Privyet!!! This will probably be my last blog, because of time issues the next couple of days. This has been a great day for the last day of camp. It is very obvious in the faces of the students that there was life change happened last night. The day has been smooth, and easy because the students have been so receptive to us because of the love of Christ. All of the English classes have talked about how the students have responded to everything they have taught and the relationships they have built. God has built some amazing relationships even through language barriers.
All you Louisiana folks will appreciate this. I go into all of the English classes to talk to the students each day. Today when I walked in to Keith Gray and Haley Hoffpauir's class they started chanting LSU, LSU, LSU. Keith converted his whole class. It was great.
Tonight I talked about the role of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers. When it was time for worship the students worshipped with a spirit like none other. It was amazing. Some of our team was jumping and praising God leading the camp in worship. It is great to see God move.
Pray for our last two days here. Pray for safe travel. Pray that we make our connecting flight because it is a short lay over.
John
Phil. 1:6
четверг, 24 июля 2008 г.
среда, 23 июля 2008 г.
GOD Day
Privyet!!!! God is good. I must tell you about today. The day started with an anticipation that God was going to do something big. Dana had said earlier in the week that he wanted to feel the walls shake. Well, they did. Although Satan tried in his own way to stop what God did tonight, he did not. During our morning devotion we decided as a team to meet in the worship center and pray over the chairs the students would be sitting in. But even before we met our team was coming to me and praying over me. God was beginning to move big. But as we prayed in the worship center there was a presence of the Holy Spirit like no other. His power was already there. God had led me to preach on the cross from Isaiah 53 tonight. As I began to speak it was obvious God was breaking hearts. Every night before there has been talking, playing with cell phones, and a lot of moving. Not tonight. God kept everybody on Him. I even showed a clip from "The Passion of the Christ" where Jesus was crucified. That broke the whole room. The cross showed love to everybody in the room. When the invitation was given around 80-100 students came forward for salvation or repentance. God had broken all over the room. We wept and prayed as we saw God move. Sergei, the worship leader, told me this is "God Day." This was definitley His day.
When we came back for Late Night Sergei and his band led us in Ukranian worship. For an hour we worshiped with singing, clapping, dancing, and jumping. We have never ever experienced anything like this tonight. It was the most awesome thing in the world. God is changing us. We are experiencing life change here in Ukraine. The Spirit of God is so thick in this place.
Pray for their salvations. Pray as the students go home on Friday as they tell their families. Some families will be upset that they have given their lives to Jesus. Pray that they will be bold for Jesus here in Ukraine. Pray that their will be a revolution here in Ukraine through these students.
John
Phil. 1:6
When we came back for Late Night Sergei and his band led us in Ukranian worship. For an hour we worshiped with singing, clapping, dancing, and jumping. We have never ever experienced anything like this tonight. It was the most awesome thing in the world. God is changing us. We are experiencing life change here in Ukraine. The Spirit of God is so thick in this place.
Pray for their salvations. Pray as the students go home on Friday as they tell their families. Some families will be upset that they have given their lives to Jesus. Pray that they will be bold for Jesus here in Ukraine. Pray that their will be a revolution here in Ukraine through these students.
John
Phil. 1:6
вторник, 22 июля 2008 г.
Privyet!!! It is so hard to find time to blog while camp is going on. We seem to go from one task to the next. It is great, but we are busy. God is stretching us so much. Through drama, recreation, worship, preaching, English classes and very little sleep we are all being stretched to where we have to completely rely on God. There is no place I would rather my team be.
The last day and a half has been great. English classes got off to a great start. At first the students were apprehensive to talk and build relationships in the classes, but today all the classes talked about how the students were so excited during class. They even asked us to stay after class and playfrisbee and football. Even when we are tired we keep giving love. The dramas have been going great. I am so proud of our drama team. They are communicating the gospel on stage every day. The worship team just rocks. The are definitely annointed of God. Each night one of our students gives there testimony. It is amazing to hear them talk on stage with such clarity.
God has also been good to us with our health. Although a few have stuggled with sickness, all of have recovered and are doing great now. Prayer is a powerful weapon. The food is good, but we have very little meat. But it is great to have good food at almost every meal.
