If you trust in God – you can do everything. I mean, you will be successful in everything you do. It happened to me also. I went to Middle Asia. Our team of five people “walked” a long way towards this goal. We had to go through many temptations. Devil did all his best trying to not let us go. As for me the greatest trial was my foreign passport which I received three days before I had to go. I was praying for it, probably, every ten minutes. Through this trial God taught me to trust Him.

We were going to another country. As for mi I had very little idea about where we are going, what people are those Asians, how they will receive us, what sort of camp we will lead, where are we going to seep so on. One thing we knew – our friends were supposed to meet us.

Asian country friendly met us with warm soft wind, and even everyone else was dark-skinned, I felt myself as at home. Our friends met us at the airport and took us straight to the camp site which was quite far away. People in the camp were very friendly. The only unfriendly things were “Bombers” (this name we gave to everything flying). The first night our dinner was interrupted by big butterfly that tried to “land” on everyone; then other creatures joined its company. There were fen-crickets, grasshoppers, small scorpions and a bird (”Pterodactyl”), who were waking us up with dreadful bawl every morning at 5 o’clock.

In the beginning the hardest for me was to remember names. But now, when all those people we had been with became our friends, I will never forget their names. Our team of five people was going there, but there the number grew up to hundred and we all worked together for God. We led two camps one week long, and children were spending 24 hours in the camp.

It was hard to make one team out of different children. It seemed that we were one team 3 times a day – for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Some children who were in group #13 did not know about Jesus. Some of them refused to pray, explaining that they were Moslems and from early childhood they read namaz. And it was real joy to see that those children accepted Jesus Christ into their hearts, they confessed that Jesus was the Lord. The difference that Jesus did in their life was seen on heir faces full of joy Jesus gave them. The most pleasant and joyful moments for me were when kids from our group were reaching unity, which was the result of evening programs. There children had to perform a drama with following theme: “Who is Jesus?”, “100% for Jesus” so on. Taking part in those dramas children started to understand more about who Jesus is, why He came to the Earth, and wonderful thing was that they started to love one another with the same love that God loved us. I liked the situation when kids who were fighting in the beginning of the camp started to take each others addresses and promised to come and visit each other.

This sort of camp I could call friendship camp because many, very many found friends here, and the most important – they met, or find out more about the greatest friend Jesus Christ.

In addition to everyday program every group out of 19 had or to clean the camp site, or to be on duty in the kitchen. To be on duty in the kitchen means to peel the potatoes, carrots, onions, cutting cabbages… In our group #13 we had boys who never did this before, so in this camp they learnt to wash the dishes, peel the potatoes, sweep, clean the floor, wash their clothes.

The brightest impression of the camp for me was following.

It happened during first camp. The age of the children was 14-15. We had not very friendly team, but.. In the last day before setting out we had relay-race which had 9 different games. Each group had competition with another group. When our group #13 reached game #5, which was water polo we had two loses, what meant we are not allowed to lose again (not to be kicked out). Our opponent was quite mighty. We all were “tiny and skinny” and all of them were “big and fat”. It was really great that those from our team who did not take part in a game walked into the water and supported us. When our team scored everyone started to scream of joy. We praised God, hugged and kissed each other. That moment was the moment of unity. We became one ant praised Jesus together. Then we had 3 another games, but we fully relied on God, so we won with no problems.

Now I am sure that during the preparations for the trip, during the time of the camp I’d learnt a lot about how to trust God. Before this trip I was not very successful in it, because I was trying to decide all of my problems myself. That’s why I had a lot of failures.

Now I know what does it mean to trust Jesus. I know that if I trusted my life to Him, He will lead me to my heavenly home. When you trust Jesus Christ, you can understand how strong is His love, and you know that He leads you to the right place.

Do not be afraid to trust God – He loves you!

Hi! My name is Anastasia. I am 20. I am student of Cherkassy State University (CSU), foreign language faculty.

