playground restoration

This summer our church took on some community service projects. One that we've completed was the restoration of a playground near our house.  As the Lord provides opportunities and resources for these projects, we hope to continue to reach out in this way to our community.  While the group of volunteers from our church was working on this playground, many people approached with amazement and asked why we would do this.  It was a blessing to share with them that Jesus loves our city and He told us to.  In a land where far too often people are happy to get ahead at the cost of ripping others off and the government is primarily concerned only about maintaining power for itself rather than caring for the public, it is truly counter-cultural to serve in a self-sacrificial way.  We believe God is using these projects to reach and convict hearts about the reality of the gospel.  If you'd like to be involved in sponsoring a project, please contact me, or visit our church's giving page.  Below is our vision statement for these community projects and a few pics of the playground we restored this summer.

Vision for Community Service Projects

As we enjoy the free grace and love that Jesus shows us, this necessarily births in us a desire to share that grace and love freely ("freely you have received, freely give." Mt. 10:8).  It is in allowing that grace to not only pierce our hearts but to be reflected through our lives and joining in His work to bless others that our enjoyment of Jesus is multiplied.

God came and gave grace to us who were undeserving and ill-deserving at great cost to Himself. We not only recognize but image that fact in serving others who have not asked for or earned it and at our own cost (of time, talent, and treasure). God "makes the rain to fall on the just and unjust." (Mt. 5:45) In this active thanks for His grace, we are further rooted in it, as where our treasure is, there our heart will be also.

Through these projects, we seek to live in love in a way that is received as such by those we serve. The most loving thing we could do for a person is to share the gospel with him. However, if he is not open, he will see it as us just trying to cram our opinion down his throat. If we show our love in a tangible way, it will give such a person cause to ask why. Scripture itself says "let us not love only in word and tongue, but in deed and truth." (I Jn. 3:18)

The culmination and goal of this is particularly to reach the world. It is these projects as an outworking of our own delight in Jesus, a manifestation of grace and a tangible act of love that is one way we seek to reach the world with the gospel. These projects will not themselves preach the gospel. However, they are a powerful witness that we as Christians have a truly self-sacrificial love for others and do desire the good of those even who reject us. Our hope is that these projects will be compelling in themselves as a manifestation of the reality of the gospel and open doors to share of the One who is the true Servant. “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Mt. 5:16)

Now the pictures...

before:

 in process:

after:

serving the city

this ukrainian independence day (august 24th) we continued the tradition we began last year of a church picnic / beach clean-up day.  our desire in doing this is to "seek the good of the city" (Jer. 29:7) and to show people the love of God in a very tangible way.  we believe that such community service is a vital part of reaching the city for Christ.  we have also been going out this summer and doing street witnessing every week, but the fact is that those whose hearts are not yet open to the gospel, though it is the greatest "good" we could do them to share Jesus with them, do not yet perceive it as such.  in taking on projects to practically do good on a level people who are not yet saved can recognize, we are able to show them the love and care of God in a way they can understand it.  since in ukraine there is really no concept of "littering" or "pack it in, pack it out", the parks and beaches all look about like this:

after a little of this...

(and by little i mean over 1,000 gallons (4,000 liters) of trash collected...)
the beach looked like this:

we had quite a number of people stop us and say, "this is great!  i wish everyone cared about our city like this.  why are you doing this?"  we were able to answer them simply "because Jesus loves this city and we love Him."  a few of the responses were ones of shock: "really!?  you guys are from a CHURCH!?  that's the kind of church i'd visit."  our desire is to take on other community improvement projects as God leads us and resources allow.  one thing we've had on our hearts for a long time is to repair some of the dilapidated playgrounds around the city and in so doing serve the mothers and young children that play there.  please pray with us that these seeds of simple service would grow in people's hearts to the glory of God.

ministry is a whore

yes, you heard right.  i've been thinking lately about this idea.  it's no coincidence that the "whore of babylon" mentioned in Revelation is specifically a religious system. but why "whore"? ("and why does he keep using that awful word!?" :)   first of all, it's offensive.  and that makes it the right word.  if we had even the slightest idea how sickening and offensive it is to God when we replace relationship to Him with a system, we might see that this word is probably not vile enough. 

