Pasha, Oxanna, Ura and Sasha and Oxford Valley Chapel, to be precise. And what a day it was!
These four brothers and sister in Christ took two weeks without pay to visit us from Komsomolsk, Ukraine and spend time learning how to better their ministry and deal with questions that they, as fairly new believers, and most Ukranians, as a fairly new mission field (since the collapse of the Soviet Union), have been facing. Yesterday, I had the great privelege of spending the day talking with them about ways that they can better their youth ministry. We discussed a Biblically based philosophy of youth ministry, then we talked about some ways to capture the attention and minds of the children of the Ukraine. After they spent a while shopping (they couldn’t believe the size of our malls) they returned and we finished the day off with a question and answer time; this ultimately led to a discussion of how to deal with rebellious teens who don’t want to follow Christ.
What really struck me was how wide and wonderful is God’s love that I can sit with strangers from half-way around the world who can barely speak my language and enjoy them thoroughly because of the cross of Christ! Thank you God that, in Christ, we are one body, celebrating one faith bound together by the one hope that carries us all!
