UKRAINE PRAYER OPPORTUNITIES

The following is a list of prayer needs and concerns that I'm asking you to cover in prayer as we go and minister in Lutugino. Thank you so much in your faithfulness to partner with us as we share the love of Christ to those who have NEVER even heard of Him.

FRIDAY June 26th – pray for traveling safety and traveling mercy as we have to get all of our mission supplies through customs. We will be traveling for nearly a full day with numerous opportunities for anything and everything to go wrong. Also pray for the families that are left behind, that God will keep them safe and comforted as well in our absence.

SATURDAY June 27th – pray for God to prepare the hearts of those we will be coming in contact with. Pray that the Lord of the harvest will prepare the soil. We are praying that the people who claim to accept Christ will be true conversions, that their lives will be forever changed! Pray that the team will remain unified in their purpose. Pray that the team will be able to rest and recuperate this night, so that we’re prepared for the long week to come.

SUNDAY June 28th – pray for the growth of the Ukrainian churches. The bodies of believers here are small and not growing. Pray that they will learn to disciple and develop their members to be able to share their faith with others. They will be able to reach more Ukrainians than we will, so we’re praying that God will intervene and show them the value of their relationship with Him.

MONDAY June 29th – pray for VBS and for the small youth meeting that will be held at Bruce’s house. This is all that some of the kids will hear about Jesus for a full year. Pray that we’re able to infuse Jesus into the hearts of the upcoming generation. Pray that as we share Jesus with the children, that the curious parents that stay, will also receive the message of the Good News of Jesus Christ.

TUESDAY June 30th – pray for the eyeglass clinics and hospital visits. Pray that these people will receive their true sight during this time. Pray that they will see the need for Jesus in their lives. Pray for the boldness of the team members as they go and share the Gospel with so many in such a short time. Pray that we are able to pass His words on to the families in the hospitals, from comfort to a need for salvation.

WEDNESDAY July 1st -- pray for changed hearts and lives through VBS. This will be the day at VBS where all of the week’s activities come together with the salvation message. Last year we saw children and parents both come to know Christ on this day of VBS, so we are praying that God will show Himself in ways that only He can to the Ukrainians, again. Also we ask that you pray for our movie night where we will show “Facing The Giants” in the Russian language to residents of Lutugino.

THURSDAY July 2nd – pray for the large outdoor
evangelism meeting. Pray for effectiveness in reaching the lost in such a public location. Pray for our safety during this meeting. There may be a physical demonstration during this event. You also never know when the Orthodox church will show up in protest. Pray for the peace that only comes from Father to be poured out all over this meeting.

FRIDAY July 3rd – pray for the harvest. Pray that there will laborers to come in and harvest the seeds sown by our group while we’re there. Pray that there will be a growth in the church. Pray that they will be able to see what God can do when His people are obedient. Pray that the Ukrainians have been able to look at us and see Christ, and that the difference they see in us will take hold in Ukraine as well. Pray for the team as we spend the night in Germany. None of us speak German and we have no interpreter for our overnight stay.

SATURDAY July 4th – pray for traveling safety and mercies on our team and on our families as we all come back together. Pray that our trip was not without purpose. Pray that as we in America celebrate our Independence and freedom, that the Ukrainians will come to know the freedom that only comes from the Grace of God.

I'll be posting my experiences on/around July 7 or 8th so please check back then!

In Christ,
Ron

SLAVERY SORRY

I'm going to get on a soap box today so I'm going to ask for forgiveness in advanced. Let's all take a moment to get in a circle, turn down the lights, hold hands, and say it all together...are you ready..."We are sorry, yet again, for the years of slavery in our country 200 years ago." There! Does everyone feel better now?

How many times do we have to say it? SERIOUSLY!??! Don't get me wrong. Taking someone and forcing them to be a literal slave to you, your family, and your land is and always will be deplorable and inhumane. At some point though we HAVE to move forward!!!!

What am I thinking? This nation isn't interested in moving forward is it? No, we'd rather spend time on wording legislation on how to apologize for something that happened hundreds of years ago. Last I checked, I had a dozen friends that need a job. Last I checked our country is being threatened by nut jobs that want to destroy freedom and security for our great land. So what do our senators do? Yes that's right. They work on legislation that focuses on old issues that are totally irrelevant to where we are as a nation.

AGAIN I want to emphasize that I think slavery is horrible. I'm just so aggravated that we feel the need to put this to a vote in our Congress. The apology should have been issued by the government when the Civil War ended. I thought we had already taken care of this a few years ago? I sincerely hope that we can move on now ONCE AND FOR ALL!

