Being There

Quick update on what I am doing in Ukraine. Thank you for being intersted in my journey and thank you for supporting me as God takes me on leads me. I am so humbled and blessed to be able to have a front row seat to the miracles that God is doing over there. 

Each time I go I go with expectations of how it will go and each time it goes nothing like I expected. This time going I knew I had a community around me and there were people lined up to help me language learning and translation. For various reasons none of them were able to help. So it became a journey of asking God - what next? 

The lesson God was showing me this time was - Be There. God kept showing me that just being there was enough. God can work. Which just shows that it is not about my talents or what I can offer - it is just about listening to God and being available for Him to work through. 

You might remember that my main focus going back this last time was to help the orphans living at the hospital. When I first got there, the door opened up and I went with a translator. Very quickly into being there - that translator wasn’t available anymore. And that was the start of seeing what God was doing. I wasn’t able to go for a couple weeks because of this and I just prayed. During that time I was talking with someone else and they mentioned a group called Tomorrow Club. 

I had never heard of this organization and didn’t think too much of it. But that night I just felt like I should research it. I found their website and sent a message saying I was in Ukraine. Usually when I do things I never hear back because the message goes to a general mailbox and not the right person. Well, a couple days later I got an email from the director of the organization in Ukraine and he copied on the director in Zaporizhzhia. So later that day I sent a text message to the director in Zap. He replied right away and we made a plan to meet up later that week. 

I met him and his assistant on a Friday evening and that Saturday I was helping out at a local Bible camp. Sunday I helped one that went into the villages. And each week, I would contact the director and see which camp I could help out. 

Then one day I decided to ask the director if he would like to start a camp to the orphans living at the hospital. He said he was very interested and we set up a time for us to go. It was a team of 4. We went and it was amazing! We talked and they wanted to do it on a weekly basis! Praise God! What a random chain of events for God to put together this team, but this team is so great that they are continuing to go while I am here in the States! Such a God thing! 

So that was my time this time - being there so God could flow through. The last few weeks of me being there this time that situation with the war did heat up and there were some intense moments. During the day I would visit different people and they would share about their intense night and they would ask about mine. I shared about mine with this lady and said - you know what we are going through. Others will come after the war to help which will be great but they won’t know what we went through - you do. 

That really hit me because it was exactly what God was showing me - just Be There. Sit with them when they are scared, laugh with them when they are happy, pray for them, listen when they want to talk, and comfort when pain comes. 

Now as I plan to go back, I do have some expectations of what I will do, but I am learning that will probably change. But my plan right now is to start a Bible study with women who have been evacuated from their homes further east. Another ministry will be to some young ladies who are just hungry for the Word. I will continue visiting the orphans and see where ministry goes. And simple just being there to see what God does!