Wed 27 JULY - 16:05 GMT.
So today is a long travel day reaching Kyiv past midnight and our ministry will be mostly to each other today unless God puts us next to someone we can talk with.
So I thought I would write a little about my engagement in Ukraine, why I'm excited about Our Legacy ministry and the personnel involved here, especially my friend Vadym Kulynchenko. My first trip to Ukraine was a research trip, traveling and ministering with 12 other pastors. My second trip was a connecting trip where we launched the sister-church relationship between Bethel-Owatonna where I was pastor and Light of the Gospel church in Kamenka. We had exchanged letters and I knew that our part was to help complete their building but really to help them learn to do youth and children's ministry. For 70 years of Communism that had been illegal.
So today is a long travel day reaching Kyiv past midnight and our ministry will be mostly to each other today unless God puts us next to someone we can talk with.
So I thought I would write a little about my engagement in Ukraine, why I'm excited about Our Legacy ministry and the personnel involved here, especially my friend Vadym Kulynchenko. My first trip to Ukraine was a research trip, traveling and ministering with 12 other pastors. My second trip was a connecting trip where we launched the sister-church relationship between Bethel-Owatonna where I was pastor and Light of the Gospel church in Kamenka. We had exchanged letters and I knew that our part was to help complete their building but really to help them learn to do youth and children's ministry. For 70 years of Communism that had been illegal.
I was praying, "Lord we'll teach them what we know, but God, would You do something more? Would You make them better at it than we are? And somehow, would You make this a beachhead into places we could never go. I met Vad on that trip and participated in his interview for baptism.
I've had the joy (across my 13 trips there) of watching Vadym grow and mature into a man with BIG vision. He's been my interpreter for every visit since.
A few years ago staff at Bethel were preparing for Light of the Gospel's Pastor Petr and Vadym to visit us in Owatonna. While reading Vadym's email accepting our invitation I was God-shocked by the answer of that dozen year old prayer. He was writing from Bishkek where he was teaching church leaders to use Max7 curriculum - free children and youth material that was translated into more than 70 languages. That assignment had taken him to Armenia, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. He had already taught the seminar in Belarus, Romania, Albania and Russia. I love how God takes our small faith and blows us away with the grand ways He answers. Vadym is my own personal object lesson on prayer and action in faith.
From Max7, Vadym's ministry has broadened and linked him with others who major in family / children / youth outreach, sports outreach, orphan and refugee ministry - the network of Our Legacy / Our Heritage. The newest venture is called Karabin, probably the first Christian youth camp in Ukraine, now in its second year of operation.
I'm blessed and honored to serve with the board that oversees these ministries, and I just can't wait to see how God wants to surprise me this time!
I've had the joy (across my 13 trips there) of watching Vadym grow and mature into a man with BIG vision. He's been my interpreter for every visit since.
A few years ago staff at Bethel were preparing for Light of the Gospel's Pastor Petr and Vadym to visit us in Owatonna. While reading Vadym's email accepting our invitation I was God-shocked by the answer of that dozen year old prayer. He was writing from Bishkek where he was teaching church leaders to use Max7 curriculum - free children and youth material that was translated into more than 70 languages. That assignment had taken him to Armenia, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. He had already taught the seminar in Belarus, Romania, Albania and Russia. I love how God takes our small faith and blows us away with the grand ways He answers. Vadym is my own personal object lesson on prayer and action in faith.
From Max7, Vadym's ministry has broadened and linked him with others who major in family / children / youth outreach, sports outreach, orphan and refugee ministry - the network of Our Legacy / Our Heritage. The newest venture is called Karabin, probably the first Christian youth camp in Ukraine, now in its second year of operation.
I'm blessed and honored to serve with the board that oversees these ministries, and I just can't wait to see how God wants to surprise me this time!
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