Big steps, little steps

A little over a year ago we started a project that seemed way beyond our means. After prayer and years of dreaming, Andrey and I felt like it was finally time to build a soccr feild in Irpin to help with our ministry. We have seen God use soccer in am amazing way in this culture. But the task was daunting. First of all the idea of rasising $30,000 seemed to us just as intimidating as if we were raising $1,000,000 add to that the economic crisis loitering over the US and Ukraine, and the job seemed even more impossible. But we took a step of faith, really wanting this to be not our project, but the Lord's. This past year the Lord has taught  us many things through unexpected blessings.
Three months after we started the project we had raised a little over $1,000. This was discouraging, and we began to doubt. But after the New Year, we discovered that $15,000 had already been raised. That was amazing for us, we were halfway to our goal! Suddenly this mission seemed not so impossible.
 Andrey's burden's is to instill in Ukrainian churches the blessing of giving. His dream was that this be a joint project and that our local church also donated to this project.
So after a few prensentations to the church, this past Sunday, our church did a special offering for the Soccer Feild. The response was overwhelming. Our church gave over $4,000 to this project! Can you be believe it? Personally I was overwhelmed and blessed by the vision our church has got for giving. So if my math if correct (an usually it isn't) that puts us at $19,000, we only have $11,000 to go. We are excited. We believe that we will have a field by spring!

What I need you to know

 The truth is, sometimes my needs and wants and dreams get a little bit scrambled and it's hard for me to discern and shove them back onto their shelves. Was it Mueller, or Taylor, or Carey, (maybe Moody) that said, "attempt great things for God, expect great things from God". Then there was the Prayer of Jabez, craze about 10 years ago, that got everyone excited, and made the words, "expanding our boundaries" a catch phrase. Personally I grew up in a house of mountain moving? George Mueller type faith. Our reliance on God was daily, and to outsiders maybe a little fanatical, but I came to know God as my provider from the largest to the smallest need.
The thing is, when you grow up in a house like that, you come to realize that God will just as often provide your wants as He will your needs. And sometimes perhaps you get a little brazen in your request. I'm not talking about a vending machine relationship, where you punch the prayer in, select the item of choice and it  pops out. But I hope there are some of you who know what I'm talking about. Ever asked God for something crazy, and He ended up giving it you in His wonderful will?
Now getting to the point of this post, I have these needs, the needs are concerning women's ministry, and I have these wants, the wants are concerning women's ministry, and I have these dreams. And the dreams are concerning women's ministry. In the spirit of the Jabez prayer, let me say that God has increased my boundaries this year. Women's minstry is huge, and there are so many needs, and wants and dreams, that it hard to know where to start and what to ask for. We need, people to lead and to train. We need finances to minister and encourage, we need wisdom to guide and mold this minstry into something every better.
So it comes down to this; God will send people, God will provide finances, God promises wisdom. But prayer,  well that's up to you guys. So - please pray for us.

Communion with family

The pinnacle of these last two years of amazing overwhelming women's ministery happened on June 27, when five women followed the Lord in baptism. I'm always inspired when I witness adults, wading into waist high water and in a humble akwardness bend their knees backwards to emerse themsleves in testimony of their love for their Savior.  When you spent hours on the prayer battlefield, wrestling for their souls, it make the moment extra special. I couldn't help but cry at our baptism services. Our church baptized 24 people this summer, five of them were ladies from our small groups, two of them were husbands we had been so desperately praying. And in the moments you soul seems to be bursting with so much joy, that you think if the Lord adds just one more drop of blessing you will burst. But there is something even more special.
Last night was local church's montly communion service. I had the previlige of taking communion with these beautifully baptized saints.  And in the somber rememberance of our Lord's suffering, joy buzzed underneath. After the bread and the first prayer, one of  my babies in Christ leaned over and whispered, every prayer is different now. We're girls and we wanted to somehow giggle in that joy that we were swimming in, but for fear of being misunderstood by some neighboring saints, we kept straight faces. There was joy, a sheer joy in taking of the bread and wine. Taking communion with new believers seems to put in all into perspective. The sacrifice of Christ takes on a brighter meaning. And for me, saved and baptized in childhood, it gives me the chance to see His suffering and victory in a whole new light.