Being on the front lines

This morning I was reading my daily devotional and I thought to myself, “I need to get a new one. I’m not really connecting with this and getting much out of it.” A few hours later I walked out of our bedroom to leave for the day. Stand in the front door was a women who spoke broken English. She told Nan and I about how she is leaning and trying to get better at English. At 11:00 every day she goes to the library to read to some children and teach them English as well. She asked if we had any books in our language. I jumped on the opportunity to give her my devotional, but she was really wanting books that she could read to the children. 

I brought 4 children’s story books to leave here, not thinking about the fact that they are in English, and asking myself last night why I brought them when not many people can read them. Well, God answered my question on that one! When I told her she could keep the children’s books as well as the devotional, she smiled so big and gave the books a big hug ❤️ I LOVE God tricks! I’m so thankful to know I am hearing him correctly, and we are all being stretched in our faith immensely on this trip! 

Now family, don’t freak out at first... I keep telling everyone that we are here to support Oleg and his team. Oleg is on the front lines over here. He finds people to rescue out of horrible situations, and brings them to Christ. But today, a group of us delivering food bags got to see him in action. 

This afternoon I truly got to see God work before my eyes. We were driving around and trying to find a home. We were having a hard time locating it and Oleg stopped and thought maybe this was the house we had been looking for. We got out and started talking in the street with the family that lives there. The mother was extremely angry, the daughter was ill, and the man in the house was an alcoholic. Also he was drunk while we were there. 

My sprit could feel the warfare while we were standing there, but I didn’t understand what was happening until we discussed it afterwards. The mother was angry at God for the poverty in their country and how the government abandoned them when they pulled out. The daughter believes in God, but not the Bible. And the man was at first oblivious to what was happening until Oleg started speaking. As soon as he starting sharing with them about Jesus the man walked up to Oleg and stared him dead in the face. Probably because he was drunk, but it truly looked like he was having an out of body experience. They all began fighting with Oleg, but he stayed standing firm in Christ. It was incredible to watch!

Before leaving that day Nan and I were talking about how we were a little nervous to do the food bags today. In our country it isn’t “normal” to pray over people let alone give your testimony and preach to them. We only go to church so we can be preached to. I felt convicted to share my testimony with the mother of the family, but they kept fighting with Oleg. The mother left and it was just the daughter and man left. Nan then felt like she should share with them so she did. We had fear to go today, but God pulled through to show us both that the fear was not from him. 

When we left the house we gave them the food, a bible, some medicine, and toys for their children. The man had tears in his eyes, shook all of our hands, and thanked us. He had another conversation with Oleg and was grateful that we came. They asked us how we ended up coming to their home, and of course since it was a mistake, we replied that Jesus sent us. 

We got back in the van and someone from our group asked, “So was that the correct address or did we still never find the house?” Oleg’s reply was, “Yes ma’am, that was the right address because Jesus wanted us there. That house is filled with demons. It’s not me working, it’s Jesus working through me.” Stand firm in your faith because God is holding you in his hands.