Exciting News

I received some updates this week about how missions are going in L’viv.  I learned that Chelsey will be traveling to Moldova soon to tour the human trafficking mission they have there.  This is an exciting trip for Chelsey because she wants to step into this field soon!  Please keep her in your prayers.  She also shared some great stories and some hardships that her and her family has been going through recently.  So please keep them in your prayers.  

I have some exciting news.  Following my experiences last summer in Ukraine I wanted nothing more than to return there this coming summer to do more mission work with the Ledford's and for the people of Ukraine.  I loved that city so much that coming home was very difficult.  I know that I left a huge part of my heart there, and I still hope to return there one day.  However, God has shown me that He has a different plan for me this summer.  

A few weeks ago I was watching an illustration online by Francis Chan called balance beam. I encourage you to click on the link below and watch the short video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA_uwWPE6lQ 

The things Chan points out in this video smacked me right in the face.  Being a Christian is not about sitting at home on your nice comfortable couch drinking your ice cold sweet tea (or i guess in this weather your warm hot chocolate) while you watch what ever you want on television.  Of course, I have been blessed beyond belief and I enjoy the comforts of my American life, but I want nothing more than to make God proud with the things I do with my life.  All I could think about was how UNCOMFORTABLE Jesus had to have been on that cross, and how COMFORTABLE I am living my everyday life.  Then it hit me would I rather sometimes be uncomfortable here on earth doing whatever God calls me to do, or be uncomfortable in heaven when I stand before God and have nothing to show Him with the life He gave me.  

That day I made a decision about how I would spend my summer.  One of my best friends, Jacob, had been praying about taking on his first mission opportunity to Accra, Ghana.  I knew then that I was meant to go with him this coming summer.  Little did I know that Jacob had been praying to God to send someone to go with him.  God works in amazing ways answering prayers and providing opportunities to serve him.  

This trip is still in the planning stages, but with making plans we will both need support both financially and through prayer.  I will begin updating my blog again with information for how you can support us financially as well as opportunities for you to pray for specific things about our trip.  

With this news I share with you I encourage you to pray for your own opportunities to serve God in radical ways.  I beg you to answer your own call to missions.  Trust me God will give you incredible courage to do things you never thought was possible!!! 

Saved the best for last...

Yesterday I completed my final night of playground ministry.  It was perhaps the most challenging night for me, but I think it turned out to be the best.  10 minutes before we left the apartment to travel across town Chelsey told me that her mom wasn't feeling well and wouldn't be able to do "story time" with the kids.  We had planned on telling the story of the woman at the well and focusing on the topic that Jesus loved others and so we should love others also no matter who they are or what they have done.  When I heard that I was going to have to do the story I freaked out a little.  I don't do so well speaking in front of a group of people and especially in front of a group of people that are from a completely different culture than me.  On the bus ride there I was just focusing on what I was going to say and trying not to freak out.  Once we got there I was feeling a little bit better and then with the encouragement of friends my nerves weren't completely calm, but I was feeling much better about it.

We gathered the kids at the playground and sat them down, I think we ended up having 10 kids, a mom, and a grandma for story time.  I told the kids how there was a woman in a town who had done some bad things.  The people in the town wouldn't talk to her because of the things she had done and she even had to get water from the well at a different time than other people.  One day when she was at the well Jesus came and spoke to her.  He told her that he knew about her sins and still continued to talk to her.  I told them that Jesus sets the perfect example for how we should love others.

Me telling the story and Ed translating

During the story time there was a man on the street that was yelling at the kids and the parents who let there kids come to our ministry.  He was yelling that we were Johovah Witnesses and that people shouldn't let us near their kids.  The grandma in our group told him to go away.  This is a prime example of the spiritual warfare that occurs here in Ukraine.  It's a constant battle, but yesterday we won!! 

After the story we did crafts.  We let the kids paint a well bucket and then played with a ball and sidewalk chalk.  It was such a good day, but I am sad that it is all over.  

