Missions Trip to Russia
I was recently invited to go to a local village where there is a house church. This is the ideal opportunity for missions. We went many kilometers outside the city to the little village of Ratotcie. Valeriia was at home with the baby, so I went without a translator. This added a unique, yet wonderful dynamic.
Once we got there we went from house to house laughing, praying, and sharing fellowship. At the first house, Pastor asked me to share a word. I trusted the Holy Spirit to help me speak. With my very limited language skills, pastor reading the verses from his Russian Bible, and his expounding, everyone was able to understand the message of faith and mercy. We walked as a group down the street, gaining in numbers as Pastor told Bible stories and little children chased each other around our legs. This gave me such a nostalgic feeling of what disciple life might have been like as they went from town to town preaching, teaching, and sharing the gospel. Every home we went to we were warmly welcomed and gratefully received.
As we walked, Pastor told me that almost everyone in the entire village was a born-again Christian. When he said this I looked around and noticed that no one was smoking or drinking, families were playing together and there was an aura of peace and joy all around. This was a wonderful sight, as oftentimes the Roma communities tend to be pretty rough due to the overall poverty and lack of resources.
The time went so fast that we almost missed our train. Pastor waved at me frantically as I snapped the last few photos of children wanting to pose for the camera. We had to hustle across a cornfield and down a long path to get to the train platform.
Jason and Valeriia Wiser, Missionaries to Ukraine
Project Number 0650833
(Source: Church of God World Missions)
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