UKRAINE MISSION UPDATE (Day 1)

DAY 1

Dear Prayer Warriors,

Slava Bog!  We are indeed praising God for His amazing love, grace and for all He has done here in beautiful Ukraine.  Your missionary team has truly sensed your faithful and earnest prayers over these past few days.  We are all so humbled by the Father's blessings and His gracious way of ordering our steps on our missionary journey with Him.

The Calvary missionaries had such a remarkable and uneventful trip from Beaumont all the way to Kiev, Ukraine.  Even every piece of luggage arrived-which has not happened in recent years!  We also praise the Lord for the safe arrival of our First Baptist Church, Norfolk missionaries who experienced some delays out of Virginia due to inclement weather.  Although the FBCN team had an unexpected adventure with flight schedules and changes, they safely arrived this afternoon (Sunday) with all of their luggage as well.  What a mighty God we serve!  He is in total control and nothing will stop His mission nor His missionaries to fulfill His call!

After a much needed evening of rest, our morning began with the team leading worship and sharing the love of God in the village of Studynistia at the Baptist church that Pastor Vasily leads.  It was a joy to begin this week off with our brothers and sisters in Christ who have been praying for us for several months and who are praying for our team this week.  The Lord was ever present as we joined our hearts together in celebration of Jesus Christ.  Our team sang five of the songs we have been preparing and could really sense God flowing in and through us.  

In addition to our songs, some of the Ukrainian believers shared songs of praise and even sang "How Great is Our God" in English.  What a blessing it was for us to hear them praising the Lord in both their native language as well as in our tongue.  We also were so blessed by the small children who quoted verses of scripture and sang some beautiful songs to the Lord.  Of course, our eyes began to well up with tears from these precious young servants.  We were also blessed to hear Sherry Goth and Emily Brieden share their testimony in the morning service.  John shared the love of Christ in his message, "Lost and Found" from Luke 15: 1-24.  It was a joy to have Jane, (Vasily's wife) interpret for our team as well as Inna who phonetically wrote out the translations to our new songs in Ukrainian and Russian!  Though there were no obvious decisions we sensed that God spoke to people and that seeds were planted.   

Following a delicious traditional Ukrainian lunch (WOW) our team traveled to Pastor Vasily's church in Bilkivtsi to prepare for our Evangelistic Service which was actually held in the local community building at 4 p.m.  Our missionaries divided into 6 teams along with an interpreter for each group and went from farm house to farm house inviting all we met to our service.  Though some declined our invitation we were blessed with many, many positive responses.   Walking and inviting people to our services in the villages is one of the most wonderful joys of our mission journey.  We truly sense God's favor each time we invite them to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Well, our efforts of inviting these precious lives to our evangelistic service was immensely blessed of the Lord.

As the Calvary team was just beginning to share in song, the FBC Norfolk team arrived from the airport in Kiev in time to proclaim Jesus Christ and His salvation message.  The Lord also blessed our outreach by bringing 90 people from the village to hear the greatest news of all…Jesus saves!   It was also a joy to hear God speak through Mark Young and Rhonda Mack as they shared their testimony of salvation.   John once again shared the Word of God.  We are so happy to report to you that when the time of invitation came for people to repent and invite Jesus Christ to be their Savior and Lord, that 8 adults and 7 children indicated that they indeed had repented.  Slava Bog!  There were young and old alike who repented.  We also celebrate that one of the young adults who had attended the morning service opened her heart up to Jesus Christ.  Her name is Victoria and she was actually one of the volunteer interpreters who went with one of of teams as we walked through the village to invite people to our service at 4 p.m.  Our God is such an awesome God!  

So that's our first full day of ministry!  We've had our delicious dinner and now it is time to get some good rest tonight!  The Norfolk team is especially happy to finally be able to rest after several challenging days of travel.  Please pray for our team of 18 followers of Jesus Christ as we begin 3 VBS camps tomorrow as well as travel to a small distant city with a population of 5000 where there is a great need for the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Every opportunity to touch the hearts of children, teenagers, adults and the elderly is an opportunity for the Lord to change the eternal destiny of these precious souls.  Without a doubt, we can expect some opposition from Satan during this mission journey.  But we are so reminded that Jesus said that "all power and authority has been given to Me".   Amen!

We know that you are praying for us and we also know that Jesus is praying for us and for those "who will believe in Him through our message". (Jn 17: 20) There is nothing that can or ever will deter or stop His gospel from being spread here in Ukraine, Virginia, Texas and the entire world.  So wherever you are in the world today, join us in living His mission to declare to the nations that "there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved". (Acts 4: 12)

We love you and thank you from the depths of our hearts for your faithful and earnest prayers.  

In Christ Alone,

Your Ukraine Mission Team

“I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message.” Jesus (John 17: 20 NLT)