Everything that is going on in my life is going according Gods will. In 1998, because of God’s mercy I received Jesus Christ into my heart, and since that I never regret that I was a Christian. I was baptized in 2000 straight away after graduating from the school. I always thought I had to serve god more. My ministry to God started from poems, that I was occasionally tell in the church. After I was baptized I started singing in youth choir and begun to glorify Him with singing. I also have been attending Bible classes.

I love to serve God very much and I try to give Him everything I have. The only thing I am lack of is time to do more for Him.

I have main ministries – the choir and poems, and additional – visiting village churches and encouraging brothers and sisters there.

This year God put the desire in my heart to take part in another ministry. That is missionary ministry that is very important for God and very responsible for me.

We had missionaries from States and Britain in Chercassy who called young people from local churches to take part in missionary work. We prayed that God may make everyone of us to be His missionaries. As for me, I think that God answered that prayer. Also I am sure that I have to go to the missionary trip even I have financial difficulties. I am sure the Lord will provide and help me to accomplish “impossible mission”.

People can devote their life to many businesses and passions, but nothing can be compared with ministry for God.

During the preparations to the project Mission Impossible 3 we had many trials. And only now I understand why we had so many difficulties that seemed to be overwhelming. Without God we could not put this project into life ourselves. Devil poured out a lot of temptations on us, because he new the place we were going to. He saw our spiritual weakness, and he wanted things to stay the same. Regardless of the fact that our team had a lot of doubts about this missionary trip, sometimes we were even turning away from God He did what He planed. We looked like those small children, who always complain about their life. The same way when we were tired from the vanity of life, we were satisfying ourselves with the words: “I am tired, I have no strength to do anything”. But God extended His helping hand to us and made possible mission out of Mission Impossible 3. It is impossible to describe all the difficulties we had to face with. You can feel this when you decide to be a missionary.

What is missionary work? Some people can say that it may be boring and old-fashioned for them because now we have 21st century with its unlimited opportunities for everyone. But now I can tell with no doubt that nothing can be compared with what I received from missionary trip to Asia and I am grateful to my Heavenly father for that perfect love and joy that I found there. I will never forget anything I have experienced during my first missionary trip. Because everything hat happens for the first time in our life will be never forgotten.

I met wonderful people with kind and sincere hearts. They gave me everything they had. No, they are not rich materially, many of them never had their own house. They gave me something greater – their love and friendship – the most pure feelings in the world.

I am very sorry about people, who does not know what is love to God and to people. Present-day world is violent and selfish, but if we look closely we can find the wonderful small part of God in every person, no matter how bad that person is. We are Gods creations and everyone of us is precious in His site.

Christian youth camp where we had our ministry was really blessed. Many children of different age, nation, culture and religion visited it. They came to the camp burdened with their own problems, and no one of them knew that they will receive the most precious gift in their life. God changed their hearts in very miraculous way, released them from pernicious habits and made them into the new creation. It is impossible to describe that joy children had when they were coming to God. Many of them had a lot of severity and violence, offences and constant hardship in their life. But now their most precious thing is the salvation they received from God.

I prayed a lot and asked God to make me useful for that camp. And I received the answer, when children were thanking me for the Word of God I was sharing with them and for my presence in the camp. I give thanks to God for everything. Because only God was able to unite such different nations with one Spirit and one Faith in Jesus Christ. I will never forget a boy who never had his family and most of his life he spent on the street with its cruel rules and laws. He called me his best friend because he never met people who were called Christians before in his life. It showed me how imperfect our world is and how much more work should be done to give hope to unfortunate and offended with life children. We are the children of God and we have to be thankful that we have such wonderful friend – Jesus Christ Who is ready to listen and ready to support in the hardships. Only there I understood what riches and eternal joy we have as Christians.

