A dollar and hour and all you can steal

From UkrainianBible

Years ago, a member of the church who worked for us said "I'm a thief."

I hope he meant "before you hired me"--but he said "You have to understand our system. My boss pays me so little that my family would literally starve if I didn't steal from the organization. So I do. He knows I do it, and he wants me to do it so I'll be afraid of him, and so I can't tell HIS boss what HE is stealing."

Stealing and bribery are pervasive in Communist society; it was a system of interlocking thievery that is only slowly being dismantled. When I arrived in the former Soviet Union in Ukraine, salaries were five or ten dollars a month--and all you could steal. Things the government wanted you to have were heavily subsidized, so rent was a dollar a year, but it still wasn't enough to live on. Stealing and bribery became an art form.

The subsidies were gradually withdrawn but salaries rose even more slowly. Right now it still seems to be "a dollar an hour and all you can steal." (The minimum wage is 20 cents an hour.)

My colleagues, Dr. Bohdan Kachmar and Father Pavel Smuk, get a dollar an hour, but they do NOT steal. Dr. Kachmar, a cardiologist, gave up a lucrative Moscow practice to seek a second doctorate in theology and become a full-time Bible translator, and Father Smuk is close to his Ph.D. but put that on hold to become a full-time Bible translator. (Professor Turkonyak, our team leader, has an inheritance and got the Ukrainian Pulitzer Prize. He has always worked for free.) Everyone here is working at great financial sacrifice. My own income was also cut in half when I took this project on.

I don't know how the others make it on a dollar an hour, but I have a pretty good idea, because I once published a long article called "Making It on a Pastor's Pay." It had a lot of helpful hints for American pastors to balance the budget. There was one flaw, though. Every way I found out to save money used up time, time that could have been used in ministry. (Did I mention that I didn't exactly set the world on fire in parish ministry? Too busy comparison shopping, garage saleing and auto repairing, I guess. But we were solvent.)

We are not progressing on schedule, and I have a sneaking suspicion I know why. My colleagues may be trading time to save money, same as I did in parish ministry. It kills me to think of them planting potatoes like peasants when they could be in the office. Last year we made excellent progress, but then last year I was able to give my colleague a dollar-an-hour "raise."

If you wish that they would trade money for time, please donate today and contact me after you contribute. Anything you contribute will be given to them with the understanding that the purpose of your gift will be so that they can spend more time on the project. Wire transfer to Ukraine and currency-exchange fees are only 2 to 5% of the amount you contribute--nothing for administration.