6 Years and Counting

Emily - 2012

On October 2nd, 2012, we boarded a plane bound for a new world. On October 3rd, we arrived in Kiev, Ukraine. We were scared, we were excited, we were every emotion in between. I never expected that 6 years later, I would still be on this crazy ride.

Before we moved from Colorado to Ukraine, our missions' pastor back home had told us that we needed to commit a certain amount of time to missions before the Lord, and his recommendation was to give missions a minimum of two years. I remember him saying, the first year is the honeymoon, the second year is when reality hits. If you quit after one year, you never really gave it a chance. 


We prayed about it and decided to commit two years to the Lord, and boy was it a good thing. I remember our first week in Ukraine, laying on the couch, unable to sleep, and thinking to myself, I may have made the biggest mistake of my life. Our internet wasn't working, we had no idea how to feed ourselves (none of the foods were familiar), we could barely speak Russian and then ended up living in a city that only spoke Ukrainian. If we hadn't had that 2 year commitment in mind, it's very possible I would have just grabbed my bags (They were still packed, I was too depressed to unpack them), booked a train ticket for Kiev, and caught the next flight home.

Byron - 2012

Fortunately for us, our first week in Ukraine was really one of our worst weeks in Ukraine, and it got much better from there. Overall, we've loved our time here, and I'm really thankful I didn't quit right away. And now, six years later, I can say that we completed our two year commitment, and we're just living day by day, waiting for the Lord to tell us what happens next.

But that first week, and many different situations over the last 6 years, have all taught me a very valuable lesson - it's easy to agree to do something when you think it will be easy, or at the very least, not that bad... Which brings us to the idea of faith.

Is faith really faith if you if you step into the unknown only because you suspect the path ahead won't be that difficult (Yikes, chew on that sentence for a minute...)? Yes, I'll do it, but only because I'm sure it's not going to be that bad.

I've learned a lot about faith over the last 6 years. What it is, what it isn't. And most of my definition of faith has come from defining by the negative as I've processed the mistakes and wrongful assumptions about faith that I've made in my own life.

Faith is not:
-Seeing and believing
-Doing something because the people around you support you
-Doing something you're guilted into
-Doing something begrudgingly
-Stepping into the known
-Having an end in sight
-Being able to control things
-Doing the most logical thing
-Counting the days until it's over
-Magic that eliminates suffering in your life
-Agreeing only if you can do it on your own terms
-Trusting yourself

I'm still learning about faith, and I don't have it all figured out. But I am so thankful that the Lord decided to bring me to Ukraine so that I could really experience faith. I often joke with people that the Lord didn't call me to missions because I'm some super Christian. He called me because I was willing, and also a little too stubborn to allow the Lord to fully captivate me while I was in the States.

Byron and Emily - 2018

I think the Lord has even used the mission field to teach me about faith and marriage. I had my own idea of what marriage would look like when I entered into that covenant with Byron. I believed marriage was two people who loved each other and both worked 9 to 5 jobs, had dinner together on the evenings, spent time together and went to church on the weekends, always with a 10 year plan in the back of their minds.

But instead of my marriage playing out in America, the Lord brought me to Ukraine, where He changed my understanding of marriage, love, and even what a healthy marriage should look like daily. We spend our 9 to 5 serving in ministry side by side, eating ALL our meals together, and not being able to plan more than 2 months ahead! Our marriage is nothing like what I had imagined, but it is so so so much better, and it's all because of faith in the Lord. Of the nine years that we've been married, three of them were in Colorado and SIX in Ukraine! The Lord has used missions to redefine every aspect of life, even my preconceived ideas of what marriage looks like. And honestly, I'm glad.

Calvary Chapel Zaporozhye

I'm glad that my life is different than I imagined because I have this simple finite mind! And as I let go of control more and more, I put my life into the hands of the One who created the heavens and the earth. That's pretty cool actually, and His creativity will bring something way more special into my life than my own, frail, human creativity could concoct.

2018 Emily would definitely tell 2012 Emily to go for it, to follow the Lord. And I'm telling you that too. Go for it, follow the Lord! Don't hold onto your own preconceived ideas of what your life should be. Don't do ministry or missions on "your terms." Just go for it. Enjoy the breath that you have and chase after the Lord's vision - we just don't have time enough time in life to simply walk - Run after everything the Lord has for you.



Here's to completing our 6th year of missions, and by faith, many more!

Blessings,
Emily