 This was the cutest little girl ever.  She has three older brothers and a single dad, because her mom died recently.  They were so dirty, but so happy to have people to play with.  Please pray for this family. 

Four more days before I make my way back to America.  Please pray for a great last few days and safe travels home.  

Plan B is better than plan A...

So I know I mentioned in the previous post that we would be doing a vacation bible school at a village church this week, but Sunday we learned that this would not happen.  Although we volunteered to do all the work they still felt there was not enough support for the camp and they had  not publicized it enough for kids to actually show up.  I gotta say I was a little bummed out, but as I have learned by now God ALWAYS has a plan B and His plan B is ALWAYS better than your plan A!  So plan B was to do adapt the vacation bible school for playground ministry.

So tonight the lesson was "love God", and the craft was duct tape wallets.  We decided we would explain to the kids that although we need money to survive in this world, but the most important thing was God.  We began the lesson by asking the kids what they would put in the wallets and they of course said MONEY!  We then asked them what they could buy with money.  Just as a side note to explain the mind set of the people and even the kids here when we asked kids what they could buy with money the first thing the said was beer and the second thing they said was cigarettes.  It was a bit heart breaking to hear this from small children, but its what they see everyday.  We proceeded to go through the rest of the lesson by asking what the most important thing in life was, again the kids did not give the "well-taught southern baptist kid Sunday school answer" of God, they instead said health and life.  Eventually we led them to understand the point we were trying to get across that God is the most important thing in life.

Lesson time.

Once we all went back inside and had dinner we just sat around talking.  I learned that the Ledford's have made tons of progress in this neighborhood.  When they first arrived here people hid their kids when they simply walked by.  They believed the "Baptist's ate children" and they certainly didn't believe in God.  Now, seven years later they leave their kids with them and even let them share bible stories!!  Missions in Ukraine is all about relationships.  It has taken seven years of continuous work for people to trust missionaries with their children, but with this relationship these kids can learn about Jesus!  I have been so blessed today by God's plan B!  Round 2 will be Thursday where we will learn about loving others. One more week, pray that God makes it amazing!

Time is running out...

So first of all I apologize for the lack of blog post this week.  Unfortunately my computer contracted a very bad Ukrainian virus and has been at the computer doctor all week.  She is doing better now and should be able to come home today or tomorrow.  I have been using Chelsey's computer though I guess I am just using this as an excuse for my lack of inspiration to write! I am a math major after all and we aren't always good with words.

Anyway.... This week has been pretty low key.  Tuesday we did a small playground ministry with about 8 kids.  We played lots of games like hot potato and dodgeball, but the weather was rainy and cold so we decided not to do a craft.  The weather was really cold and rainy Wednesday and Thursday so we mostly stayed inside, cleaned, and planned our first Shabbat.  Since my time here is running out Chelsey and I decided that one of my last Shabbats (Friday night family dinners) would be at our apartment where we would prepare the meal.  We planned all week long and eventually decided on making enchiladas rice and beans and chips and salsa.  For those of you know my family's usual Friday night tradition of going to the Mexican restaurant knew that I felt right at home!  I even got to help out and made a chocolate cake/brownie/cookie concoction that actually tasted very good!  The problem with making cakes here is that the sugar is beat sugar and doesn't always dissolve according to plan.  So the recipe was for chocolate cookies, but my batter looked more like brownies! Either way we had an amazing time of fellowship with friends and family.

Today I finally got to experience a more contemporary Ukrainian church service.  A mission group from California is here for 10 days working with a local church and so we decided to go there today for an English friendly Ukrainian service.  For worship we sang contemporary Christian songs that are popular in America.  The praise band and most of the congregation sang them in Ukrainian, but they had the words in English also.  It was truly amazing to worship together in different languages.  One of the group members for the California group shared his testimony and spoke about unity in the body of Christ.  How we are to build each other up.  I think too often churches tend to tear people down, but that is not what God meant for us to do.  People all over the world go to church for many different reasons.  Some have it all figured out, but a lot don't!  So many people come to church as their last alternative because they have this fear of being judged.  Church isn't just a meeting place for strong, and dedicated believers it is a place for the strong to help the broken.  So what I took from his message is that we need to meet people where they are no matter how low that is, genuinely care and ask them where their heart is, and then show them God's love through us by building them up in any way that we can.

