How to Pray: Surprises

As most of you know, when teams from Midtown head over to Ukraine, we are going for the purpose of working with groups of orphaned children and teenagers. Our teams, during preparation, often talk about expectations of these trips. Over and over again in the time leading up to trips, we remind each other to simply allow things to happen and let God show up.

Obviously, our sole purpose is to share the Gospel with these kids. We want them to understand what this life is all about and share with them God's extravagant love for them. We spend hours talking about ways to reach out to them and how to keep them engaged and interested. Our focus is definitely on the kids as we head to camp.

But this summer, God was working in ways we never would have guessed. While we're at camp, we have an amazing group of translators that work alongside us and provide the American team with a voice to speak the Gospel and love on the kids. These translators are usually young Ukrainian adults who have studied English and have connected with the Radooga ministry to work with them for the summer at camps. One of our translators this year was Dima (center). He grew up in the tradition of the Orthodox church in Ukraine and simply came to camp this summer with a couple of his good friends that have worked with Radooga. During Dima's time at camp, he became our voice to the kids and spent his week translating countless conversations about Jesus, sin, the Gospel, and the struggles of life. The Lord was doing powerful things in Dima and at times translating conversations became a very overwhelming experience for him. After our week at orphan camp, Dima was invited to attend a youth camp the following week as a camper and as he says, "the seeds you planted grew that week." Dima became a Christian at that camp and began his new life in Christ. He now begins the difficult struggle he shares not only with the orphans, but with many in Ukraine, of living as a Christian in a society and culture that is anything but accepting. Dima enters this journey with amazing perspective, an ever positive attitude, and a clear understanding of his hope in Christ. He is currently studying law in Kiev and has the amazing opportunity to make a difference in his country through his passion for helping people, now equipped with the Love of Christ.

Dima's experience opened our eyes to the countless ways the Lord is working in Ukraine and not only with the orphans. It is obvious God is so much bigger than the expectations and plans we have for this ministry. As Dima will tell you, the Lord is all over his past, his decisions, and led him right where he needed to be this summer. His life is such an amazing picture of the beautiful story the Lord is telling in all of our lives and how He is working everything for good.

Pray this week for Dima and all the other young Christians living in Ukraine. Our team is incredibly grateful for their service to us during our time there as well as their friendships. We are all thankful the Lord has woven Midtown and Ukraine together so that we are blessed with the opportunity to have these amazing people in our lives.