Maureen Blackmon’s swim coach taught her how to manoeuvre far more than the blue-tinged waters of the Flin Flon Aqua Centre.
She also introduced her to a faith that would shape the teenage Blackmon’s life and as an adult propel her halfway across the world.
“I absolutely love what I do,” says Blackmon, a Christian missionary in the impoverished nation of Latvia.
Blackmon (nee Pogue) has been working in Latvia for more than two decades, helping to establish Christianity in a country that until 1991 was ruled by the atheistic Soviet Union.
She first arrived in 1993 at the invitation of the Latvian Baptist Union, a group of Christians working to launch an English-speaking church where Latvians and their former occupiers, the Russians, could worship together.
Blackmon’s roles have included teaching English, leading Bible studies for teenage girls and simply making herself available to anyone eager to learn more about her faith.
Her title may be missionary, but Blackmon is leery of the connotations that word carries.
“I think when people hear the ‘m’ word…they think that you’re going somewhere and forcing your religion on somebody, but it’s not that way,” she says. “It’s a matter of, the Latvian people have asked us to come and help them.”
Calling
Blackmon’s calling came gradually but rather unexpectedly. Growing up one of four children, she didn’t attend Sunday school or regular church services.
“I didn’t know anything, really, about God until into my teenage years,” she says.
That was when Blackmon’s swim coach, a devout Christian, began talking to her about faith and spirituality.
“That was a shock to me – it was just a totally new world,” she recalls.
The more Blackmon learned, the more she was intrigued, though she still didn’t envision a life of serving the church.
After graduating from Hapnot Collegiate in the early 1980s, she enrolled at the University of Manitoba with the goal of becoming a teacher.
But in her early 20s, three years into university, Blackmon underwent a religious transformation. As she puts it: “This whole spiritual side of life began to come alive in me.”
The next step seemed obvious. In 1989, Blackmon enrolled in Prairie Bible College in Three Hills, Alberta, to become a minister.
Upon graduating four years later, she and three classmates saw their work was needed in Latvia, a European country in disarray following the fall of the Soviet Union.
They would live and work in the capital city of Riga. On a world map, you can almost draw a straight line between Flin Flon
and Riga.
But the cultures could not be more dissimilar. Whereas Flin Flon is a relatively new, relatively affluent small community, Riga was (and is) an ancient metropolis where poverty runs rampant.
“It was very chaotic there,” says Blackmon.
Curiosity
Since the Soviet Union had attempted to keep the Bible out of the hands of citizens, Blackmon
discovered a high curiosity factor around Christianity.
She would spend the next 20 years living in Riga before deciding to move back to Manitoba – St. Pierre Jolys south of Winnipeg – last year.
Blackmon is now the first full-time missionary in Canada for Entrust, a US-based Christian mission, but still goes back to Latvia about twice a year.
She is married to another former area resident, Wes Blackmon, also a missionary.
Maureen – she prefers “Mo” – believes that despite observations to the contrary, Christianity is doing quite well.
“I think that, yes, in some regions of the world, it is declining, but in others, growing actually,” she says. “In the world in general, depending on the stats you can find, it seems that over 85 per cent describe themselves as religious, the majority at present being Christian.
“If the Bible and Christianity are true, then it will endure, forever. If not, then it will decline and eventually fade out. Interestingly enough, though, it has not faded out on a world level yet, after 2,000-plus years, and more if you consider our roots in Judaism. And it seems that in recent history, persecution against Christians in the world has increased dramatically, and still the church grows.”
Just as her swim coach introduced her to Christianity all those years ago, Mo’s goal is to spread the gospel to those who are ready to hear its message.
“The greatest joy in my life is knowing God and living my life with Him is quite an adventure,” she says.
