Impeccable Timing

While my team was at training in Budapest, we heard numerous people say that we need to trust that God has been working in the cities we are going to and that he is working in the hearts of people so that they will be ready to say yes to the ministry. 

It's a really happy thought. God is doing all the work. He's orchestrating things. It's a biblical thought too. (That matters more than the happy thought idea.)

Ephesians 2:10 says, "For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago."

It is so great to know that God planned this year for my team long ago. We have been in Rivne, Ukraine for just over one week, and we have already seen God do incredible things. We serve a God of impeccable timing.
Here is where we are for those of you who are as geographically challenged as me:

We arrived last Sunday, and that evening was the night of the monthly youth gathering at the church we were connected to. Sunday night we went and met high school students, college students, and young adults who simply love Jesus. Quite a few people were interested in volunteering with the ministry to reach college students with the gospel! We were so blessed to meet people there, and Roman and Tanya have been especially helpful during our first week adjusting to the city.

Roman gave us a little tour of the city!

The awesomeness could have stopped with the youth meeting. That was a significant blessing, and we could have moved on knowing God was with us. But he gave us another blessing. On Friday night, we were able to experience a youth prayer meeting that only happens 3 or 4 times throughout the year! There, we met more college students and young adults who were interested in volunteering to do ministry to the university students in Rivne. We lost sleep since the meeting went until three in the morning, but it was worth it!

This is what the prayer meeting looked like during worship

And this is what Ukrainian worship sometimes sounds like:

And on Saturday, we had an information party for people interested in volunteering. Two super interested people came! They want to spread the good news of Jesus throughout Rivne. After the party, we talked about expectations we had for the party. Our team leader said, "If we had been told while we were in Budapest that two people would come to our first volunteer information event, we would have been so excited." And he's right. Two people passionate about Jesus can do a lot of damage. Just look in the book of Acts. We are trusting God for more big things in this city over the next two weeks.

We didn't know how this whole expedition would go, but God did. He planned it for us long ago, and it's working out for his glory. He's working to ensure that every university student in Rivne, Ukraine knows someone who truly follows Jesus.

Praise God!