Created for a Mission

All the romanticized ideas that I developed about Minnesota from being here this summer have now dissolved.  Actually, they froze.  It amazing the difference between knowing something and experiencing it.  I knew that I got cold in Minnesota because people told me, and I can look it up on the weather channel.  It’s not until you walk outside and feel the cold can you truly appreciate it.  I have been here since Sunday night and it has been about 29-35 degrees as a high.  The warmth and comfort of summer are long gone.  The wild thing is that it gets as cold as 30 degrees below zero.  I can’t fathom the reality of that.  My hats off to all the Minnesotans who love this weather!   I just looked out the window and there are flurries of snow falling, hooray!  I will be here through Friday.  I have appointments with three more churches in and around St. Paul.  I praise God for His goodness and His faithfulness! 

I arrived in Chicago and was pleasantly surprised to have great, warm weather on Wednesday and Thursday.  I have been here for the past two days for our Missionary Appointee Training.  As always it is great to see my fellow appointees with whom I have a bond based on a common passion and shared experiences.  We are learning a lot of practical things about functioning in ministry, especially once we get to the field.  We have been adequately challenged and informed.  We one more day of formal training remaining, and then on Sunday we will divide and conquer.  Each appointee family unit has an appointment at a church hear in the Chicago area where we will be given an opportunity to share the vision God has given each of us for ministry in our given field.   Please pray for all the appointees, especially those who will be sharing for the first time.  Now even though it has gotten cold outside the appointees will remain warm because of the camaraderie that we have developed with one another.  Also, some of us realize that this maybe the last time we see each in other in person for the rest of our missionary careers.  It truly is a special time!

I’ve had to really think about the answer to this question every day I woke up.  Well, now I am in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.  I will be headed for Middleton in a few minutes.  This is the final day of my first road trip.  Over the past two weeks I crisscrossed Pennsylvania, drove in and out of New York a few times, and circled half of Ohio.  It has been a great time!  It’s funny, I woke up in the middle of the night one night and I couldn’t remember where I was sleeping.  I had to look around for a few minutes to figure out where I was.  I’ve stayed with young families, empty nesters, a widow and in hotels.  Through it all, God has been with me.  He has allowed me to see new and wonderful things, build new relationships and strengthen old ones.  I was able to visit ten churches on this trip, praise God.  I am grateful.  I head back to Maryland today so that I can process all that has happened and then vote.  Thank you for your prayers throughout this trip.  Your prayers made it a big success.

On most days I would just assume to drive by every scenic outlook there is on the road with my final destination in mind.  Today was different.  I decided to stop and venture off for a few moments.  In the process God taught me some lessons today.  As a pulled up to the outlook there was a small open field that looked out over a mountain that had a valley cut through the center of it.  The view was breath taking as the leaves are changing in the northeast to the beautiful autumn colors.  I walked up to the end of the field and l took in the view for a few moments.  As I got back on the highway, I realized that the mountain I just saw on the outlook was directly in front of me.  As I drove a little ways, I began to approach the mountain.  The road I was on went right through the valley I saw from far away on that outlook.  As I drove in between the mountain, I began to look back in my rearview mirror to see if I could discern where I was standing on that scenic outlook.  I could not tell where I had been standing.  I could only see what was around me and what was before me.  Once I pass the mountain the road curved and I could no longer see anything that I could see previously in my rearview mirror.  Within minutes I crossed over out of New Jersey and into Pennsylvania, the state of my destination.  Now I still have a long way to go, but I am in the state of my destination.  After this encounter and realization that it is important to sometimes stop along the way and look around because you might glimpse of where God is taking you, I decided to reduce my speed and enjoy the journey to my destination.  The journey is turning out to be just as fulfilling as reaching my destination.

A little further on my journey, I was traveling with a group of cars for many miles.  It seemed we were all heading in the same direction.  Then we came to a cross road and my directions told me to turn left.  One by one all the other cars went straight.  It felt wired to me and a looked at the cars and thought for a moment, maybe my directions were incorrect but then, I turned left because I knew that just because everyone isn’t going the same way you are going does not mean your directions are wrong.