secondly, it paints a very accurate picture (and i'm about to get a little vivid, so be warned).  a whore is, in some twisted sense, a "wife-replacement".  that is to say, she gives the impression of intimacy without real intimacy.  she looks like she might satisfy, she goes through the motions of satisfying, but leaves only emptiness in her wake.  there is just enough similarity to distract a man from seeking true intimacy with a wife; to fool him into thinking he's got what he wants when in reality she is only drawing him further away from what he truly longs for.  this is a perfect picture of religion and, too often, of ministry.  it looks like we're serving God, while in reality we are replacing Him with our service.  it has the appearance of intimacy, but is really only a superficial act that widens the void.  it looks just enough like a relationship with God to keep us fooled, to keep us from seeking the real thing, while leaving only emptiness in our hearts.  we begin to think that maybe doing all these things is spiritual intimacy, but it is only a cheap whore. 

as we recently studied through the books of Kings in our Old Testament survey class, i was struck by an interesting detail.  after the kingdom of Israel was divided, the people almost immediately fell into idolatry (described by God through the prophets inevitably as "playing the whore").  now, in the northern kingdom, it says that Jeroboam, the first king after the division, set up two golden calves for the people to worship.  this, of course, was hearkening back to Aaron's rebellion while Moses was on Mt. Sinai when he also formed a golden calf for the people to worship.  Jeroboam made the same statement that Aaron did then: "behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt."  the fascinating thing is that this was not a claim to worship another god.  it was a claim to be worshiping the true God, the God of Israel... only it wasn't Him!  it was a substitute.  later, when Jehu (the best of the northern kings) wiped out the false god Baal from the north, it says that, nevertheless, he left the golden calves.  in all the idolatry of Israel, it seems that the idol that had the strongest hold on the people was the one that was closest to the real thing.  

the interesting thing about these golden calves is that they are an appropriate picture of ministry.  the very first calf was made from the golden earrings the people offered to Aaron.  they literally made a god out of their own sacrifices.  the "calf" or bull is a work animal.  they symbolize work, productivity, etc.  and, they were much easier to worship than a God who couldn't be seen, who was apt to move His pillar of fire at a moment's notice.  they could always be measured (2 of them), and always kept where you want them.  

this is the temptation before many Christians today, especially before many ministers.  how many of us have replaced God with our service to Him?  it is a subtle trap, and therefore all the more dangerous.  we content ourselves to substitute true intimacy with the forms of intimacy: church attendance, ministry, perhaps even reading and prayer.  we have made a god of our own sacrifices and called it the God of the Bible.  ministry can so easily become that golden calf, that scarlet whore, because it looks so similar to the real thing and anyone looking on from the outside probably can't tell the difference.  but we know the difference in our hearts, because emptiness is the result.  it is the subtle replacement of Christ with Christianity. 

as a minister myself, i believe that it is vital to understand this.  if i do not constantly keep my heart in check, constantly return to true intimacy with my Savior, i will slowly allow ministry to take the place of God.  ministry provides a substitute spirituality, and usually no one else knows the difference except myself and Jesus.  i once heard a quote by C.H. Spurgeon that has stuck with me "the worst [temptation] is the temptation to ministerialism—the tendency to read our Bibles as ministers, to pray as ministers, to get into doing the whole of our religion as not ourselves personally..."  i am convinced that anyone who is enthralled with being in ministry should not be in it.  that is, if they think that ministry will somehow fulfill their longing for intimacy with God.  yes, when we remind ourselves of this ever present danger, and maintain our hearts in right relationship with Jesus, then ministry is a wonderful privilege and truly presents a unique ground for experiencing Jesus.  but without understanding the inherent danger in it, we will simply whore out our true intimacy with God until there is nothing left.

