I think that it has finally hit me that I am on the World Race, and this will be my life. Nobody speaks English, except for our translator. It is uncomfortable, and I love it. We shouldn’t live comfortable lives being Christians. I live for being uncomfortable, because I can rely more and more on God. This even makes me pray more. Pray harder. I thought I prayed plenty, but now I thank God for having a bus come today with the windows open in it, or that the guy next to me is wearing deodorant. Every little prayer makes me feel so happy, and makes me so glad that my God, is MY God. This month is a little different than our last. We are working with a Baptist church, a very very conservative Baptist church at that. Not that this is a bad thing, because it is not. This is just a new thing for me. No tattoos showing, no knees showings, no jeans, no piercings, limited make up, and never put your bible on the floor. The church that we are working with is relatively new. It is a daughter church and there are about 30-40 members. We were lucky enough that our first Sunday in Ukraine, we were able to witness four men get baptized in the pond!
After each man got baptized, the church choir would sing a beautiful song. I had no idea what they were saying, but I bet they were celebrating four men becoming brothers of Christ.
After the two hour baptism, we went to our two hour service. Our translator, Ira, was kind enough to translate what our preacher and contact, Sergey was preaching about. It has come to my attention that we are looked at as a traveling musical group. We have been asked several times during these weeks to play to guitar and sing. Tyler and Joe can pay the guitar, and Cassie can sing. That is it. We now know to be prepared with some songs that we all know. We also should be prepared with sermons. I was not, but I now am!
That night we were invited to a church picnic, which was in the middle of an old orchard field, with plenty of tall grass around us. At first it was pretty sketch, but it is now a place where my family goes to worship and have our alone time with our Father.
So this month my team is in charge of teaching an English Class. They had never done one before, and had nothing prepared. So, we prepared everything. English class started on the eighth. It is ten days of teaching. Cassie and I are teaching the Level 1 class, (the one where nobody speaks a lick of English) Diane and Abby are teaching Level 2, which they have now split because 25 in a classroom was way too overwhelming, and Adam and Tyler are teaching Level 3, which is about 6 girls who speak almost fluent English.
So far it has been going really well. Last week we had English from 3-5 and then sports from 7-9. I played volleyball every night, and I can easily say I am out of shape, and very sore. But, I am a beast. This week we are helping with a children’s camp from 10-1 in the morning and then English from 3-5, and we are off the rest of the night. For our kid’s camp, we are doing Heroes of the Bible week, where an American gets to dress up each day and tell the story of the Hero. I am lucky enough to act as Esther. If you have checked my Facebook, Adam has tagged me in a photo of my costume. I look awesome.
Yesterday at church we were lucky enough to see another person get baptized. It is one of our new best friends Olga. (Pronounced Ola) This church only has baptisms twice a year, and I am so honored I have been able to see them.
I would love for some prayers to come my way. It has been a struggle for me spiritually (and I know that the enemy is doing this) when it comes to worship. I came from a place in Ireland where I could stand on my chair or dance around and scream His name at the top of my lungs and nobody would look at me like I was crazy. Here, I cannot lift up my hands, or close my eyes to worship, or sit down because the presence of God is overwhelming. I have my quiet time every night, but I am longing for my worship. I miss being so close with my Father. I have been searching for this for two weeks, and I hate it. I hate that I am not as close with Him as I was in Ireland. This is something that I need to overcome, because I know in the places I will be going next could be so dark, and I might not ever get my time with Him like I long for right now.
Also, today is my Grammy’s birthday. Happy birthday Grammy! I love you so much. If you could keep her in your prayers as well, I would surely love that. Today, my beautiful grandmother is having surgery. She has Kidney Cancer, and today she is having her kidney removed. I know that my grandmother is so strong, but I ask that you keep her in your prayers not only today, but for the next few weeks, because she will have a long and hard recovery.
Phrases for the day:
YOLO—You Only Live Once
GABI – Grin And Bear It
These are the two phrases my team lives on.
And finally, here is where I am staying.
