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