Full Throttle has been in Lviv Oblast, Ukraine, for about a week now, and we have been listening to the story of our hosts, the Blessings. Again, that actually is their last name. I’d like to tell you all of the incredible faith of this family. It took them three chunks of evenings, and a total of about four hours to tell us everything (and they gave us the condensed version), so I will do my best to shorten it into a shorter, readable post.
Mark and Rhonda actually met before they were following God’s will for their lives, and even after they got married, they didn’t really follow Him for several years. They have done drugs together, and also drank and smoked for several years after getting married. When Rhonda found out she was pregnant with their first daughter (who just turned 37 this week), she talked with Mark and basically said she was not willing to raise children in a household of drugs, smoking, and alcohol. She told him she was done with all of it, and if he wanted to continue in that life, she would leave and raise her child on her own. He agreed with her, and they immediately stopped doing drugs, overnight, and told all of their friends they were done with that life.
Mark did have trouble quitting smoking, but when he backslide, he just kept quitting until it stuck. He told us there wasn’t really a formula for what he did, he “just kept quitting.” After Bria was born, they decided to go back to church as a family, and began to truly seek God for their lives.
Eventually, after having two more daughters, Rhonda began to feel a burden for the Soviet Jews. Because of the timing of the burden, she just figured that burden was because of the Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe. She was also feeling a burden for Ukraine.
Shortly after the fall of the collapse of the former Soviet Union, both Rhonda and Mark felt God prompting them to move to Ukraine. They did so in 1992, when their youngest daughter was 5 years old. Their first years in the country were marked by now hilarious stories, as well as scary moments, and the daughters all tell of fun times, and ridiculous moments of culture and language differences.
In 1995, God showed them a house here in their current village, and both parents and one of their daughters say visions of Jews in the house as they walked through the home. Now, in 2016, they have bought that house, and build a three story addition to it, as well as expanded the second floor of the original house.
God has provided in so many incredible ways for this famil. He kept food on the table and bills paid through a period of no income. He kept the parents from divorce and brought them back to Ukraine even when they didn’t want to return. He has provided another church leadership opportunity, and is actively working in the church members to make it a church after His design, not Mark’s ideas. He is slowly providing open doors to minister to the Jewish community and show them love through their own traditions and festivals
This family is incredible! I am so excited to see where they are in a year, and how far God takes the ministry in this life!
#GodIsInControl #redefiningdisciple
#THIRD
