Pastor of the New Life Church: Belarus Has a Very Powerful Resource

Change is bound to happen.

Pastor of the New Life church Viachaslau Hancharenka gave an interview to Radio Svaboda.

The Charter97.org website publishes selected excerpts from the interview:

"The voice of the Church is the conscience of the nation. The Church will always speak the truth, it will always expose lawlessness. We have always done this, no matter what government we live under."

“We could find entertainment for ourselves, go to other countries, not think about anything. But we want to be here. We see that God has a plan for this country, God is not finished with this country, He is just starting. Belarus, despite all the suffering, has a wonderful fate. It looks like Cinderella."

"There are people in our church who have also suffered. Including those who had nothing to do with political issues, just went to work. One person was stopped, after three days they returned all the beaten man, his wife did not know where he was, there is a small child. What is it? We don't just know what's going on standing aside, I think we know the pain. We knew it before these events. I think we are among the first to be affected by this decree on "unauthorized meetings." How to behave when you come for a permit and they say: "Well, we don't think it's appropriate." Then what, just destroy the church?"

“Belarus has a very powerful resource - the mind, character, ability to work of our people. There are countries that have no resources at all. I was in South Korea, it's one of these countries, but look how they flourish. This is not a problem, there is no need to think that we need Russia or the West because of this. A people who are united, who love, who have respect, who live in security, who open up their creative abilities, can make Belarus such a country that the whole world will want to do business with us."

“God has a great destiny for Belarus. A great and wonderful future awaits us, it will be associated with spiritual rebirth. All the things that have happened do not happen by chance if you look through the eyes of God. Our people have reached the point where we can say that there is nothing more we can do. We don’t have legal capacity, we don’t have physical strength either, but we don’t want to physically fight, our emotional strength has also been undermined by suffering. When we get to the point where we can say "This is impossible" - this is the time to try to put hope in God. And the changes will take place thanks to the fact that God himself will make them. It will be like the greatest reward when the Belarusian people are reborn, this will be associated with spiritual rebirth. We see a tendency for people to reach for the truth. It is time to leave the past and sin behind, time for our hearts to turn to the Lord as our only hope. And we, as a church, stand to direct our people to lift their eyes to heaven and let our help come from there, as it is written in Psalm 120."