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Summer 2008 Sam's Testimony
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Kerch Kids at
Alushta Camp
Sevastopol City Kids Camp
Inkerman Camp
Balaclava Outreaches
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The
Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me
to preach the good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the
oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
~Luke 4:18 |
Saturday, 28 June
Wow it’s so wonderful to finally make it back to Ukraine and
to see our team leaders, Rich and Vitalik. The long flights
over here went well (Praise God) and I somewhat got to know
my two American teammates - they’re incredible women and I
cannot wait to see how God uses us on this trip. We already
found out that the plans are different and that our final
destination has slightly changed (we thought we were going
to Kerch, but now are going to a small town called Alushta),
but I think - or KNOW - that it’s still going to be a
fantastic ministry. Now, we’re waiting at the train station
and will soon begin this amazing journey.
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Sunday, 6 July
What an amazing first week! There’s so much to tell, but to
write it all down would fill the pages of a Steinbeck novel!
God has given our team such remarkable unity, and has
definitely begun to change these orphans’ lives.
We (Vitalik and us three Americans) arrived at the camp
Sunday night and found the conditions to be, as Vitalik
stated, “awkward”, and this “awkwardness” continued through
the week. We sometimes had water, sometimes not, sometimes
had a place to shower, sometimes not…but these were minor
setbacks (if you can even call them “setbacks”) when our
goal is glorifying God and sharing the good news with these
precious children. It forces us to rely solely on God for
our comforts.
The other seven Ukrainian team members arrived Monday around
noon-ish with all of the children from the Kerch Internot.
It was so good to meet the team and see the children that
we’d be living with and ministering to for the next two
weeks.
There is little to no help from the camp workers trying to
set up scheduling for our programs. The first day of
ministry, after constantly being told we couldn’t perform
our program because the children were “busy”, we finally
just took the team out into the hall and began singing
songs. After a few songs, a couple of children started to
gather to listen and watch and a few of the brave ones even
participated. We did our entire program with maybe only ten
kids, but I knew that even if we only shared the Gospel with
ten kids during this trip, that it was totally worth coming.
Throughout the week God really answered our prayers and we
began to see the number of kids attending the programs
increased. And with that, we started to see changes in the
kids - more openness, better behaviors, more
participation…and saw a change in the older kids and those
that weren’t coming every day to see us do our program. They
would tend to walk slowly past us during our programs and
try to catch what we were saying as they passed (but pretend
not to be interested) or juggle a soccer ball within hearing
distance, again acting as if they didn’t care. God is truly
working here.
Today we had a church service and invited the kids - we
actually had more children attend this than have a tendency
to come to our programs. At the end of the service, for
reasons I’m still not sure of, one of the boys I am very
close to (his name is Artome) leaned over and began to cry
on my leg. We sat there for maybe ten minutes just weeping
together. I can see that the Holy Spirit is doing powerful
things in this boy’s heart.
We’re now over half way done with this camp, and way excited
to see the miracles God performs in the last four days of
ministry. Our God is an awesome God. |
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Friday, 11 July
So…we’re finished…and wow, we went out with quite a bang.
The power of prayer is incredible and we truly saw God’s
sovereignty this past week. When I get home, I know that I
won’t be able to describe the experiences that I’ve had to
my friends because they won’t understand. Even writing them
down doesn’t do the miracles justice.
The easiest sign to physically see that God was working in
the lives of the kids was the number attending programs. I
mentioned in the last entry that we started out ministering
to about ten kids…by the last few days of our programs we
were presenting the good news of Jesus Christ to 40 or 50
kids!! The increase is phenomenal and certainly has not come
about by simply human works. Also the kids were more
inclined to participate in skits, songs, crafts, and even in
prayer. This is a great testament to the work God was doing
through us.
It was very difficult leaving the children. Last night, many
of the children whom we were close to held tightly onto us
until late into the night and cried and cried. They didn’t
want to see us go and return to their normal (very
difficult) lives. Though I do not know how many of the
children we ministered to accepted Christ while we were
here, I know that over the past two weeks, we have planted
seeds that in time, God will help to sprout and bear fruit.
It was incredible the miracles we witnessed in these
precious lives. |
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Saturday, 19 July
Well…another week down and very new and different
experiences. This was an…interesting week. Not better or
worse than any of the other ministries - just different.
This week I was in a city called Sevastopol working at a
Christian camp put on by a church that has connections with
“The Least of These”. The team was comprised of members from
the church (two of whom I had worked with from camp Gorney
last year), several members of a different “The Least of
These” team, and me and one of my teammates from Alushta,
Serge.
This camp was very difficult for me to help out. Because
this was a Christian camp, and because I don’t know the
language, I could not help lead the Bible times, couldn’t
really participate in many skits, couldn’t lead prayer. I
ended up being more crowd control than anything. But despite
that, I know that God used me simply to show the kids how to
live life in the joy of the Lord.
More than anything, I believe God used this trip for my own
maturation. The circumstances that we were in weren’t always
easy - we had to walk to and from almost everywhere (to the
point where my feet would have bloody sores on them from my
tennis shoes), we had food MOST of the time but sometimes
went hungry, the kids were very physically and emotional
taxing, the church flooded…so all of this added up fast. But
at the end I realized that none of it was all that bad. It
required me to turn to God for strength - it helped me trust
in Him that everything was going fine and there is nothing
that I can’t handle with my God giving me strength. I
noticed that I began to pray more, meditate on His word
more, and just live in a more godly way. It’s strange how
God works.
