the lady in the red scarf

Picture it....a Turkish guy, a Kazakhstani girl and me walking around our Ukrainian city seeking God's heart for the homeless. Praying. Listening to God's voice. Obeying Him. None of us at this point have worked with the homeless in Ternopil yet. Only one of us can speak Russian, the second can speak enough Russian to translate between me and the non-English speaking team mate. Talk about learning to work together - he he! We are on a "spiritual scouting" mission.

Holy Spirit leads us to the train station. There are people everywhere and we ask a lady that has a booth to sell food and drinks outside if she knows where the homeless people "hang out". (I use that term loosely...they aren't really hanging out - they have no where else to go!) This lady tells us that they are around, we just need to find them and they usually don't come to the train station until later in the evening. She gave us a hint, however. All homeless people in Ternopil wear scarves! She told us to look for the scarves.

We decid to continue praying, seeking God and we enter the train station, just to walk around and pray for the homeless people that would be going there in a few hours. We pray for the ministries that minister and reach out to the homeless people and we sit down on some benches where most of them are full of people waiting for their trains to wherever they are going.

Right across from us is a lady with a long coat and a red scarf. She is sleeping. Our Turkish teammate says, "Hey, maybe she is homeless." I respond with laughter, because by this point this team member has thought that at least 5 people that we have seen have been homeless (most of which were seniors - babushkas - from the village). We talk about how just because someone might look "homeless" in our opinion, does not mean that they are homeless. Assumption.

This lady sitting next to us, "wakes up" and we realize that she is totally plastered drunk. And yes, she is homeless. We decide just to sit where we are and pray for her. She mocks us, even though we are not talking to her or anything, and acting up and then she gets up, stumbles around and approaches a lady for some money. This woman in the red scarf has very little physical control at this point and she gets quite close to the woman and invades her space.

To our surprise, the woman screams at the lady in the red scarf, hits and kicks her and pushes her to the ground with great anger and violence. We, seeing the entire thing, reacted right away and ran to the lady who is now prostrate on the ground and clearly in pain, felt or not due to her intoxication. We help her up and lead her to another seat to sit down. THE ENTIRE SECOND FLOOR WAITING ROOM JUST SITS AND WATCHES THE ENTIRE TIME AND MANY PEOPLE ARE LAUGHING. After we help the lady up, the people are laughing at us too, not to mention giving us that cold eastern European GLARE filled with shame!

We give the woman tissues to clean her bleeding cut on her brow from her fall. As we sit with her, all we can do is pray and she welcomes our prayer. As our one Russian speaking team member prays out loud, tears stream down the woman's face. From our point of view, we are helpless in serving this woman, as all we can offer her is Jesus through our prayer. Yet, with confidence we know that Jesus cares so deeply for this one and He is touching her through us in this short moment.

We go and buy her some bread to eat and just as we do the "police" or security show up. Now it is getting interesting! At this moment we realize that we need to go. We have done everything we feel that God sent us there to do. We get up and move, still staying in the train station to see how the police deal with this woman. Another hard situation to witness, but the reality of this woman. The police act very rudely and they call for one of the cleaners to come and "remove" her. They very obviously did not want to touch her or smell her. They are holding their coat collars up to their noses in a very demonstrative fashion to prove the point that this woman stinks.

We watch as they drag her out of the train station, forgetting her bread behind on the bench. Just as we go to get the bread to give to the lady, the woman appointed to remove the lady in the red scarf comes and retrieves the bread.

As we walk home, we pray for the lady in the red scarf, for the police, for the many bystanders and scoffers. We talk together and realize that we were not prepared to see and experience what we just saw and experienced. But it happened and it was an eye opener to how we can so easily judge, especially those despised and outcast, and how they need the same love and care that Jesus offers to us all so freely. Only if we are willing to identify with them in their humiliation and stand for them.

God's love in us and communicated through us for these ones (and all people) must outweigh our desire to retain any kind of reputation. I have re-learned again that all I have to offer of any lasting value to anyone, to society, is Jesus Christ. If there are things that stand in my way from sharing Jesus' life with others then it is rooted in my own pride to save myself and my reputation. Remembering what Jesus said, "Whoever saves their life, they will lose it; but whoever gives up their life for my sake and the sake of the gospel will find it."