As we stand in our circle and think of other apologies that we should issue, i think we should apologize to the trees we cut down in the Redwood Forest, the ice cap that our hairspray melted, and the polar bears who are being eaten for dinner by the Eskimos!. Let's apologize to the ozone layer and the jet stream for our man-made Global warming messing them up...okay I'm done.

In all seriousness now I wish our legislators were so concerned about the millions of children that have literally been ripped for their mother's womb and murdered. There's another horrible national nightmare that our government and even our citizens seem content on ignoring. It's deplorable! May God have mercy on us!

Busy Times

I've been very slow in blogging for the last few days. It's been an extremely hectic time as you may have guessed. Our VBS is this week and we are flying to Ukraine next Friday so there's been lots of activity and work to do and to prepare for.

On top of that my little Chloe has been having a few stomach issues where she just likes to throw up her milk all of the time. The doc says it's normal in babies who have not had the flap at the top of the stomach to develop. Unless God intervenes we are bracing ourselves mentally for a few more months of a cranky child.

Next week I will probably only post one blog on Wednesday with an updated prayer agenda. I hope you'll print it out and keep it to pray over while we are on our mission.

After I get back I will pick up with a UKRAINE MISSION SERIES on the blog so make sure you check back on/around July 7/8th!!!

GETTIN' READY

Hello everyone in the blog-o-sphere! Thanks for tuning in today! It's another wet and dreary day here in Southwest VA. The entire Spring season has been this way. It's been a very cool and rainy spring to say the least.

Next Thursday, I'll be leading a team for our 4th Mission Outreach to Lutugino, Ukraine. Lutugino has about 20,000 citizens and only 300 or so are Evangelical Christians -- that's only about 1.5% of the population. This week our mission team will be fasting and praying. Please join us in praying for the lost souls in this area. Pray and ask that strongholds will finally be broken and replaced not with just a head knowledge of who Jesus is but a heart's understanding of His saving Grace!

Far too long has this area been steeped in spiritual darkness. I had someone actually say to me, "What makes you think you can go over there and make any difference?" I was floored a bit at their boldness to ask what I perceived to be a completely stupid question. The answer came easily though... The only difference I can make is to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit's direction and leading and then to be courageous enough to speak up when He directs my words. I, Ron Gibson, can't make a bit of difference, but God's Spirit can and will. I must be willing to GO, however, and be used by His Spirit so that He can cause the lost to hear and see.

There are many "church growth" models in the world today. Successful preachers will write books and make millions because preachers buy there books hoping to LEARN what it takes to make a church grow...well let me save you a ton of money and give you the BIBLICAL model for church growth...1) Be willing to be a NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH and be willing to be a NEW TESTAMENT CHRISTIAN! If all of us were New Testament Christians this world would look and behave in dramatically different ways. I could probably write an entire blog on what it means to be a New Testament Christian, but I'll save it for another day...allow that thought to challenge you however until that time.

he Bible reminds us that He is not willing that ANY should perish. ANY means the people in the deepest jungles of South America to the Ukrainians that wonder around Lenin Square with their sad eyes. ANY means that He's concerned about everyone of the billions of people of the world.

So what difference can I possibly hope to make? I hope that one of the adults or one of the kids that hear the gospel preached will put their complete faith and trust in Jesus. I hope that that person will then take this message back to their family and their friends and that they will be saved. Then I hope that these people will tell others and that they will be saved. Will we see an impact right away? Who knows but you have to start somewhere right! You change a person you can change a family, who could then change the local culture. The local culture changes and the local government changes. The local government changes and maybe the region changes. The region changes and then the country changes. To me it's that simple!

Again I plead for you to join us in prayer this week for the people of Ukraine and for our team. We, as a team are experiencing some challenges on even getting there. 1) One of our team members has yet to receive her passport and will have to make a special trip to Washington DC next Monday...just 4 days before we leave. 2) Two other team members still need a total of $2400 to go. God is never late and we trust Him to work and move in these situations to where His name will be glorified by His provision!

WHEN THE ENEMY COMES LIKE A FLOOD

Yesterday at my house we received 5" of rain in only 1 hour. That's an amazing amount of water to fall. My dad said in all of his years he has never seen so much water on the property. As everyone knows I am a huge weather fan so I was running around like crazy checking the radar and keeping a check on our big family pond. I must confess that it was exciting to witness nature at her worst. Not more than 2 weeks ago I posted a pic of an amazing photo of a rainbow behind the same area of these pictures...thank goodness for the promise!

It was amazing to see the action take place...if you look at the pics above you can see water as it begins to roll down from the mountains behind our house. Normally there is NO water in that valley area in the left of the pictures at all...only a small natural spring that feeds the pond. We were very worried that the entire wall of the pond would collapse, but thankfully it is still standing but with some major damage.

