"I will go anywhere, provided it be forward." — David Livingstone
Tuesday which is our weekly day off, was not just an average day off. Josh and Nathan planned a little bit of a tour around the city for us. We hiked up the lookout over the city to enjoy a stunning sight before heading back down for lunch. Later we toured the clock tower where we bumped into some guys from CMO 2016. After catching up with them we headed to a museum called the Arsenal to view old-time weaponry. After that was dinner with the guys and off to finish laundry and prepare for the week ahead.
David (left) and Elliot (right) get acquainted at L'viv's famous lookout, High Castle.
Wednesday was our first of two days spent in Lutsk. We arrived a little before noon, had lunch on the go and hit the ground running passing out tracts. After tracting we regrouped and had dinner, then headed to the store to get supplies for lunch the next day. A few of us had some desert and laughs before calling it a night.
Thursday was day two in Lutsk and it was a great one! God opened many doors for me personally and I was happily accepted by more then a few people. There was even one lady I gave a tract to that spoke English and was ecstatic when she found out who we were and what we were doing. After the glowing encounter with her the day only seemed to get brighter as we continued to pass out 31,300 tracts by the end of both days.
Before departing for Lutsk, we collated several thousand tracts into bundles of 200. This helps us to keep accurate records of how much literature we are putting out.
William and Andrew navigate one of the neighborhoods of Lutsk.
Friday was the big one, Sykheev! Or as some here like to call it: The Sykheev Olympics! Seeing as it's such a big region in the city of L'viv, we all had the goal of passing out 2,000 tracts a person, and I am happy to report that most of us did. We had a total of 27,600 tracts distributed in one day! One family, who was walking out of their apartment, saw me carrying the tracts in my hand and slowed down enough for me to give each of them one, and as it turns out the parents spoke English and let me in the building to the mailboxes. Seeing God use all of us in the ways he did was, and continues to be, an incredible experience.
Nathan divides up the guys into teams of two, assigning each team a group of buildings.
Saturday morning each of us gave a report on the books we have been reading. Ben finished giving the rest of us our nicknames and encouraged all of us to serve the Lord using the gifts that God has given us. After the book report and pep talk we packed up and headed out to do Bible surveys and chalk art/street preaching. Andrew Howard, William, and Isaiah got to street preach this week and practice preparing a message for public groups of people. Each of them had good crowds and they delivered their messages well. Once we packed everything up we headed back for dinner at Josh's then home to our apartments.
The men gather for prayer in the parking garage before carrying the chalk supplies over to the spot where we would preach.
Isaiah preaches the Gospel while Nathan draws.
Isaiah did a great job of engaging the crowd. Here he speaks directly to a young girl as part of an illustration.
Willam was the second man to preach. For his presentation, Nathan drew the "Three Crosses" scene.
Andrew Howard preached the third and final message of the day. All three of these guys were doing this for their very first time. God blessed, and all did well!
We woke up Sunday morning to get to church before heading out to the Carpathians. Ben and Isaiah both spoke about CMO at Josh's church and gave them an update on the trip. We got out of church and left for the film showing in Bystrytsya-Hirska, the village we initially got turned down at. Thirteen people came to watch the movie, most of which were children. We showed the film in English with Ukrainian subtitles because the village authorities would not allow us to play the Russian-dubbed audio.
Preaching the Gospel after the conclusion of the film.
As always, the guys hand out Bible literature to people leaving the film showing.
That night the older guys had gone to bed but the rest of us were hanging around the fire Isaiah had built. We got to talk to one another for awhile and shared what we have learned so far and the things that we are still eager to learn. It was Isaiah's last night with all of us so we all got together and prayed for each other as we continue to press forward and grow in our relationship with God.
It took some searching, but we finally found a suitable camp site. We were all pretty hungry, so after setting up the tents, everyone got busy making dinner!
After a peaceful night in the tents we woke up to several cows intruding on our campsite. Once they all left we started our day with breakfast and a devo. Josh and Tolik headed to the next village (Tur'ye) to set up the next week's film while the rest of us passed out invites for Smilna. Once each of us had finished we regrouped and headed back to Lviv for a final dinner with Isaiah where we all could bid him farewell and safe travels.
The next morning, Andrew Joyner led the devo and talked about the power of the tongue from James 3.
Ben Sargent passes out film invites in the village of Smilna where, Lord willing, we'll show the film next week.
How you can pray
- Pray for those who heard the Gospel preached this week, both in L'viv and in Bystrytsya-Hirska.
- Pray for a successful film showing next week in Smilna, and the week after that in Tur'ye.
- Praise the Lord the for the new responses which are already coming in as a result of our literature campaigns in Lutsk and Sykheev.
- Pray for this week's literature campaign in Rivne. The team leaves for Rivne Wednesday morning.
- Pray that God would continue to keep our vehicles running.
- Pray for health and safety for the team.
- Pray for safe travel for Isaiah as he departs for the U.S.
View the full Week 2 photo album on our Facebook page!
The CMO 2018 Team. From the left: Tolik, Elliot, William, Nathan, Jessie, Ben, Joshua, Andrew Howard, Andrew Joyner, and Isaiah.