Next week, my last full week here we will be leading a kid's camp.  This will be similar to vacation bible school in America, so we will have play time, story time, and craft time each week.  We have no idea how many children will come and what ages they will be so I ask that you pray that God will bless us with many children and that we will be prepared.  Pray that the kids who do know Christ grow to love Him more and those who don't will accept Him.

Two places at once...

This week was filled with many different activities.  We have added an additional night to our playground ministry so now we have it on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  This Tuesday we decided to just do a craft.  We chose to decorate composition books with scrapbook paper, stickers, and sharpies.  In Ukraine there is one age group of people that are willing to accept missionaries easily.  This group is children.  Christ had it right in Matthew 18:3 "'Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.'"  Since children are the most accepting we use playground ministry to reach them and to eventually use the relationships we develop with them to reach out to their familes.  Tuesday we were joined by several mothers and even a grandma.  The kids really enjoyed decorating their books, a grandma gratefully accepted the demo book I had made for the craft, and we were able to talk to several mothers. 

I heard a statistic once that it takes around seven experiences hearing the gospel for someone to accept or reject salvation, these experiences are often called "planting seeds".  Here in Ukraine things are a little more difficult than this though.  It feels like it takes over 100 planting seeds experiences and then more than likely you are still going to get rejected.  The most important part of mission work here is to build relationships and then SLOWLY bring in evangelism.  This is the hardest part of mission work in Ukraine.  You want to be super on fire for God, but if you jump the gun and try to witness without a relationship you will certainly be shut out completely.   Relationships are vital here, and relationships of course take time!  Playground ministry is a perfect opportunity to work on these relationship with people in the community. 

Wednesday I joined the Ledford family and took a day trip to Poland.  To get to Poland we had to take a 2 hour bus ride to the border, walk across the border and then take another bus to the nearest town.  Ukraine is considered a third world country and Poland is not; therefore, Poland and Ukraine are like two very different worlds.  It was nice to get away and experience another country while I am in Europe.  We got to visit a castle and see some really interesting buildings.

 I was excited to get extra stamps on my passport.

 A main square in Poland.

 A huge church in Poland.

 The castle we visited.

The view from the castle.

I guess the most interesting story from Poland was the ride home.  We ate dinner and thought we would have pently of time to get home because we thought the last bus back to L'viv left at 10.  When we got back into Ukraine we found out that the last bus left at 9 and we had missed it.  We were told we could start walking 80 km roughly 50 miles or we could sleep on the street until the next morning for the bus to come.  This was really scary!  We knew we had some friends that had cars that could come and get us, but we were still going to have to stay in a scary city at night for around two hours waiting for them to get there.  We all began to pray.  About 15 minutes later a man drove up in one of the nicest cars I have seen in Ukraine, and just offered to give us a ride to L'viv.  There were five of us and he just happened to be driving a van with five extra seats.  I know that God answered our prayers and was keeping us safe that night.  What a blessing to experience an answered prayer so quickly, and to feel so protected by God!

Thursday we had a translator at playground ministry so we were able to tell the story about Jesus feeding the five thousand.  As a craft the kids were able to express their artistic talents by painting wooden fish.  Afterwards we played some basketball, ping pong, and soccer.  It was a fun night all around!

