Look Before You Leap

I couldn't help but notice the new viral video spreading through Facebook, Kony 2012. According to wikipedia.com:

Kony 2012 is a film created by Invisible Children, Inc. which became a viral video.^[2][3][4][5] The film's purpose is to promote the charity's 'Stop Kony' movement to make indicted Ugandan war criminal Joseph Kony internationally known in order to arrest him in 2012.^[6]

The film has spread virally.^[7][8][9] As of 9 March 2012 (2012 -03-09)^[update], the film currently has over 15.5 million views on Vimeo,^[10] and over 65 million views on video-sharing website YouTube,^[11] with other viewing emanating from a central "Kony2012" website operated by Invisible Children. The intense exposure of the video caused the "Kony 2012" website to crash shortly after it began gaining widespread popularity.^[12] The video has also seen a number of celebrities endorsing the campaign including Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Christina Milian, Nicki Minaj, Bill Gates and Kim Kardashian.^{[8][13][14][15][16]} On April 20, 2012, as part of the campaign, supporters will put up posters promoting Kony 2012 in their home towns. Invisible Children offers posters from an online shop in an attempt to gain wider recognition on the issue. They have also created action kits that include campaign buttons, posters, bracelets, and stickers to help spread awareness.

I was surprised to see that, among my Facebook friends, opinion was divided as whether this a good thing or not. So, I decided to watch for myself. After watching ( most of the film) I don't really have an opinion as to whether its a good or bad idea. Hopefully, the film has made people,especially Americans, aware that there is whole big world outside of their normal comfort zones and that evil exists even if we choose not to look.

The one scene that stood out to me was when the narrator promises a young boy that he will stop Kony. Thats the point in the film where I have a problem.  I work with hurting children ,many of whom have or will experience unthinkable evil in their lives and, as much as I would like to, I can't promise to stop it. The only thing I can promise them is that God loves them. I have to admit that I don't understand why God allows horrible things to happen to children, but He does and he is God and I'm not.

Even if the stop Kony campaign is sucessful, not much will change for these children. There are plenty of evil people in line to take his place. A wonderful, no cost education system will not suddenly appear. Abundant food will not suddenly fill their tummies. So what exactly does that promise mean?

I believe in giving money to causes. I'm a missionary my life depends on donations and I know first hand the blessing of abundant funds and what can be accomplished with them. I also know all to well the struggle and frustation of not being able to do the programs I want to do because of lack of funds. I can't stand it  when people invest more in their morning coffee than they do to help others. So, if this film moves you to donate your time and money--great. But, please think long and hard about where you send your money. Will plastering posters across town really make life any different for these children? What about all those other missionaries and aide workers who invest  their funds in actually helping someone else and can't afford professionally produced videos?

It is His work. I am like a little pencil in God's hand. That is all.
He does the thinking. He does the writing. The pencil has nothing to do with it.The pencil has only to be allowed to be used.
Mother Teresa

So, I have decided to join the world of blogging. In my daily life I see things, God at work, and I think "I should really write this down. I chose the words of Mother Teresa for several reasons. It wasn't my first choice-most of those were already taken.  I spent most of two days trying to decide on a witty tittle with out  much luck being original. Then out of the blue this quote ran through my head. It seemed most appropriate. There is nothing I can write here that can be anything but what God had orchestrated for my life. I also find it fitting that it was said by Mother Teresa. While I am not Catholic, I have learned much from her. When we first moved to Ukraine, I was feeling more than inadequate for the task at hand until one day in my daily devotional reading, I came across another MT quote that said , "We can do no great things, only small things with great love.". At that moment I began to understand more specifically what God expected from me. Now, more than six years later, here I sit still trying to write God's story in L'viv and beyond.

Check Please!

For the last few days, Tim and I have been house and dog sitting for some friends while they are away applying for visas. Our friends live  in a small village outside the city limits of L'viv. The house is located about a mile from a main road. They left us the keys to their car but driving in L'viv,even under the best of conditions is always an adventure, and yesterday the weather turned to almost blizzard like conditions so we really haven't been motivated to leave the house. We have spent a lot of time watching tv. Fortunately, our friends have a satellite tv package that includes several Christian channels. This morning I was blessed to watch Beth Moore and Joyce Meyers. I truly enjoyed and learned something from their teachings. After the messages, both programs included a portion asking for funds to finance the ministries. At this point, I caught myself heading for the kitchen or bathroom.