It is 11:00 p.m. here now, and we are going to bed. We are beginning to prepare our hearts and minds for tomorrow because we will have repentance night. God seems to be opening their hearts the Word. We are praying for life change tomorrow night. The Ukrainians already worship with great enthusiasm. They have so much energy. They truly life give us energy in their worship. It is amazing.
Goodnight.
John
Phil. 1:6
The last day and a half has been great. English classes got off to a great start. At first the students were apprehensive to talk and build relationships in the classes, but today all the classes talked about how the students were so excited during class. They even asked us to stay after class and playfrisbee and football. Even when we are tired we keep giving love. The dramas have been going great. I am so proud of our drama team. They are communicating the gospel on stage every day. The worship team just rocks. The are definitely annointed of God. Each night one of our students gives there testimony. It is amazing to hear them talk on stage with such clarity.
God has also been good to us with our health. Although a few have stuggled with sickness, all of have recovered and are doing great now. Prayer is a powerful weapon. The food is good, but we have very little meat. But it is great to have good food at almost every meal.
It is 11:00 p.m. here now, and we are going to bed. We are beginning to prepare our hearts and minds for tomorrow because we will have repentance night. God seems to be opening their hearts the Word. We are praying for life change tomorrow night. The Ukrainians already worship with great enthusiasm. They have so much energy. They truly life give us energy in their worship. It is amazing.
Goodnight.
John
Phil. 1:6
понедельник, 21 июля 2008 г.
Privyet!!! I apologize for not getting a post up yesterday. The campers arrived and we have been busy since they got here around 10:00 a.m. yesterday. We have about 250 campers here that we are serving this week. We started the day with devotion and breakfast, and then we greeted campers at the front gate and by taking them through English testing to see their level of English. We had an awesome afternoon of playing with students on the camp grounds with frisbee and volleyball. Ukrainians love to play any kind of sports. We had recreation after the orientation time. Recreation had a great start, and our team leading this time went very well. After dinner, we have our first worship time. Corey, Emily, Josh, Justin, and Ryan got the blessing of starting the first worship time with "No One Like You." It Rocked!!! They did an awesome job. They are also leading in worship with other songs, and they are yielding to the spirit in such an amazing way. God is good. I preached the first message last night. I will continue speaking until Friday afternoon when camp ends. Be praying for Wednesday Night--11:00 a.m. your time--because that will be repentance night. Pray that no one will leave this place withiout knowing Jesus.
This morning the drama team did their first drama. It was about creation and the first sin of Adam and Eve. It was amazing. The message really transcended to the students. Devin then explained the drama. When he started talking it was like Jesus was standing there, and Devin was not. We were amazed at how Devin proclaimed the gospel with such clarity. They are now just beginning their first English classes. Pray that relationships begin within the classes.
On a side note we have one student who is having some minor health issues. He is fine, but it is slowing him down. His mom is here--thank goodness, but be in prayer for Paul. The whole team is doing great and serving in any capacity they can.
John
Phil. 1:6
This morning the drama team did their first drama. It was about creation and the first sin of Adam and Eve. It was amazing. The message really transcended to the students. Devin then explained the drama. When he started talking it was like Jesus was standing there, and Devin was not. We were amazed at how Devin proclaimed the gospel with such clarity. They are now just beginning their first English classes. Pray that relationships begin within the classes.
On a side note we have one student who is having some minor health issues. He is fine, but it is slowing him down. His mom is here--thank goodness, but be in prayer for Paul. The whole team is doing great and serving in any capacity they can.
John
Phil. 1:6
суббота, 19 июля 2008 г.
Privyet!!! It is very obvious that God's presence is here. We have been meeting since Wednesday evening in training, Bible study, team building games, English preparation, prayer, worship, and Russian lession--just imagine 24 southern Louisianians trying to speak Russian. We have been drawing closer as a team and God has been enrishing us as we prepare for our camp.
On Friday, we spent half the morning loading luggage on a bus that had only 24 seats and not near enough room for our luggage. We had to get to the camp grounds. We literally rode an hour on top of each other and luggage to the camp grounds. You have to be getting along in order to be that close in a foreign country.
We spent most of the day doing last minute preparations for tomorrow. We have been sharing testimonies with each other and with our translators. God has been moving in each of our testimonies as we share different stories about what God has been doing and is doing now in our lives. Tears were shed many times as we got to see the hearts of each other completely yielded to God. The translators have amazing stories about God has called them to be believers in homes that reject Jesus. They have such faith. Pray for our translators. We could not do what we do withouth them.
