Journeys
Everyone you meet is part of your journey on earth. On mission trips, you meet a lot of people! I have formed deep friendships with other missionaries on some trips. I’ve spent time at the feet of amazing servants of God who head up ministries in distant countries and heard their remarkable testimonies. And I’ve briefly crossed paths with other believers abroad and in a quiet corner or during a car ride listened to stories of how God changed their lives. Every one of them is part of my journey and holds a place in my heart.
I met Katerina (not her real name) during a TLOT trip to a mission school in Spain, a school situated among massive boulders in a hilly rural area accessible only by a dirt road. A youth retreat was being held that weekend for Ukrainian youth from across Europe. After a worship session, we fell into a conversation, and I asked Katerina how she ended up studying at the mission school. We found a quiet room, and she shared her story.
Katerina was the daughter of believers. During her childhood in Ukraine, she lived “a typical life like a daughter of believers.” But she admits that she did not know God personally. While attending summer camp in her teen years, she fell in love with the idea of God, with what she thought was God, and she asked to be baptized. After her baptism, Katerina served in her church and went to evangelization events, but in school, she lived her own life. “It was a double life,” she admitted, “filled with lies to my parents. They saw that something was not so with my life, but I always found clever excuses.”
Although she knew that God existed and saw His hand in her life – He miraculously got her into the university on a cost-free scholarship even though she didn’t deserve it – she continued to rebel. “One day I came to a crossroad: I had to choose either God or the world,” Katerina shared. “I chose the world. After that, I lived as I pleased and did whatever I wanted.”
When the war started, God tore Katerina away from everything that she had – from all her friends, from her education, from her work, from absolutely everything – and tossed her and her family into a tiny mountain village in Spain with few inhabitants. Katerina lived there for six months in a post-traumatic state feeling numb and suffering from nightmares. Katerina and her family had lived near Kyiv, and after the war started had spent a whole month in the basement of their building. “The Ukrainian tanks and the Russian tanks rumbled right by my building. There were battles on my street!” Katerina described.
While living in that isolated Spanish village, Katerina could have made a new start, she told me. She had left behind her immoral friends and the bad influences, “But the sin that was inside me found me,” she said. Although she continued to live with her family, she felt alone, like she was drowning in an ocean.
Then one day her mother came to talk to her. She had prayed three days before coming to Katerina. Her mother lovingly advised Katerina to look at her life honestly. She had been baptized and she attended church, but she appeared to be living a secular life. When her mother left the room, Katerina lay in her room crying and calling out to the Lord. It was either God – or death. Thoughts of suicide taunted her.
Katerina knew that she needed to take some steps towards God. She remembered a Christian Instagram page that her cousin ran. “This cousin exuded such joy. In her eyes, I saw something that I didn’t see in other Instagram pages or in other eyes. Although I didn’t communicate with this cousin, I reached out to her. ‘I need your help,’ I told her, and I shared my burden.”
After that, they talked to each other for an hour or more daily, read the Bible together, and prayed. After a while, her cousin told Katerina that she needed to do more than just read the Bible and pray. To repair her walk with the Lord, she needed to confess and repent. Her cousin suggested that Katerina talk with her grandmother, a spiritual mentor who worked with youth. Katerina hesitantly reached out to this woman, and when she did, the woman told her that she had been praying for Katerina for three years! God had inspired her to pray for Katerina when one day she saw her photo on Facebook. Katerina was stunned.
Through phone calls, long talks, and prayer with this grandmother, Katerina went through the process of repentance and healing. God took her heart and healed every wound.
“A month after my repentance, I came here to this camp,” Katerina shared, referring to the place where the mission school was being held, “and here I was baptized by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit leads me. I hear His voice, and I clearly know His voice. I know who leads me. I cannot convey my happiness! My happiness and self-worth do not depend on the outside; they come from the inside. That’s how much God changed me.”
After this, Katerina moved to a big city, got a job, joined an active church, and started a media ministry in the church because she understood the importance of media. Social media played a big role in Katerina’s spiritual journey.
As Katerina grew comfortable in her new church and city, God began to prod her heart to go to mission school. She didn’t really want to go. Then one day her father called her and told her about a job offer in her area of expertise with a good salary and a free apartment right near the ocean.” I was being offered a dream job and everything I ever dreamed – but God was calling me to the mission school. I knew what decision I should make. I signed up and have not regretted it. I know that God has the ideal plan for my life, I trust Him. God has become everything to me.”