I want to share about the “main event of this month”, which happened in my life, and about God's hand during this time :-) May this update glorify the Lord!
The month of February in the ministry went on as usual - sport kids community practices, “coffee house” for the parents, financial and administrative responsibilities in the ministry for the team, the Bible study group according to the format of the DU (spiritual multiplication of the discipleship) with the girls from the Revival church (and even I wanted to invite a girl from my church Almaz), basketball practices with the unbelieving women and girls, and so forth.
And after one great training on how to be able to set goals correctly and effectively, as well as to help your disciples to do this , after this training which was carried out in our mission Cru Ukraine, to which my disciple Anya came, 2 hours later, hurrying home to change the clothes and to run to the group for the girls I broke my leg, not reaching two buildings to my home. The brake was a complex with lots of fragmented fractures and required a surgery. In the hospital i was put on a special thing to stretch my bones, and then we waited for the wise advice of the surgeon that the friends from the mission found. That same evening two more women with the same fractures were placed for their bones to be stretched as well. One of them was a fitness coach. Here’s from my post in the prayer group on Facebook: “I am grateful to you all - and my home group and the team of Athletes, and the Almaz Church, and Cru Ukraine mission for prayers, for spiritual and financial support, for the practical care! The night in the hospital was complicated, the three of us didn’t sleep, the grandmother snored powerfully and our legs hanged in one position attached to the pin..but it was a classy opportunity to talk at night and to share the Gospel at 2 am, I was though told: “Anya, (fitness coach - Lena), we are here to cure our legs and not our heads!””))) well, it’s ok! Our Lord has a purpose for everything, I believe! ”When I left, I left them my contacts and brochures with the Gospel (“The Four”) I keep in touch with Lena - pray for her and her repentance, that she would show interest more, and all the prejudices would be removed from her heart and her head. 
Two days later I was transported by a special ambulance to a better hospital in Kiev, where a young but more advanced surgeon took care of me. It was necessary to wait for the swelling and hematoma to come down before doing the operation. In the room with me there was a grandmother who changed her knee joint - that was her surgery, and was ready to check out of the hospital. When I began to talk to her about God, she was very open, and when I approached the question: “Do you want to pray and repent, to accept Christ into your heart?” Her answer surprisingly was: “Yes!” Every time this happens I’m not ready to hear it, it’s so joyful and funny. Please pray for Catherine so that she can read the Bible at home and that the Lord would cleanse her mind of the unbiblical truths that are accepted in this world.
On the same day after Catherine, the grandmother checked out of the hospital, a 65-year-old woman settled in the room, named Maria, and her daughter Julia helped her. Maria waited for the surgery on installing a knee prosthesis. This would be her first operation in life! Happy woman!))) When I began to communicate with Maria about God, when I asked her where she would go after death, she replied: “How it will be, it will be so ...” She didn’t really want to know what I could tell her that I already knew how to determine where you will go after death, and that the Lord gives you “healing from the cancer of sin” for free. I realized that a person did not really trust religious communities, and did not want to get involved. But the Lord is great! One day after the surgeries mine and hers, the anesthesiologist, who was for her surgery, came to check her. It turned out that the doctor was a Protestant and a preacher, which happens in our post-Soviet space quite rarely! He told Maria the Gospel fully, talked about the 2nd coming of Christ, and that a person needed to be reconciled with the Lord through Christ, otherwise he remained an enemy to Him and so on. Unfortunately, Maria could not be “broken”, but it was clear that she understood, and it touched her a lot. These are just miracles - how the Lord works! When I left the hospital, saying goodbye to Maria and Julia, I left them the coordinates of my church and my own. I also keep in touch with them. Please pray that Maria and Julia would choose the Lord, despite all the prejudices and opinions of the people!
As for my surgery - it turned out to be even more difficult than it seemed, a lot of fragmentation fractures than on the original X-ray. I installed the titanium plates in the leg. Now I live temporarily with the friends - the director of Cru Ukraine (they have 4 children - the oldest is 14, the youngest is about 3 years old). A huge blessing that they can help and even take care for me! The Lord blessed me “crazingly” with the friends from the church, from my team Athletes in Action, from the Cru Ukraine and so on - when I fell it turned out that I had about $ 5 in my pocket and I waited for the next week to get my support salary, which was aimed for completely different upcoming expenses. Medical expenses with plates and so on costed a total of approximately $ 1,800. I collected about 1000 dollars, spent about 1400 dollars already. I have no insurance, in Ukraine it’s difficult for missionaries .. If God opens your heart to help also financially, please follow the instructions at https://give.cru.org/0952911 and indicate that this is for medical expenses. For donations in Ukraine, contact me through replying to this email. Thank you very much!
(On the photo above is Alla and Peter Semikins one of those many who helped with the words, finances and deeds, also below is the picture of Yulia Zibarova and her daughter Kira - part of Zibarovs' Family who I stay with for now temporarily)
There is still pain, the leg gets swelled especially at nights, it“shoots”, I walk on crutches periodically, but I cannot step on the damaged leg for 1.5 of a month, please pray that I can safely move within a short time, for the proper/ontime rehabilitation and for the plates to adapt well in the leg without side effects. Thank you! May the Lord bless you 100,000 times more!
With love in Christ,
Anya
No comments:
Post a Comment