Of course God changed the hearts of our Ukrainian team. It is impossible to stay indifferent after all we experienced in that faraway and the same time near country. In our memory we will always have those unforgettable memories about that beautiful place and about those wonderful people who live there. Small part of love and faith of those people we brought to Ukraine to share with our brothers and sisters. God lighted our hearts and showed us many miracles through this missionary trip. He proved theh He is Living God and He will never live us no matter where we are. He is the King of kings. Every nation and every person is precious in His site, no one is forgotten and He gives his salvation and love to everyone. Bible tells us about this: “All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn unto Jehovah; And all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.” When I saw Christians from Moslem countries, worshiping God even they have all those persecutions, I saw the truth of the Bible. The last evening of our missionary trip in Middle Asia was very special when the tears and joy were on our faces. We knew that we may never see those people, who were precious for our hearts, but we did not say goodbye forever. We knew that we will meet each other in heaven with great joy.

Missionary trip to any place of the world does not promise you fantastic trip or great relaxation. Not at all. You will never get them, but you will receive something much greater than earthly comforts. That is heavenly treasure, that is not under the influence of time and decay. That is the most precious gift anyone can receive in their life.

Bible says: “Go into the world and make disciples of all the nations”. The words that Jesus said changed the history of the mankind and even now, this time Christians continue serving God, preaching His holly Word to all the nations.

Many people think that missionary trips to other countries can be afforded by Christians from rich countries. I think that this way of thinking is not right, because spiritual growth of the Christians in Ukraine is not less, then, foe example, in USA. Many of us can share that faith in Jesus Christ with the people who do not accept Him as their personal Savior, and no matter where to preach – in our country or abroad. The main thing that people would repent in their sins and would accept Christ. I am sure that missionary trips also help to grow in Spirit to missionaries themselves, what is really important for everybody who believe in Christ. Many Christians do mot have certain ministry in the church and give their time to their personal carrier. Their faith is turning weak, and the suffer because they are not useful for the church, and they are not servants of God. In the end of the day such Christians can become cold to Christian life. And we, who were chosen by God for His glory, often forget that our Creator purposed for each one of us our personal ministry.

I know many Christians who took part in missionary trip “Mission Impossible 1 and 2”. They told many interesting things about countries they visited, about the culture and traditions of the local people. But he main thing they received there was spiritual revival they needed very much. These people went there without knowing that God was going to change their hearts. When they were telling how God was acting through them and blessed them abundantly with His holly blessings, I received a desire to take part in the project Mission Impossible 3.

When I was unbeliever the sense of my life was to become rich, live long happy life and so on. Now, when I am a Christian, I understand, that all earthly joys are temporal and person will be separated from them sooner or later. I understand how miserable is the life without God. It is real pain to see those people who were swallowed up by this severe world. Trying to fill that spiritual emptiness they are doing all crazy things that lead them to death. Many people are lost in their problems and can not find the way out of them. An I want to tell them that Holly Scripture has all the answers for the questions people ever had, and that there is no single problem in the world that our Lord Jesus Christ can not solve.

If Gods will be in it I would like to go for Mission Impossible 3, to go to Kazakhstan for 3 weeks and preach Good News, and with great joy I will do what Holly God wants me to do. Then, when I came back to Ukraine from missionary trip I will be able to tell people how great and wonderful our God is. Because that was Him who created us, people, according his own image and gave us this beautiful Earth to live, that we may always rejoice and glorify His Holly Name.

I understand that it is hard to go for missionary trip to Kazakhstan and I need to spend a lot of time and strength on it. But I also know that with Almighty God all things are possible.

I have no clue how a missionary feels – the one, that comes back home after many years spent in some other country. I’m home for ’bout a week now and at the moment I have a strange feeling of emptiness and fullness at the same time. It’s hard to know that there’re thousands of kilometres lying between us, but, nevertheless, the impressions and blessings are hardly to be forgotten. We spent only one month in Middle Asia and it is certainly not enough to learn ’bout its problems and everyday life. But this time appeared to be absolutely enough to fall in love with this country and its people – just for the way they are. You can travel round the world your whole life and keep admiring everything you’ve seen. Yet, you can go to one country and leave your heart there, become attached to it so much, that for a long time there’s nothing else you can think of. Guess, this is my case. It’s not just emotions, but it’s rather what the Lord has done for me there, what he’s taught me and revealed to me.

