God Is In This Story.

God is in the details. Even in the broken parts, He holds my heart. He never fails. When I’m at my weakest, I will trust in Jesus. Always in the highs and lows, the one who goes before me. God is in this story. That song by Katy Nicole and Big Daddy Weave has been playing through my head an awful lot over this past month. It started as the song that was stuck in my head while I was walking around through utter devastation.

The first Sunday of October, I woke to a bang that literally shook my entire building. Immediately after this boom, I heard dozens of car alarms go off down in the parking lot. My mind and my gut were instantly thinking, get out of the building, even though that is the worst possible thing to do if there was a missile strike. But my mind went back to living through the two earthquakes in Gaziantep, and there might be people trapped who need help.

But here is where the miracle begins, and I thank God for so many of your prayers. My residential complex is a collection of buildings housing about 3,500 people. The missile struck a building just across the street from the edge of this complex. The building that was hit, and the one next to it that was also totaled, were both currently unoccupied for renovations. Although many apartments needed serious repair and as well as about fifty cars needing windshields replaced, there were no fatalities and only a couple dozen injuries. God was protecting us, and even as I was at school the next day, there were many Christians holding a worship service at the site of the attack to thank God for His protection. God is in this story.

Unfortunately, all too often, it is only stories like this that tend to filter out. But God is doing so much more here in Ukraine and at Kyiv Christian Academy than just war related things. I also had the privilege of watching the high school and middle school students gather together to lead the fall festival: an October celebration for the primary students. The very next day, we held the fall retreat where those students could step away from school life for a weekend and have an opportunity to bond together and meet with God.

This past week I was finally able to get some much needed rest and relaxation. I needed to head out to Krakow for my visa. I went for five days in case there were troubles with any of my paperwork. But the entire process took less than three hours, with most of that being a walk to and from a nearby bank to make my visa payment. In all my travels, this has been by far the smoothest and easiest I have ever experienced. God is in the details. Add to that the beautiful, warm weather the entire time I was there, it was such a good trip.

Now we are buckling down for the next quarter. The war advances on, but God’s Kingdom advances also. This week, another family was visiting, and we will likely be enrolling two more students. This tracks as there has been pretty much one new family each month. We are also expecting another to join the staff next semester. Please pray for God to continue sending more missionaries and Christian families to, or back to, Ukraine. The task is great and the laborers are few.

In addition to that, please pray:

For peace in Ukraine.

These past couple of weeks, there has been an increased amount of pressure on the infrastructure. The scheduled outages for electricity and water have increased in both frequency and duration. Please pray for things to hold together, especially through the colder months.

For the spiritual growth and maturity I have seen in so many of my students over these past few weeks to continue to grow and deepen.

For continued legal blessing. There is still one more step in getting my residence squared away before I am good to go for another year. Pray that it goes as smoothly as everything else has in this process.

For the growing network of prayer and support. This past month, I have both needed and felt your extra prayers. Thank you so much for your prayers and your generosity. God is doing great things through your prayers, and I ask that you would pray for an ever-widening network of intercessors for me, for my school, and for Ukraine. God’s story is not finished…