Worship Team watchable online 11:30AM - 1:30 (EST)

I know this is short notice, but if anyone is curious to check out the young adult worship team I am working with, we will be playing for the church's Wednesday evening service today. It starts at 11:30 EST (12:30 CST) and we will begin with three songs. Then there will be a block of preaching, another song, and a second block of preaching. At the end (I am predicting around 1:00 EST/2:00 CST) the service will finish with another block of worship.

The link is: http://nlc.kiev.ua/105410851083107210811085.html

One of the blocks of preaching will actually be by our American youth pastor, so you would be able to listen and understand if you want to get a feel for it.

That's all I have time for right now. I have to be at the church at 2:00 PM to help the band get ready so I should leave now.

More Summer Recap

I've already written a bit about Live Life Camp (the New Life Church evangelistic camp) earlier this summer. Rather than write more about the camp, I want to write about the follow-up and the continued ministry that is happening after.

I have mentioned Steve Copeland before. He is a missionary from New Zealand who teaches at a university here and owns an apartment which he rents out in order to support himself. He uses his English as a tool in ministry and it opens doors for him to build relationships with students. In the past he has started a school here in Kiev which offered free English lessons as a means of drawing new students to the gospel. He has turned that over to other hands and currently he runs a weekly Bible study and discussion group from his home (along with a home-cooked meal!). He uses this as a way to guide and mentor and evangelize.

A number of Steve's students (both believers and non-believers) attended this camp in July. Two of them gave their lives to Christ at camp and three are actively searching/seeking. They all are keeping in close contact with Steve's group and with myself and the other New Life intern. We have a wonderful opportunity to continue using our English skills as a draw and benefit to our ministry here rather than let our lack of Russian skills impede us. These students all speak English at varying levels and their English is an important part of the education at their university. Opportunities to talk with native English speakers are not taken lightly and discussion groups like this usually happen within a school situation and cost money. Of course, Steve always brings the discussions around to Christ and the gospel. He's not shy about what he's doing and doesn't hesitate to share with students the fact that he does these things for the sake of the gospel that he holds dear.

This camp (and the people who volunteered and helped) made a very real impact in some lives at camp. It was nice that I was already plugged into Steve's ministry before camp and have been able to continue interacting with these students and welcoming new ones to the group. Steve has encouraged me to start my own small group, using short guitar lessons as the draw. The format would involve a short guitar lesson at the beginning followed by a Bible study. Another ministry leader has suggested the same thing at a different time and I know there are already students interested in this.

Please pray for my courage to begin this endeavor if it is what God wants now. It will involve some firsts for me. I am also a little concerned about scheduling but I think that if I do it on alternating weeks (trying to shy away from the weeks I have extra evening rehearsals and services with the second worship team) then it can fit in. This would be a good opportunity to build common ground with some guys and have the regularity and opportunity to build into their lives.

Please also pray for Sasha and Sergei (new believers) and for the three students who are oh-so-close and who keep coming back for more: Eera, Sanya, and Vitya.

Here is a picture of Sasha which I caught recently. But regardless of the particular moment, this guy has not stopped smiling since he accepted Christ a month-and-a-half ago. I actually took this picture during setup for the last New Life camp which finished today. Sasha volunteered to help with the setup and teach a dance masterclass during the camp. He will also be dancing tomorrow in a drama at our church!

Here is a photo of a couple of my guitar students goofing off at Live Life Camp.

And here is a photo of our meeting area for worship and preaching. Some people put serious time into constructing this area. The photo above shows the stage area (which they built up in dirt with a small rock wall in front) and the one below shows the rest of the area. The church plans to put on a permanent roof when they have the funds.

Thanks for reading and supporting me. I know I have been seriously slacking on sharing what God has been doing here and what I have been involved in. I will try to post more information and photos from summer in about a week.

Summer

I have seen God work through many different experiences this summer. Some of them were ones I was excited about participating in and others were ones I had mixed feelings about. The summer started off great with getting to see some of my friends from Midtown church in Nashville and going with them to Kharkiv to work again with the orphan camp which was my first missions trip experience last year. I have already written about this a little but I want to include my reflections now that we are nearing the end of summer.

Even that camp had it's emotional struggles. My initial sense was of being overwhelmed and not knowing how we could really help this huge number of kids. God brought me through that within the first two days or so, thankfully. He also helped me figure out and adjust to the expectations and time tug involved with participating on both the American team and the Ukrainian team (as a member of the worship team). My experience was actually very much the same as last year's. For part of the trip I was concerned that I was missing something, expecting that my experience should be much different the second time around. But I believe at this point that God just chose to put me in similar roles as last year and grow my abilities within those roles by stretching them a bit.

One thing that I enjoyed seeing in myself on this trip was MUCH greater ease in interacting with the Ukrainian members of the missions team. These are the guys and girls of the coordinating, technical, drama and music teams. I enjoyed seeing the value and opportunity of being a liaison between Americans and Ukrainians and I see this being a role where I can assist and have helpful input in the future! I enjoy seeing the behind-the-scenes workings of a camp or program and looking at ways to make people more efficient, more able to communicate their needs, and more appreciated.

Through the yearly commitment of Midtown Fellowship to travel to Kharkiv and work with this same group of kids over and over again, many of the orphans at this camp now display a true knowledge of a relationship with God. The impact of God's people and God's presence is huge when comparing this same setting a few years ago during Midtown's first trip here (From what I hear. I didn't make it until the following year). What these kids really need now is a partnership with local churches who can provide more constant attention throughout the year and give them a support base as they graduate and begin lives on their own which they are desperately unprepared for. Please pray for this need.

