I never said much about Ukraine.
It was our first month in Europe.
It was our 4th month as a team.
When we arrived in Ukraine, we were welcomed back into a sense of western civilization with open arms…except for the fact that we couldn’t read anything or speak to most people.
Our host was incredible and our ministry ranged from orphans and evangelism to helping host another short-term missions team from the states.
As my team stepped into month 8 of the race we were excited, and we look back on that month with a lot of love. But there were also some things that developed that required us to overcome.
Wifi.
Make up.
Cute clothes.
Public transport.
Coffee shops.
Busy schedule.
Grocery stores.
City life.
We came into Ukraine and got a glimpse, a mere taste, of what we would be coming home to. We had a schedule that wasn’t conducive, and we had things competing for our attention.
So we stopped.
We stopped being intentional.
We stopped pushing into community.
We stopped trying to love one another and settled for living with one another.
As a result my team, the team I’m “leading” the team I’m “fighting for”, changed. We drifted apart. We didn’t know one another’s lives. We assumed things about one another. We started to defend ourselves against one another, even if there was nothing to defend against. We lost the trust we had built with one another, and our face-to-face conversations were forced, tried, and calculated.
As some of us fell in love with Ukraine, and some of us looked for things to love, it became increasingly clear that an atmosphere of conflict had risen.
We struggled to find the time and priority to sit down face to face.
When the end of the month came and we found space to process, we couldn’t. We barely looked at one another, sat in discontentment, and we went INTO month 8 debrief OUT of our worst month as a team yet.
But here’s the thing. My team has a heart for the Lord and for one another. We just lost track of it for a while. What we needed to stand on was the foundation we had built our team on.
We sat in a circle in a hostel in Budapest and sat face to face. We sat with one another more intentionally than we had in the previous three weeks. We went back to our roots, the foundation and the commitment we had laid our first month together as a team. We talked through the atmosphere, asked hard questions, gave needed feedback and dedicated it all to the God.
At the end we declared in prayer what we wanted for our team. We declared peace, freedom, joy, unity, and love. We declared to be at the foot of the cross hand in hand.
We walked out, not fixed, but renewed. We knew what we needed. We were on the same page.
. . . .
Enter Romania, a month in the middle of nowhere.
A month so vastly different from the last that there is no denying God had his hand in it (as he always does).
A month where we can put into practice the declarations we spoke over one another.
There is so little distraction, and so much space to rebuild our team family. We have loved and embraced one another better in the last 7 days than I have experience most of my race. There is nowhere to go but to God and to one another.
God gave us the opportunity to understand what re-entry can do to our community and to our intimacy with him. He doesn’t want us to drift away from how closely he has towed us inward. And he has given us the opportunity to redeem our distraction.
My team will be pushing forward and upward, clutching this month for what God intended it for.
This month we are at Apa Vie ministry in Pestere, Romania. We participate in a seminary leadership class in the morning, and mainly sing and share testimonies at churches many nights of the week. Today we had a change of pace and went to an orphanage about 30 minutes from our host.
Thanks!
