This is dedicated to the many times we’ve had to hurry up and wait these last two months…
Psalm 37:3-7a says: Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him.
After seeing the Lord move and work through us, through me in Ireland, I arrived to Ukraine excited to see what the Lord will do and the lives we can touch for His glory.
Well the Lord had other plans, as He usually does.
There are two teams here in Uzhgorod, the western-most city in Ukraine. We are both staying and working through an organization called Nehemiah International. One team, team Aletheia, is working with the youth English camps, teaching English, dance, sports, and singing songs.
Our team is exercising our skills in flexibility. We have a different schedule everyday. We have gutted a church basement, worked at an orphanage camp, pulled weeds, cleaned 3 churches, participated in a graduation ceremony, etc. Each day is a new experience.
The basement we were deconstructing…
some of the kids from the gypsy village
the first graduates from the discipleship class in the gypsy village we worked with
In spite of all the change, the running theme in Ukraine is “Sarah, look what I, the Lord, am doing in Ukraine.” For those of us who are doers and servers, it is not easy to sit back and watch. I am always looking to do. I’m not sure how many times I’ve heard “Sarah, be still, wait” the last 2 months.
We are going through the book of Nehemiah in our team’s bible study. In Nehemiah, the walls surrounding Jerusalem are torn down. Nehemiah feels the call of the Lord to rebuild the walls and methodically organizes the reconstruction in spite of opposition.
The Lord tore my walls down a couple months ago and left me bare in order to rebuild them in His fashion. As I’m reading through Nehemiah I get very excited for the Lord to rebuild me, to grow me. So what do I do? I look for bricks, I find my own mortar, I start reconstructing my own wall, all the while the Lord is saying to me “Sarah, wait, be still, I will rebuild you”
The Lord is moving here in Ukraine, He is setting apart young men to be pastors, young women to be missionaries, university students to be bold in His name. We are called to Ukraine to be encouragers, to watch and see what the Lord is doing, to pray for the disciples He is raising up.
And He is calling me to be still and wait patiently for Him, to delight in Him, allow Him to rebuild my walls.
craft corner at the orphanage camp
Enjoying God's beauty and creativity along a creek by a church we cleaned