I know for sure, this trip didn’t happen by any chance, ’cause far before it started our team faced a number of problems – someone didn’t want us to go there. Amazing, that knowing nothing at all ’bout Middle Asia, having no idea what’s going to happen there, we stepped up all our efforts not to quit halfway. It was then, that the Lord gave me assurance, that this is where I’ve got to be this summer – not home or some retreat, but Asia. We had loads of hesitations and disappointments, but Jesus saw the end of the MI3 project. He already saw our team, when we had no idea who would go, and He prepared work for us to do in Salvation Patrol camp.

We must have looked a bunch of funny and strange people the first couple of hours spent in that country, especially when local people told us ’bout the insects, snakes and air temperature. Our eyes were getting wider and wider. The next morning I found out, that this was nothing compared to what the Lord had in store for us. First of all it was His presence and love I’ve seen in many leaders and captains, a great desire to serve. Here in Ukraine we’ve gone much too far from such “trivialities” and material world is getting more important for us than anything else. So many times I felt that through sincere ministry of local guys Jesus Himself was washing my feet and saying: “Look, I’m giving you an example. Go and do the same.” It was so new for me to see spiritually rich can you be, having practically nothing by our standards. That’s why it was a great privilege to work with such people.

The thing that has caught my attention right the first day was that the building where we lived looked very much like an ark. After all, it was a symbolic ark for all of us, as we lived there for a whole month. For many guys it became an ark of salvation, because many of them went home with their sins forgiven. In the evenings all of us, though from different countries, of different nationalities, backgrounds and dreams, united into one big family and worshipped our Father and God together. These were the moments, I realized the power of Christ’s sacrifice. Without Him nothing of what has happened in Middle Asia would be possible.

When still in Ukraine, we had some ideas ’bout the country we were going to, but they appeared to be totally fake. Personally I thought that if it’s a Muslim country, everything’s already clear. To my great surprise we haven’t met there insane Muslims – we’ve met our brothers and sisters, who were a great example of faith for me. Nevertheless, we had plenty of work to do on the spiritual field. We had different categories of kids and young people coming to the camp. Seems like they had different purposes, too. Some considered themselves to be dedicated Muslims and didn’t want to hear anything ’bout Christ. The others wanted to know more about Jesus… and they did!! There were some guys, who had no clue, that this camp will change their lives once and forever. Some came to show themselves, how cool they are, but the Lord has shown them that their sins make them ugly in his eyes. Looking at there absolutely different people I realized that each one of them needs an individual approach….. and the Lord has given it to us! When telling some of the guys ’bout Jesus, I realized, that it was Him talking through me. I never found it so easy to tell others ’bout Christ as this time. These were the moments I understood clearly why I was there, why there had been so many obstacles in the way, so that the easiest way out seemed to give up. But we have no right to do it, taking into account how much the Lord has given me. Just an example: you risk more being a Christian in Middle Asia than in Ukraine. I don’t know how many members we would have in our church, if they knew, that the church can explode every moment, or that they may have to die for their faith in Christ. Many kids in the camp were glad to have a chance to buy a Bible, whereas we have uncountable number of them on the bookshelves – and we never use all of them.

During this month the Lord has revealed so much to me that without Middle Asia my life would not be full. God planned this trip many years ago and Jesus saw it when He was dying for us on the cross. I’m glad I didn’t turn my back on Him, when He was calling me to go. I know I’m not worthy of what I received in Middle Asia, but, after all, I’m not worthy of salvation, too. Don’t know whether I’ll have an opportunity to go to Asia again and see the aces, so dear to me now… Even if not, the memories will stay forever. For me this country will never be just another one on the map – because there’re things not possible to forget and even time has no power over them.

Every event that happens in the life has great impact for our future. Of course, in the best case it will have impact for the life of people around us.

