Back!!

My team touched down in LA a little over two weeks ago after our ten days of missions work together in Kiev, Ukraine. I wasn't planning on writing much about the trip here on my blog, reasoning that the thank-you letter I would send to all of my supporters would be enough. I think I've changed my mind, though. It would be nice to tell people what the trip was like without the formal air of a missions letter. Because many of you who read this will be getting my missions thank-you letter also, I'm going to be creative with my blog account of the ministry. Let's have some fun, hmm.....

Here are 5 Ways God Demonstrated Himself During My Mission Trip Experience

But before I start, I realize many of you might need some background info about the trip, having not received my original letter that described what I would be doing in Ukraine. So here goes with the background, I hope I can make it short, casual, efficient and intriguing for you. Hmm, actually, I just realized why this background info will NO DOUBT be intriguing to you: I can't give you any. If you want to know more about what my team did in Ukraine and why we did it, shoot me an email or grab me at church or something. But for security reasons I'm not going to put any more information on this blog about the trip than I originally planned.

Without further ado, 5 Ways God Demonstrated Himself During My Mission Trip Experience

1) God showed me that His plans are usually much different from what I assume are His plans.
Let me tell you a story. For the first few weeks after I sent out my letter asking people for the necessary funds to make the trip possible, it was looking like my team was actually going to gather in ALL of the money in record timing. "Woot!" I thought to myself, "Check fund-raising off of this summer's to do list. Let's move on to bigger and better things!" With immense relief, I thought it was apparent that for the first time in four years, it was not God's plan to have my team play the trusting game (looking back now, I think my relief was proof that I have never really played the game successfully). The game goes like this: My team tries as hard as possible beginning in April to raise the required $23,000 to conduct ministry in Eastern Europe, but for three months our ministry account dwindles around $14,000 or less. Finally, three weeks before the Belarusians expect us to be with them, with our plane tickets reserved but not purchased, our hearts are encouraged by the fact that though our plans for ministry look like they are falling through financially, our God is bigger than appearances, finances, and human logic about the future. We are assured that our God is in perfect control of the situation, and that if He wants us in Belarus or Ukraine this specific summer, He will get us there. And He would get us there not because of any work or merit of our own, not even because of our fund-raising work, but He would get us there through His power. That's what the trusting game produces: childlike trust in God, a trust that becomes one of the major themes of the mission trip as we fully rely on God throughout all the situations, complex and impossible though they may seem, that God brings our way during our time in Eastern Europe.

So I think you know where the rest of this story is going. Of course, Hayley's Assumption #1, that God didn't want us to play the trusting game, was ________. Fill in the blank. Yes, incorrect.

I'm pretty sure I'm correct in saying that very generous people donated half of my support in the three weeks following the sending of my letter, but my personal ministry account remained stagnant at halfway up there until about three weeks before our scheduled departure for Ukraine. During that time between the initial surge and the final three weeks before we wanted to take off from LAX, Hayley's Assumption #2 appeared: God must not want us in Ukraine this summer. And I was convinced. I didn't believe it was a lack of faith on my part, I thought I was simply trusting God in all of His decisions. I thought of my other team members as slightly foolish to keep planning the trip when we were stuck in California with next to no money while new expenses kept popping up for us to cover over in Ukraine.

So when God opened up the floodgates of His resources in the three weeks leading up to my team's departure, I stood dumbfounded again, while my dad smiled, praised God, and said confidently, "He's done it again!" Throughout the entire summer, my dad had been reminding our team of Psalm 37:4, "Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart." As each team member individually asked God for assistance in making Him their delight, the desire He laid on our hearts for the summer was Ukraine. I'm not saying that just because we desired Ukraine, I should have been sure that we were going to get there. Instead, I'm saying that the lesson I learned through this year's trusting game is that when I have a desire like that, I should not assume that God has shut the doors when early on the desire looks impossible to be fulfilled. I should have waited on God and let my heart and mind wait until the very last second or until circumstances PROVED that He wanted otherwise for me and my fellow team members. Giving up on the desire He had given me before He had given the final answer proved my impatience, assuming nature, and it was, I believe, contrary to His will.

Thank You, God, for demonstrating Your power and sovereignty!!

2) God showed us that He is the God of the nations.
Slipping this reason in here is more just my way of telling you what a thrill it gives me to watch the Belarusians praise God in song in their own language. When it's time for Belarusian musical worship, it is the American team's time to sit back and do nothing because we can't really join them in song. I usually take this time to pray, sing in English if they're singing a song that I know in my language, or, most of the time I sit back and watch my fellow believers praise the God they love for His salvation and continuing love. They know Him intimately in their Russian language, I know Him intimately in my English language, and He knows all of His children, from all of the nations, intimately. He is the Creator of language, after all! I wonder in what language we will praise God in Heaven? Anyways, in the early years, when the Belarusians still loved to sing "Shout to the Lord," I found it so exhilarating to sing the line "Shout to the Lord, all the earth, let us sing" in English while my Belarusian friends sang it in Russian! Cool, huh?

