In 2003 and 2014 I traveled to Ukraine with teams from Covenant Church to help local congregations with their outreach ministries. The trip last year really made a huge impact on me. For the last two and a half years I've been trying to find a new job. Before the trip I had not considered the missions field as an option. But working with the students and church members this summer opened up that possibility to me. After I got back, I started looking at the options of MTW and English schools in Kiev to get involved again. But Pastor Max Tikhonov and a member of the Big City Church mission team suggested the church-to-church mission as a better option. A church-to-church mission is a direct sending of one member to another church as a missionary. It means I will be able to focus directly on the Big City and Liberty Church ministries. It also requires less support because the sending organization is the church and not a separate group to whom I have financial and time responsibilities. This trip is part vision-trip and part in-between careers for the future. I'm still learning where God plans to take me and Ukraine is where I feel led right now.

      God has planted my in America. A country where people want to go to make a better life. This place also gives it's citizens an almost legendary status around the world. The group who went to Ukraine in 2014 was an enticement or incentive for the students to come to the camp. We were also a big reason for holding the camp when we did. I believe that my background would be a help to the Big City and Liberty Church ministries.

      God has also given me an interest in Ukraine. I see them going through a similar situation to what the United States faced in the early 1800's. As a fledgeling nation, we had to fend off a former controlling power intent on bringing us back into its sphere of influence. The Ukrainian national spirit is high right now with patriotism and pride from throwing off Russian rule.

     My main reasons in choosing Ukraine are two-fold. The people and the fact that I already have an inroad there. The people, once you have been around them for a short time, are very open, welcoming and friendly. Besides children, they are some of the most curious and inquisitive people I have ever met. Ukrainians truly want to know about you. They ask questions about where you come from and why you are in Ukraine. Then they follow up the answers given with insightful and even more probing questions. That made the give-and-take of relationship-building very easy. It was a big eye-opener that despite the differences in language and national history, we really aren't all that different on a personal level.

     I also already have an inroad into the country and community there. I know many of the people from Big City church. I worked with several at the camp and shared many meals with them. Many are also involved in the Liberty Church planting effort. Big City is a church of many young people. Most are around college age or a little older. Being of a similar age makes relating a lot easier. And many of the current members of Big City Church were students once at the summer camps. Now, some of them are even leaders for teams at the summer English camps.

     The planned departure is for early August. I know the time-table is short. The planning and preparation stages have been going on for many months now and I have a feeling it's about to get very hectic soon. But, with the 2014 summer trip, God proved He can work out all sorts of details in a short amount of time.

For the six months I will be in Ukraine, my duties will include:

• Help with the ministries of Big City Church
• Assist in the English Club and discussion group that meets Sunday and Tuesday evenings
• Continue to build relationships with the students from the 2014 and 2015 summer camps

I have two main goals for the trip:

• I want to provide a way for young Ukrainians to enrich and better their lives spiritually and personally.
• I want to live an as example so that people I interact with will see God though my actions.

How to help:

      I need prayer in support of this trip. I only have so much strength. And that isn't enough to get through a trip of this magnitude without God's help. But prayer for the students I'll be interacting with is also essential. It's not my words they need to hear but God's.
      I'll also be writing in this blog to keep people updated on the trip's progress. Seeing the view count and knowing people are reading it is helpful to know that I'm not alone in this.

     Thanks for reading and following along with me in this adventure.

-Brian