It’s seems to me that we have to work in this direction. Not many things we can compare with the blessings which you can receive doing missionary ministry. If you really do according to Gods will, then you feel and see that the one who is speaking and acting is God, not you. And you feel Gods breath in you, you become one with Him. I lived through it to some extent, and I can say that with this experience you can compare nothing.

Missionary trip is not entertaining trip from “Travelers club”. That is sacrificial purposeful ministry to people and to the Lord, rejection of your own ambitions for Christ. Living through this “life shaking” person can not stay silent about what God did in your life. Having this on purpose we visited churches telling people what we experienced through the time in Irkutsk. I know that many who were listening to our stories, were listening to it like interesting the fairy tale, but also there ware people who were encouraged in their ministry, heard answer to their prayers or received Gods call in their Christian life.

The Lord is doing the main job, and it is Him, who speak through His children to the hearts of the people. When we try to do it ourselves, everything starts breaking in our hands, and results are not like we expected. In the end of the day you face your destiny and understand, that you have to start everything again, but this time together with God. I would say that to some extent it is connected with forecasting of the benefit for Ukraine from my trip. To tell the truth this is my third time writing such essay with the same topic, and every time I see that God acts there, where we are not expecting Him to act. That’s why I submit to Him and I want Him to use me and all the potential He gave to me. Last year I started walking the way of missionary ministry and now it is important for me to prove myself and to God that I did not turn away from that way I had chosen. It is not easy to reject career, riches, comfortable lifestyle you used from your childhood, the family and friends. But from another side you can not compare anything with the feeling of absolute closeness to Jesus, absolute dependence on Him and cooperation with Him. If I spend all my life at home, I would not risk anything, but also will not receive those blessings God had prepared for me, and I will not fulfill the purpose of my life I was born for.

Coming back to the theme of the essay I would like to tell that partly the problem of Ukraine is that Ukrainians lost their hope in the better life, and doing nothing they are crying for their unlucky destiny. It is really sad when people loose their hope, especially if you believe that hope dies only in the end. I believe and know that our country has the future – the future Christ wants to see. But he can not do everything Himself, while we will be just looking. Many things depend on us!! Nothing will be changed in Ukraine If we do not want to do anything. But then God will do miracles through us. It will be the best example of love for Ukraine, much better then just words. In the certain time God lighted with His fire my heart and the hearts of my friends. Now our goal is to bring this fire forward and light the hearts of other people. The more Christians we have in our country, who are not sleeping in artful last time, the more benefit and blessings we will have for our country. I know that God can change the face of Ukraine, he just need workers, for who He will be the first priority. I want to be one of them!! At the time of Abraham God agreed to save life for whole city if there were 10 righteous people. It is a pity, but there were not, but this proves, that Gods attitude to the country depend on the spiritual condition of its inhabitants. May be, because of my faith, my ministry and my devotion to God He will bless Ukraine. If every person would think so (and not only think, but do something), then in few days we would be witnesses of miraculous changes.

Far away the other side of the window was railway station, noisy crowd of those who were seeing us off on the train and worried faces of mothers. Far away were Cherkassy, and distant Middle Asia was waiting for us in front. We were on the way, but I was not able to believe. The longer distance we were going the more my heart was trembling before God. “You are with me and You are my rock. Take me, here I am, and use me for Your glory” – that was what I wrote in my dairy that day. And it was hard to believe, even from the first day I was sure and knew that I will be going to Asia. But how much I had to go through! But now I understand, that all those difficulties were drawing my attention to the fact that this trip cost it. God was glorified there and He opened Himself to those who were searching for Him.

I was told a lot about Asia, a lot of warnings about how to behave and what to do, but everything was much different from our imaginations. Even being on the plane I understood that Asians are very sociable and kind people. The closer we were to the place of our destination, the more I prayed to God for our camp.

