Wow, this was, by far, one of my favorite months. God revealed so much to me about my purpose and His overall calling on my life. I’m writing this on an overnight train to Odessa, the Black Sea, where we are having a women’s retreat from July 1-4 before heading to our 11th and final country, Romania.
I had some of the most hysterical moments of the entire race this month. One is simply too funny for words, and I’m sure I wouldn’t do it justice anyway, but lets just say several people required a change of clothes after it was all said and done. The second was the quest for victory from an 8-year-old boy after he lost in balloon tag. He made sure to pop the winners balloon in spite. The look on his face was priceless, and if I had been recording I’m sure I’d be the winner of America’s Funniest Home videos.
This month we were blessed to be in Ukraine during their summer season. The amount of fresh fruits, flowers and vegetables was phenomenal and I have never tasted tomatoes so ripe! We were blessed to have the best of both worlds as we cooked our own food for two weeks and had traditional Ukrainian food provided to us for the other two weeks. I remembered just how much I love cooking, and that it has become an art form to me now. My husband better enjoy running because he might end up to be 400 lbs. otherwise!
Ukrainian people are the most relational people I’ve ever met in my life. Everything is about relationships. It is a beautiful way to live, and I plan to take home this way of living my life. Relationships are more important than anything else, and life is too short to live any other way. At the end of your life, relationships are all that matter. Not how much money you made, or how intelligent you are, but how much you loved and were loved. That is what people will remember about you, and that is all that matters.
I made more friends in this month than I have in any other month on the race. There is never a lack of food, friends and fun in Ukraine. We felt like family everywhere we went and the Ukrainian sense of hospitality is unmatched worldwide.
Our last week in Ukraine we were blessed to spend it with 20 of our closest Ukrainian friends outside Rivne at a camp. My team served as English teachers to some twenty Ukrainian adults. They were divided into five classes from beginners to advanced students. I was blessed to teach six amazing young people in the advanced class. We studied about the men who encountered Jesus and what decisions they made after their encounter. It was a wonderful experience with great food, amazing conversations, good movies, discussions around the campfire and lots of sports and games. I’m an extravert if there ever was one and this group of people energized me. Some were married couples with their children. I now I have new brother in Christ as one 39-year-old man who brought his two kids to the camp gave his life to the Lord that week. He had been coming to English classes for 4 years and it was his second year at camp. God is so good, and I’m so thankful I got to be a part of his salvation story.
This month was one that I would like to repeat for the rest of my life. God spoke so clearly to me that doing ministry is just living and breathing Him in every encounter, in how you speak, how you live and you don’t have to be preaching on the street or living in a mud hut in the jungle to serve Him. I want to share Jesus with the people I work with, shop with, who live on my street and in my hometown. We are a light in the darkness everywhere we go—from Asia to Panda Express. So don’t say that missions isn’t for everyone, it is. But you don’t have to go to Africa to be a missionary; you can be a missionary in your own backyard. How many of your neighbors know Jesus? How many of your coworkers know Jesus? Take them to tea and talk to them. Find out about their life. Invest in them, and share your life and your experiences and in doing so, Jesus, with them. You don’t have to be a preacher, actually it’s probably better that you not be. Just be real, be authentic, and be a witness, that’s all we’re called to be.
The Bible says by the power of our testimony Satan is defeated. So put your boxing gloves on and throw a few punches. And if you’re ever looking for a place to visit, try Ukraine, you won’t be sorry, I promise!
Check out this amazing video my teammate Tim put together from the camp:
https://vimeo.com/69391985
