Heroes of faith hidden in the village

Last weekend we went on a truly Ukrainian adventure. Imagine travelling back in time about 100, maybe 200 years....to rural life. To water that comes directly from a well. To food that has been grown and stored in all the old fashioned ways. To dishes being done by heating water on the big stove and without soap. To a toilet called an outhouse. To a village of 280 homes and families, mostly babushkas and dadushkas living the same way that they have for all their lives.

Here in this little village we were hosted by a hero of the faith. Baba Tania is her name. She is 85 years old, hunched over and can hardly hear. To have a conversation with her you have to YELL VERY LOUDLY. She is not inhibited from talking to everyone, however. She loves to talk of Jesus, she delights in sharing stories of faith and preaching the word of God.

Baba Tania was very disappointed when we told her that we were only able to stay for one night. We had come to her to lead the house church that meets in her home every Sunday. She also has run a children's ministry in her home for years and years and is still the host. She told us, "I want you to stay longer with me.., but my daughter tells me that I need to stop trying to tell people what to do!"

It was delightful to be with them. "Them" being the neighbours who came over to eat and talk with us all. These dear people, who are bonded because their share their lives together, are also a family in Christ because of the live and endurance of this "Baba" who has held the word of God and love of Jesus high in her small secluded village in rural Ternopil region. The service on Sunday was unique indeed. We all shared from our hearts and were delighted to partake in the Word of God and singing praise to Him in a very Ukrainian way (singing in that special melody and tone that is sung in Ukrainian cultural songs!!)

Unfortunately all of our photos somehow got erased....I wanted to be able to show you the face of a hero....but you will simply have to take my word that she is :)

Again, I was reminded of how vital our relationships are in life. And I was burdened to see the great need for encouragement in the rural communities all over the world, especially in nations where technology has not reached the villages. The young people were so thankful that we were there too - simply to talk to others and to hear our stories.

It is certainly NOT a waste of time to go to the undesirable rural places for the love and sake of Christ. He is there too...and there are precious people there waiting to receive His love, encouragement and relationship!

God - raise up rural missionaries right in their own towns, like Baba Tania, who will stay and declare the glory of the Lord. Send others to go as encouragements and messengers :)

Giving Our Bread to the Poor

You may or may not ever had read Isaiah 58. If you have, you know it is one of the main biblical texts that explains fasting God's way. If you haven't - you need to - it is awesome to see what God's standard is for something that we all have our own definition for. Fasting. 

This is not a post about fasting. Well, not really, anyways. 

This is a post about feeding the homeless and poor. Which, if you read Isaiah 58, is a part of God's fast. (I won't get into it!!) Personally this has been miraculous in that when we fast as a team, we literally are saving our budgeted money for that day and saving it to buy food that we get to prepare and serve to the homeless and poor of Ternopil. It excites me to think of what and how God will work in and through this! 

Our team here in Ternopil, Ukraine had prayed and asked God where and what He wanted us to do during our 3 month outreach phase. A number of people on the team heard and received direction from the Holy Spirit to work with homeless poor. (We had met a number of them while we were weekly in the city sharing Jesus' love with people.)

I know - this is old news for those of you who read my posts and updates. BUT what is not old news is what has been happening in the process of ministering to and beginning to love these people. 

Last week, Ukrainian Christmas Eve, we were handing out the food we had prepared, pouring tea, and giving special sweet bags that we had made for Christmas and nice new clothes. It was not really an "easy" night to be brief. Lots of the people were drunk, some were stirring up strife. Others were almost trying to climb over us to get to the food - ha ha ha - fun times! We sang a Ukrainian carol and we all forgot the last lines! Good thing everyone here loves to sing - they lead us strong in the end!

After the large crowd dispersed, usually there are at least 10 -15 people that come to get food and leave and don't like to stay to talk, pray, receive ministry, etc., we were standing in the cold night talking and praying for people who wanted prayer. 

One dear lady probably in her 60s, originally from Russia, started blessing us and thanking us. She said, "Seeing you here makes me so joy-full. I will pray that there will be more and more young people like you in Ukraine and all over. Coming here to help us. Not all wrapped up in the things that most people are wrapped up in. We need more people like you. I wish that I would have known Jesus and lived for Him when I was your age. If so, I may not be in this state."  (This woman is a sturdy character - very dear.)

We assured her that it is not too late for God to work in her life. Jesus bring hope to the hopeless. I was awestruck by God's goodness to bless us through this dear lady's words and gratitude, not even to us, but to the God who has made and caused us to love Him and love others.

