"Don't say you are an American. That might be an obstacle to the gospel."

The last week of July I traveled to Ukraine along the Black Sea and spent the week with a Campus Crusade summer project for student leaders from Russian speaking countries.   Countries represented here are Ukraine, Russia, Moldova and Belarus. 

The students and staff at this project were great and the spiritual conditions were fantastic.  The physical conditions, for me as a spoiled American, were tough: no plumbing and electricity only a couple of hours each day.  Here is the "big house" at the camp.  From far left:  three outdoor showers fed by a blue water tank, the only outhouse in the camp, the kitchen, a bunkhouse (top floor) and billard room (ground floor).  We had our meetings and meals under the tent. 

 Below here are some of the bright shining faces of the students attending this project.  I was the only American and the only native English speaker at the camp.  Only 2 or 3 of the students spoke conversational English.   In spite of that, I enjoyed greatly getting to know these students and learning of their hearts for the Lord and their desire to glorify Him on their campuses. 

I spoke six times from Matthew's gospel that week.   This is my translator Helen; she translated each talk into Russian.   She also helped me navigate through a few culturally tough situations.  

And seeing the multitudes, Jesus felt compassion for them for they were distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd.  Turning to His disciples, He said, "The harvest is plentiful and the laborers are few..."  (Matthew 9:36-27)  Several times we went to a nearby beach and shared our faith.   Since English speakers were so difficult to find, my partner in evangelism was my translator.  She was the one who said to me that being an American might be an obstacle to the gospel in this part of the world. 

We had a great gospel conversation with these guys.

I finally found an English speaker on this beach.  Andre and I had a great talk about not just being religious but about having a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ.  We talked about the great commandment from Matthew 22 (and Deuteronomy 6:5), loving the Lord God with all our heart, soul and mind. 

This picture doesn't seem like much but a half of a step back and I would have fallen 1000 feet straight down "the cliffs of insanity" to a rocky beach.   After this pic was taken I turned around, looked down and said, "He didn't fall?  Inconceivable!"  I kept waiting for someone to say, "That word does not mean what you think it means."  But my audience was not familiar with the movie, "Princess Bride."