God is so awesome and He is able to use everything for His God.  I am so thankful for the love of God in my life.  I arrived in Warren, PA today safely and with many life lessons.  Thanks for praying for me.

For me, this was a week of preparation.  Preparation to once again pack the majority of my earthly belongings and move to a new and temporary place.  Tomorrow I will head north to New York to hang out with my folks for a couple of days.  New York is where I’ll be staying for the most part in between my appointments and my trainings.  I will be back in Maryland to vote and then one last time the week before Thanksgiving.  I am beginning to feel the pressure because I know my time here in the states is short.  Thank you all for your support, encouragement and most importantly your prayers.  I will keep you updated once I hit the road to Pennsylvania on Saturday.  Please pray for safe traveling mercies this week.

I just want you to know that this is a test.  I hope it works so that I can make more of these video and post them for you.  If this works correctly you will be able to see more details able our time in Ukraine this past summer.

My 2008 Ukraine Journey

Since my return from Ukraine I have had time to rest, to reflect and to be refreshed.  It has taken me until now to feel totally back to my new normal.  For those of you who have been on a missions journey, you know that you are changed forever, so once you return home you have to adjust.  Each trip teaches you something new.  During this trip I learned what it means to fully rely on God.  I thought I knew before but He taught me a new level of dependency.  I learned how to persevere through sickness.   For 2 ½ of the 5 weeks we were in Ukraine I was ill.  I could barely keep any food down.  I am grateful to God that He kept me and each day He gave me with strength to complete my assignment.  I am thankful to say that I am healed.  One of my first tasks to do once I returned home was to go to the doctors and the second task was to rest.   Over the past few weeks I also visited my brother and sister in VA and NC.

I am now ready to press for the next few months and perform the ministry of MPD (Missionary Partner Discovery).  Please pray with me that God will open the doors for me to minister to churches and individuals.  And that out of the ministry God will raise up some prayer partners and partners to support me financially.  Praise God I am currently at 80%.  It is all God’s doing and I know that He is faithful to complete that which He has begun.    Here are those pictures I promised.

Talking with campers during camp games.

Group picture from our Interpreters’ Camp.

Tania, Pastor Covington and Natasha relaxing one evening by the river.

Me giving a teaching on “Who Do Men Say that I Am?”  The word on the PowerPoint is Jesus in Ukrainian.     

Edik sending the message of HIV/AIDS awareness through our fashion show with a message. 

Natasha during our final session of our Youth Ministry.

Tania conducting a brief teaching on discovering spiritual gifts with Inna interpreting.

Young women discussing how they will take a stand for Christ and other issues they are passionate about.

  The drama section of our Adventure Camp depicting the crucifixion on Jesus and how some accept Him and some reject Him. 

Two guys from the all boys orphanage where we ministered.

One of the classrooms during the Adventure Camp.

Evangelism in Vitosks.

Pastor Covington preaching during a Sunday Service.

Natasha, one of our interpreters from years past, and her little girl Tanya.

A great family who adopted three orphans in addition to raising their natural born children. 

We began our journey home at 6:15am on Monday August 4^th.  We departed from Celets pretty much on time.  We drove to Rivne without many delays.  Pastor Peter dropped us off at the Hotel Rus.  We were all anticipating being home the next day.  We walked around downtown, got something to eat and then got some rest to be prepared for our journey home.  We packed our luggage in a midsize sedan and made the 40 minute trip to the airport.  At the time of our check-in we were told that there was a mechanical problem with the plane and we could have a delay of 5 minutes or 2 hours.  So we made our way through security and then passport control.  We glance at the monitors before sitting down.  The flight was still on time.  We were schedule to leave Kyiv at 10:50am.  At the schedule departure time, they told us the flight would be delayed, the part had to be flown in from London and it would arrive at 3:00pm.  We would leave at 5:00pm.  An hour after the announcement the airlines provided us with sandwiches and water.   After this our flight disappeared from the monitors.  During our wait we met many fellow travelers, some who had been in Ukraine for one week, some for a month and some for 2 years.  It was a great time to share the love of Christ and to have some good conversations with people we would probably never have talked with otherwise.    Our flight finally departed at about 7:00pm Ukraine time.  We arrived in New York at 10:30pm EST.  We were shuttled to a nearby hotel to spend the night.  We awoke bright and early to be at the airport by 6:30am.  Our flight to DC departed from JFK at 8:30am this morning, August 6^th.  We arrived in DC at about 10:30am.  I am grateful to God that the team is home safely and that He allowed us to take the long road home.  It was quite a journey.