This was officially my fourth week in Ukraine... I can see the time dwindling and this feeling is bittersweet.  I love it here and I have greatly enjoyed my time.  I have had the most amazing experiences and met some life-changing people.  I, of course, miss home and will be happy to see my family again, but I have gained such an unexpected passion for this place.  For the first time in my life I wish that I could be in two places at once.  Through this experience I now know that God is calling me to do more mission work in the future.  I will continue to pray for the decernment to know where in the world this calling is, but Ukraine is at the top of my list.  But God isn't just calling me to do mission work, He is calling you too!  This can come in many forms both in the US and overseas.  I encourage you all to be open to anywhere that God calls you!  He will bless you for answering His call. 

"And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.  Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." - Matthew 10:38-39

"And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up." - Galatians 6:9

"If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him." - John 12:26

I'm looking forward to two more amazing weeks here.  Keep praying.

A week of ups and downs...

So first of all I apologize for the lack to blog updates this week.  With Euro 2012 being in town we have been staying up late watching soccer and I just haven't found the time or I guess really made the time to update the blog...Anyways I will just fill you in all at once with updates from the whole week. 

Tuesday marked one of the lowest times I have had here in Ukraine.  When the weather changes here it does something serious to the pressure of the atmosphere.  I don't really understand how it all works, but I do know that it can cause severe headaches.  This is what I was feeling Tuesday and was stuck inside all day.  It was a good day to feel bad though because it rained all day.  I hope I can get through the rest of my trip without having to feel like that again.

On Wednesday Chelsey and I traveled to the "fan zone" in the center of the city to catch up with a missionary team from Texas and some fellow Ukraine missionaries to watch the Euro 2012 game. 

Thursday was the day I had been looking forward to all week because it is playground ministry night.  This week I was unsure about what to make, but after some thought I planned to make a flower pen.  It is an artificial flower taped to a regular pen.  On this particular night we ended up having mostly girls and only a few boys, so it turned out to be the perfect craft.

 We even convinced some boys to make the flower pens...

These guys were just so precious, and they thought my English was just so funny!  They ended up convincing all the "big kids" to play on the monkey bars...

At the end of the day we had two extra flower pens one unmade and on that I had made as an example.  This lady always shows up during the time of playground ministry and reads by herself.  You can't tell by this picture, but she had a baby wrapped in her jacket.  Since we had left overs I took her the flower pen I made as the example.  She seemed happily surprised that someone was giving her something.  I hope that a seed was planted by this small act of kindness.  Please pray that a relationship can be made with this lady in the future. 

Friday was my 21st birthday.  I thought that I would be really homesick, and I guess I was a little, but a good dinner, fellowship with friends, and some chocolate cheesecake made me feel much better.  I have met some amazing people here and I am so thankful that they have taken me in and treated me like family! 

Saturday we stayed in the center of the city we took Mikola some food and spent some time fellowshipping with him.  He was in good spirits smiling, and laughing.  It was the first sunny and hot day we have had in a long time so I was wearing my sunglasses.  Mikola didn't have a hat or sunglasses and I knew he had spent the whole morning squinting and would spend the whole afternoon squinting as the sun beat down on him so I offered him my sunglasses.  At first he was worried that I wouldn't have any buy I assured him that he needed them more than I did.  He joked that he looked so cool after he put them on and insisted that I take his picture so here it is. 

Today was Father's Day and we were able to spend the day at a local park grilling pork and sausage.  I was honored to share in the family festivities of the Ledfords, but I couldn't help but miss my own daddy.  I know that I would not be the person I am today if it weren't for my dad who raised me in a Christian family since I was born.  He has always been there for me and supported me in anything that I do, even if that meant traveling half way around the world!  I missed my dad so much today, but I know he understands and is proud of me for being on this journey. 

It was certainly a week of ups and downs, but thankfully more ups than downs.  I have almost been here 3 weeks.  I am halfway through my journey!  I still consider myself blessed to have this opportunity to follow God's calling for my life.

What an amazing weekend...

As the title says it has been an amazing weekend, but at the same time it has been VERY busy, so I'll go ahead and apologize for the length of this post...

