Unexpected Ministry

Being flexible as a missionary is important. I can’t even count how many times I’ve been presented with an unexpected ministry opportunity and had to make an on the spot decision to jump in or not. This weekend was no exception.

I had planned to visit the church plant in the village up Lemani yesterday but what I hadn’t planned on was having a van full of youth along for the ride with me!

9 youth joined me for village in the village of Lemani and in the old people’s home in the Tuzli

On Friday night our youth leader called me and told me that he had a group that wanted to come with me to minister in the village church. I asked him to have everyone meet at our church at 8:00am. 9 people showed up the next morning to go with me. Yes, our van only has 8 seats but we managed just fine!

Honestly, I was glad to have the you along. What began as a solo ministry for me turned into a team effort. Not only did the trip minister to the members of the village church but it also provided excellent ministry training for our young people!

No sooner did we get home on Saturday did we get a call asking for help on Sunday morning in a sister church on the other side of town!

Our youth choir after the service in Philadelphia Church

This time we called up our youth choir and thankfully they all agreed to come along. With the help of the youth we conducted the entire service including leading the congregational singing, special music and two sermons!

After the service the church members put on some tea and brought out the cookies and we spent another hour just talking and getting to know each other. It’s times like these in ministry that you realize that often God is doing his greatest ministry through you when and where you least expected.

Some Prayer Requests

I have two prayer requests for you this week.

1. On Tuesday we will have the first class for our church’s Bible school. The course we will be teaching is Old Testament Overview. I will be part of the teaching team for the course. Pray for me and the other two teachers and pray for our students.

2. On Saturday our family will be driving to Western Ukraine. We will be meeting with the rest of our fellow missionaries from all over Ukraine for 3 days. Pray for safety as we travel and that God would guide us as we discuss plans for our future ministries.

If you want to check out a few more pictures of our trip with the youth out to the village you can find them here.