I pray and believe God with all my heart that the lady in the red scarf will lose her present life of bondage and sin in Christ and find the life that He has planned for her. The power of the new creation.

We will see the lady in the red scarf tomorrow night again when we return to the train station with a local church outreach team to feed the homeless. What would I rather do this Christmas eve.....NOTHING!

How Many Christmases are there really??

So...it is Christmas time! Yay Jesus - I do enjoy this time of the year, although this year has been very different than any other year already. Firstly, I am living in Ukraine and they celebrate Christmas on January 7th and in a very different way than we "North Americans" are accustomed to. (I have resorted to calling myself "North American" because people here call us all American, whether we are Canadian or American and when I try to correct them, they say, "It's all North America!" - he he!)

This year I am in charge of the planning and running of "North American" Christmas, which is in two days. Then we will celebrate New Years, which in this part of the world is the very important holiday (a remnant of Soviet times when Christmas was not celebrated...). So - for New Years people set up a tree and decorate it, say up all night, watch ritualistic Russian movies, eat a lot of chocolate and special dishes and give gifts. Our team leader, who is Russian, is in charge of carrying out a real "Russian New Year"!

After that...we have another Christmas - Ukrainian Christmas, on the 7th of January. This entails people going from house to house singing Ukrainian carols and of course a big, traditional meal. Our team has been asked to plan and carry out the program for the Ukrainian Christmas celebration for the missionaries and ministers of YWAM Ternopil. We have been learning Ukrainian Carols....and beginning to prepare, but we have two big celebrations to get through before that :)

For this year, I will be privileged to celebrate the birth of Jesus (which really, the day isn't important, but the remembrance and celebration of Christ's first coming IS...) with brothers and sisters in Christ from 6 plus nations. We have received a new team member, who also had trouble with her visa to Egypt so she came to be with us, from Kazakhstan. She is from the Ugur (spelling??) people group, who are originally from Northern China. She is definitely a Christmas gift from God to us all bringing a new dynamic to our family and allowing us to learn about her, her people, and Kazakhstan as well.

Just this morning we were having a time of worship that was focused on the Cross of Christ....and we shared in communion together and there were 6 nations standing together eating the body of Jesus and drinking the blood. Ukraine, Russia, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Kenya and Canada... as if that is not the miracle of the cross at work! Every tribe and every tongue!

So - Christmas time....rejoice in the Lord and all He has done by coming, living as a man and being tempted in every way as we, yet without sin, and then giving Himself as a sacrifice for our sins, conquering death, hell and the grave and rising again to bring us back into a loving relationship with the Father through the Holy Spirit, and giving us an assignment to go and teach all nations all that He has and is teaching us!

Hmmmm - this is all wrapped up in the fullness of why we celebrate Christmas....it's so much greater than anything that might be under our trees this year! Jesus - He is the greatest gift - living, breathing and changing lives this Christmas season!

С Рождеством!!! (Merry Christmas!)

While I'm Waiting!

So - here we are...on outreach...still at the base in Ternopil!

No. This is not a joke. How is it possible that 4 of the 5 team members "suddenly" get colds? As a result we had to postpone our ten day outreach to the village. Then, in the midst of waiting and resting, we get word from our team mates headed to Ethiopia that they were not able to board their flight in Turkey because of some unclear visa information. They were "stuck" in Istanbul, needing to get to Ankara, where the Ethiopian Embassy is. It just so happens that one of our team members, Riza, is from Ankara. He was able to help our friends, by instructing them to get onto the right bus and by having his sister and brother in law host them in Ankara. What an interesting turn of events!

We could not have anticipated this. Nor could we have known that our "delay" turned out to work for the good of the team and served a greater purpose than just resting and recovering! We are learning the truth that "All things work together for good, to those that love God and are called according to His purposes" Romans 8:28.

For some of us, we have been in great awe of the Lord. At His sovereignty. To think...all of the chain of events that caused our Indian visas not to work out, then the formation of a new team, then the delay to the village....all lead to us being in the right place at the right time to serve our brothers and sisters stuck in another country. How interconnected and tied together we all are in Christ. WOW!

How important it is to continue to seek the face of Jesus in every circumstance. Even when we are still receiving the answers....the goodness of God is going before us and working all things together for good!

Jesus is amazing!