baptism pics

just thought i'd post these pictures from a church baptism we had recently.  3 people got baptized: a brother and sister (Sasha and Tanya, respectively) who have decided they want to walk closer with the Lord (though they've grown up Christian) and a wonderful lady in our fellowship named Natasha who only got saved less than a year ago.  its been sweet to watch her grow in the Lord and in knowing Him personally.  she's definitely got the gift of giving/generosity, always bringing snacks or something to share at the Bible studies.  anyway, here's the pics.

not against flesh and blood...

so, i've been meaning to write about this for few weeks now.  in the beginning of june we had the drama team from calvary chapel kharkov come out for a 2-day outreach.  they performed a number of times in different places around the city and we were able to share the gospel with many.  well, their last performance was on sunday evening after our church service was over.  as i was setting up and getting ready to open with a few songs, along comes vitya (ironically also the name of kharkov's team leader).  i'd never seen vitya before.  he looked like your run-of-the-mill alcoholic/bum gathering empty beer bottles to trade in for change.  but he wasn't gathering bottles that day.  he comes up to the stage area in front of the benches (where the drama team is in the photo above) and starts frantically waving his arms at me, motioning like he wants us to leaves.  then he does the same thing to the 100+ crowd (who all think its hysterical and are laughing at him).  i would say he was "yelling" too, only it was like yelling with your mouth shut.  he was loudly mumbling at us.  well, i asked tom and grisha (from our church) to take him aside.  they tried to lead him off, but vitya wasn't having it.  grisha knew of him and said that he was "bol'noy", essentially crazy.  i came up to him and prayed for him, but he didn't seem to react much (though he was calm while i prayed).  i decided to just start playing the songs as the opening of our outreach.  the whole time i was playing (3 worship songs), vitya was continuing to wave us frantically away.  at one point he stood for a while just a couple feet right in front of me and was waving.  as i sang, i was praying that the Lord would do something.  i became convinced that this man was demon possessed.  after i was done playing i handed my guitar off to someone on the team and walked up to vitya. this time, the Lord just gave me the boldness to speak to the demon inside this man.  as i walked up to him, he just stood there, but as soon as i said to the demon in him that Jesus Christ died for this man and come out of him, vitya's eyes turned from glazed to pure panic.  he turned around and started running away as fast as his haggard body could carry him.  for a while i followed him, wanting to "finish the job".  vitya (or maybe i should said the demon in him) kept running and looking over his shoulder at me like a beast being hunted.  after some distance, and coming to a more populated street, i decided to return to the outreach.  i was deeply impressed with the seriousness of the spiritual warfare we are in and also with the total power of Christ over all the power of the enemy.  i ended up sharing the gospel that evening with the crowd, pointing out what happened with vitya as a clear example of the power of Christ (most the audience witnessed what happened in the beginning).  the Lord used the situation to His glory.  what was even more amazing was that at church that morning we were in Acts and reading about Paul's ministry in Ephesus and how God even used the incident with Sceva's sons to glorify Jesus.  we talked about how even the demons can't escape ultimately glorifying God (no one can, its just a question of how we will glorify Him, as trophies of His grace or evidence of His justice).  so all that to say, Jesus is truly over all powers and authorities, that we are in a very real spiritual battle whether we see it everyday or not, that the Word of God is truly prophetic in our lives and also please pray for vitya to be totally freed from the grip of satan.  thanks.

happily behind the times...

i've recently listened to and read a number of works on the emergent church and the infiltration of postmodernity into the church.  statistics that churches calling themselves emergent are the fastest growing "movement" in christianity today speak volumes about the current state of the philosophical fabric of "the west". 

the trend towards postmodernity in america and europe (aka, "the west") is evident in just about everything.  i thought the other day about all the recent films i have seen that are as blatantly post-modern as a hammer to the forehead. the sheer amount of them is staggering. (must be part of that whole life-imitates-art-imitates-life thing.) 

