A Summer of Festivals

Our kids' fest team

It's hard to believe we've already been living in Zaporozhye for 5 months - and the time has gone by really fast! There have been different points in my life where time felt like it never moved. But these last 5 months have felt like a blink of the eye. I am absolutely shocked by the realization that it's already September, summer is over, and leaves are falling off the trees. And, as school beings, I am faced with the realization that our summer of kids' festivals has also come to a close.

It all started with one sweet young woman in our church. She felt the Lord call her to organize a two day kids' festival at Oak Park (here in Zaporozhye). The whole church was really excited to see her passion, and so we banded together, did our best to prepare, and hosted the festival.

We all prayed a lot for the festival and worked hard to prepare for the event. We were so excited at first, but once the festival began, various roadblocks came up, some of our planning unraveled a bit, and not very many kids came. As the festival came to a close, a lot of us felt a little disappointed. We had so much hope and faith, that the festival was going to be this huge thing with 50-60 kids. But, this just wasn't the case. We went home that night discouraged.

Inviting people to church and English Club

The next day, the Lord really spoke to me, and I think the other servants too - that success isn't in numbers, results, or even in our expectations being met. Those are just worldly standards. True success is rooted in faithfulness and obedience. The young woman that organized the festival was so faithful and obedient to the Lord, and the servants that helped gave their time and energy as unto the Lord. With all that in mind, I realized that the festival was a success, even though I couldn't see any immediate fruits.

Little did I know, the Lord designed this first festival to be far bigger than just a one time event. And not only that, but this first festival ended up opening up unbelievable ministry doors - all the more proving that God's ways are not our ways, and His ways are always SO much better.

A few weeks later, we were on the bus and the director from Oak Park was on the same bus, saw us, and recognized us! He got off at the same stop as us and started talking to us about Ukrainian Independence Day. As the conversation continued, he mentioned that he liked what we did at our first festival, and if we were interested, we could do another festival on Independence Day. We were totally shocked and blown away by God's faithfulness in this.

We started making plans and were able to organize another festival with crafts, songs, games, raffle prizes, an English Club and evangelism table, and we also shared the Gospel with the kids (and with many adults too!). There were tons of people at the park on Ukrainian Independence Day! It was such a cool opportunity and we got to invite so many people to church and tell them about Jesus. Honestly, I have no idea how many kids filtered through the festival, but we gave away tons of Gospel tracts, English Club invites, and got to serve our local community in Jesus name.

After our second festival, I was so excited! All of my expectations had been exceeded and I was satisfied. But again, the Lord wasn't done yet!

We were contacted this last week by the director and were invited to do one more festival. We didn't have very much time to plan this festival, but our team really banded together and worked hard. It was so cool to see our team work as the body of Christ. We had to organize the festival quickly, which meant all the planning had to be delegated, each team member trusting that the next team member did what they agreed they would do. And the super awesome part is, everyone did what they said they would do, we worked together well and in unity, and we were able to put on a third kids' festival.

We were all flexible and sensitive to the Spirit, and the festival was great. Truly, I couldn't be prouder of Calvary Chapel Zaporozhye and the awesome men and women at the church who just love the Lord so much and deeply desire to have a positive impact on the community here (in the name of Jesus!). People freely and willing gave their time and energy to this outreach, and I really believe the Lord already has, and will, use these festivals to further the Kingdom.

Ira sharing the Gospel with kids at the park

The Lord is so good and faithful! He used one young woman's faithfulness (the organizer of the first festival) to open the door for our whole church to reach out to people here in Zap and bring them the Gospel. As I look back and reflect on these festivals, I don't feel tired at all. I feel stoked that the Lord is doing a fresh work here in Zap, and I do believe that the best is yet to come -- the Lord has more crazy, awesome, amazing things planned for CCZap.


"Look among the nations and watch - Be utterly astounded! For I will work a work in your days which you would not believe though it were told you." - Habakkuk 1:5


Blessings,
Emily