Future Grace

Recently, in English club we've been studying the bible about Jesus's birth, to prepare our minds or Christmas.  Amazingly, at this time of the year, which normally brings me so much joy, I haven't felt the same.

Well, this year the circumstances of my life are dramatically different than last year:  I now live in a foreign country, I got married, I started full time missionary work, I switched my work (at least for now) from nutrition and dietetics to teaching English as a foreign language...etc.

So many things are different now than they were just one year ago...

However, one thing I've realized is still the same:
The Lord, God in Heaven.
He never changes, always remains the same, and is always right here when I need Him.

I realized after a few months being in Ukraine just how easy my life was in America, and because the difficulty of my life increased when I came to Ukraine, it forced me to rely on God for help, at least more than I did in the past.

Relying on God more helped me to grow tremendously, spiritually speaking.  I have gone through a very rapid period of sanctification, and I am so thankful for it.

One of the things that has been helping me, is drawing near to God, and confessing when I sin...
 James 4:8  "Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded."

1 John 1:9 "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."

Admitting my weakness and need for God not only brought me closer to God, but gave me immense joy in my hardships and the "peace of God, which passes all understanding" Phil 4:7

Another thing that has helped me is quality time with God every day, amazing sermons by John Piper, Francis Chan, etc, and good books like "Future Grace".

My husband also read "Future Grace" by John Piper and he says there was life before "Future Grace" and life after "Future Grace".  The book completely changed the way my husband and I look at God's grace, and his future plans for us.  It helped us realize the roots of many sins, which altogether is simply put as the lack of faith in God's future grace.  Piper describes future grace as every act of grace and good plan that God has for us in the future, such as it says in Romans 8:28 "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

I recommend this book to everyone who has the desire to grow in their faith in God.  In Russian, the book is called: ГРЯДУЩАЯ БЛАГОДАТЬ – ДЖОН ПАЙПЕР

When I realized exactly how good and true the promises of the bible are, I realized what future grace meant to me.  

There's a million things I could tell you about this book, but it's easier for you to just read and discover them for yourself.

English:
http://www.amazon.com/Future-Grace-John-Piper/dp/1590521919

Russian:
http://ru.inlumine.org/knigi/griadushaya-blagodat/

Here's a sermon by John Piperon the same topic that the book's about:

 http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/living-by-faith-in-future-grace

Please pray for our English clubs, especially for the student's hearts; that they will come to understand the gospel and have a saving faith in Jesus Christ! 

Praying about the future

Oles and I have started praying about our future, specifically as missionaries.

We're both striving to be more than normal in our faith.  We want to have a fiery love for Christ that will lead us to where God wants us to work for his kingdom.  For now we see that God's will for us is to grow spiritually and in our marriage.

1 Thessalonians 5:23 "Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."

It is hard for Oles to wait for us to be ready to go and serve the Lord.  In these times, I try to remind him about God's perfect timing for us, and how we can live as missionaries now in Kiev, for all the lost people that are around us.  We were inspired by this message from Francis Chan.  It's only about 2 minutes, so I recommend this video to you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=et-W3G3fS98

Friends, you can pray for us that we will learn God's will about the future, but keep our eyes open for the opportunities to serve him here in Ukraine while we're here.

Thank you for your prayer support!

Life and Ministry Updates!

Hello friends and readers!  I'm sorry I haven't written in a while!

Here's just some of the things that have happened over the last 2 months:


- I left the country about 6 weeks ago and went to Poland to get a visa to return.

- I finished the documents process so that I can legally stay in Ukraine, live and work here.  This took about 3 months.

- We put a pause on English Club until now while I finished the documents process and until after the wedding

- I got married 3 weeks ago to my amazing husband, Oles!

- It took us 2 weeks to get our house set up with internet, do a ton of deep cleaning and get the apartment ready for guests and english club.

- We are starting English club again today, so please pray for us!

- I will continue doing other ministries as well.


The ministries I plan to be involved in for at least the next three months:

- English club: every Monday and Thursday for University students;   Tuesdays and Fridays for school aged kids.  Fridays I will also go to the church office to teach english to one or more of the church staff.

- Children's ministry - I'll start this ministry within the next few weeks

- Dance class - this is an idea for ministry that we have not decided about but are thinking we may do in the near future since I was previously a dance instructor in America.

The ministries my husband is involved in are:

-His regular work - he has already shared the gospel with people at his normal job

- English club - prayer support and translation to help me run the club

- Technical support for the church

- Men's meetings every other week

-  Leading me to Christ, as my husband.


More updates to come soon!

Here's a picture from our wedding!

English club # 3

^{Acts 4:11-12 "}Jesus is “‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.' Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

Here's some photos from our third English club.  The topic was world view.
Borys and Dasha are making a speech about Christianity and their opinion.