To you, this might just seem like words that she shared with us. But in that moment, we were standing there in awe and being totally blessed by God that the people that we felt needed us, we actually need as well. We needed her encouragement, we needed to see that the only thing that separates us from these people that society rejects and writes off is our own prejudice and pride.

Jesus loves and died for these precious ones and they might be stuck in their mess, but God's hand is not too short that He can not save and deliver!  

We have been in awe at the relationships that we are making and as we become a part of this street church. Really it is amazing! These people come to be fed physically and spiritually. And they are so eager to ask for prayer, to pray together, they hear a message, ask questions, comment, share, etc. I realized that these ones probably hear God's word more than most "nominal" Christians - they are in church most nights on the street! 

AMAZING! 

I am convinced that amidst this group of babushkas, alcoholics, drug addicts, street people, young and old, are some radical disciples of Jesus! We get to know them and love them in the process - glory to God! 

The Ins and Outs of the TEAM

This outreach experience has been very different from what I had expected. To imagine that I am living in the same house, sleeping in the same bed and cooking and eating in the same kitchen, yet I am on my 3 month practical work is a bit weird for me. I know that God has caused us to remain here, as He has confirmed it in prayer to our entire team and we all have peace about the ministry that we are doing. I guess for me it is fairly “normal” everyday life – loving and seeking Jesus and loving and serving people in His name. By the grace of God this is how I live life whether in Canada or Guatemala, yet I am doing it in another new culture and language.

For me the greatest challenge has been being culturally and linguistically immersed. It is different this time – mostly because I am used to being in a warm culture and live out my life in such a way and it is definitely a COLD culture here in Ukraine!! (warm and cold cultures relate to how people interact, communicate, etc.)  I have been amazed at how differently we all like to do things and having lived with various roommates and families in the past I understand that we all have our own nuances about daily life, tie four other cultures into the knot and you got an interesting situation. It has given way to many good conversations about culture, respect, loving one another, conflict, having differences and respecting them, etc.  It is also interesting in that our age range is fairly small. We are mostly in similar life stages and have all been Christians for at least 7 years.  Personality wise, we all get along and enjoy each other’s humour and hearts. It is a gift from God!

I can genuinely say that I love my team. We are a family. We enjoy being together, praying together, talking about God and His word together, laughing together, cooking and cleaning together, loving and serving others for Jesus together – you get the idea J Yet there is a level where I feel like my own culture inhibits me from connecting with them on a deeper level because there are barriers in the way we think. And if barriers in the way we think, barriers in the way we understand each other and then treat each other.  How I have become acquainted with the independent spirit and mentality that has shaped me as a North American. A year ago I never knew that it was so resilient – for positive and for negative. My prayer has been and remains that every bit of independence and resistance to others (aka – PRIDE) would be transformed into true interdependence with the Holy Spirit first and my co-labourers and family members in the Gospel second.

Our team :) about to enjoy North American Christmas meal :)

And as much as I desire that every barrier be destroyed I am realizing a valuable truth. Jesus likes that we are all different – He made us that way. It is not wrong to be different. Being uniform in thinking, culture, dress, custom, culture, etc. is NOT what unites us and brings us into oneness. The Love of JESUS CHRIST is the only thing that brings us into true unity and oneness. For His love to dwell in our midst we must actually acknowledge our differences and not try to conform to another’s standards, but recognize that we are all who we are, yes in process, and yes, being changed and transformed into the likeness of Christ, yet unique in that process.

The world will look at us and see our love for one another and know that God sent Jesus into the world. That does not mean that they will look at us and we will all look the same. That means that they will look at us in our radical differences and see that there is a genuine supernatural love that we have for one another as walked out in our actions, words and lifestyles and they will see that ONLY GOD can unite these people and give them such a love. ONLY JESUS’ love is this powerful.

In the midst of learning to work as a team, failing at it, repenting and trying again to with one heart feed the homeless, love the poor, the alcoholic and drug addict, share Christ with the every day “Joe”, bring joy to children through English classes, etc.  I am left crying out to God to truly live and experience more of His love through the cross of Jesus Christ and His Spirit that lives in my heart and life. I am becoming more desperate to live in the love of God than ever, as I realize how far away I am from what Jesus has purchased for me! Yet in hope I know that His grace is bringing it to pass!

Our team sharing Christmas Eve with some of the brothers who feed and minister to the homeless and two of the guys who receive ministry. It was a blessed time to rejoice in the Lord in the freezing cold night - he he he - JESUS is born and we are family because of Him! 

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!

Chortkiv, Ukraine - 3 day outreach and quest!