Our plane landed and we came out to the ground. We were very puzzled about old lorry where our suit-cases were piling. An old man was picking a suit-case and was shouting in local language, as far as we understood it was “Whose is that?”. After we catch our bags we went into the airport building. We came into one of big cities. I did not know who was going to meet us and we were a little bit worried. I was looking at dark-skinned faces and tried to find out who was going to pick us up. Suddenly I had somebody taking my arm and asking “Are you from Ukraine?” Being under shock I did not know what to answer to handsome swarthy young man. He was the first we had met and it was the first name we remembered.

In the beginning I thought I was hopeless with the names, but to the end of the camp I remembered everyone’s name and those names were dear for my heart. From the first day I felt myself as at home; we did not have contradictions, omissions, misunderstandings; I felt I was in my Asian family. I do not stop to amaze how God was taking care of me and prepared the best for me. I felt his love and care in those people. He prepared the land and the harvesters.

One thing was difficult for me – together with hospitable and nice people we were met by friendly crowd of flying-crawling fauna and flora. Later I’ve learnt how to be careful and active meeting them.

The place of our camp was really blessed. And not only because God in miraculous way provided money for the camp. Not only because the camp site was far away from the city and we had freedom to tell children about Christ. But everything that surrounded us – majestic beautiful mountains, very green water in the river, worship under the sky full of stars up to midnight – all of this were making me trembling before God, to come closer to Him, bow down before Him. He was so close at that place. In this camp I’ve learnt how to search for God from early morning until late at night. In the beginning in was not easy to do, but then it was natural desire – to search for His presence. I’ve learnt to be eager of prayer, because the result of our camp was dependent on it. God not just was using me, he was opening me His truths.

There were 19 teams 15-17 people each in the camp. We had different children – some of them knew about Jesus, and some of them were Muslims. I saw God changing those people, he was breaking them and was opening their eyes. The joy on the faces of those who 1-2 days ago did not want to hear about Jesus was indescribable. They were giving their hearts to Jesus and were giving up drugs, cigarettes, they were changing their behavior. Many of them are in very hard situation. They are not allowed to read Bible at home. Sometimes the fact of having Bible can be the reason to turn them out of home. They are not allowed to go to the church. I’ve talked to many children – most of them are not allowed to go to the church b their parents, but they found the way out – they gather in clubs. God leads them and protects them. We became friends of children to tell them about Christ, and then He did us brothers and sisters by his blood. The truth was open to children! God was performing miracles every day and I was the witness of that.

It was valuable time when God used me and not only with local children, but also with our team. It was so nice to see the love and care from each others side, especially in hard times. Every day we had to work hard physically, what was normal, and through this work we became closer, we learnt to serve each other. In my team there was a boy whom I never see doing nothing. And I can say the same about most of them. Sometimes I felt ashamed that I am doing so little and getting so tired. God taught me to serve.

I had great privilege to lead seminars for children. There were a lot of children who had no parents and half of them were street children. Every one of them wanted attention and kindness. Many of them had horrible life stories. My heart was full of pain when I was listening to them. It was privilege to work with them and to tell them about Christ. They wanted to be near, and some of them were sleeping on my hands, so I had to carry them to their rooms. I was happy to give them that love that God gave me.

Those stories I’ve heard and those lovely and dear faces I will remember forever. One more thing I’ve learnt, what I did not expect and was afraid of and was not able to do – to praise God through dancing. Their simplicity conquered my heart. I am sure that God will bless and will rise this nation to new life!

There in Asia I met tremendous person who became the example of the missionary for me. I am thankful to God that there is such minister as he is. It was not my first missionary trip, but this one induced me to pray for this place. Now I have peace and I trust to Christ about my future and I will do whatever He tells me.

Once that missionary asked the question: “What does it mean to be cool?”. I think that to be the missionary is cool.

Everything I wrote about is a little piece of what happened. It is impossible to tell how it was, but all of that is stored in my heart. Only one thing I can add – this trip was much more that I expected and Middle Asia became so close and dear.

I write this essay with the same topic for the third year, and every time I have something to add, because every year you look differently at the things, and you acquire new skills and feelings, special experience.