Our verse for our journey is Act 19:23, "There arose among them no small disturbance for The Way." We are here to cause a disturbance for The Way. We are here to make the name of Jesus famous. Be praying that we will keep our hearts focuse on the journey God has for us. Tomorrow the campers we will be serving will arrive starting around 10:00 a.m. Pray for our drama team, worship team, and recreation team. Pray that the campers see Jesus in us.
On a side note, everybody is healthy. Some struggle with Ukranian food, but we all have plenty of snacks. The guys are all sleeping in very closed quarters and there are not very many showers in their dorm. God is definitely stretching them. Pray that we keep focused as a team in everything.
John
Phil. 1:6
On Friday, we spent half the morning loading luggage on a bus that had only 24 seats and not near enough room for our luggage. We had to get to the camp grounds. We literally rode an hour on top of each other and luggage to the camp grounds. You have to be getting along in order to be that close in a foreign country.
We spent most of the day doing last minute preparations for tomorrow. We have been sharing testimonies with each other and with our translators. God has been moving in each of our testimonies as we share different stories about what God has been doing and is doing now in our lives. Tears were shed many times as we got to see the hearts of each other completely yielded to God. The translators have amazing stories about God has called them to be believers in homes that reject Jesus. They have such faith. Pray for our translators. We could not do what we do withouth them.
Our verse for our journey is Act 19:23, "There arose among them no small disturbance for The Way." We are here to cause a disturbance for The Way. We are here to make the name of Jesus famous. Be praying that we will keep our hearts focuse on the journey God has for us. Tomorrow the campers we will be serving will arrive starting around 10:00 a.m. Pray for our drama team, worship team, and recreation team. Pray that the campers see Jesus in us.
On a side note, everybody is healthy. Some struggle with Ukranian food, but we all have plenty of snacks. The guys are all sleeping in very closed quarters and there are not very many showers in their dorm. God is definitely stretching them. Pray that we keep focused as a team in everything.
John
Phil. 1:6
четверг, 17 июля 2008 г.
Hey everybody in Lake Charles. I know that everybody is anxiously awaiting our first blog. Well here it is. Let me first tell you that we arrived yesterday safely, on time, and without sickness. The whole team traveled well, even Nathan. It was hard to sleep on the plane rides, but God got us here without any problems. Our first night here we got settled in our rooms, and we are staying a Christian University because the camp going on right now is full and their are no beds. In fact, it is the largest camp Radooga has ever had. We will move to the camp tomorrow morning so that we can observe the camp going on right now.
Today was a great day with a lot of walking. We divided into three teams and walked around the city of Kiev doing a scavenger hunt so that we could have a better understanding of the culture. We probably walked at least five miles today. Each team had to go to specific places in town and and learn things about the people and the history. We took buses and t he subway as our form of transportation. We ate lunch at "The Fat House" which is a very good Ukrainian restaurant. The food was great. We got back here around 6:30 to begin more training. Oleg has shared his vision with us--this is why we are here--and we have shared testimonies with each other. We have all connected with the vision of Oleg. We had the opportunity to pray over several members of our team tonight as they shared about what God is doing in their lives. It was a very moving time in our team tonight. The Holy Spirit was definitely speaking to us. God has brought all 24 of us here for a purpose. Some are still seeking that purpose. They know God brought them, but they are not sure what it is. Be praying that they will sense the voice of God in their hearts. Pray that we will not trust in our own abilities, but only in the power of God. We have to trust in the moving of the Holy Spirit in-order to do what we are called to do.
When Oleg shared his vision with us there is no doubt in any of our minds that we are to further the Kingdom of God through serving alongside Radooga ministries. We are going to make the name of Jesus Famous. Nothing else. Jesus will be known.
John
Phil. 1:6
среда, 16 июля 2008 г.
The team has made it safely to Ukraine. They haven't lost a single piece of luggage even though they flew through Paris:)
Even though they were tired we had a short meeting and a Pizza Party.
Tomorrow we will post some pictures on the blog. Especially after Kiev City Quest we will have some really cool pictures of the city.
Pray for good rest.
Oleg
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