Hello everyone, I hope that you and yours are doing well. I wanted to give a recap of the trip that Melissa and I were just on. We left on April 15th arrived home safely on June 4th and have spent the last five days recovering from jet lag.
The first part of our trip was to Ukraine. First in Nizhyn then in Ternopil. This was my third time to Ukraine, my second time working with the Calvary Chapels in Ukraine and was Melissa‘s first time to Ukraine. While in Nizhyn we picked up on work that we had started a couple years ago helping them to do renovations and improvements on the church building and property. Calvary Chapel Nizhyn is a church that works with a lot of children. (It appears that the Ministries that Melissa and I are being drawn to are ministries that work largely with children). Nizhyn is such a beautiful place even though it’s under constant air raid warnings and bombings from Russia. The heart of the believers in Nizhyn is immense and their resilience is impressive. The community that Pastor Vadim is building there with his family is just awe inspiring. During our time in Nizhyn, like I did previously, Melissa quickly formed friendships and fell in love with the people there. Even though there is a language barrier it’s amazing how attached you can grow to somebody over the course of a week.
After leaving, we were supposed to travel to Tbilisi, Georgia, but God had other plans. This trip was riddled with canceled and changed flights and God was moving through all of it.
Because we weren’t able to go to Tbilisi, we stayed an extra week and a half in Ternopil, Ukraine and there we got to know the people that work at Calvary Chapel Ternopil better and we got to know my friend Zhenya and his family better.
Zhenya truly has a servant’s heart. He and his family live on minimal means but they give and give and give. He oversees the Calvary Chapels in Ukraine helping to lead them and guide them through this trying time of war. He also helps to distribute the resources and guide the missionaries coming from other countries. Even though he gets frustrated sometimes, I very rarely have seen him without a smile on his face. He loves his family deeply. He loves God deeply. And he loves the church in Ukraine deeply. I am blessed to know him and call him brother and I look forward to working with him more and more in the future. People ask why we go to Ukraine. It’s dangerous, yes, but we truly love our family there and God willing, we will continue to return.
While we were there, once in Nizhyn and once in Ternopil, there were active drone and missile attacks. We saw drones fly over. We heard drones and missiles fly past. We heard explosions and saw buildings burning, but we were never afraid. Melissa and I weren’t afraid because we knew we were supposed to be there and we were trusting God knowing that whatever happened, it would be His will.
It was hard to leave Ukraine. We wanted to stay, but we knew that’s not what God had lined up for us and we were excited to see what God has been doing in Manila.
Part of the extra time that we had from not going to Tbilisi allowed us to spend an extra 4 days in Manila. We were able to spend that time with Carmen Morrissey who is a missionary in the Philippines from Calvary Chapel Lynchburg and Pastor Andy Castillo, who is a Pastor at Calvary Chapel Community Church. We had met them a year and a half ago on our previous trip to Manila working with the Mooks at ACYC. At that time they were doing Church out of Carmen‘s house and again it was started with kids. Carmen had been ministering to the kids in her community and then as it grew she saw the need to plant to a church. That’s when Pastor Andy came into the picture, he had been a Calvary Chapel pastor for six years on an island called Mindoro in the Philippines. God had called him to Manila right as Carmen was needing a pastor to start a church. They started doing church at Carmen‘s house. It was packed wall-to-wall with people, but they still did it. About a year ago, God blessed them with the building and the church is growing. They have such a heart for the surrounding community. Every week they do prayer walks and street evangelism and house visits. They are training others in the community to be missionaries, not just there in the Philippines, but to go to other countries as well.
I truly love seeing what God is doing there and I hope to be able to work with them more in the future.
After our four days spent with Carmen and Andy we went to work at ACYC with Jaydon and Maddie Mook. Our time there was blessed by seeing the changes in the children that they were working with. A year and a half ago when we were first there, we saw a lot of rivalry between the youth and children from the three different squatters villages that ACYC ministers to. Some of the youth and children that are in those villages were in gangs that rival each other. We could see and feel the rivalry, and it caused them to not pay attention and participate in Bible studies and other classes, it caused them to not interact in worship. But this trip we didn’t see those rivalries. We saw them working together and encouraging each other and helping each other. They were actively participating in Bible study, thriving in the Word. Some were learning to play worship music on guitar. Some have started volunteering at the center. One of them has grown so much in her faith in the last year and a half. She and a few other young ladies are regularly volunteering at the center. She wants to continue volunteering ACYC until she graduates from school and then she wants to become ACYC staff. She sees how important ACYC was, and still is, in her life and she wants to pass that on to other kids and teens in her community. She wants to help them meet Jesus, help them to learn about Jesus and help them to learn life skills that can help bring them to move out of the poverty that they’ve been brought up in.
Not only did God use us to bless others, He used this trip to bless Melissa and I as well.
There were three main things that we were praying for during this trip. One, that we would learn to trust God more and not rely on our own abilities; to let go and let Him have control because in reality, we really don’t have any control at all.
Two, that He would give us guidance and direction for our ministry.
And three, that He would bring healing in our marriage from the trauma and baggage that we’ve carried from our past life and some of which was created early on in our relationship.
And all three of those prayers were answered.
Through the cancellation of flights and not being able to rebook things when “we” wanted to, God was building our trust and reliance on Him. While, at the time, we didn’t always handle it the best. It definitely increased our trust in God and we were forced to relinquish control over the situation and give it to Him.
He also gave us clarity and direction for our ministry that we were praying about and discussing with people that we need to discuss it with. Hopefully we will be able to announce that soon.
He also brought healing that was much needed in our marriage; our communication, our friendship, our intimacy, all of that was healed during this trip.
It was a difficult trip at times. It was a long trip, but I am so glad that we did it because He used us to bless others and He blessed us through it too. We thank all of you for your support for your prayers and I pray that God continues to bless you. I pray that He continues to bless this ministry and I pray that He continues to work in mine and Melissa‘s lives.
Oh, about the day we lived twice, lol. during our trip home from Manila, we had layovers in Taipei Taiwan and Los Angels Ca. The flight from Taipei to LA was 12 hours long. We left Taipei at 10:10 am on June 4th and arrived in LA at 7:20 am on June 4th. Crossing the international date line was just weird.
Thank you again for all of your prayers and support.
Derek and Melissa
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