Two weeks ago we had two days of our lectures devoted to “team time”. This was time where both teams, India and Ethiopia, were to spend together building relationships and learning together as preparation for the 3 month outreach phase.

Our team, Team India, had the opportunity to travel 70 km south of Ternopil to a city call Chortkiv. This city is quite a bit smaller than our present home, with about 30,000 people. It was nice to be in such a “small city” and we really felt it in the three days we were there. We saw the same people on the streets at least twice – he he he!!

We went to serve and work with a local church there in Chortkiv with whom our school staff have good relationships. In our time there we spoke, sang and did drama at the young adult group of the church. I was really blessed to connect with a few of the English speakers and we had some great conversation and I was able to encourage them in God’s plans and goodness for them. A young family from the church gave us their one room apartment to stay in...which was certainly a gift! They took their two young kids and stayed at a friends for the two nights we stayed. So...there we were...8 girls sleeping in the living room and bedroom....cooking together, cleaning together – ha ha ha! An interesting fact that was a surprise to us all.... the shower was in the kitchen if you can picture it!

Our first day, we had a "Quest", which was basically a big scavenger hunt to find people and information in a city we had never been to - in 2 hours. This was a GREAT cultural learning experience....by the end we were all agitated...and when we debriefed we realized that we all had different goals when we were given the tasks. To the North Americans - we could not believe that people wanted to stop and take pictures everywhere we went - we were on a time deadline - 2 hours and 6 people we had never met to find, interview,etc. To the Ukranians we were pushy and rude because we were not taking advantage of the opportunity to see the sights at the same time...and hey, we better get groceries for supper because we are walking by possibly the only large supermarket! Ha ha ha - LESSON LEARNED - COMMUNICATE THE VISION AND PURPOSE OF THE TASK - WITH TRANSLATION....so everyone is working together! 

The second day we had a time devoted to focused worship and prayer...so we hiked up a hill on the warm sunny morning, found a good spot overlooking the city and sang praises and gave worship to God. It was an amazing time for us as a team – our first time to just rest and worship together simply because Jesus is worthy to receive our praise and worship! In the afternoon we met up with some of the local believers and led them in some street ministry and evangelism. This was tonnes of fun! We met many people during this time and had some really great conversations with people. The people of Chortkiv were VERY friendly and so open to talk and share and pray with us. It was refreshing!

Two team mates blessing a dear lady we met
She is from Poland and was so encouraged
and blessed us as well!

Saturday night was a highlight for me....because we worked with the “Coffee House” outreach which is run by a former YWAMer and leader in the church, Lydia. God has given her a vision and heart to reach out to youth at the local disco-tech or night club. Once every couple of weeks Lydia and her team go to the night club and present a short drama and say a few words and hand out their contact info for people. There have been many young people who have responded through relationship to this outreach. Lydia shares that before she was born again, in relationship with Jesus, she was in the night club drinking and drugging away her abusive and failed marriage until some of her friends began to love her and really care for her and share Christ with her. I had the priviledge of playing a part in the short drama we did and then saying a few words to the crowd at the end. The message was simple, “We all get stuck to sin....but Jesus died for us while we were sinners, so that when we believe in Him and ask Him to He has the power to forgive us and FREE us from the power of sin.”

The drama is posted before this post. :) Check it out -  it is really great and you will get a sense of the atmosphere!

After the drama we stuck around and talked to people that wanted to talk. A young woman approached us, connected with us and two days later she ended up coming to visit us at home when we were in Ternopil. Yay God! Many other youth and young adults wanted to talk to us, ask us questions and get to know us. It was tonnes of fun....and a great reminder to me that people everywhere are in need of God’s great love and so often we forget about the places that might “seem” more dark....but LIGHT BELONGS IN THE DARKNESS.

The final day we shared at the local church we were working with in the city. It was tonnes of fun....we shared  with the congregation all about ourselves, DTS, India, and some of the students shared stories or testimonies of amazing things that God has done in bringing them to the school and while being here. We sang a song - Russian and English, but the only catch is we started in Russian, with microphones in the hands of people that have never used mics (we were not expecting personal mics for every singer!!) and whoever started, hit the wrong key and everyone else just followed suit (smile/frown**)!! ha ha - oh to be a part of a team. So...when it was English time, my choice was to try to save the song or to support the team - so I went with the support the team and tried to save it at the same time....it was a great and terrible experience at the same time! After the worship service, on the drive home, we all laughed so hard....we only can improve from here on in!  Our team leader said, "I thought you guys were going to cut it short....BUT you finished the song!!" Ha ha - we are still laughing about it!  Jesus is FUNNY!!

That is the trip in a nut-shell....