3) God showed me that His creation is best enjoyed in its natural form.
Well, at least I know that I enjoy His creation best in its natural form. I can't speak for everyone else. If you enjoy processed foods and laboratory formulated face masks, go ahead and enjoy it up! I've found over the years that I really do LOVE the simple foods of Belarus, with no added preservatives or...anything. Most of it is just God-given FOOD. The way He prepared it for us. I especially love their breads, tea, salad (usually just vegetables and oil), and BUCKWHEAT!! Ooo, I gobble up the buckwheat. I eat it like I do brown rice. My dad and little brother think I'm crazy ridiculous for liking the food over there so much, but I really do!

And the reason that I mentioned face masks is that one evening, after the formality of lessons and small groups and such, we all divided up into boys and girls for Boys Night and Girls Night. During Girls Night we did facials, ate sweets and watched a movie, but I was most ecstatic about the facials. The girls in charge of Girls Night made homemade facemasks, one recipe was SUPER dark bread and water (kind of weird sounding, I know, but it actually felt really good). Another recipe was keifer (aka, buttermilk, kind of), oatmeal, and bananas. One of the girls on my team who tried that mask said that for the next three days, she didn't have to wear foundation because the skin on her face was all even and glowing. After the masks, we rubbed our faces with cucumber slices, FELT SO STINKIN' GOOD! And, I find out later that there is a chemical in cucumber (also found in potato slices) that naturally shrinks pores to a smaller size.

When I got home I did my own mini-girls night and found some all-natural recipes on the internet. For my face mask I used banana, olive oil and oatmeal. I also made a toner out of herbal water (thankfully I had some bath tea from Alaska that I used to make the herbal water) and cider vinegar. I've been using the toner twice a day ever since and am LOVING how soft my skin is, AND, I'm not seeing the need to wear foundation every day! Yay for all-natural products with fabulous benefits!

4) God showed once again that His love for us produces IN us enthusiastic love for Him and therefore, for others.
This was evidenced in the faces of most of the Belarusian believers whenever we went into the city of Kiev to assist a church there in open-air evangelism. Open-air evangelism is something the Belarusians have been deprived of doing since who knows when in their own country, so coming to a place like Ukraine where there is religious freedom is a breath of fresh air to these kids. They LOVE their freedom and the way they can put it to use. We saw a lot of fruit from the evangelism, too. I'm not completely sure if anyone's eyes were opened to the truths of Christ while we were there, but there were quite a few who were so close, and they expressed interest in attending the church there and learning more.

5) God showed me that His work of sanctification in the hearts of those who are His is an on-going, constant process.
I think I already knew this truth, but it hit home in an interesting way during and after this summer's trip. There is a sin issue that I struggle with almost constantly that becomes more of a burden under certain circumstances but is always, nonetheless, there. And though I hate the sin I'm dealing with, I'm forever falling because of it and am therefore forever asking for God's forgiveness (which, by the way, He already granted to me because of the work of His Son on the Cross...still, I love Him and what He's done for me so much that I want to love Him with my WHOLE heart and with my actions, so that is why I call this a sin struggle: I am struggling against this sin, even though I am already forgiven from it). It's totally the Romans 7 ordeal: "For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing." Anyways, like I said, there are certain circumstances in which this struggle becomes intense and during which I fail a lot more easily, and God chose for there to be one of these circumstances on this trip. I was kind of going, "NOW, God? Seriously? When I'm trying to concentrate on ministry" (Hehe, like my sin is His fault. If I wasn't sinful, the circumstance He provided wouldn't have helped me to stumble.) Finally, I got so flustered, fed up and sad because of my sin that I cried it out to God, asked Him to take away this sin once and for all, telling Him that I was ready to give it up and love Him perfectly in this area starting NOW and ending never. But the more I prayed, the more I realized that I had no idea how to just simply give it up. Ok, I'll go to the Bible. Where does it give me the formula for how to give this up? Needless to say, I couldn't find that formula. But I was SURE there was one. When I got back home I set up an appointment with my dad to talk about this struggle and ask him how to give up the sin. I went to the appointment with a pen and paper, seriously believing that I would leave my time with him with a battle plan.
So, I told my sympathetic and compassionate Dad all about the sin and my long struggle, and tearfully asked him how I could give it up. His answer put me in a bad mood for a few minutes but when it sunk it, it helped me to rejoice in God's salvation even more. He said I can't give up the sin. I'll ALWAYS deal with it. It's not our job to remove the sin from our hearts, leave God's jobs to God and His timing. Hate the sin, continually repent from it, but stop trying to play the Holy Spirit in removing it from your heart. I tried to tell my dad that battle plan wouldn't work because it's the one I've been using for YEARS and see the results? Nothing. Just failure. He said yes, you've failed numerous times and will fail numerous times again, but trust in the promise of Philippians 1:6 that He is continually working in you, and after that, live the life that God wants you to live here on this Earth. A life of humility and brokenness and ever-increasing love for our Savior who died for us even when He knew that after we come to a knowledge of His sacrifice, we will still sin against Him.
Encouraging news is the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

So those are my five ways. I'm sure there are more but this post is long enough as is. Email me if you want more!