 Kate and Yana (Yana is a Christian) are making a speech about their opinion of Islam

 Andrei and I are making a speech about our opinion of Hinduism.  We, both being Christians, disagree with Hinduism as a world view, and we expressed our Christian view instead.

 Borys and Dasha working on their speech

 Everyone is reading about Christianity, Islam and Hinduism: the three major religions of the world.

Through this English club we came to know each of our student's perspectives on world view.  Next week we will talk about Real Christianity, and what it means to be a follower of Christ.  We pray that by sharing the Gospel with our students this week, the Lord will move in their hearts, and Lord willing, they will be saved.

Romans 10:9 "Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."

English Club # 2

Psalm 105:2 "Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts."

We had our second English club this week, and thanks to God it was a success!  This time we were praying that God would bring more students to club, and that the students would not reject our conversation topic: Noah's Ark and the Flood.

Oles and I thought for a long time about what the topics should be, and finally, after much prayer and consideration, we decided on famous biblical events.  For our next two English clubs this month, we will probably focus on the Exodus and one other topic from the Bible, or potentially world view.

The way we conducted this past club was based on discussion groups.  We started by telling the condensed story of Noah and the flood from the Bible to give them background information for what happened.  Then we split the students into two groups.  Each group was given historical and archaeological information about Noah's Ark and the flood.

One group's goal was to use the information (Biblical, Historical and Archaeological) to prove their point that the Ark was real, and that the flood did happen, just as it says in the Bible.

The other group's goal was to prove the exact opposite: that the Ark didn't exist and the flood didn't occur.

What was interesting about the groups, is when we split them up, there was one Christian in the "prove it didn't exist" group and 2 non-Christians in the "prove it did exist" group.  We gave them 30 minutes to read 1 page of information and then form a 2 minutes speech about their viewpoint.

After the groups did their speeches, they decided who had a better argument, and the group who was trying to prove the Ark and flood existed won the discussion.

We ended club around 9 pm and stayed to talk with our students afterwards.  Many of them have very different ideas about the world, and from what we can tell, most of them are non-religious.

We're excited to see what god will do in the future with this club.  Since I'm staying in Ukraine longer than 3 months, I'll go to get a Ukraine visa in about 3 weeks, and then return, with the hope to continue this English club and ministry here in Ukraine.

Please pray for this ministry (and also that I'll be able to easily get a visa to stay here!)

English ministry!

Isaiah 55:10-11
"As the rain and the snow
    come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
    without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
    so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
¹¹ so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
    It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
    and achieve the purpose for which I sent it."

God has done some great things over the last few weeks with the English ministry!

One of my English students, who I privately tutor as a part of both of our jobs in the church, has massively improved in her English skills.  That's surprising to me, because I'm in no way a professional English tutor.  In fact, she and I have had many frustrating lessons because I don't speak much Russian and her English was about as good as my Russian.

I remember our first meeting was really hard for her, because she didn't understand barely anything I said to her.  We used google translate almost completely to talk to each other.  (which is difficult because Google translate is often wrong for our purposes).

Well, we've had 5 meetings, and on our 5th meeting, she told me, in broken English, how God has given her motivation to learn English and how she sees it as important for her ministry too.  I thought, "WOW, praise the Lord!" She had previously been very unmotivated with learning English because it's so hard for her. 

That was a few days ago, and I gave her homework to do since then.  This morning I got an emil from her with sentences she wanted me to check for correctness (she's studying some of the irregular verbs now).  This wasn't part of her homework, she just decided to do this on her own to help her study more!  I was amazed by God's work in her heart and this change in her attitude :)

......

The other thing that God has done with English ministry is to help us start the English club for non-believers.  Our first meeting was this past Thursday and we'll have 3 more meetings, and hopefully more after I get a new visa and stay in Ukraine.  

This English club is based on conversation to help promote conversation about God and the gospel.  We got to know our students through an informal interview style.  We reviewed some new words for them, helped them with some common English sounds, and we reviewed some grammar as well.

After the meeting I could tell the students liked it by the looks on their faces.  They thanked me a lot for putting on the club and they look forward to our next meeting.

Praise the Lord!  His word does not return to Him void!  He does as He pleases, when He pleases, and all His purposes are good!

I am so encouraged by my relationship with Christ, and the things He has done in my life and ministry lately that it all greatly outweighs any suffering I have experienced here in Ukraine.

Stay tuned for more updates!

How can I keep from singing your name?

Psalm 106:1 "Praise the LORD. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever."

I am reading through the book of Psalms because lately I've found that I need some encouragement.  
Today started out as any regular day here in Kiev, Ukraine, but several things happened that were interesting.