This past week was an awesome week. We arrived in Dubrovitsa on last Thursday and we had planning time on Friday with the interpreters and youth leaders. On Saturday we had training for the camp leaders and then we had our introductory youth session in the evening. On Sunday we worshipped with the church. Monday and Tuesday we met with the youth and had a powerful time of worship, learning a fellowship together.
On Wednesday, we traveled to Rivne early in the morning. We met with the senior pastor for the region and we decided to go to church services that evening. When we left the house it was drizzling a little bit. We got on the bus and about half way to the church, it began to rain. It was a torrential down pour. When we got off the bus, we looked in all directions to see where to cross the street. There was a river as far as the eyes could see. We proceeded to cross the street through the water. As we were checking to see if any cars were approaching, I large truck was approaching. We had to move back from the curb into some bushes. By this time, Natasha and I were laughing hysterically. The church turned out to be about three blocks away from the bus stop. The streets were all covered with water and it was still raining very hard. So we literally, hiked up our skirts and ran down the street, laughing all the way. As you can imagine, we don’t have any pictures. By the time we got to church, we were soaking wet. We wrung out our skirts and went inside for the service. We went up and gave our testimonies.
Pastor Covington arrived on Thursday safely. Thank you for praying for his travels. Thursday, Friday and Saturday Converge MidAtlantic held a translators camp. On Friday, we had a great opportunity to go to an outdoor service at the Motor Track as a part of the camp. One of the Baptist unions and the Pentecostal union joined together to bring Nick Vijuic to Ukraine. Nick is a 25 year old man who was born without arms or legs. He travels around the world preaching the gospel. It has been raining a lot and so everyone was praying that it didn’t rain. When we arrived to the stadium there were a few drops of rain and then the sun came out. God moved mightily through Nick’s testimony. Many souls came forward to accept Christ. I was very inspired by this gentleman. Please pray for the remainder of our stay here.

Picture of the Motor Track in Rivne during the service on Friday.

A typical Sunday in the life of the Baptist church in Dubrovitsia. There are four services in three locations. Two services are held in the church building, one is held in Zarichne, a village about 40 minutes away and the last one of the day is held in the village of Celets. It reminds me of being at home at First Baptist Church of Glenarden when I have served at church all day. It is great because the service in Zarichne is held outside. Today it rained and the service was cut short. The last service of the day was held at 7:00pm in the House of Culture in Celets. After going for two weeks straight, I could not hang today, so I did not attend to final service of the day.

I also wanted to catch you up on where we are and what we are doing. Last week was great, on Monday we were supposed to go to the Bee House, a family style setting for orphans who chose to live in the house. The house is really quite unique because one of the requirements is that the kids must attend church. We were not able to go because the power was knocked out by a storm, so we went to the church and spent the day planning. On Tuesday we went to an orphanage for special needs boys. We did not know before we arrived that we would be ministering to only boys and that they would be special needs, but praise God we had a great time together. After leaving the orphanage, we went to the Bee House where we spent a few hours just hanging out and talking to some of the residents who were home. When we arrived the power still was not on but some of the older teens were home. We did a small craft project with a couple of the young ladies. On Wednesday we visit two women. One has been cripple her entire life and is confined to a bed but she is spirit-filled. The other young lady is 28 and I think she has cerebral palsy. She reads a lot, watches educational movies and was very knowledgeable about a lot of things. It was great spending time with and praying with these women.

Please pray for us as we head to Rivne on Wednesday for the translators camp and return to Dubrovitsia for the children’s camp, the youth events and evangelism. Also, Pastor Covington will be traveling on Wednesday to join Natasha and me for the remainder of our time in ministry here. Please pray for his safe flight.   Thank you for praying for us!

I will post some pictures once I am able to post from my computer.