Later, I was hit by a huge wave of guilt. I KNOW ministries need funding and we do actually try to support other missions. But, if I --someone who knows first hand what it is like to fund a ministry--walk away from the appeals of other missions, how can I expect people ( you) take my pleas for support seriously?

The Bible is full of scriptures that command us to either go or support missions. No one is exempt from doing something. That doesn't always mean something big like moving to another country or donating thousands of dollars. God is most often  found in the small things.( Remember the story of how Jesus fed 5000 people from a young boy's small lunch?)But, the point is none of us is exempt. When we read or watch the fruit of some one's labor and think about how great it is that God is working through that ministry and then our eyes glaze over,our hearts harden, and we walk away from the financial needs to keep that work going its the same as going to restaurant ordering a meal, eating, and enjoying the product of someone  else's labor and then walking away without paying for the meal.

Even Jesus and the disciples had people who made the ministry possible and today we are still reaping the benefits of that ministry. The Bible is very clear,though, that we are to "pay it forward". How you do that is between you and the Holy Spirit.

A wise son brings joy to his father

Jewish cemetary-Krakow,Poland. This is located near where
the actual story feautred in the movie "Schindler's List"
took place.

"A wise son brings joy to his father mother " Proverbs 10:1
I have recently listened to  or read about many of my friends and how proud they are of their grandchildren. I haven't made it to that stage of life yet, but I am one proud momma. I just finished a phone call with my son, Evan. He is at a missionary conference in another Ukrainian city. Evan has always been "the quiet' one in our family.Which is OK because the rest of us are loud enough. Dyslexia made school difficult for him even though his IQ is higher than most. Dyslexia also affected his ability to play sports and enjoy many of the "normal" things kids do. But, wow, what an amazing young man he has grown into. The quiet kid is now the young man who notices homeless people on the street and takes the time to learn their stories and buy them food from his own money. He's the young man who is always ready to jump in and help visiting mission teams, even though they are complete strangers. He's the young man who taught himself to play bass guitar; who traveled through the night on a train to play that bass at a Christian conference, learned many new songs in just a few hours and saw God miraculously heal the blisters on his fingers just in time for the opening worship session of the conference. He's the young man who answered another missionary's plea for help and boarded another train to help with a summer camp. At the camp he was the young man that helped put out the fire when a kitchen gas tank exploded and administered first aide to the cook until she could be transported to a hospital.He's the young man who loves on orphans and started a neighborhood football team. And he's the young man who answered God's call to missions. Not just to any mission, but to serve God's chosen people.

And yes, as a missionary he will need support. I realize that  some of you who read this are supporters of our ministry or Chelsey's and for that we are truly gratefully.But statistically, most of those you read this are not current supporters and that's OK. God calls each of us differently. In 1991, while watching a TV story about the falling Soviet Union I knew that I was supposed to love orphans in Eastern Europe. At the time I knew very little about Christian life and definitely didn't understand that God calls everyone to some sort of service. Fourteen years later we boarded a plane for Ukraine and haven't looked back since. So, the point is, maybe God hasn't given you a heart for Ukrainians,orphans, or the victims of human trafficking but maybe,just maybe, the thought of God's chosen people missing out on the fulfillment of God's promises stirs something in your heart. In Genesis 12, God tells Abram "I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great,   and you will be a blessing.I will bless those who bless you".  In Malachi, God promises," 'Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.'". When you support a missionary,yes, you are blessing that person by helping them follow God's call, and you are  blessing the people they serve and you are asking God to bless you---which he promises to do.

For more information you can contact Evan.
Check out Operation Mobilization : http://www.om.org/
http://www.om.org/en/give
(support a missionary)
(Just for the record, I am very proud of Chelsey too)

Krakow Chronicles

The Rest of the Story

After a bad day at the consulate, God used this beautiful sky to remind us
that He is always in control.

