Thursday, April 28, 2022

            Today’s message to you will be a bit different.  As some of you know, six of us will be leaving on Sunday evening for our mission trip to Poland.  We learned this morning that we will be working with and among fifty Ukrainian refugees who have left their country at the beginning of the war.  We will cook, serve meals, do laundry, clean living spaces and spend time with children who may or may not know whether their parents are alive or dead or will ever be seen again.  We will serve and work among women who have fled without husbands who stayed behind in Ukraine to fight and to defend their country.  Some of these women will be traveling with children, older parents, aged relatives or even alone.  This mission trip will be very different and very unlike any of the other trips we have taken.  The trip begins Sunday evening, May 1 at 6:30pm when we board a flight to Munich, Germany and then continue on to Warsaw, Poland.  From Warsaw, we will travel by van to our destination about three hours away.  We will return to the USA early in the morning on Monday, May 9.
            You are simply asked to pray for this trip and our team of six FBCK members who will go to serve.  We need your prayers daily and consistently as we do something unlike any of our other mission trips.  Pray daily and pray often.  Since Poland is six hours ahead of North Carolina time, make a commitment to pray daily at 6:00am and 6:00pm.  Pray that refugees will find hope and purpose in Jesus Christ and that they would respond to the gospel message as we have opportunities to present it.  Pray that each team member would stay safe and healthy and be able to finish the work that needs to be done.  Pray that God alone would receive praise and glory for this trip and anything that is accomplished.  Pray that the refugees would see Jesus in the simple acts of service that this team will offer.  Pray that a commitment to evangelism and revival would break out among European and American Christians as we stand against the rising tide of evil and the snares of the enemy.  “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12).
            We could do this mission trip in human strength and power but it would not be what God has planned for it to be.  So, we need to commit this trip to the Lord in prayer and ask that it be done according to His perfect will and plan.  Join us in praying that we would bring honor to God, His Word, the Cross and the Resurrection.  Pray that God does an amazing work of hope, healing and the giving of joy to those refugees who have lost practically everything.  Pray that God would replenish their earthly losses with His heavenly riches and eternal treasures as they come to know His incomparable love.  
            We cannot see the future of this trip, all that will be done, the seeds that will be sown or how God will use it.  We count on your prayers and the prayers of all believers to commit this trip to the throne room of God so He will be exalted and glorified and this His perfect purposes are fulfilled.  Pray that God will work through the imperfect and flawed six people who go to reveal Himself to those who are served in Poland.  We are counting on your prayers—daily, consistently, sacrificially and faithfully over the next few days as we serve in Poland.  Thank you and to God be the glory, great things He has done!