Every since my first short-term trip to Ukraine, the Lord has put this country on my heart. God used that first trip to place a burden and a passion in my heart to serve Ukrainians. And once I was walking with the Lord closely, I felt that tug to move to Ukraine for full-time ministry. Even before Emily and I were married, we felt like the Lord was calling us to missions. "Lord, do you want us to move to Ukraine?" quickly became our daily prayer.
The summer of 2011 we went on another short-term trip to Kiev. This time, we spent 6 weeks in Ukraine instead of the normal two and a half weeks that we usually spent on our short-term trips. We were serious about moving to Ukraine. We felt like the Lord had us wait long enough to move to Ukraine, and that it was finally time to move. We were ready and so we went to Kiev for the summer thinking we'd start preparing to move there.
But the Lord's ways are better than man's ways. We don't know the ways or the thoughts of God. He didn't want us in Kiev. The door was closed. We knew God didn't want us to push that door open. I came back from that trip extremely discouraged and depressed. "Lord, I've been praying about moving to Ukraine for years and now you're closing the door to the only contact we know in Ukraine?" I didn't understand what God was doing.
At that time I was still working in the restaurant. Feeling discouraged and stuck, I kept grinding away at a job I didn't enjoy. I knew then, and know even more now, that the Lord was using me in great ways at the restaurant, but I still felt this pulling and desire in my heart to become a missionary in Ukraine. That fall, after our trip to Kiev, Emily got her dream job. Teaching science at our church's new elementary school. She was loving life, loving where she was at, loving her ministry and career - but I was extremely discouraged.
Was my desire to move to Ukraine just a selfish desire? Was it even from the Lord? Should I even pursue the idea any more?
Emily and I continued to pray about it. We continued to study Russian. But I could see my wife slowly drifting away from the desire to move to Ukraine. Emily kept saying that maybe two or three years down the road, we could start thinking about moving. Meanwhile, I wanted to move immediately. At this point I just handed it over to the Lord. If He wanted us in Ukraine He would put the desire in both of our hearts. So, after four years of praying and waiting on the Lord... He asked me to wait some more.
Back to the restaurant I went.
Our relationship with our missions pastor and his wife began to grow over this time. He kept encouraging us to pursue Ukraine. His advice was great. He began to encourage us to start seeking other options of ministry outside of Kiev, and not to give up. He also encouraged us to keep looking for answers to our prayers in the Word, and reminded us that most people don't have a burning desire to leave everything to live in a foreign place, and he believed that the desire we had was from the Lord. So, I started emailing a number of different Calvary Chapels in Ukraine to see if we could come and visit them.
Only two churches got back to me. We planned to go visit them in the summer of 2012 and I think this is when the desire to move started to come back to Emily. We were getting excited for our trip. We made a deal with each other that if the Lord closed the door again that I wouldn't push anything open and we'd give up on the idea of moving. We would stay in Colorado if the Lord closed the door once more.
Well, as you you can see now, the Lord didn't close the door and He led us to Calvary Chapel Ternopil. After our short trip visiting in the summer, we both knew that the Lord wanted us in Ternopil and He proved that by getting us out here only three months after we visited.
In the book of Joshua, the Lord gives Joshua a promise to cling onto before he crossed over the Jordon and into the Promise Land. The Lord promised Joshua that "every place that the sole of your [Joshua's] foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses." This is a promise that the Lord also gave to me and Emily. I knew that Lord had already picked out the place in Ukraine where we were to be and all we needed to do was to wait on Him and trust in Him. It's so amazing to look back five or six years ago and see a little seed that God planted in my heart, now turned into a full-time ministry in Ukraine. It is a privileged and an honor to be able to be used by God in Ukraine.
Now of course, I could write a whole new testimony of what the Lord is doing in my life since moving out here. I never could have imagined how the Lord would move in my life until I just stepped out in faith. I had to jump in and trust that God would keep us afloat. Being a missionary is the most difficult thing I have ever done, and it's definitely not a glamorous life. Some days, being a missionary is the most discouraging thing in the world to us. But the bottom-line is that in this difficult work, I can feel and see God moving in a special way, and I have the privilege and honor of seeing people change through the Holy Spirit and get saved, and that is incredible. I am so thankful for my new life here in Ukraine, and now, I'm finally in a place where I can completely submit to God and learn how to fully rely and trust in the Lord for my every need and desire. He is the Great Provider, the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and Last, and my absolute everything.
Blessings,
Byron
No comments:
Post a Comment