Meeting Midtown: Josh Ingram from Joshua Ingram on Vimeo.
God has pushed me out of my safe world this year and directed me back to Ukraine for next year. I will be returning in April to begin a yearlong internship with New Life Church in Kiev. New Life is the founding church of an independent denomination consisting of 150 churches. Less than 20 years old, it is amazingly the oldest native evangelical denomination in Ukraine. Its story and presence in Ukraine remind me of New Testament accounts of the early churches.
Soon after the fall of the Soviet Union, God put to work a young pastor named Anatoly Kaluzhny. With no formal ministry training available in Ukraine at the time, his only learning grounds had been the underground churches that survived in secret during the communist oppression. God prompted Pastor Anatoly to be the Christian participant in public Christian/atheist debates held in an old cathedral turned into an atheist center. The country’s spiritual thirst was confirmed in the form of two hundred listeners coming to believe in Jesus. God soon birthed New Life Church as a place to provide for the spiritual needs of these new believers and as a place to deepen Pastor Anatoly’s commitment to lead and minister. The church has grown to 1200 members and its denomination now serves through seventy individual outreach ministries to touch street kids, AIDS victims, athletes, and many more.
I am returning to Ukraine to jump deeper into some of the ministry opportunities I took part in earlier this year and also to begin working in some new areas that will be a day-by-day challenge for me. My main internship priority will be the church’s youth ministry, which, in keeping with the Ukrainian use of the term “youth” actually refers to teen and young adult ministries. A short list of responsibilities will involve leading an English-language Bible study, taking Russian language lessons to learn how to communicate with people on their own terms, working with New Life’s summer camp programs and returning to some of Radooga ministry’s orphan and city camps.
One benefit of being in Ukraine is that I will be closer to some of the orphans that I met this summer. A few of us maintain pen pal relationships with the help of a tireless translator. One of the guys I have spent the most time corresponding with is an amicable and quiet teenager named Dennis (shown in the left side of the photo below). He and his younger sister Olya are making the most of limited opportunities given them at the orphanage and lately have been emceeing or performing in every program or talent show their orphanage puts on. Dennis will soon be posting a video online for me so I can see the hip hop routine his dance team has been working on.
Whether orphans or not, a huge number of young people in Ukraine need to see examples of men who are willing to stand by and care about the people around them. Family structure buckled heavily after the fall of the Soviet Union and teens have very few positive, strong male role models. My presence as an American guarantees that some young people will want to befriend me as they practice their English skills and serves as a perfect opportunity to begin impactful relationships.
Thankfully, God has provided one task for me that fits right into my comfort zone. Through the friendship I made this summer with a Ukrainian musician who volunteered with the orphan camp, I heard about the need for a guitar player at New Life. The church has many talented musicians but for some reason has had trouble finding a guitar player who understands the genre and melds well with their worship teams. I have already played two services with the young adult team my friend leads while I was at New Life in October and I had the chance to meet and talk to one of the adult team leaders as well. She shared that her team has been praying regularly for a guitar player and that she hoped I would be the answer to that prayer! My typical worship schedule when I arrive will consist of rehearsals and two to four services per week.
For those of you who have already been a part of my experience with Ukraine over the past year, thank you! You have encouraged me and enabled me to be in a place of service and see God’s calling on my life for the next year. In addition to placing me in Ukraine for His work, God has placed Ukraine in my heart to serve as a beautiful lesson and reminder that His ways and His plans are the best, regardless of what they may be for each of us.
