Prayer Walking

Our God is an awesome God!

"Oh how I'll rejoice in them! Oh how I'll delight in doing good things for them! Heart and soul, I'll plant them in this country and keep them here!"  Jeremiah 32:41

Today we boarded an express train from Kiev to the eastern part of Ukraine.  Six hours later we stepped off into another world - one that is 20 miles from the Russia border.  An area that is living in darkness.  A place where you can physically feel the spiritual oppression.  A place that the Lord is waiting to "delight in doing good."

I had never read the above verse before, but today I opened a card and that was the verse quoted.  (The Women on Mission Group at Shelby's church made beautiful cards with individual notes for each one of us for every day.)  Isn't God good?  The person who wrote the card does not know me nor what today held and yet Jeremiah 32:41 is the verse that the Lord laid on her heart for me for today (yes, the card had a specific day for me to open). 

It's hard to explain the experience today.  We walked through the 2nd largest city square in Europe.  We walked through an Orthodox church that is hundreds of years old.  We stood on a mountain and looked at an area that measures 6 square miles and houses 600,000 people.  We stood at a huge monument to remember those that died in WWII that had an ever burning flame and an audible heartbeat.  We saw sign after sign celebrating 65 years of freedom.  Yet, we encounter no one who knew true freedom.  No one who had experienced the heartbeat of Christ.  No one who knows that they are loved and able to speak directly to the Savior of the world.

There is nothing we could have done more worthy of our time - no task more important - than asking for God to move and be present in this area.  In a few days (maybe after we return) I'll write about the prayer walk experience, but today our heart aches for the brokenness and darkness we saw and experienced today.

Tomorrow we will be teaching a conference in the morning.  We are teaching learning styles.  You ask what does that have to do with missions?  In Ukraine the only legal way to teach in the schools is military style - rote memory and lecture.  If you fail at school, the government stops your ability to attend and they decide who goes on to technical school or university.  If you do not qualify for one of those, you go to the military.  Mothers yearn for ways to reach their children to give them options.  They yearn to know that their child is fearfully and wonderfully made by God just the way they are.  They desire to teach them of the things of the Lord yet know nothing but what they had in school.  Our prayer is that tomorrow we offer hope for a future and understanding of their children (and even themselves).  Our greatest desire is even for these women who may have felt like a failure due to their struggles in school, to realize they are not stupid - but instead just learn differently and that God is pleased with them.  Pray for clarity as we teach.  Pray for the translator.  Pray they heart the message of the Lord.

In the evening we are fellowshipping with women from another area.  There will be no teaching, only fellowship.  Pray that our willingness to set aside our plans and to work within the parameters set before us will serve as an encouragement to both the nationals and Americans we work with.  Give us God's eyes for the people that we encounter tomorrow.

Sorry - no pictures tonight - I'll have to upload them when we return to Kiev. 

Keep praying - we can feel them and see them being answered!