Every missionary trip, as I think, either going abroad or inside in the country, or even in our region to some extent change our country. If the work of the Holly Spirit will be done, even in one person, through him later, or may be even straight away, other people will se and know God. Little spark can lead to great flame, and little seed can bring a lot of the fruit.

This, I mean last year, I saw and felt as I never did before in my life, how important was that mission trip and how much fruit it brought. Probably it was said a lot how wonderful that missionary trip was, but I’d like to ad only one thing – we really felt closeness and power of the Holly Spirit, that made our heart to tremble and breathe hard because of great exultation. The seeds of the Word of God stays not only in people, who received it, but also those who heard about that from them. People open their hearts for God, Christians become hot and faming for God, we coming to know God better and filling with His fear. Isn’t it wonderful testimony for everyone of us? And every time I tell in Ukraine about my work, that was done somewhere there, I pray that God speak to the hearts of people, because it is impossible to bring that message by words, only God can bring it into the heart.

I saw people who were listening to our stories holding their breath, they were praising God and crying of joy. That was what motivate people to go, to act, or just to accept the fact that we can and must help others, when we allow God to work through us. Considering even the fact that his year we will have two groups. It means that new boys and girls will be involved into this project. It means they will wake up and their hearts will be lighted. That is the real change.

We have to be missionaries, I have to be, anytime and anywhere, and it is a pity that sometimes the vanity takes all the desire away. One song has some wonderful words: “Be the missionary every day! Tell everybody about Jesus! In the towns and villages, and on packed squares…” That is what I am learning to be. I believe and I see that through these trips God changes people. Every year He is changing me and changing others, He gives the greater desire to sacrifice everything: time, money, myself, and this is not easy, that is why these trips are very important.

During the year I spend too much time for the secondary things and unfortunately in our life we have too much everyday work. But during the time of those trips a person can give everything to God, all of themselves. It is interesting that even my stories I’ve told to my unbelieving friends changed their attitude to many things in our life. And also I am grateful to God that he Gave me that opportunity to communicate what I’ve experienced with the same emotions when I received it. And that was used for the Glory of God.

Such trips change our youth, that, to tell the truth, is not awake sometimes. And I want, if God let me do it, to go for another mission trip.

The evening sun peacefully hiding behind a big grey cloud, pleasant breeze that feels really good after the day heat, beautiful mountain chaise, warm and transparent water of the river. Middle Asia. The MI3 destination. My second missionary experience.

I often wander how deep the Father’s love and care for us is. He is such an outstanding God and there’s no way we can ever (being on Earth) comprehend what a mighty Father we have. Not only is He mighty but He is also very clever and His beautiful mind is way deeper than ours. He is God of all answers. He is above all. He is just and sovereign and whatever He does is always good for us.

I am so very grateful to Jesus that He considered me worthy of being a missionary, worthy of serving others, of proclaiming His Holly Name? of being a part of His great Salvation Plan. And it is so thrilling to serve God in such a way. What a blessing it is to realize that God works through you.

As we arrived in the one of Middle Asian towns late in the evening we felt something right there. What was it? Something about people there made us feel at home. We were welcomed into a large Asian family and have become its inseparable part ever since. Their hospitality, sincere attitude, bright display of emotion, simplicity and yet deep genuine care impressed us greatly. And this isn’t something that they do only because someone asks them. This is a true nature of those living in that country, worth learning and remembering. So we were like at home for wonderful 3 weeks. We were a part of a big local team of believers. God bless them for what they do! In the country where it is still quite dangerous to be a Christian such faith and passion for God hat we observed meant quite a lot. Those people knew about wars not from the history books but from their own experience. Bombs exploded in their churches but they remainded faithful to God. What a faith!

I recollect the morning spent with our friends in prayer, Bible study seminars, afternoon spent on a beach, different games, fun and of course, how can I forget evenings when we had worship, drama and spiritual teaching. Watching the lives change, seeing happy faces of the kids, meeting more and more friends – I wish more people could experience that.

