ecstasy and joy will be ours when we step across the threshold into heaven, and for the first time, enjoy the full fruit of our labors for the Lord here upon this earth. That will truly be a wonderful ’first.’ I’ll close with this beautiful poem by Floyd Cantwell:

Across the Threshold

Soon shall come the time of parting,

O how glorious it will be;