Hi everyone sorry it has been so long since I have wrote a blog. We have made it to Ukraine safely and it has been an amazing two weeks that we have been here. It took us spending two nights in the airport and then spending another night on a 14 hour train ride to get here, but we made it safely. I think being on the train and getting to Ukraine really made me realize that I am officially on the world race. I have also started to get homesick a couple of times missing friends and family, but yet the Lord has been blessing me in so many ways sustaining me, inspiring me, and giving me Hope!
Our host and his family has truly became like family to us! They are so loving and so caring to us. They treat us just like we are family and they have already became like family to us in our hearts! They have 5 kids living with them in their homes, two being teenagers named Timothy and Michael. I feel really blessed to have been connecting with them in many ways. They have became like brothers to me! Our host’s Bruce and his wife Pia also have three younger kids named Karianne, Toby, and Mercy. They are all so cute and the team and I have fallen in love with all of them in so many ways!
Our ministry for the first week that we were here was getting to run a softball camp for Ukraine kids and teenagers. It was such an awesome week of teaching the sport of softball, building relationships, and sharing the love of Jesus Christ through the friendships that were made. It was such a fun week of getting to play the sport that I loved and sharing the God that I love more than anything. Sports, teenagers, and God – what a perfect match for me!
I was so amazed to see how many friendships that God blessed me to make during this week. We were working with a local church so there were many youth there from the church and there were also many youth there that don’t normally go to church. The youth would range anywhere from being a little kid to being a teenager or even some being in there 20’s. Some have been to the softball camp in the past so knew how to play the game, but many have never even worn a baseball glove before in their whole lives. Some never have thrown a baseball/softball ever before either. Another factor was that barley any of the kids that we were working with knew how to speak English. So we constantly had translators translating for us. It also became a fun guessing game when you would try to speak to the kids when a translator was not available. Anyone who really knows me knows that I really have a gift for messing up names, words, phrases, and pretty much any spoken words in other languages haha. So it became really fun for me and for the friends that I met to try to guess and figure out what each other was trying to communicate to one another. It was kind a like trying to fit puzzle pieces together, but you had no idea what the puzzle pieces even looked like! It really became a fun way to build relationships and friendships! It was especially fun for them when I would sound to ridiculous trying to pronounce a word to them in their language. I think from the start I became pretty well known for my ridiculous but funny accent and pronunciation of the their language.
* I did master the phrase, “Jesus loves You” which basically is pronounced “Esus lubit Tebia.” So I would pretty much just say that to everyone that I met haha!
We were also blessed to stay with local Ukraine families while we were working at the softball camps. This was such a culture emersion for us and gave us a lot of first hand experiences to experience what it feels like to live in a local Ukraine household. See our host Bruce is actually a missionary from the United States so when we live with him we feel like were living back home in the states for the most part. So when we lived with the local Ukraine families in their homes, we were fully immersed and awakened to a whole new culture and way of living. * It was a really blessed time and wow do they have amazing food!
This past week has been so refreshing for me! I believe Jesus was all about building relationships with people. I believe He loved people where they were at. I don’t think he constantly judged and made people follow all these religious rules or laws. I believe he came to love people where they were at and show them a whole new way of life by being the change that he wanted to see in the world.
He came to love people and show them that there was a side of life that they have never known or experienced before. In John 8:12 Jesus says,
“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
I love that verse so much. I remember being in high school and college feeling and being so lost. But when I was around certain people I remember feeling like they had this light in them that I couldn’t really explain or put my finger on. I just remember feeling like they had this glow or spark in them that made me feel better about myself when I was around them. Two of the people in high school were my friends Kara and Phil. Looking back at them I know they had this in them because it was the love of Jesus Christ living inside of their hearts shining out to me in a way that God was living His Light of Life through them!
* God has reminded me this week that life is about building relationships with people. It’s about loving them where they are at. It’s not about pushing religion on people, but again it’s about being a friend to someone and loving them. It’s letting the love and light of Christ shine through you to love them where they are at. Trusting that God’s love will inspire them and love them in a way that only God can! It’s about sharing the true hope and love of Jesus Christ to them through that love and friendship that you have been built with them. It’s about being there for them and loving them whether they believe in God or whether they don’t. It’s not about trying to change someone, but it’s letting God change you so that you can be the change you want to see in the world. Then believing and trusting that since God has changed you, that He will change other through His life, Holy Spirit, and Love living in and through YOU!
So wherever you are at today, once again, you never know how you can affect, change, or inspire someone’s life! If you believe in Jesus Christ and have asked him into your heart to be your Lord and Savior, then He lives in you! Jesus prayed that all believers would be one with Him just as He is one with the Father. That means Jesus straight up LIVES IN US, and that we also LIVE IN HIM! I pray that God gives you courage in the hard times to know that Jesus lives in you by the power of His Holy Spirit I also pray that it gives you inspiration to know that you can make a difference in this world one life at a time because the God of the universe who died on a cross for you, now LIVES IN YOU!
God Bless you all and thank you so much for being my friend and true family in Christ!
Love,
Ryan
* Here are some pictures from the first week and also a song to go with the blog! Thanks for being lights of Christ in my life!