I will follow up over the next week or two with more things from the summer. I hope to have time to track down and include some pictures to help put this summer into a more tangible form! Thanks for continued prayer even when I don't give regular updates.

Two More Prayer Requests

Quickly before I leave...

I need to find a new roommate for my house in Nashville. One of my guys got a job in LA and moved out there last week. So please, please, please pray that God will send a great person who will be a good match for the other two roommates and whose rent money will fill the financial void that opens up with one guy leaving!

Also, I need to find a new place to live here in Kiev. One of my roommates got married a month ago. I stayed here for July because there was only one week of the month that I would actually be home. But I would like to find a new place now in order to give the couple their space. My new place of living could have a huge impact on my ministry and well-being here so your prayers on this matter are very appreciated as well! Roommate(s) and location are the two primary factors.

Thanks,

Josh

Preparing for a Week at a Gypsy Village

Hey everyone,

I want to ask for your prayers for this next week. I will be participating in a camp from New Life Church which will take place in a gypsy village. These are people truly without nationality, most of whom cannot work legally in the country and who have generally received no formal schooling. They speak their own mix of about four different languages combined with their own words, making communication very difficult even for native Ukrainian and Russian speakers.

Basically, I have no idea what to expect. I know that I will be leaving early tomorrow morning to help someone drive their car full of supplies on the 12-14 hour trip. This will be a cool chance to see more of the country. Beyond this, I know I will be helping lead worship for kids and I know I have been asked to work specifically with a young age group for other aspects of the camp. Other than that, details are pretty foggy. There are some plans but a lot remains to be decided once we see what things look like when we arrive. We may be doing a small construction project as well. Originally the church hoped to dig a well and build a shower facility and source of clean water, but we do not have the funding for that at this time.

Maybe the fact that I do not know details, and hence have not formed specific expectations, will be helpful in emotionally enduring the camp. Still, I have been told this particular experience can be very challenging due to the conditions the gypsies live in and the process of becoming aware of their way of life. Thanks again for your prayers.

Josh

Second Camp

It is funny how things work. During the first camp of the summer, I was wondering if my physical interaction with the kids was truly enough, not sure it was the main support I was supposed to provide. That was at an orphan camp with kids and teens running around, all in desperate need of attention.

During my second camp, I worked with university students and young adults in their late teens through twenties. I realized just how much I missed having the physical interaction at the orphan camp and how reassuring it was not only to the kids, but to myself as well. Sometimes it's more difficult to know what's actually going on in the mind of an intellectual university student than in that of an excitable, ADD child who wants to hang onto whichever limb is most easily reached.

This second camp was an evangelistic camp organized and run by New Life Church. I am pleased to say that it was evangelistic both in vision and outcome. This particular type of camp was a first effort by the church and God met the flexibility of the leaders by keeping unbelieving campers in line where stating minute rules and regulations never could have succeeded. The Spirit of God was present at this camp and was seen undeniably in the combined Ukrainian and American team. This is what the campers saw and experienced. This is what touched them. They saw love and servanthood like they had never seen it before. Really, they felt it.

One thing I learned through this experience is just how strong worship is as an evangelistic tool. I always thought worship was to be kept mainly to circles of believers and that unbelievers would simply think it strange and a turn-off. However, I have come to realize that unbelievers can sense the presence of God in worship, however different that sense may be to them at first. And because God is good, His presence and initiation of awareness into the hearts of the unbeliever is good as well.

Thankfully, most of the students in my group were ones I already have connections with, giving me the opportunity to follow up with them and really find out what is going on. Many are students at ICU (International Christian University, although the "Christian" in the name means little these days), where a self-supported missionary by the name of Steve Copland has already spent a few years cultivating a ministry and Bible study which I have just recently gotten involved with. These students also speak English, which is a great opportunity to use my primary language as a strength rather than a weakness. A few of these students gave their lives to Christ during this camp and I feel it will take many conversations in the future to truly understand what they are experiencing spiritually and to build them up.

Again, I just want to reiterate that God put a lot of pieces in place for this camp and that he honored the willingness and God-seeking attitudes of the leaders and helpers. God was invited to this camp and he was certainly present. There are many more things I could share now and there will be more to share in the future as I follow up with some of the students. For now, please pray that I will have wisdom and time and God's energy to continue this process.

Back From The First Camp

I am back safely in Kiev, at least for today. Tomorrow I will leave for another camp but I am happy to tell you that the first camp has been a success and a blessing.

First of all, God's presence was evident in may ways as we finished camp. To each of us on the team, He revealed this through different situations and observations. For me personally, I have experienced God's pleasure in seeing His children worship Him. God's presence in a Ukrainian orphan camp is a very powerful thing. I believe a lot of the kids recognize it when they see it. This team saw seen God push back some solid boundaries of distraction and apathy and has really communicated with kids through this team.

It is difficult to leave the kids to the situations they are in. We are tempted to feel our work is incomplete. In many ways this may be true. But I do believe we have carried out the good work God called us to for this past week and that God is using this experience to work in the hearts of the kids now and in the future. Please pray over continued communication with the kids throughout the year because writing letters in our absence often has shortfalls in the aspect of getting deep into the lives of the children.

The first day or two of the trip were very difficult for me. In my effort to not have expectations of things being the same as they were last year at this camp, I subconsciously expected my experience to be different. In reality, it was very similar. My role again seemed to be to help create the environment in which the kids were receptive to what others had to say. Most of my communication was either through high fives and countless variations of handshakes or through worship. I am still trying to make sure I did not miss something I was called to, but I do sense satisfaction in the result of this trip. God used this team together as a whole, made of many unique parts.