Today was great day!
We’ve spent the last week (literally 5 days or so) traveling from Baku to Kazakhstan via cargo boat and train! It was a somewhat bumpy ride, an adventure like nothing I’ve ever experienced, and also an incredibly tiring trip.
We finally arrived in Atbasar (a small village in Kazakhstan) on Thursday, March 14th, after starting our journey the night of the 8th. Shortly after getting off the train, we hit the ground running: we had lunch with the pastor of the church, were then invited to visit their English club, and later join the youth ministry that evening. It was a great first day.
Today, we were equally busy and got to see the Lord move in some pretty incredible ways. The day began with us teaching English, playing games, and doing crafts with special need adults. I can’t quite say that I’ve ever worked with mentally disabled adults before but it was absolutely wonderful. They were so full of joy and so willing and able to learn and participate in our activities despite the language barrier. We were then invited to come to a recovering addict service at the church in the evening and that’s when the magic happened.
We had no idea what to expect walking into the recovery service at the church. After arriving we were invited to share our testimonies with the church, we said a quick prayer and jumped right in. After our team leader, Hadassah, introduced our group and explained about our trip, I was the first to share. I shared about my past experience in being in a relationship with a recovering addict and the hope that ultimately only Jesus can provide. I encouraged them that they had friends and family who love and care for them deeply, and are rooting for them to make a change; and I told them they just needed to want it for themselves and believe that Jesus can set them free from any bondage. They seemed very encouraged and insisted that we tell more stories, so three additional people from my team shared their personal testimony. All in all we talked about drug and alcohol addiction, spiritual warfare, miracle/healing and how Jesus literally still saves lives today! It was truly amazing to be able to speak life and love and share what the Lord has done in our lives and what we believe he wants to do in theirs.
We were then asked to go around and pray for each person. So the 6 of us plus our translator spent the next hour or so laying hands on every single person in that church and praying for them “Korean style,” which just means we all pray individually outloud at the same time, it’s really powerful. We got to pray for all sorts of things from blind eyes and deaf ears, to freedom from debt, and that family member’s would be healed. Before the night was over we received praise reports that God was already moving in answering prayers! There were tears, smiles, hugs, love, and joy. The Holy Spirit was there in a tangible way, it was a beautiful night and an unexpected blessing to us!
As we were leaving the church we were invited to the pastor’s home for a late supper. Atbasar is a small village so we’ve been walking everywhere, nothing is farther than a 15 minute walk. The problem is that it’s very icy and cold; and at night it’s especially hard to tell which snow/ice is solid and good for walking on and which is not. So being the cluts that I tend to be sometimes I stepped in a very wrong place, slipped, and was immediately plunged into a huge, very cold, very dirty ice puddle! Not only once but twice…So now I’m soaking wet, freezing cold, and still have about a ten minute walk home.
I was in shock and it would have been easy to let that ruin my night but I quickly decided that I would not let the devil steal my joy! My teammates helped me get home as quickly as possible, I jumped in the shower, threw my clothes in the washer and in no time was ready to head on over to enjoy supper and fellowship at the pastor’s home.
So whenever life tries to bring you down, just shake it off, and get back up again! I could have chosen to cry but instead I just laughed! I choose not to take myself or things like this too seriously…
God is so good, all the time!
P.s. Please pray that I don’t get sick and that my body doesn’t ache tomorrow 🙂
