CCX Lviv Graduation party 2011

This Wednesday we've had our last meeting of the semester and our final PIZZA PARTY (which became a good tradition now)! This semester was kind of hard, since we were not in L'viv for almost a month (when we went to Passion Ft.Worth and then our vacation) and overall students were hard to gather all at the same time...:-) You know how it is. So, for this meeting we wanted to get everyine together for one last time this semester.

"This evening I was reminded once again, that God is there, He's big and I am very small. I should remember about this!"

We thank the Lord so much that he allowed so many people to come. Some, whom we haven't seen for many, many month, but also 5-7 new people, who have never been to CCX meetings before. We had students from L'viv Conservatory, Polytechnic university, State University and Culture Institute. The name of the party was Indescribable: The Misteries of the Universe and we've based it on Louie Giglio's lecture "Indescribable". TURNED OUT REALLY well... One of the girls, who was at the meeting said at the end: "I was born in a penticostal family and went to church most of my life. But later I've got frustrated with the church and people there. When I left my parent's house and went to the university for couple of years now, I've lived far from God. This evening I was reminded once again, that God is there, He's big and I am very small. I should remember about this!"

We also had some games, sontests and a GREAT DISCUSSION, after the lecture, which at the end WE HAD TO STOP, cause people got so fired up talking about God in their lives. I also had a chance to tell people about importance of their personal relationship with the Lord and they should read the Bible taking it as a foremost authority.

Again, special BIG thanks to all our team of volunteers: Andriy, Vira, Alina (great decoraitions), Tolik and Taras - for the help in organizing this PARTY!! Without your help it wouldn't have happened. We also thank New Horizon's church of L'viv for the opportunity to meet in their appartment. Overall, the Lord has once again been faithful allowing us (even with all our busyness and lack of time) to finish the semester STRONG and look confidently into the future of CCX L'viv as we await Misha and Irena - our staff workers - to come and join the work here in September 2011. Please keep praying for CCX Ukraine and God's work in the hearts of Ukrainian students!!

Some pics from CCX L'viv Graduation Party 2011

Going to Passion 2011 Ft. Worth: THE POWER OF THE BODY OF CHRIST

Well, OK, this is more a POST SCRIPTUM to things that have already happened... not a FRESH NEWS.

However, I wanted to share this since this fall was a special period in our lives, as (for the first time in our life as family) we were involved in a small fund raising project to find finances for a trip to Passion 2011 conference in US.

In 2010 we went to Atlanta upon Passion Conferences invitation and were immensely blessed by what we've experienced there. The people we've met there, the atmosphere, the speakers that spoke - everythings there extremely blessed our hearts and we felt like we've got a HUGE boost to continue growing in our relationships with the Lord and in work for His Kingdom. In more details about our experince I have writeen in posts: Passion 2010: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 and Day 4.

"We decided: if we had the needed money - we would GO, if not - we would NOT GO!"

Now, back to the process that we went through this fall. It was truly a journey for us, as we basically wanted to find out, if it is God's will for us to be at this conference... We definitely knew that we wanted to go, but with our car beign stolen only 6 month ago and having to pay monthly rent and land loan to the bank we simply didn't have extra $2,000 to spend for a trip to US. So, we decided to write to many of our friends and ask for support... and, if we had the needed money - we would GO, if not - we would NOT GO!

What happened after that was a total surprise for us as people started helping us and in a little over 4 weeks - we had the money we needed to go to the conference. Here's how it worked:

A snapshot of how our "Passion 2011: Fund Raising THERMOMETER" looked each step of the way

We came up with what we've called "Our fund raising thermometer" and decided to let, those who, were thinking about supporting our trip to see the progress.

In a little over 2 weeks we had first $500, then - another $500, then - over a thousand... and then one of our friends (if you can imagine this - a person, whom we've met at Passion 2010 in Atlanta last year), have said that he wants to cover "the rest" of what we had left to raise. WOW!! That was really a great end to this small project. We've got the FULL AMOUNT RAISED!!

Through this process, we were once again humbled by people's readiness to GIVE and "invest" into our lives, by the generosity and trust in God on each of our friends' side. It is a HUGE ENCOURAGEMENT for us and a learning experience, that though we all, as Christians, might live at different parts of this Earth - through CHRIST we are united into ONE BODY and can count on each other.

Me and Katya wanted to THANK EACH and everyone, who's supported this quest of ours either financially or through prayer... You are a TRUE BLESSING and a great example to us of obedience to the Lord.

"We all, as Christians, might live at different parts of this Earth - through CHRIST we are united into ONE BODY and can count on each other"

P.S. And you know what, we were especially impressed by one family, who said, "We are tight on finances now, but we'll see what we can do?" - that family ended up praying for us and giving $25 towards our trip... BUT we were immensely blessed and amazed by the attitude they've shown. I thought to myself, that indeed it doesn't matter that much how much you give, but that YOU DO GIVE, what you can, if you want to support someone. Guys - you have blessed us tremendously - even through this small gift!:-) We praise the Lord for you and pray for your family and little son regularly...

There's a battle going on...

OK, apologies for a delay, but here's an update on our students group at the conservatory.

This Wednesday we had 6 people at the group and only one of them was a student (Alina - the one we've already written to you about!)... However, we had a really great group, which turned more into a testimonial sharing and prayer meeting. It was a true blessing to be there.

To be brief, please pray for the whole situation with students and the work at the L'viv Concervatory overall, because it seems that some forces REALLY do not want us to be there. One of the examples is that we find good support to the "Identity" project among the management of the school, but at the same time many people (some professors and administrative personnel) are really against us even putting posters out... There were cases when some of them simply ripped them off the wall before we even completely put them there. In addition to this many students, consistently are not able to come to the group on Wednesday for different unexpected (unscheduled) events that Conservatory has.

Please pray. I will try to go to the Conservatory again tomorrow to put out posters... so we will see what happens.