What was meant for evil, God meant for good!

Well here I am waking up in beautiful Kiev, Ukraine this morning.  Spent the day yesterday walking around this beautiful city that is about 1500 years old - something that boggles the mind coming from a place like Canada.  Of course our tour had to include a stop by the Olympic Stadium, the sight of Euro 2012.

Feels so difficult this morning to put into words the experience of the last two weeks and our time spent with Shelter Plus and their summer camp ministry.  I could not help but think of Genesis and the story of Joseph during my time at camp.  When Joseph meets his brothers after all those years he says to them, this was all a part of God's plan.  What you meant for my harm was really God's plan to save many lives.  We found ourselves these past two weeks in a camp that was originally established by the former Soviet Union for the purpose of teaching and indoctrinating young people in the way of communism.

But what had been meant as a means and form of teaching young people that there is no God, was now used to give the teenagers (many of whom were from the city of Kryvyh Rih) a picture of hope of the God who loves them.  So it was an incredible time for us as a family these past two weeks to teach English, teach activities like football, street hockey, archery and Canadian cooking and have fun playing soccer with our new Ukrainian friends, all for the purpose of partnering with Shelter Plus in presenting the gospel to this country.  I don't know that we realized before we left how rich a time it would actually be. 

Rich with the friendships that were made, rich with seeing our children adapt to ministering in a camp that did not have many of the comforts we take for granted, rich with the renewed sense of the power of the gospel - that can actually bring different lands and cultures together for one common goal of sharing the love of Christ, and rich with seeing some of the teeangers who come from very hard backgrounds discovering a hope and purpose for their lives through Jesus Christ.

So as we leave this afternoon for Frankfurt to carry on our European adventure we do so with the richness of fond memories of two weeks in this wonderful country!  Yes and even in Kryvih Rih, Ukraine they know the jerseys to don!