Story time.

So one day my team was doing our usual children’s ministry and we were doing our kid’s club. We were playing football (soccer) as usual and having a great time. Kicking the ball back and forth, getting a little competitive, you know. Sports.

Then things got a little heated.

I had control of the ball and tried keeping it away from these little 11-14 year old boys. At one point, I kept the ball away from one kid so well that he started to talk a little bit of trash to me. 

As I mentioned in my last blog post, I learned that sports are a universal language. I have now also learned that trash talk is a universal language. I might not know what you’re speaking, but I definitely know that it isn’t “Hey man, I love your skill! You’re playing so well!” So I talked a little more friendly trash talk to him and we got to pushing a little bit while trying to keep the ball away from each other. Of course, we had smiles and all. Then his buddies started cheering him on. Then things got a little rougher. At that point, I was sweating in ~50 degrees F. That takes some serious work. We both eventually gave up and we took a break.

This is where the fun begins.

I was sitting on a bench and the same boy came up to me. He stuck his left arm out in front of himself horizontally and stuck his right arm on top of it, angling left and right in an armwrestling motion. I told him “No, no. I’m good man.” His friends all come up around him, he starts talking to them in Romanian, and then looks back at me and makes the motion again. I told him “Nah it’s okay dude.” 

He took one quick look into my eyes, locked with them and with a competitive smile he said, “What?! No power?!”

Okay now this was serious business. I just had a middle schooler call me out and tell me that I had no power to arm wrestle him. I couldn’t turn that down. We immediately went to the pavilion nearby and proceeded to set up for the arm wrestle throwdown that was about to occur. This pavilion was about 12 inches off of the ground and had a 4-foot wall around it. He stood on the inside of the pavilion and I stood on the outside, to make our arms level and even.

We set the scene and spectators began to fill the air around us. His buddies were pumping him up and cheering. I was confident in my abilities and my only fan in that moment was Jesus on my side. Everyone wanted this little guy to win. 

And so it began. We counted down. 3…2…1…GO! 

I started to lose my position. I was falling down, my arm was getting weaker. He had me down about 75% of the way. But then, I felt the power of Jesus and He gave me the strength to fight back. I got back up to the middle and tried to bring his hand down. This man and I went back and forth for a solid 30-45 seconds. Out of nowhere, I felt the surreal strength of Jesus come and I overtook his hand completely, winning the match. 

Then all of his buddies wanted to go against me. I had to go against 8 more of these strong, built young men. Thankfully though, the Lord gave me the strength and endurance to last all 9 rounds with these guys. It was truly an arm wrestling convention for the ages. Many memories were made that day. They also asked me where I got my strength and I told them that it came straight from God Himself. So it was a great ministry opportunity to go along with it.

 

 

Where Am I Now and What Am I Doing?

For the last week in Romania, we had our debrief in Brasov, Romania. Debrief is where we spend 5 days in a major city to rest and recharge both spiritually and physically. Our next debrief is after our fourth month, which will be in Chile.

Now I am currently in Ukraine. We just started our ministry here. We met our hosts two days ago and their names are Tania and Tania. Yes, they are both named Tania (both pronounced “Tahn-yah” like Tonya/Tanya). One Tania was born and raised here in Ukraine, and the other Tania is from the United States. USA Tania moved here 8.5 years ago after taking multiple short-term trips here and now she is here full-time.

Our time here in Ukraine is split up into 4 weeks, starting on Tuesday the 17th. Here is the breakdown:

Week 1: Teaching English classes in the public state school near us. It isn’t a direct ministry opportunity, but there is a possibility of ministry within it. For example, we will mostly be just teaching English as a language, but when people ask us why we’re in Ukraine, we can explain to them that we’re on a missions trip and if they’re interested, they can learn more about Christ. But we aren’t going to be directly teaching English through Bible lessons or anything. The teaching will be strictly English and then conversations about Christ are the bonus.

Week 2: We will be teaching English in a Christian environment to adults and teenagers. This ministry will be teaching English and the life of Christ through the book of Mark. We will be split up into 6 different classes with different levels of English abilities (conveniently, we have 6 people on our team). I will be teaching the intermediate level, which is conversational but not quite fluent, so most of my students will be able to communicate well but they need to expand their vocabulary and such. Since they will be able to speak conversationally, we might be able to do some actual direct Bible studying as well.

Week 3: After getting to know the students from both environments, if they want to learn more about Christ or the USA, they can set up appointments with us personally. This week will be dedicated to that. Being able to interact with the students 1-on-1 or in groups and getting to know them and build relationships while sharing the gospel.

Week 4: This week will be an adventure week. On average during the World Race, each team gets 1 “adventure day” and 1 rest day per week. The adventure day is about going and exploring the sights of the country that we’re in, and the rest day is about resting and spending time with the Lord and recharging for the next week. This month, we are saving up our adventure days until the end of the month. So we will have all 4 adventure days at the end of the month and we will have 6 days of ministry per week during the first three weeks. The current plan is to go to Kiev, Ukraine for those 4 days. I will give more updates about that once we set more details in stone.

Also, in addition to each of these weeks, every Sunday we will be attending our hosts’ church’s service. We will get to know the people of the church (many of them speak English) and we will also be doing something as a part of the service, such as a song or a testimony.

Please continue to pray for us and the people of Ukraine as we start our new journey here. Pray for their hearts to be open and receiving, pray for the Lord to work in them, and pray for us to have wisdom when sharing the Gospel.