Even so Lord, come quickly

2010-05-20T23:03:00.000+03:00

I'd been praying about a work-desk for quite a while. Call me pansy or selfish :), but working at the kitchen table or on a mattress on the floor just wasn't cutting it. The Lord provided an affordable desk! Thank you Jesus!

Prophets

2010-05-12T23:01:00.004+03:00

We recently finished an 18 week school of ministry course here at CC Svitlvodsk. The first 9 week "semester" was inductive Bible Study, which I taught and Old Testament Survey, which our pastor Ben taught. He taught from Genesis through Esther. The second 9 week semester was Old Testament Survey, which I picked up from Job and Apologetics, which Ben taught. For me personally it was a very challenging and wonderful opportunity. Challenging for a few different reasons. I've never taught such an intense course. It was also very challenging linguistically. It forced me to push myself in study and pushed my skills in russian. (thankfully my talented wife knows russian very well :) It was a wonderful blessing for me in the same was as it was challenging. O.T. survey was especially hard, but i was SO blessed by it. The Lord used it a lot in my life.
I especially enjoyed teaching the prophets. I know that some people can be discouraged or even bored by the O.T. prophets. I used to think the same thing. But as you go through all of them and look at them as a whole, you get a totally new outlook on them. The Lord begins showing you His faithfulness. I'm so thankful for how faithful our God is to His chosen nation. That He remains for them all of this time. That their eyes, as a nation, will be opened one day and, as it is written so many times throughout the prophets, "you will be My people and I will be your God." The Lord really pierced my heart with this. If He is so faithful for thousands of years to Israel, I can be assured that He will be faithful to me. Israel didn't deserve to be His chosen nation. They have even proven that many times throughout history. Yet God, for His name's sake, will not break His covenant with them. So too, I am not deserving of God grace and mercy, yet He chose me. This is very humbling, and very assuring. God will never break His covenant with those who have received His sacrifice.
The Lord also really opened my eyes to see His sovereignty on a whole new level. God's sovereignty is a hard thing to understand. At some points it can even be disturbing. I say that because we are humans, and sometimes we just can't understand why God does some things that He does. Take, for example, destroying whole nations. Even women and children. That's a hard thing to receive. Yet, without getting into a theology class, I can be assured that even this is in mercy and in love. Throughout the prophets we see God's sovereignty on many different levels. On a universal level, on a global level, on a national level and on a personal level. God does what He wants, when He wants and how he wants. One of the great testimonies of God's sovereignty is, of course, the book of Jonah. God works all things for His will. All things are in His hands.
Looking at the new testament, in which we live, Paul tells us this: "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to [his] purpose." (Romans 8:28) God is at work in your life and in my life. He holds all things in His hands. It is a principle that we live by that the Lord uses everything in our lives (those who love Him, being christians) for good. Even the hard things. Even the things that we, not understanding, might think to be bad. For me, looking at the O.T. prophets has been testimony after testimony of God's sovereignty and faithfulness.

A small update from svetlovod'sk

2009-07-12T16:43:00.001+03:00

My wife Nastya and I have been living and serving in CC Svetlavod'sk with Ben and Lena Morrison since the 26'th of may. The Last nearly two months have been wonderful. Everything from lots of ministry, to good fellowship and even swimming a couple of times :).
As far as ministries go, I am doing the youth group, which is a true blessing. A youth group is like a little body inside of the congregation. There is a great importance because, Lord willing & if He doesn't tarry, these kids will one day be leaders in the church. So for now they're getting stuffed full of the word, worship & we also have some plans to help the community this summer by cleaning a beach up and other outreach possibilities. Right now we're taking our time going through the epistle of colossians and just being blessed by what the Lord is doing in our group. If you would, please pray that the Lord would give me vision on how to best serve the kids and help them to grow in there walks with the Lord. Also, everything is in Russian which is another good challenge for me. Thankfully, I have a wonderful wife who helps me prepare. :)

Worship team. For me, even though I've been blessed by doing worship for several years, this is the first time I've ever been a technical worship leader. I'm used to just me and a drum, so personally this is a good growing experience that I'm happy the Lord has blessed me with. Right now it really is just ben and I playing, but soon, as the Lord leads, there is a boy named Phillip who will be joining the team playing the guitar and possibly singing. That is a really exciting prospect. Right now, we're just seeking the Lord and His vision for the worship team here in svetlovod'sk and keeping our eyes open for any additions to the team. Prayer requests for that end of it would be that the Lord would grow me in my own (from the Holy Spirit of course) musical ability and the He would grow the team as He sees fit.

From the first through the sixth of July, Ben and Lena went to a regional conference/rest at the beach and Nastya and I stayed back in Svetlovod'sk. I had the opportunity to teach four times in one week. I will admit that it was very hard, but the Lord used it greatly in mine and my wife's lives.
Other than that, I just try to be open for any small ministry opportunities in or out of the church.

Nastya has been helping by translating certain things into russian & other office-type work. Praise the Lord for her! she amazes me!

Being with the Morrisons has been wonderful. As I said, I taught 4 times in one week and Nastya helped me prepare the messages, but it astounds me how the morrisons are able to do all of the ministry that they do on top of having two children. They have been/are being a great example to Nastya and I on being a faithful family and being faithful ministers! Praise the Lord for their openness and faithfulness to the Lord! Please pray that the Lord would unite us more and more as a team and bless the great friendship that we have with them.

The Lord is proving Himself day-by-day to be faithful in every way. My heart is that as Nastya and I are here, that the Lord would cause us to be more rooted in His grace and affective in the ministry.

Ofcourse there are many more things to be written, but that's about the jist of it :).

God bless you and thank you for your prayers!

moving on

2009-04-15T22:00:00.000+03:00

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

2009-04-14T17:18:00.000+03:00

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

2009-04-13T00:31:00.000+03:00

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??...