perhaps you're asking yourself, "what exactly qualifies a movie as post-modern?"  well, the way i see it, the first conspicuous sign of a post-modern (pm from here) flick is that you get an overwhelming sense of the movie having no real plot.  there's no flow of events, just chaotic happenings.  there's no real climax to the film; people kind of do whatever they're doing for an hour and a half or two and then it stops.  next, everyone in the movie looks like they're on prozac for most of the duration of the film (or like they ought to be).  there is an overwhelming sense in the characters of purposelessness and loneliness.  and as the characters have no purpose, hence the absence of actual plot.  (the best, or worst rather, recent example i can think of is "friends with money".  if you were unfortunate enough to see it, you know what i mean.  if you didn't see it, i DON'T recommend it.)  the overwhelming message is "life doesn't have any meaning (and so neither does our movie)".  the literary critic fredric jameson says of pm art (film and other mediums) that it is "the transformation of misery into beauty" and that it contains a "deathly quality… in a way that would seem to have nothing to do with death ... on the level of content."  good description.  even in a pm film that has nothing to do with dying, the viewer is still left with the feeling of emptiness or death.

the whole pm system of thought (which i am not about to attempt a summary of in a blog entry) has slithered its way into the christian community as well.  hence, the birth of the "emergent" movement.  now, i'm not saying that EVERYTHING put forward under the "emergent" label should be tossed out.  the emphasis on cultural relevancy (or "contextualization"), personal relationships and actual experience of God (juxtaposed with mere ritual) are truly positive things (none of which, however require adoption of pm thought, merely acceptance of Biblical teaching).  the sad part is that the emergent movement in typical pm fashion, cuts the boat loose from the anchor of the soul, Christ.  the emergent movement promotes deconstructionism, redefinition, removal of what in the philosophical world is called a "meta-narrative" (what we'd simply call one objective truth for everyone), and a bag full of other problems.  (for a pretty good summary of the emergent movement, listen to this teaching by mark driscoll (formerly a leading member in the emergent community): click here.)

in contrast, ukraine is currently very much in the "modernism" mindset (which has its own problems, of course... materialism being one of the greatest ones.)  we've not caught up to the west in that area, thankfully.  ukraine is an odd mix of old and new.  in many ways this country is much like america in the 40's.  people are much more interactive within society (think like open markets, public transport, and neighbors borrowing things from each other like matches or sugar).  most everyone is convinced that there is an objective truth (though they certainly don't all agree what that is).  they are struggling to find an acceptable order in areas of politics, family, work, etc., rather than the trend to reject order.  there is, in general, an accepted understanding of moral absolutes, and even the existence of God.  at the same time, just about everyone and their mom has a cell phone, mp3 player (younger generation) and a dvd player at home.  the younger generation (30 and under) are starting to catch on to many of the techno-trends of the west as well as the philosophical propaganda of the west.  the moral/spiritual climate will likely change very quickly as the younger generation grows and the older generation dies off.  well, all that to say, it makes me really glad that we here in ukraine are way "behind the times".

on a completely separate note, me and lena, and the navarros and two married couples from our church were able to go up to kiev for a married couples' retreat in feb.  it was a great, refreshing time.  pray for God's strengthening of all the marriages in our church (i'm counseling with one couple currently and Jesus is definitely doing great things).  here's a pic from that retreat. 

from left to right: igor and anya dikiy, lena and tom navarro,
grisha and valya yaromenko, ben and lena morrison

new creations in Christ Jesus!

hey, just wanted to post pictures from the baptism we had last week.  its so awesome to see people expressing through baptism the truth that our old man is dead and we are living anew in Christ!

l to r: ben, kristina, marina, dasha, sergei, nina, alyona, tom

(and no, tom and i did not plan to wear matching shirts! )

- please pray for marina and dasha who are going off to university at the end of this month.  they are young believers who have been filled with the Spirit and are taking in the pure milk of God's Word.  pray they stay rooted and grounded in Jesus' love and make a priority of being in fellowship in their new cities (its a blessing that in both the cities where they are going, kharkov and kiev respectively, there are calvary chapels)
- pray for nina and her husband sergei (who got saved a couple days after nina!) - their son is under serious oppresion from the enemy (drug addiction, hallucinations, etc.)  pray for him to be set free.  pray also for nina and sergei as they are trying to decide where to fellowship.  after learning that they gave their lives to the Lord, an aquaintance of theirs is very forcibly trying to convince them to go to another church that has some serious false teaching.  pray for the Holy Spirit to guide their decision and not be pressured by man, but led by Him.
- pray for alyona's dad.  he was once on fire for the Lord and led a Bible study at their old church, but he is now on a drinking binge and was just taken to a state detox clinic.  pray for his restoration and God's peace in the family (who are all believers) during this time.
- pray for kristina - she is actually an orphan from the internat we go to.  she started coming earlier in the summer and actually prayed to receive the Lord at our service Jul. 15 (thanks for the bday present, Lord! )  the orphans are a very tough group and its very hard to not be influenced by the ungodliness there, but kristina desires to live for Jesus.  pray for her to be filled with His power and especially for battles with anger and help quitting smoking.