I spent the morning reading scripture and preparing for my English club on Thursday.  My fiancee Oles, asked me to meet him for lunch, so I managed to find my way by the metro (the long way but the easiest way) to meet him near his office.   

Evidence of God's grace today #1:
When I got there, we sat on a bench in a park and talked for about 20 minutes before he had to go back, and we thanked God for the wisdom that He gave Oles in deciding to start this job.  Just last night Oles had to decide between jobs at two companies, and each had their own risk associated with them, and he felt so broken and in need of wisdom from God.  When e woke up this morning, prayed and read scripture he flipped a coin three times, and got the same answer three times.  So, he went with the answer god gave him and chose to stay at the company he's with now. 
In case you're wondering, in Ukraine, companies can easily cheat their employees and pay them less than they deserve, so we are praying that this company will be honest and we trust God that He will protect Oles from harm.  

Evidence of God's grace today #2:
On my way back home I got on the public transportation bus, which is about $0.20 and the cheapest way to get around.  
Here's a picture of the bus:

About half way on my trip some guy tapped me on the shoulder and asked me something in Russian.  He signaled to me to give him something, but I was listening to worship music and didn't understand him anyways.  Then he showed me a badge, and I was a little surprised.  I thought, "maybe he's one of those traffic cops, except he checks to make sure people have paid for their bus ticket."  Anyways, I instinctively pulled out my ticket, which I had paid for and made the "stamp" on to prove I had paid for this trip on the bus.  He looked at my ticket for about 5 seconds and made a small tear at the top and then gave it back to me and moved on to the next person on the bus.  I was so relieved and confused about what was happening, and all I could think about was "Thank you Lord that I didn't have any trouble from this guy!"  The rest of that bus ride was uneventful, thank the Lord.  

Here's what the public transportation tickets look like here:

Evidence of God's grace today #3:
So, after that had happened, I was in an excellent mood.  I was beaming with happiness and thankfulness to God.  On my way home, I decided to stop at the store and pick up some milk. Upon entering the store I forgot that I had bought a water bottle earlier at lunch, and here in Ukraine you have to put any previously bought products in a locker.  It seems to me that they believe everybody will steal food or products if they have the opportunity.

So, I got in line to check out, and I've never had any problems until today with a cashier.  After she rung up my products she pointed to my shoulder bag and asked me something.  I didn't understand her, so I just said "Niet" which is the phonetic way to say "no", in Russian.  She didn't understand why I was saying "no" to her, and she had this very serious look on her face.  
THEN, I realized she was pointing to my water bottle, which had about an inch sticking out of the top of my bag.  I thought "Oh my gosh, she probably thinks I am stealing this from their store."
So anyways, I told her I don't understand, and she realized I didn't speak Russian and called over a manager.  Well, he didn't speak English either, so they had me wait at the register for about 5 minutes while they tried to get someone who spoke English.  
In my broken Russian/English (I call it "Ranglish") I tried to tell them I bought it in the metro earlier.  

Eventually they said I could go, and the cashier had a good laugh at the situation and probably smiled for the first time today.  (No body smiles here, everyone is so sad looking all the time because they probably don't have God in their lives).

So after that, I praised the Lord, that He AGAIN protected me from a potentially bad situation.  On the way back home I listened to this song by Chris Tomlin "How can I keep from singing your name?"  I was so happy and so joyful, I just couldn't stop smiling and praising God.

Here's the lyrics:

There is an endless song
Echoes in my soul
I hear the music ring

And though the storms may come
I am holding on
To the rock I cling

How can I keep from singing Your praise
How can I ever say enough
How amazing is Your love
How can I keep from shouting Your name
I know I am loved by the King
And it makes my heart want to sing

I will lift my eyes
In the darkest night
For I know my Savior lives

And I will walk with You
Knowing You'll see me through
And sing the songs You give

I can sing in the troubled times
Sing when I win
I can sing when I lose my step
And fall down again
I can sing 'cause You pick me up
Sing 'cause You're there
I can sing 'cause You hear me, Lord
When I call to You in prayer
I can sing with my last breath
Sing for I know
That I'll sing with the angels
And the saints around the throne

...

The words "I know I am loved by the King, And it makes my heart want to sing" just kept ringing in my ears and resonating in my heart.  

Everyday I feel pressures from this culture, these people, these languages (Russian and Ukrainian) and ministry responsibilities.  But God constantly lifts me out of despair.  He even prevents me from really getting to the point of despair!  God is so amazing, and because I am loved by the King, my heart is singing all the time of his awesomeness!

It's days like this that I realize how much God wants me to be here, and how much He is taking care of me here in this strange place!

I'll update more soon about what's happening in ministry! :)