*Repost from 11/28/2021
Duane and Lisa are a couple who moved from the States to live in Mukachevo, Ukraine and they’ve lived here for three years now. They have eight kids, three of which they adopted from Ukraine before they moved to Ukraine, and two kids with special needs. They are incredibly nice and hospitable people who have opened their doors to my team, for us to be able to stay with them during our time here in Ukraine.
The story of how God put Ukraine on their hearts and led them to move here is an amazing one. Lisa and Duane first thought they should move to Ukraine after they adopted one of their kids from there. However, they decided that they weren’t going to move there until God put it on their children’s hearts to move here as well. The four older kids anyways, the rest weren't old enough to really understand. Which I think was really amazing, including their kids in the decision to move to Ukraine instead of just saying “we're the parents and we say we're moving to the other side of the world”. It helps their kids with their own relationship with Christ and makes a transition to a different culture a whole lot easier. Lisa even joked that she feels like she and Duane are here to just support the ministry that their kids are doing here.
They don’t call themselves missionaries. They don’t support raise to do what they are doing here in Mukachevo, they work remotely. They say they pretty much live and do ministry here the same way they did back in States. Which for the most part is discipling the locals and empowering the church. The way they do this is by opening up their home to people and making them feel welcomed and loved. They push the people that they disciple to build a deeper relationship with Christ. They don’t do it for the results. They didn’t come here and within six months expected to have brought a lot of people to Christ. They knew that a lot of the work that they were doing wasn’t going to be the work that can be seen. But they have done some amazing work. Between Lisa and Duane discipling locals that they know and discipling their own children, they have been faithfully serving the Lord here in Mukachevo.
Serving the Lord isn’t usually that glamorous of a thing. Sure there are big things that the Lord asks you to do that people will notice. Most of the time though the Lord calls you to be obedient in the small things, in every decision in your life. I think Lisa and Duane do that amazingly. Like I said before they wanted to do ministry here the same way they were doing it back in the States.
I would challenge you to serve the Lord with everything you have. From the big decisions to living your normal everyday life.
