071010
It’s shocking how lucky I feel.
This morning I wake to a Moldovan sunrise over an endless field of sunflowers out my train car window en route to Bucharest. Last night I stuck my head out this same window to see the most sparkling three dimensional night sky my wildest dreams could not have previously imagined.
It’s been a good week. Indeed it’s been a good month. A difficult, but deliciously good month.
I got to be broken down. I learned my desperate need to die to myself daily, that my opinion isn’t the best one out there, that sacrificing my space and rights has more value than keeping them. I saw the depths of my dependence on my independence. On my freedom to go and do as I please. And had to let them go.
On this train catching up with the other teams and hearing their tales of the last month, I feel humbled and blessed at the ministry and hospitality we were witness to. We were able to share the gospel and our testimony with hundreds of children on softball fields. We got to encourage, strengthen, and challenge multiple churches to step into a life of discipling these newly planted seeds. We got to look at desperate, lonely people right in the eye-after giving them a pair of glasses to see through, and pray over their lives. We got to tell them what God thinks of them…of how much He desperately loves them. My team got to live with and learn from two incredible families who live their lives at an ends of the earth place, humbly and radically for the sake of the gospel. I pray that in we were able to somehow bless them in return. We were able catch a glimpse of the heart of God for Eastern Ukraine…a region that boasts a meager three missionary families, and scarce few gospel centered churches for over 2.5 million people.
I feel lucky too, because well, frankly we got spoiled. We had gourmet food prepared by the Ukranian Giada DeLaurentis. We all had full body Ukranian massages…6 people for $!5! Our beds were soft and warm, and our navy showers nice and hot. The fourth of July for us looked much like it would have back home…complete with a hamburger/hot dog cookout, layperson-illegal-in-the-states-kind-of-big-fireworks, and a scrumptious blackberry cobbler to round it out. Our translators and new friends were loving and hilarious. We pretty much had it made this month (of which we acknowledge will certainly not be the case for most of this race). Ukraine was good to us, and for that we are thankful and praise the Maker of all good things.
Almost every Ukranian family has two things: a garden that could feed an army, and an intimidating brick wall surrounding their homes. They build it up tall and thick to keep everyone out. Twenty years following the collapse of communism, they still leave in fear of invasion. Our hosts, the McDonald family, are the only ones on their block who do not have a brick wall around their home. Instead of watering a massive garden, they water a large yard to keep it plush and green for kids to play in, for neighbors to gather in for a talk… to provide a grounds for hospitality and life and community to occur. Everyone on the block thinks they are absolutely crazy and foolish for not having a wall around their home because it leaves them exposed to strangers and harm. Maybe they are. Yet in exposing themselves to the risk of danger, they have set themselves up to be a lighthouse and safe haven for their city.
One could call many of these things fortune or luck, but I know that I have been abundantly blessed because God used Ukraine to show me that this is what He is asking of me as well: To get rid of my wall, my safety net of comfort and freedom. To let people into the yard that He has given me, so that He may be known and glorified in it.
