moving on

The last couple of days I have been contemplating the last four years I have spent in Ukraine.

To start from the beginning, when we moved to Ukraine in July, '05, I was not walking with the Lord. As any teenager in this conundrum and not walking with the Lord, I totally felt like my world was coming to an end. I had all my stuff going on back home. Had my friends, had my drugs- my whole life was being changed and my parents were forcing it... At least, this was my opinion then.
I had "made a deal" with my parents, agreeing that I would stay in Ukraine for a year and if I didn't like it, I would go back and live with my grandmother. (I had to come with my parents, being only 15)

So we moved to Poltava. To give an idea of the shape I was in, I was high on marijuana on the plane over.
After about a month of being in Poltava, the Lord began speaking to me. Showing me His will and how His timing is absolute and perfect.
To sum up my time spent in Poltava, I would have to put it this way.
Recently I went to Poltava and spent the day walking around the city and just outside of it with Sasha Petrov. It was very hard for me to believe how much Poltava has changed in almost every way after only two years. As we were wandering aimlessly, I realized that Poltava is my like my childhood memories. It was the beginning of my new life. I was involved in ministry, doing worship mainly, but it was just a taste of things. I got to watch one of my favorite pastors, Don Patten. I learned so much just from watching him.

Next came Kharkov.
I was very excited at the prospect of moving to Kharkov. New ministry, new people. There were definitely more opportunities for ministering at the time in Kharkov. (For me personally I should say)
So many wonderful things have happened in Kharkov. I've had the priveledge of serving with the coolest people around. Stephen, Nate, Shane and many others. I've had the opportunity to grow in worship and begin teaching the Word of God. The Lord's even grown me in things such as outreach and being a leader. He also, in Kharkov, allowed me to start a relationship with my (still future... but very near future :) ) wife.
To sum up what Kharkov has been in my life, I would have to compare it to freshman year of high school. Everything's different. You feel older, but you realize you're at the bottom of the food chain. You realize that you're nothing special.

Now. In about a month and a half, Nastya and I will move to Svetlovodsk as a married couple. I am definitely looking forward to this new page in life. This new season. The dynamics will be different. Different pastor, different people, different ministry. But the beauty of it all- same goal: Furthering the kingdom of God and helping raise up and encourage His children.
Oh, I of all people know I'm still young and have a lot to learn. But I'm eager. (not to be confused with Igor haha) Eager to grow. Eager to be stretched. To me, ministry and even my personal walk with the Lord is much like playing the guitar. (if you'll allow the allegory.) The more people I jam with on the guitar, the more I glean from them. The more techniques I learn. Such is my approach to this aspect of ministry. I glean from my elders. I try to receive all the wisdom I can from them by watching them work daily because, who knows, maybe one day I'll be in their shoes. So now you know if I'm serving under you, I'm watching you haha.

I love how the Lord works. As Paul says in his letter to the Ephesians, "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." 2:10
No matter what our spiritual maturity is, we can be assured that the Lord has a calling for us. He has work for us to put our hands to, prepared by God before the foundations of the earth. And all of this we have in Christ Jesus. Nobody's a cool minister on his own. It's the Spirit that is so sweet. So what I desire for Svetlovodsk and everything I put my hand to is simply for it to be pleasing to God, as unto the Lord. Not for a name to be made of myself, but for His name to be glorified and His people to be edified.

cooking

Maybe it's not the most interesting or amazing thing to write about, but I enjoy it. Not very good at it, but i can do wonders with a chicken filet... atleast for myself. The only problem is, I don't have much money to be spent on fine cuisine, so I basically resort to fired chicken and potatoes every day. Praise the Lord I have even that!
It would be great though if all you fine chefs out there could give me some recipes for a poor man!

Getting started

Well, I figured facebook and myspace are a little too much for me. Too much of this and too much of that. I enjoy reading and writing more than playing games, so hopefully this blogspot will be the scratch to my itch. I will still keep facebook. Not so sure how long i will have myspace though. The only thing is that I still don't understand how to use this blog, so if anyone has any hints??...