So I am sure most everyone has heard that our visa trip to Krakow, Poland was most eventful. I am also sure most of you are confused about exactly what happened and why it was significant. I will try to explain. But, I will start with the conclusion for those of you who don't want to read the whole story.

 A lot of people have recently asked us why we stay in Ukraine. And to be honest, I didn't really have an answer until today. Today, we went out to meet some other people from church for our regular ministry to the poor. (Every two weeks we pass out small bags of groceries to people we meet begging on the street).As we walked into the parking lot where we meet, one of the older ladies from church exclaimed "our Ukrainians have returned!" She then went on to say how she prayed for us and how grateful she was that we came to Ukraine. We left the parking lot and headed off to pass out our food packages. Our first stop was to visit a lady named Vera. She always calls us her "golden children" and tells us stories about her days as a nurse in WWII. Next, we came across a man we hadn't met before. We gave him the food and told him God loved him. He thanked us and gave me a big kiss on the cheek. Our last stop was to visit a man named Misha. We have been talking to Misha and his wife for several months now and they have been to church a few times. As we leaving them today, they both talked about how they were looking forward to being at church tomorrow.

Probably none of these things sound that fantastic in the grand scheme of life, but to me today they were gifts from God. In Matthew 25, the disciples ask Jesus, "Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?"and he replies "Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.". In my heart, I know that each person we meet on the street represents God. I may not be able to effect much change in their physical lives but I can point them to the one who can change their eternity. So, yeah, that's why I'm here.

OK, The Krakow Adventure:

To live in Ukraine for more than 90 days a year we must have a visa. We must leave Ukraine to apply for visas. So we went to the nearest Ukrainian Consulate in Krakow,Poland. Ukrainian visa laws changed in September ( a yearly event) and in October the  application fees for Americans tripled. Apparently, the workers at the Krakow consulate didn't get that information and several Baptist missionaries were charged the normal price. At some point the mistake was found out and the missing funds needed to be replaced. So, the consulate decided to hold all Baptist missionaries responsible. We were aware of the problem and thought that it was being taken care of. We took our documents to the Consulate on Monday morning. The consulate worker looked at out documents and said "you are supposed to pay for someone else". I told him the money was being wired and he seemed satisfied. He gave us forms to take to the bank so we could pay our non-refundable fees. We went across town to the bank, only to find out they were out of cash. So, we had to wait for them to refill the ATM before we could pay. The consulate only accepts applications until 12pm. By the time we finished at the bank it was 11:55am. We returned on Tuesday and handed in our passports. The worker asked "are you submitting your applications?". I replied "yes". Then he went into some big story about how there was a problem and unless the problem was solved by Monday we wouldn't get visas. So I asked for our passports and money back. He refused and kept talking about the "problem". I asked him to explain "the problem" but he refused. I knew "the problem" was that the missing money was going to be deducted from his paycheck if he didn't collect it somewhere else. I asked to speak to the head consulate and he refused to let me. He refused to answer any questions with a straight answer. I told him that I knew about his mistake. At that point, he lost his ability to speak English and just walked away leaving several other people standing in the lobby.

Our biggest fear at this point was that he would just hide our applications and passports in drawer somewhere until Monday and then say our visas were denied. We had already paid $1500 so there was no way we could afford not to get visas. We returned to our hotel where Chelsey called the American Consulate for help. We really didn't expect them to be able to help. The situation was a serious crisis for us but not an international incident. The American consulate worker listened to the story and offered to see if he could do anything. The next morning Chelsey received an email from the chief consulate saying he had spoken to his Ukrainian counterpart and that there should be no problem with picking up our passports and visas. Tim called the Ukrainian consulate and was told to come on Thursday. The Ukrainian Consulate is normally closed on Thursdays but  Tim was assured someone would be there to process our visas. So, Thursday morning we went  back to the consulate and were greeted by the same man that had caused us so much grief two days before. He stamped our visas and gave us the apology he was obviously commanded to give.We were able to leave for Ukraine that night and returned home Friday morning.

Please read Chelsey's blog to learn about the spiritual lessons we learned during this experience.

http://keepupwithchelsey.blogspot.com/

The next step---turning our visas into residency permits but tha's a headache for another day.