Hello Friends! 🙂
My team and I have made it safely to Zdolbuniv, Ukraine. It is a small town in western Ukraine. We have been very blessed by our accomadations, gracious host families,a vivacious new church, and by our wonderful translator. It is so exciting to see God's hand moving in yet another community halfway across the world! My team and I will be teaching an english class to children in the city for the next two weeks. We will also be helping the local church run a vacation bible school program for neighborhood children. We have spent the past few days preparing our lesson plans and learning the ropes of Ukranian daily life.
　
(Last night we had a free evening out in Rivne to celebrate Adam's (team leader) 22nd birthday. The team and I had the opportunity to try some Ukranian pizza…different, but pretty tasty.)
　
Today the group and I attended a very traditional baptism service. It was an absolutely beautiful morning. The service took place outside on a riverbank under a shaded canopy of willow trees. There were four young men that had given their lives to Jesus and who were ready to celebrate by being baptized in the river. Even though the service was in Ukranian (we did have some much appreciated help from our translator), you could feel the power and presence of God at work. The pastor was very excited. He was so full of life as he was welcoming his new brothers into Christ's family. The message that was spoken was moving. It was about the fact that we were all spiritually dead until we accepted Christ and that it is extremely sad that most of the world is still dead. As much as it would be uncomfortable to be around a mulitude of physically dead bodies (like at a morgue), so it should be as uncomfortable for us as believers to be amongst spiritually dead people. We should desire to fight for their true lives, to point them to the only source that will awaken their souls, to show them Christ's love.
　
While I could not have agreed more with the pastor's teaching, standing outside of the restroom in the church's meeting space (to have the normal Sunday church service) I found myself becoming very upset. Perhaps angry even. Here is some back story to explain my rising emotions. Before the baptism service I was asked to remove my jeweled stud from my nose. I was advised that my nose piercing would be looked down upon by some of the members of the church and that because of it they might doubt my faith. Of course I wanted to respect the pastor and His integrity, so I removed it right away. The only problem was that the piercing is less than three weeks old, very sensitive, and not yet ready to be removed. So after the baptism with tears streaming down my face my wonderful teammate Payton very gently assisted me in poking a new hole in my nose to make it through the next two nose-ringless hours of church. It was here outside the restroom that many frustrated thoughts and questions were running through my mind. The words hypocrosy and jugdemental made multiple appearances. I even wanted to use scripture as a means to rebuke, specifically Luke 6:37-38, "Do not judge and you will not be judged. Do not condemn and you will not be condemned…" Afterall, why should I be judged for a silly nose ring when God clearly tells His followers not to judge? How does a piece of jewelry make me any less of a daughter of Christ? How can someone preach such a message of God's love for His people and what the depths of our love should be for other people on one hand, but judgement be passed in the same breath?
　
After a lot of prayer and about 15 minutes into the worship service what I began to experience opened my eyes. I saw how much the people of this church do love the Lord. After hearing a woman open up to the congragation about the recent loss of her 19 year old daughter and seeing the encouragement for her that followed, I was able to see how much these people do love one another. The church members were very greatful and expressed their gratitude for us Americans being here to teach English to their children and to help with the vacation bible school. They really did value us as individuals and want to get to know each of us. It was here that I was very humbled. I realized that all of this bitterness that I was holding onto was pointless. Life is not about me. Not about my understanding of the way that things should be. The passage Luke 17: 1-3 came to my mind, "Jesus said to His disciples: Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come. It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble. So watch yourselves…"
What does it matter if I am able to grasp God's love and the depths of His grace, but cause others to stumble in their faith? The bible clearly states that I, myself as a believer, need to watch myself very closely. If showing respect and honoring a belief that another part of Christ's body holds to be true is the very best way for me to show them love, I will do as I am asked with a humble heart. I will show this church in Zdolbuniv a tiny fraction of the selfless love that Christ has shown to me. Christ was crucified, painfully executed for those that He fiercely loved. Many of them did not accept or were not even willing to understand Him because He was different. Still He loved them enough to lay down his life for them, and for you, and for me. As a believer, I am called to love others with the same selfless love of Christ (no matter the amount of discomfort). It is my prayer that my resolve to walk in this calling from the Lord is just as strong next Sunday… when I have been asked to sing (again nose-ringless) in front of the entire church. I am so very glad that the Lord is faithful in answering prayers. 🙂
　
　
　
　
<3 Cassie