Now we are home again. Time to draw conclusions. I believe that so much was achieved by God there and it’s great to realize that we were a part of that. As much as we served them, they ministered to us and showed a worthy example of how to keep faithful to God. A big part of my heart will stay Middle Asia forever. My prayer now is that our paths could merge again, if not nere than in Heaven!

May God abundantly bless them. It’s them who will win their country for God.

I am a missionary! If someone told me 10 years ago that I’d be a missionary, one day – I would never believe! Me? No! I am not good enough. Why would God use me to go somewhere and tell other people about Christ? But that’s the true side of being a missionary – God chooses people, who by no standards (human standards) could be worthy workers for Him and that’s great. In our earthly life we always have to possess some qualities to be admitted or accepted somewhere. People in our society judge each other by the way of dressing, behaving etc. But with God everything is a lot simpler, for he looks inside. And when we are ready – he calls us! Sometimes we think, that we are not ready – but we might be wrong. Because God has a plan for each of us, all we can do is listen to what he wants us to do.

I believe that last year God called me to go to Siberia as a missionary, and tell other people about him. The whole trip turned out as a wonderful experience of getting to know God more, being closer to Him, seeing his work in the hearts of those, who serve for Jesus.

I loved every minute of my mission trip. And when I came back home, I decided I wanted to go again. But last summer I learned another important lesson – you do not need to travel a long way to be a missionary. We can be missionaries right where we are, where we live study or work. We are God’s messengers, and it is up to us whether people who surround us will see God’s light or not. It is a great responsibility and we need to be very careful about being religious so that God might be seen through us.

How will my country benefit from my missions trip? Will it benefit at all? I think that the answer is more than positive. People everywhere, in every country are in great need for Jesus. Unfortunately, here in Ukraine we’ve got so accustomed to the fact that every year thousands of missionaries come to Ukraine to do camps, to attend hospitals and homes, to participate in the activities of their sister churches or simply to get some idea of what Ukraine is like. And little by little we get used to this and just simply forget of what is written in Matthew 28 about going and making disciples.

Actually last year, when our team was raising funds for our trip to Siberia we faced the problem that some people would rather spend the money in Ukraine, than somewhere else. They say, “Why go so far away, when there is so much need in Ukraine!” It looks really funny when some people believe that only Americans or English people can be missionaries. But why can’t we? Yes? We are not rich by any standards, but with God we can move mountains! We can do marvellous things, work wonders! We can be missionaries!

I do believe that my country will benefit from my missionary trip. Firstly, as I said right in the beginning of my essay, we are already missionaries here. If we only realize this and if we simply allow God to use us as instruments in his hands, that we’ll achieve great results and win more people for Him. That’s why to be a missionary we do not have to travel anywhere. We can stay right where we are and work for Jesus.

Secondly when we do go away to other country and ‘make disciples’, we are somehow obliged to afterwards go around different churches and tell them about our experience as a missionaries. We are basically responsible for spreading the word, sharing what we learned and achieved working with God and other people. I think, Christians in Ukraine are a little surprised, when they hear ‘missionaries from Ukraine’ and see Ukrainian people, hear them share about their experience. We are to break the stereotype of Ukraine that Ukraine can only receive and not give. We are to encourage people here (especially young people) to think over their lives and just to try to answer the question: “Do I really work for God enough? Maybe God is calling someone to go somewhere and be a missionary?” And we have already experienced what it is like to nourish these people so they could also go and make disciples. That’s why all those who say we do not need to travel far away, but stay here should think how much we can do here by sharing with others. Of course we can not help speaking about money issues, but is that really important? Last year I thought I would never raise my funds, but little by little I managed to do it. That was a great lesson for me and I can say, with honesty, that God never failed me and he will never.

I do hope, that if I go on a mission trip this summer I will make a good servant of God and my trip will be fruitful and important. Last year I realized that I need such trips. It is not only for those who I go to and work with but it is also for me that I go on a mission trip. I get so much, I get closer to God, – what can be more exciting? I want to experience those feelings again and want everyone to experience them too.