thanks for praying!

a true daughter in the faith...

true daughters in the faith nastya (l) and natasha (r)

the Lord allows us to be part of the lives of so many people, to speak into their lives, to pray for them, encourage them, to study the Word together, etc.  but every once in a while Jesus brings along someone who can only be descibed the way that Paul described Timothy: "a true son in the faith".  in our case the Lord has blessed us with "true daughters in the faith"  our "firstborn" as it were is nastya from dnepro.  the Lord allowed us to have such a close relationship and be a part of her life in a special way.  she is a true daughter in the faith (i'm so proud of you in Jesus, styushka! )  then last year the Lord blessed us with another "daughter in the faith" - natasha.  just last week she moved to the states to go to college and we miss her tons!  this entry will be her story.  (sorry styushka, i'll have to do yours some other time. )

we actually had the incredible privledge of being "in the delivery room" as the Holy Spirit birthed natasha anew.  last year, July 9th, my wife and i went out to buy sunflower seeds after sunday service (yeah, its an addiction for many in ukraine).  the store we normally go to was closed and so we walked further.  we had a mission group from america that was preparing to come and we needed translators.  as we walked i saw a girl from my english class sitting at a bus stop.  we went to approach her about maybe helping with translation.  she was sitting with her friend who had just returned from a year in the states as an exchange student, natasha.  we quickly got to talking about the Lord.  in fact, as soon as natasha heard i was a pastor she asked me flat out "what does it mean to be saved!?"  wow, quite the invitation!   so after talking for a while i asked if she wanted to be saved today.  she almost shouted "YES!"  she chose to pray in her own words (in english acutally, since that was what she had been speaking mostly for the last year).  it was one of the most sincere and whole-hearted prayers to receive Jesus i've ever been blessed to hear.  afterwards she was LITERALLY jumping up and down!  i'm so thankful for her host family who are Christians and who all that year sowed the love of God into her heart. 

natasha's baptism, august 2006

the following week, she and another girl who we just met (katya) came over to talk about getting baptised.  our good friend daniel carter was visiting from poltava when the girls came over.  we ended up talking about the baptism of the Holy Spirit and as they said they'd pray about getting water baptized katya asked "but can we be baptized in the Spirit right now?"  sweet!  so we prayed for them and the Holy Spirit came upon them.  the Lord gave daniel a detailed vision for each of the girls concerning what giftings He was giving them.  God put on daniel's heart that natasha would be gifted as an evangelist.  we have seen that to be so true!  a couple weeks later she was already out on the streets with us sharing her faith with all kinds of people!

natasha was literally at every Bible study and meeting we had as much as possible.  she started taking detailed notes at every study and just drinking in the Word of God.  soon she got involved with our ministry at the orphanages here.  her experience in drama team was a great help, but what was really a blessing was to ask her to share the gospel with the kids and give the invitation to receive the Lord.  the kids all loved her and could really relate to her, since she lost both her parents before she was a teenager.  but she was able to share how God has become her Father and blessed her with spiritual family as well. 

natasha sharing Jesus at one of the orphanages

over the school year, natasha led both her grandma and her grandpa to Christ (shortly thereafter her grandmother died, but now she is rejoicing in heaven!).  also, probably something like half a dozen or so of natasha's classmates received the Lord through her sharing Christ with them!  though those girls didn't start to all grow right away, there are now 4 of them who have prayed to receive the baptism of the Spirit and are an awesome part of our church (sadly for us, since they all graduated this year, they are all leaving svitlovodsk to study in other cities, but thankfully most of those places have good churches, kiev, kharkov, dnepro, etc.)  some of the girls are going to be baptized the day after tomorrow.  (i will post pics)  what a joy!

