PASSION 2010: Day 2

Today was a first full day of the conference and finally we've got to experience what Passion is really all about. By that I mean being at the main sessions with such great speakers as Beth Moore and Francis Chan, at breakout sessions and, most importantly at community groups. At community groups it was a great time to process everything we would learn at the main sessions and also to share some personal stories and pray for each other. Later on it has also proved to be a great way to meet new friends and establish good contacts with other youth leaders.

Ok, so, here's briefly what the main sessions were all about. Beth Moore spoke on the passage from Hebrews 13:20-21 on how God equips us (makes us complete) through different circumstances to do His will in every good work.

Francis Chan taught on the importance of God's word and how important it is for us to value it, every time we open the Bible, and how we need to almost TREMBLE every time we read it. Some of the passages he used were Isaiah 66:2, 2 Peter 1:16-19, etc. What really hit home for me was when he spoke about how we need to be changed by God (and His Word) from the inside. Only this way we will not come back to the sin and our old nature like pig comes back to the mud - no matter how much you're trying to clean them.

Then at the end of the day we had a late night concert with David Crowder Band - and it was an absolutely awesome and rocketing time of worship and unique music from DCB!! Exhausted, tired, but happy and overwhelmed we came back to our hotel literally falling asleep on our way...

Oh, forgot one more thing, today we also had a meeting for international students and we've met all other guys from Ukraine. All together there were 10 of us there coming from Ukraine. Praise God for those who could have come!!

Ukrainians at PASSION 2010
(sorry for the bad picture quality, but that's the only one I've got)

WOW! God is at work!

Today, we had our first volunteers meeting before we start regular groups for students in L'viv Convervatory. Not many people have come (3 volonteers and 1 student - all believers), BUT this 1 person that came was worth 10 others that could have come...

Her name is Alina and she is a 1st year orchestra conductor student. Even though I was suppose to lead the meeting (telling people about the "Identity" project and how everyone could be involved) I thought that Alina was ready (in a good way) to lead that meeting for me!!:-) She is such a full of ENERGY and PASSION for the Lord person...

Alina was asking questions half of the time at the meeting and ended up taking 25 copies of the Gospel of Mark "Identity" with her and about 70 invitations to the Bible study group next week. She also almost offered to start a Bible study group right away at the dormitory, where she's living!:-) (can you believe this?)

Wow, I have to tell you, today, it was such a lesson for me how God can turn things around in the matter of minutes. Just before our meeting today I was a bit frustrated that we again were not able to gather more volunteers for this team meeting (overall we have about 12 potential people, but most of them canceled 2-3 days before), but about 5-10 minutes into the meeting I've realized - we do not really need that many, if all of them are like Alina!! It truly was AMAZING to watch.

So, we are all ready now for the FIRST Bible study meeting next Wednesday, with still many posters to hang and many invitations to be hand out. Please, pray for Alina and for all volunteers team, as we prepare. Pray for the MIGHTY work of God in the hearts of students and professors of the L'viv Concervatory.

P.S. We now have surveyed 92 students and 51 of them have given us their contact information. These 50 people we also plan to invite to our meetings via e-mail or phone. It will be exciting to see what will happen next week.