So right now, Serge and I am traveling by train to the next
camp - this one is in Inkermann, a village in Sevastopol (I
guess you could call it a suburb almost), and we’ll be
sleeping in tents for the week! It’s good that God’s been
preparing me to trust in Him for my strength because I’m
deducing we’ll have no toilet, shower, or running water! But
I know it’ll be a fantastic ministry. |
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Sunday, 27 July
Oh my goodness…God is good, all the time, and all the time, God is
good. This week of ministry was absolutely incredible. So
much happened during this week, that I don’t even know where
to begin writing down my thoughts. We reached so many kids
and saw so many lives being changed that I am astounded at
the power of God.
Yet again, this camp (9:00 am - 5:00 pm) was extremely taxing
physically, mentally, emotionally…but we were given so much
strength to push onwards through God. We partnered with a
church in Sevastopol, and between those 30-some people and
the 8 “Least of These” team members, God used us to reach
almost 120 children! Not only that, we had numerous parents
calling or coming to the camp to figure out who we were, or
what we were doing that made their child so happy when
he/she would return home in the evening. We saw a
progression of behavior in these kids from day 1 through day
6 that was only possible by the grace of God.
The kids were somewhat “stand-offish” the first day, but by the
second and third, were very open and we started to get
glimpses into what their lives were like. Many of them came
from families with only one parent or an abusive situation.
Those kids came to us with deep pain in their eyes, but
while with us, we started to see a new glow; a new joy that
they began to receive from seeing God. It was so neat to see
this change. By the end of the camp, there were a number of
the kids calling different team members “Mama” and “Papa”.
This was, in one sense encouraging to see that we (or God
through us) were able to affect them so drastically in such
a short period of time, but on the other side, sad to
realize that they didn’t necessarily have any sort of
encouraging “Mama” or “Papa” to return home to. I can only
pray that as they left camp for the last time last night,
that someday the seeds that we planted will one day bear
fruit, and that they may find God to be their “Heavenly
Papa”.
So I have one week left to go (wow it’s gone by fast), and I can’t
wait to see what miracles God performs these last days of
ministry. |
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Saturday, 2 August
I regret to write that I’m finally on the plane heading
home, but it is what it is. The last week of ministry was
one of the most inspiring, one of the most powerful, and one
of the most humbling weeks of my life thus far. As I have
written many times before in this journal, it’s truly
impossible to describe the feelings I have or the
experiences I’ve been in throughout this past week…but I’ll
do my best.
We traveled back into Sevastopol to do ministry in one small
orphanage (only about 15 children) and in a park in
Balaclava (a smaller town just outside Sevastopol). However
by Tuesday, we began a third ministry in a apartment
complex’s courtyard type area (if that makes sense), also in
Balaclava. We stayed in an apartment high-rise of a women
connected with “The Least of These”. We would, in the
morning before our first ministry (at the orphanage),
prepare a program and crafts for all three of the places. At
10:00 we would leave for the orphanage, at 2:30 we would go
to Balaclava for the second program, and then directly to
the third by 6:00 (these were long days).
Working with the orphan children was amazing. They’re so
beautiful and were fairly open to us even by the end of the
first day. It was so cool to see the teachers of these
children sit down with them during our programs and sing the
songs and listen to the message. Usually these directors
look down upon Christian teaching, so it was a real blessing
for them to be so positive. We also saw God perform a
miracle in bringing a boy that we had ministered to in
Inkermann to this orphanage. He had stolen two cell phones
from Vitalik and was in need of forgiveness. The day he was
brought to the orphanage was the day we were doing the
program about forgiveness. It’s amazing how God works, even
if the situation seems bad. This young boy was really
searching for God and was brought to us a second time for us
to show him answers. As his life goes into a chaotic spiral
now (with being thrown into the orphanage system), God was
able to show him a way out of his pain.
The other two ministries in Balaclava were also phenomenal.
The earlier of the two, we saw persecution by the Ukrainian
police and by several women living in the apartment complex.
Instead of dashing our ministry, we were able to show the
love of Jesus not only to the children, but also to the
persecutors, by the way we were able to handle the
harassment. God’s glory was shown even in the midst of
turbulent waters. Praise God!! And the latter of the two
Balaclava ministries went very smoothly and the kids were
open and embracing of the truth.
Sitting here on the plane writing this and reading about all
of the situations I’ve gone through, I can say without a
shadow of a doubt that this was one of the, if not the most
impacting times of my life. I witnessed miracles being done
left and right, saw children’s lives being significantly
changed, found joy in the times of persecution, and through
it all, was able to grow emotionally, mentally, and most
importantly spiritually. It will be very challenging
returning home and not being able to describe to my friends
this remarkable trip I’ve been a part of. Even if they do
ask about my stories, they will not be able to comprehend
the miraculous happenings that took place because they
weren’t a part of them. On the other hand, this trip
equipped me to resist temptations and rely on God in any
incident, good or bad, and with this newly strengthened
behavior, I am confident that I’m not finished with my
ministry…but that I’m just starting it! |
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I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.
So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything,
but only God who makes things grow.
The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose,
and each will be rewarded according to his own labor.
For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s
building.
~1 Corinthians 3:6-9 |
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