natasha would often come over and we'd spend hours just talking about the Word or what God was doing in her life.  we were so blessed just to see her fall in love with Jesus more and more and so thankful that He would allow us to be a part of this.  Natasha also started teaching sunday school for the kids fairly early on and the best part was just to see her really receive the great grace of our Lord and pass that on to the kids.

at natasha's good-bye party:
top: masha, natasha, dasha, nastya, marina
bottom: dasha, lena navarro (and david), my lena, katya
marina and both dasha's are girls that natasha led to the Lord

the sunday before natasha left, we had a good-bye party for her after church and prayed over her.  i don't think there was a dry eye in the place (especially mine! )  we all realized what an integral part of our church family natasha is and how much we'd miss her.  she was really a leader in our church in the truest sense of the word, that she was always willing to serve in whatever way and seeking to bring others closer to Jesus.  we know that the Lord has amazing things planned for her life and the church she is part of next will be getting a gift from the Lord.  natasha, if you read this, i am so proud of you in the Lord.  its been one of the most amazing blessings in our lives to see how God found you and completely changed your life for His glory and used you to bring to many people to Him.  always enjoy His grace, the only rock we stand on, and let the sweetness of our Jesus be the song in your heart daily.  we love you, dotsya! (that'd be ukrainian for daughter, for those of you who were wondering)

salvation stories

Jesus is moving in the hearts of people here!  He is seeking those who will worship in Spirit and truth.  the sunday before last, one of the ladies that comes to our fellowship, alyona, brought her cousin's daughter to church. (yeah, it was bring-an-obscure-relative-to-church day ) who was visiting from st. petersburg, russia.  the girl, katya, was very open to the Lord and afterwards came up to pray to receive Jesus!  we gave katya a kid's Bible and also a regular New Testament to get to know her Savior.  please be praying for her.  she is only 11 years old and her parents are VERY anti-christian.  fortunately, her grandparents (who also live in st. pete's) are open to God, so hopefully they will be able to take katya to a church there.  there are a couple calvary chapels in st. pete's that we want to try to hook them up with.  she's heading back at the end of summer.

alyona with one of her daughters, lada (left) and katya (right)

also, last night alyona brought a couple ladies, nina and natasha (both mid/late 40's i'd guess), to our mid-week Revelation study (way to go, alyona, you're on a roll!).  nina is the landlady of the building alyona rents for her second hand store, and natasha is nina's.... godmother?  obscure relative?  (there's a lot of those in ukraine )  we were in the part of Revelation 12 where it talks about satan being the accuser of the brethren.  the word there is not just someone who is mudslinging, but rather a formal word used of a prosecutor in court.  and its not that he's making up accusations... he's right!  he's bringing the case against us, our sins, before God, the Judge.  and the fact is, we are guilty!  but we went on to the good news that there is also a defense lawyer in the court hall, our Advocate, Jesus Christ the Righteous (I Jn. 2:1) who by His wounds, without saying a word, justifies all who trust in Him.  at the end of the study i gave an invitation to receive the Lord and these 2 ladies both prayed to receive Jesus as the one who justifies the ungodly! (Rom. 4:5)  please pray for them to be rooted and grounded in grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and to begin reading their new Bibles.  between the two of them, they've got 3 sons (all roughly my age) who are very far away from the Lord and allowing satan to destroy their lives.  one of them, sasha, from everything nina told me, may even be possessed.  please pray for God to miraculously get a hold on these young men and give them new life.  thanks!

oh, and i couldn't resist putting in a pic of my favorite girlies both in yellow... like little sunflowers!

note: if you have not seen planet earth you MUST watch it!  every time i watch it, my heart just begins to worship at seeing all the beauty, variety and power of God's creation.  amazingly well filmed, edited and scored (and surprisingly rarely does is mention evolutionary propaganda... though it is there)