Pray For Tony: Unwavering

Pray For Tony: Unwavering

Church = Commitment

I had a great conversation with Danny Foote this evening, Assistant Pastor of Calvary Chapel Kaharlyk. Great in the sense of "As iron sharpens iron, So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend." - Proverbs 27:17. I'll admit, Danny did most of the sharpening. I have a heart for missions, and I'm a Senior Pastor of a church in Arizona. Danny is a Pastor as well, but he's also living the life of an overseas missionary. (I won't get into the "everyone's a missionary" discussion as both Danny and I also had the talk on what word's mean to people, suffice it to say that Danny and Liese Foote are missionaries in a country they were not born too.)

We were discussing a statement made by a prominent Calvary Chapel Missions guy that sounded like a great slogan, but lacked factual and scriptural backing. Both of us love him, and his teaching, and he's an incredibly smart guy, yet the statement could lead to much light and not enough heat.

Here's the deal; Go into all the world, Preach the Gospel, make Disciples of all Nations. But when you are doing that, at least do some research into where people are coming from. This gives you the opportunity to be salt and light in a town, village, etc. and show what they are repenting from. Perhaps it's from worldliness, perhaps it's from a different 'spiritual' heritage, but regardless it gives us an even greater opportunity to share the Good News of Jesus!

Don't get me wrong, we don't sacrifice the Gospel. We don't give the people easy religion/works to follow in order to feel better about themselves. Instead we give them Jesus through a scriptural and local worldview. We must not compromise the Word of God in order to just simply get a 'convert notch' on your Bible. We need to love them and be the light God has called us to. We also need to recognize the priority we must place on ministry. But if they like personal one-on-one time, then we continue through discipleship and the local church.

So all that to say, "Thanks Danny!

It was good to sit down and discuss church planting and missions!!

Voice - English Club a success!

When we started making plans for this trip, we weren't too sure how the program would run and if it would be well attended. After spending the last three days at School #3 here in Kaharlyk, we have been blessed with increased interest here at Calvary Chapel Kaharlyk. The kids have been coming in the evenings after dinner and hanging out with our group. Several of them are coming to our Youth Group event on Saturday where we'll share the Gospel and Worship the Lord together.

We also had the honor of meeting the director of the school. He had allowed us to use their classrooms for FREE and invite the kids after the event. I personally had a great time meeting him.

All of this sets up even more open doors in the schools in the future as well as outside events. Thank you to everyone who has supported this trip! We have two people who will remain anonymous for security reasons, but I would like you to pray specifically for a young man and a young lady. They are very close to receiving Christ!

Praise HIM from whom all blessings flow! I've enclosed a few pictures of the events.

Blessed are the Flexible...for they shall be Bent

There is no doubt in my mind that to be a Missionary, short-term/long-term, you need to be flexible. Case in point, our trip this year has been the most difficult to plan, most difficult to finance, most difficult to even get travel arrangements taken care of, and most difficult to even get to our host country of Ukraine! But through all that, some exciting things have happened. Our team KNOWS that God is with us.

As you can see from the last blog post, we were delayed in Phoenix which set forth a domino effect of changes in our traveling schedule. One hour late in Phoenix meant that we were met at the gate in Chicago with tickets for TOMORROW'S flight to London. Well, that meant that we would not only have to overnight in Chicago, we'd also have to overnight in London. I had of course not planned on TWO overnight layovers, but instead only budgeted for one. Praying hard, we were helped out by an American Airlines agent from Nigeria. He never stopped smiling, and neither did I. I knew this was a divine appointment, so I spoke with him as he attempted to get us a hotel for the night. By the end of the conversation, EVERYTHING was paid for by American Airlines. Normally for Mechanical issues, they don't have to do that.

Then we arrived in London. A bit late, 11:15PM. Our flight didn't leave until 8:05 the next morning. We were already tired and didn't want to spend the night at Heathrow. Down we went to the only office still open for American Airlines, the Lost baggage office. Sitting behind the desk were three cheerful faces. Nav, Roger, and Vijay. In there cheerful English accents they promptly showed us our luggage was right behind us waiting to be transferred to Kiev, and Vijay called the Renaissance Hotel and put us up for the 7 hours we had to wait.

Think it's over? Not yet my friends. When we arrived at Heathrow the next morning, we discovered that they didn't have us in the system. No boarding passes, no flight record on British Airways. Once again, English Hospitality (and a lot of prayers by our group) had us on the flight to Kiev and off to our destination. Landing, we found that only 3 pieces of luggage had gone missing, but were found back in London and put on the next flight. Hopefully I'll survive until my clothes get here. (of course it was my bag that was one of the ones left behind, I'm the Pastor/Leader of the group).

Finally arriving, we were met by Micah and Christy Claycamp and Yura. They were a sight for sore eyes. Dinner, a drive to Kaharlyk, and we finally stumbled into bed. Praise the Lord for His goodness, mercy, and grace to us. More to come later, and hopefully we'll get the other people on the trip to post some of their experiences and thoughts.

Sitting at the airport waiting for our delayed flight. This is definitely a sign that prayer is needed. Will update later.

4 days to go...

Many of my friends asked me about the English classes we are doing in Ukraine. Most of it has to do with "How do you share Christ when the rules say you can't?" This is where being a part of a community gives you more opportunities to share Jesus with those you live with.

Calvary Chapel Kaharlyk has been involved in the village for a while now, and slowly but surely the locals are recognizing that they are:

1. Not a cult.
2. Sincerely love them.3. Do things without expecting anything in return (Agape Love).
4. Have something different than what the bureaucrats and government programs offer.

This provokes conversation. This creates opportunities to share Jesus. The English lessons are another way to provide opportunities. Micah, Danny, and Lyena came up with the name "Voice" to promote the event, and the local school director has INVITED us to come into the school. God is moving...and it's so awesome to see Him work.

So pray! We still need a little more funds for two of our people, but overall things are taken care of!! If you have any winter clothing you'd like to donate, shoot me an email. cward@calvarymaricopa.org

In the meantime...we're "packing like a madman...oh we're packing like a madman..." (hat tip to Harlan)

Time is ticking away...

When you begin to put together a Missions team for short-term missions, there is a sense of just how overwhelming it will be. Logistics is not my strong suit. I can do it, but I'd much rather be the "idea man", the "vision caster", "the show up and go" type of person. Amazing how there are a lot of people that feel the same way.

So, here we are, 4 weeks away from journeying to Kaharlyk once again. The plane tickets were supposed to have been finalized back on November 1. As of today, the "check is in the mail" but we don't have reference numbers for our Group yet. The hotel hasn't been booked in London for our stayover. There is that sense of sadistic glee in thinking about having everyone just sleep at the airport, but at the tail end of this trip not a good idea. Plus, the ladies of the group would promptly mutiny at the suggestion.

I should be frantic at this point. I should be running around screaming in frustration. Okay, I did run around the van this morning for a brief moment, however I find that God has granted me peace and serenity when it comes to our current circumstance. Part of that comes from experience, the other part comes from God's promises about His timing:

1Pe 5:6 NKJV - Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.

Peter knew that we start getting impatient, especially when we try doing things in our own flesh. Instead we need to humble ourselves, cast our cares upon Him, and then in due time, due season, everything will come together.

So...can't wait for next blog update. Anna "Semenko" Bible is giving us Ukrainian lessons on Sunday. Until then, До побачення!! (dopobachnya-Goodbye)