SO this has me thinking of the Scripture from Isa 59:19 ...When the enemy comes in like a flood, The Spirit of the LORD will lift up a standard against him. Have you ever been just living your life thinking that all was well only to have the enemy come in like a flood. Yesterday I got some sort of idea about what it meant to come in like a flood. At 4:30, Katie and I were sitting in the yard with the baby, enjoying a glass of choc. milk. By 5:30 we were watching the wall of water sweep in and engulf and destroy the landscape.

The devil does just that doesn't he. It seems like just all of the sudden he rushes in like a massive torrent of water and messes everything up. His actions muddies the normally clear waters in our lives and we are left to try to survive and get through it the best we can. The enemy comes to kill, steal, and destroy but the promise of the Lord out of Isa is that the Spirit of the Lord will raise up a standard against him.

I can remember a few times in my life to where the enemy came in like a flood. My "house" was built on a foundation of sand and it washed away completely. I lost everything in that flood of the devil except my little girl. The floods will no doubt come again, but this time I have built my house up on the ROCK of Jesus Christ and though the waters may rise against us once again I KNOW and TRUST the Lord to lift up that standard against him and prevail!

Be careful of the floods. They can come at any time and usually when you're least expecting them. That's why it's so important to be grounded in the Word of God. There's only one way to strengthen your "house" against such a violent, rushing force and that's to be spiritually prepared and ANCHORED in Jesus. We have to STOP building our house upon our own foundations of SELF and start building it upon the CORNERSTONE of Him and Him alone.

What makes up the cornerstone of your house? Will it stand against the raging flood of the enemy?

Have a great weekend! Pray for sunshine!

LEAVING THE WATER POT BEHIND...Part 2

So now I'm really getting consumed in the lesson of the Samaritan Woman at the well with Jesus. As I reread the scripture that I blogged on yesterday, I found something else new that I found interesting.

Read the Scripture and then we'll talk...Joh 4:26-30 Then Jesus told her, "I AM the Messiah!" (27) Just then His disciples came back. They were shocked to find Him talking to a woman, but none of them had the nerve to ask, "What do You want with her?" or "Why are You talking to her?" (28) The woman left her water jar beside the well and ran back to the village, telling everyone, (29) "Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did! Could He possibly be the Messiah?" (30) So the people came streaming from the village to see Him.


Here's this woman that comes to the well to draw her water and return home. She's there because she's thirsty and knows that if she collects more than a glass full she'll have more water for later. Can you imagine how aggravating it would be in this day and age to have to go collect water just so you could either perform basic household chores or simply have something to drink in your home? It must have been challenging and frustrating at times to make the trip because it would have to be made regardless of the weather.

Jesus tells her outright, "I am the Messiah" and her very next action is to do what? She LEAVES her all-important water pot behind and GOES, literally RUNS, back to the village to tell everyone! COULD IT BE THE MESSIAH!!! It says that Jesus ended up staying in the village for two more days preaching/teaching and that many people believed that he was, and still is, the "Savior of the world!"

We can take yet another lesson from this great story of leaving the water pot behind! When Jesus has been revealed to us as our Savior, our Rescuer, our Deliverer we should be more than ready to drop what we're doing and RUN to tell others about WHO He is! When Jesus approached Peter, what did Peter do? He dropped his net and followed Him!

Our water pots and fishing nets may just be our jobs or something that we deem as all important and top priority. She needed water, but she left that "need" behind so she could tell others. Peter "needed" his lively hood of fishing, but he left his net behind to tell and teach others. There's a lost world waiting for us to drop our water pots and our fishing nets to tell them that there is a hope in Him that can be found in no other idol, god, or feeling...a hope that can save us from an eternity in hell.

BEING OUT OF YOUR ELEMENT!

I have found from going on overseas mission trips that it helps to be "out of my element" in terms of location. For example in South Africa, I will admit it was a bit intimidating to think about being in a very poor and impoverished squatter camp where crime and disease are rampant. Add to the fact that whites have had a historically poor relationship with the blacks I was also a bit fearful of HOW I would be received.

As I was in my quiet time today I read this verse...Joh 4:6-15 Jacob's well was still there. Jesus, worn out by the trip, sat down at the well. It was noon. (7) A woman, a Samaritan, came to draw water. Jesus said, "Would you give me a drink of water?" (8) (His disciples had gone to the village to buy food for lunch.) (9) The Samaritan woman, taken aback, asked, "How come you, a Jew, are asking me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?" (Jews in those days wouldn't be caught dead talking to Samaritans.) (10) Jesus answered, "If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be asking me for a drink, and I would give you fresh, living water." (11) The woman said, "Sir, you don't even have a bucket to draw with, and this well is deep. So how are you going to get this 'living water'? (12) Are you a better man than our ancestor Jacob, who dug this well and drank from it, he and his sons and livestock, and passed it down to us?" (13) Jesus said, "Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again and again. (14) Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst--not ever. The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life." (15) The woman said, "Sir, give me this water so I won't ever get thirsty, won't ever have to come back to this well again!"

