Though she resides in Central Illinois, Carol Zimmerman Turner’s heart is in eastern Europe where she has visited several times.
The Pontiac resident, formerly of Chatsworth, took a two-month trip to the region in 1983.
“I was visiting many of the Nazarene families,” she explained. “They are connected with the Apostolic Christian families here in the Midwest.”
Though war is occurring in Ukraine following last week’s Russian invasion, Turner visited during a time of peace but also Communism. She made a short trip in 1980 and met some of the Hungarian Nazarenes and had an interest in visiting those who lived in Ukraine, or Russia, at the time. Turner donated big boxes of clothing and other items to those in need.
She went by train from Budapest to Lviv with a member of the Nazarene Church who spoke seven languages.
“We were taken by car to visit several of those families so we were kind of secretly met by them,” Turner recalled. “We walked quite a ways on a dirt road to the house where they were having church services for the first time in three months.”
When Turner and the person she was traveling with walked into the house, they found a large crowd.
“They knew I was not from Russia and were very afraid that I was a secret agent so they were quite relieved to learn that I was the first American they had ever seen or met.”
A big meal was later served outside and Turner recalls chickens running underneath the tables and small pigs and sheep nearby. She also observed women dipping water out of a well to drink.
“It was quite the visit with those people. They were very, very precious.”
Turner, referring to her experiences as the trip of a lifetime, also visited many elderly people in Bulgaria and Yugoslavia.
“I took the train all through Yugoslavia visiting several families there and that was quite an experience,” admitted Turner.
While in Romania in 1983, families had to get permission from the police department and take Turner’s passport to get papers filled out in order for her to stay with them overnight.
“At the time, that was Communism so there’s a big difference and now, Ukraine is Ukraine and these people want their freedom.”
Turner has been monitoring the current situation in Ukraine pretty much around the clock. There are still Nazarenes living in the southern part of Ukraine and in Romania so they visit back and forth between Romania and Hungary. Turner learned a few days ago the Ukranian Nazarenes went to the border where Romanians and Hungarians have picked them up and taken them in for safety.
“The husbands or sons had to stay back in Ukraine because they weren’t allowed to come across the border as they need to help with the military,” explained Turner.
Ukranians are working very hard, according to Turner, as they are loyal to their country. They have worked hard to make it a “nice little country,” in her words.
“My heart is also with many of the innocent Russian people,” Turner concluded. “They didn’t ask for this either and they are losing many troops from what I understand so it’s devastating for many of those people.”
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