I'm sure many of my readers know that the European Soccer Tournament is taking place in L'viv and the first of three games in the city was Saturday.  A huge gated area has been constructed in the center of the city called the "fan zone"! I was hesitant at first to venture into this area because a lot has been broadcasted on local news about the violence associated with the European teams, but it turned out to be a somewhat safe adventure.  It was however a little disheartening to see the vast numbers of drunken people celebrating their teams through songs and chants.

On a better note, some pretty amazing things did happen because of these events.  The Ledford's have recently been helping a homeless man named Mikola.  He is the same guy I mentioned in my first post after arriving here, and he has an incredible story.  Mikola was a solider for Ukraine a long time ago, 15 years ago his wife died and as a result he turned to alcohol and lost everything.  He sleeps at the train station along with a lot of other homeless people and begs on the streets everyday.  He has spent the last 15 years of his life like this, but recently he made a life-altering change.  The Ledford's built up a relationship with him and invited him to church one week.  He accepted Jesus that day, which happens very rarely here!  Since then the Ledford's have noticed a real change.  He has no longer smelled of alcohol and he always greets you with a smile and a hug that just beems with God's love.  Anyways... Mikola has had a rough few days because he got beat up at the train station for some food he had been given by a local church.  We heard through a fellow missionary that a local church was hosting a viewing party for the game that night.  We were able to get Mikola to the church.  When they saw that he was homeless they welcomed him with open arms and let him use their facilities to take a bath, they offered him clean clothes, and he was able to fill his belly and enjoy some soccer.  It was such a blessing to witness a brother in Christ go from dirty, hungry, and afraid to clean, full, and happy!  I was overwhelmed...

...But wait there was more.  I also met another homeless man there who didn't speak very much English at all.  For most of the time I've been here the language barrier has been the most difficult aspect, but for some reason I felt led to speak to this guy.  So, in my clearest English, I tried to ask him which team he was rooting for in the soccer game.  He just looked at me like I was crazy, because he had no idea what I had said.  But with some hand gestures I eventually got my point accross.  We eventually communicated where we were both from and our names, and just as our conversation was ending he asked what I could tell was the most important question to him "are you a Christian?" I of course replied "yes, yes, dak, dak!"  The biggest smile came across his face, and he said "good, me too!"  I don't really know why God led me to talk to this guy, but I know that he was placed in my path for a reason.  Maybe he needed encouragment or maybe I needed encouragment to not let the language barrier hender my work here.  Either way it was a blessing to see the smile on the face of a fellow believer when he was able to declare that he was a Christian!

Today we ventured out to a church in a village near L'viv.  It was a 10 minute bus ride followed by another 50 minute bus ride followed by a 30 minute walk through streets dotted with cow manure.  When we finally made it there all I wanted was to be able to sit down on a nice comfy padded pew, but I instead rested my back side on a completely 90 degree angle wooden pew.  Not exactly comfortable, but as I sat there I came to the conclusion that for 20 years of my life I have taken for granted so many things like being able to drive 5 minutes to church and sit on a comfortable pew, in a temperatured controlled room, with music accompanied by instruments.  And despite all these nice things about my church back home, I still make up excuses to not go to church when I just don't feel like it.  God doesn't want your excuses, He wants you to come to church so he can bless you!  And bless me is exactly what He did!  Luckily Chelsey's dad Tim was preaching today with the help of a translator.  So I could understand him preaching in English and everyone else could understand his message through a translator.  He spoke about how loving your neighbor is one of the most important commandments from God!  It was something I really needed to hear because I know I have been called here to show the love of God to the people I encounter in Ukraine, and to be reminded that I am in God's will and following one of his greatest commandments is yet another blessing!

So to sum up the weekend all I can say is it has been full of blessings, GOD HAS BEEN SO GOOD!  I can not believe I have been here for almost two weeks.  The time has just seemed to fly by!  Please continue to keep me in your prayers, and while you are at it please pray for Mikola, The Ledford's, and all the other people in Ukraine striving to share God's love with the people here.  I hope you all had amazing weekends as well!