Notice a few things...Jesus was "worn out" from the trip and stopped to rest...He is human after all! He was at the well trying to find a bit of peace and this woman approaches comes to the well to get water and Jesus asks her for a drink. Notice how this seemingly normal conversation is used to lead to spiritual matters...that's a whole different blog! Jesus may have been tired but He was there "on purpose!"

The Samaritan woman knows that Jesus is a Jew and is shocked that He would even talk to her. Later the disciples were horrified that He was even talking to her. Jesus is not in "his element" according to this woman's worldview, and it's because He is in a place she didn't expect Him to be that she is listening.

Jesus goes on to share with her the "Living Water" and through this simple conversation with a "worn out" Jesus resting at a well in a place no one expected this woman sees Him for who He is! By verse 42 many of the townspeople came to know Jesus as the Savior because of this very woman.

My mind raced back to Africa as I thought about the women on the hillside in Kya Sands Squatter Camp. They had been belittled and verbally abused consistently by their white supervisors. They weren't big fans of whites, but they could, by their own vocal admission, "tell that something was different about us." They listened as we took an ordinary conversation about our kids and life in general and turned it into an opportunity to share Jesus with them.

Just as the woman at the well were thirsty, these women were hungry...again they told us. With all of the rotten food that their shack was literally built upon they had nothing to eat and FORTUNATELY we had no food to share. We only had the "bread of life" with us in our back pockets. We sat down in their small shack and we shared it with them and they ate! By the end of our conversation they said, "we are not hungry anymore. We feel full."

God's Word has the power to transform us and fill us. What are we doing in our daily lives "on purpose" for Him? We may be WORN OUT too just like Jesus felt but our mission is never-ending and our eyes should always be open and hearts listening for opportunities to share the power of Jesus with someone.

To change the world for the Kingdom of God we must get out of our elements sometimes and let people see us not for the color of skin or the stereotypes that we may have but for the love of Christ that lives in us! Let the see Him and all other things will be of no issue! May you be challenged to consider the possibilites of where and what you could do by GOING to that place in the US or the world...and then GO!

CHLOE UPDATE

Here's some pics of Chloe. She's changing fast and getting a lot longer. Kaitlyn loves her new responsibilites as a big sis and Sarah is doing an amazing job at sacrificing her sleep for Chloe. We're have still yet to get 2 nights in a row of good rest and I must admit it's starting to wear us down a bit. Keep us in your prayers as we continue to take it one day at a time! Have a great weekend!

Ron

MISSION TRIP VIA YOUR KNEES!

I found this poem with a fresh prespective on how to go on missions without actually going....It is written by Sandra Goodwin. Enjoy.

TRAVELING ON MY KNEES
Last night I took a journey
To a land across the seas.
I didn’t go by ship or plane –
I traveled on my knees.

I saw so many people there
In bondage to their sin,
And Jesus told me I should go,
That there were souls to win.
But I said, “Jesus, I can’t go
To lands across the seas.”

He answered quickly, “Yes, you can –
By traveling on your knees.”
He said, “You pray, I’ll meet the need.
You call, and I will hear.
It’s up to you to be concerned
For lost souls far and near.”

And so I did, I knelt in prayer,
Gave up some hours of ease,
And with the Savior by my side
I traveled on my knees.
As I prayed on, I saw souls saved
And twisted persons healed.
I saw God’s workers’ strength renewed
While laboring on the field.
I said, “Yes, Lord, I’ll take the job.
Your heart I want to please.
I’ll heed Your call and swiftly go
By traveling on my knees.”

THE TENT IS UP!!!

If you'll remember many months ago, I posted a blog about the church tent in Kya Sands being stolen. After just a few months, the new tent is up and worship services are now being held inside the tent...just in time for their winter months!

New, Bigger, Stronger and STANDING

The foundation was laid and a brand new, bigger and stronger tent now stands in the squatter camp of Kya Sands. What a wonderful testimony of God's faithfulness to this community and provision for it! Here are a few pics of this exciting process and the final result....Sunday morning Africans worshipped the Lord in their new "church"....Pastor Rich led them in thanksgiving for God's goodness......Everyone that made this possible THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts and from those that now have a new place to worship!

FROM RICH AND MICHELLE FRANZEN....www.impactafrica.org or www.impactafricablogspot.com