We sat at the table of one of Tula’s finest restaurants. It was Tuesday evening; early the next morning we would load up the van, make the two and a half hour trek to Moscow and fly home.
It had been an incredible journey! Now Daryl, the organizer of the mission trip, asked us to reflect and share one thing that had impacted us the most.
One thing? This trip, orchestrated sovereignly by the Holy Spirit, had had (and continues to have) a profound impact on me on so many levels. One thing? Impossible.
I sat and thought. From the beginning, the trip was divinely ordained. I’d never thought about nor had a desire to go to Russia. I had never imagined myself ministering to Russian pastors, musicians, and worship leaders. Never imagined that through an unexpected turn of events, my role would shift from second string to being one of the main speakers. Never would have conceived that I would step into my true calling and destiny on the other side of the world. God had set me up big time!!
I sat and thought. From the beginning, the trip was divinely ordained. I’d never thought about nor had a desire to go to Russia. I had never imagined myself ministering to Russian pastors, musicians, and worship leaders. Never imagined that through an unexpected turn of events, my role would shift from second string to being one of the main speakers. Never would have conceived that I would step into my true calling and destiny on the other side of the world. God had set me up big time!!
I reflected on this American team—virtual strangers to me—that the Holy Spirit so wonderfully caused to flow as a true apostolic team. The Lord had, in a short amount of time, gelled us together in such a way. We learned to pull on each others strengths, gifting, and abilities and work together. We learned to pray with and for one another. We loved one another.
I saw the passion and hunger of my Russian brothers and sisters for the Lord. A passion to pray and such a willingness and openness to press pass the familiar to find that new place in Him. And once finding it, the courage and patience to wait in His presence until they had been transformed.
The sound of worship on earth that ascended and mingled sweetly with the sound of worship in heaven. Russian, English, and heavenly language blending together in such rapturous worship. The very glory of the Lord of all filling the room. A sound of worship from sincere hearts, broken before the Lord, creating an atmosphere for miracles.
Ah, yes, and the testimonies of the miracles from God in the midst of worship. The deaf ear that had been unstopped. The tumor that had disappeared. The prophetic word that had confirmed a calling. The mending of the wounded hearts. The deliverance from demonic spirits. The freedom! The liberty!
The testimonies of former drug addicts and alcoholics who knew the only way they were clean and sober and the only way they’d remain clean and sober was through Jesus Christ. The joyful noise that rose from their depths as they praised their Healer, their Deliverer, their Redeemer, their Savior.
I saw in the people a faith that says, “God, You are all we have but that is more than enough! I trust You!” A complete reliance on Him for all things. The laying down of lives and all they have for the sake of the call. The perseverance to walk in obedience to the Lord in the face of obstacles never heard of in America.
The testimony of a pastor who had been evicted from place after place because the Orthodox church wanted to shut his church down. The evangelistic efforts of another pastor who went to the trash dump where homeless dug holes in the ground to live and ministered salvation to a man minutes before the man died in that pastor’s arms. Another pastor and his wife who brought drug addicts and prostitutes into their home to minister the love of God to them. The woman pastor who despite the oppressed surroundings with criminal elements and known satanic activity, presses on because she believes the word of the Lord spoken to her.
The old women who came for prayer, just seeking a touch from God, and who melted in my arms and did not want to let go. The young mother, facing deportment, who shows up at our hotel, toddler in tow, because she believed the Lord wanted to speak to her through me. My 21 year old translator and companion, Veronica, who says, “I want to know Him intimately like you do. Will you pray for me?”
The love, the generosity, the kindness, the hospitality of a people who have so little, but offer it all so freely. They simply stole my heart and won my affections in a way I’d never have conceived.
Not to mention the country western praise — Russian style, the line dancing, and the video clip of a reformed Orthodox bishop, dressed in his priestly robes, rapping in Russian!
One thing? What could I say? I am so overwhelmed by the faithfulness of God to honor His word. I came home with a great appreciation for those things I so often took for granted. And while I am grateful and humbled by the way the Lord ministered to His precious ones through me and the others on the team, I joy in knowing that I am forever changed. They gave me so much more than I could ever have given them. My vision is greater. My heart has been enlarged. My capacity to love is greater. My faith, trust and reliance on the Father increased beyond measure. Self died a little more. Jesus shined His light through those Russian saints and awakened something deep in me.
I learned on a whole new level that it really is all about Him and not at all about me!!
I realized that God is alive and well and living in Russia.
