We Rejoice!

We just wanted to share briefly with all of our blog followers about how the Lord is faithfully moving and drawing people to Him.

As many of you know, we've had church planting on our heart as one of the primary reasons we came to Ukraine. With this vision the Lord gave us, He lead us to Donetsk almost two months ago. When we first visited Donetsk this summer, we didn't know a single person in this city. However, we are here to testify that the Lord is faithful to provide everything that we need and made it possible for us to follow His calling that He has placed on our lives.

He has brought a so many people into our lives since we arrived in Donetsk. People that we have been able to minister to, and people that have ministered to us. God continues to make His calling in our life possible. We just want to encourage you all to continue to walk steadfastly in Him, following His calling because of what we have seen Him do, we know that His promise from Romans 11:29 is so real and true. "For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable" Romans 11:29.

God placed this calling for us to plant a Bible teaching church here in Donetsk and He is seeing that calling through. We're amazed daily by His faithfulness.

With this being said, we wanted you guys to rejoice in the Lord's goodness and faithfulness alongside us. This past weekend, we held our first service/fellowship/Bible study that is the beginning of something new and fresh in Him!

Naomi and us - our first fellowship!

The Lord led us to being this church by studying through Acts (we think it's an awesome book to begin with so that we can study how the early church functioned). So this past weekend we invited a number of people to our home for worship and the Word (and of course awesome food and fellowship).

An amazing sister in the Lord came last weekend, and the Lord really blessed our time. Please rejoice alongside of us and pray for the weeks to come as we continue to study through Acts and try to reach out to more people.

Blessings
Byron

Prayer needs:
-We are searching for an office space to rent hourly to hold the service (we want the location to be in the center of the city so it is more accessible for people, our apartment is about 20 minutes away from the center).
-We have a few potential translators that we will be meeting with in the near future. (We're praying for a translator so that we can invite people who don't speak English).
-We are praying about beginning an English club that will allow us to meet more people and begin relationships with them and invite them to church.

13 years (13 months)

Last week I was studying through Genesis and I was just really encouraged to be reminded of the story of Joseph. He is such an amazing example of someone who faithfully followed the Lord. Something that I really felt like I could apply to my life and the ministry in Ukraine was the fact that he went through so many trails and hardships before the Lord revealed the purpose of it all. From being sold into slavery, being imprisoned, and temptations along the way, Joseph stood faithful in the Lord.

Thirteen years from his brothers selling him into slavery until he stood before Pharaoh and being appointed a high position in the Egyptian government. Can you imagine? Thirteen years of hardships, not understanding what God was doing, but still staying faithful.

I don't see the full picture of what God is doing in Ukraine. I doubt I even understand 10% of what God is doing here. But just because we don't see the big picture or the end result, doesn't mean that we have an excuse to not be steadfast in the Lord.

Emily and I are at thirteen months in Ukraine (compared to Joseph's thirteen years). I'm just encouraged by God's Word and God's faithfulness. We don't need all the answers or reasons to continue moving forward in serving him. It took Joseph thirteen years before he understood what God was doing with his life. That's a long time, but God hasn't called his children to understand, He has called us to have faith in Him.

Our desire is to just keeping walking in that faith, with the assurance that God is taking care of business. And in the end, it is not in us, but in God that His purpose will be accomplished.

I'm writing this because I'm really excited about what God has brought us through this past year as we've been in Ukraine. And I'm really excited to see the reasons why He took us through some hardships. He's brought us through a lot, but the past doesn't matter unless we apply what we've learned and gone through to the here and now. How are we abiding in God now? Looking back and learning from what we've gone through is helpful, but what God has for us now is what really matters.

So what's happening now? This Sunday will be our first Bible study/fellowship in Donetsk. We know that the Lord called us here to plant a church, and we are blown away by how quickly everything is happening. It is totally the Lord! We still have so many details to work out, but we are stepping out in faith and following the Lord's leading. Please join us in prayer for our first service this Sunday.

Prayer needs:
-We're meeting in our apartment, but we are searching for an office space in the center for the church. Pray that the Lord provides this soon.
-A translator. Only English speakers will be attending this week, but we need a translator soon so that people who don't speak English can join us.
-Preparation. We'll be studying the book of Acts. Pray for Byron as he studies. Pray for Emily as she prepares the worship, that the Spirit leads her in choosing songs to play.
-The people. An international student that we've met is committed to join us. We've also invited a few other people we've met this past month. Pray that the Lord prepares hearts to hear from Him.

 

Trolley-ing it!

Every once and a while, Emily will turn to me and will say "can you believe we're living in Ukraine?" But now that's not the crazy part to think about. The crazy part is that everyday life in Ukraine is normal to us. This country feels like home to us, but there are still things in this culture that just make us smile.

The other night, we were shopping at the supermarket and we had one of those moments when we just had to stop and think about the fact that we are living in a foreign country... and it feels completely normal.

We have a few small shops near us that are in walking distance, but whenever we need to do actual grocery shopping, we go to the big supermarket that has better variety and quality of food. To get to this supermarket we have to take a trolley. You know, like a real trolley, that is red and goes down tracks that are in the middle of the street. It's like something from Mr. Roger's Neighborhood.

Well, this local trolley has three different routes, the #4, #8 and #3. The number #3 goes right past our place. So after getting our groceries, we are waiting for the #3 to come. Of course, it's cold and dark out. The #4 goes by. Then the #8... then the #8 again. Then the #4 again. Public transportation is not the most reliable thing here... but the #3 has to come at some point. We continue to wait, second guessing our choice to take the trolley instead of making the 30 minute walk.

Finally, we see the #3 approaching in the cold fog. However, when it pulls up to our stop, we notice that the trolley is completely overflowing with people. I mean, I seriously have never seen so many people stuck in a small space like that before.

Unfortunately, we were just coming back from some ministry and English teaching, so I had a full backpack of books plus our grocery bag. But we had to get on this trolley, who knows when the next one would come. So, we push and squeeze our way on.

Fortunately, I'm taller than a lot of the people here so I can breath above the mass of people. Emily on the other hand, is not so fortunate in her height.

As I'm being pushed and squeezed and praying that our grocery bag won't get ripped in half... or at least that the food we bought will still have it's original form, Emily has been swallowed by the crowed.

As I start to look around the trolley, hoping that Emily isn't being trampled to death, I see her. She was right behind me, but her face had become one with the back of a leather jacket. Her face was smashed into a man's back and she had no room to wiggle free.

At this point, I couldn't help but laugh. If I wasn't holding onto our grocery back for dear life, I would have tried to take a picture of Emily, because her expression was priceless.

After we finally managed to get off the trolley at our stop, Emily told me that she had given up trying to resist the pushing, she no longer needed to keep her spacial bubble. Instead she just embraced all the people shoving and pushing and decided to just relax and allow her face to rest on the back of the leather jacket in front of her. In the end, she said it was a pretty comfortable ride!

So this is something that we experience a lot. As Americans, this was originally a very strange and new experience, but now this culture is feeling normal to us. I just wanted to share this story because I want to remember these things and share our experiences with you, even if they feel like normal daily things to us now!

Blessings,
Byron

Prayer Requests:

-For the Lord to show us how to connect with people in Donetsk.
-For the Lord to help us find a place that we can rent to invite people to Bible studies and English clubs.
-For the Lord to give us strength to keep plodding.