Global Outreach

After 4 months of serving the Ukrainian people, we have seen a lot of heavy, heartbreaking things. Our teams have heard stories from mothers and children who lived in basements waiting for an opportunity to escape. We see a country crippled by war. 

The juxtaposition of God’s grace and man’s evil is blatant, flagrant even. And the question of where God is and what He is doing becomes very real.

But I was reminded of the story of Lazarus recently. Mary and Martha lost their brother. They sent word to Jesus asking for help. But Jesus didn’t arrive before Lazarus died. In fact he waited 2 more days! From an outside perspective Jesus seemed calloused. Uncaring.

But the beauty of the story is we get to see Jesus’ heart. When Mary spoke to Jesus and was going to take him to the tomb….Jesus burst into tears. His heart broke for this family, broke over the consequences of death, even though he was about to raise Lazarus from death unto life.

When asked by Jesus where the body was laid, Mary said, “Come and See.” What was she showing Jesus? Death, the source of sorrow, decay, loss. Jesus was heartbroken.

But the echo of the Gospel to our broken cry of “Come and See what’s going on here?” is exactly the same. When Jesus called Nathaniel, this man was skeptical and said “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”. Jesus’ response: Come and See.

Psalm 66:5 says: Come and See what God has done, he is awesome in his deeds toward the children of man.

In Ukraine we see brokenness, but simultaneously we see life, joy, courage, selflessness, and peace among God’s people. We see believers sold out to serve their people and point them to Jesus.

Things may be bleak, but our Lord is a redeemer and restorer of all things broken.

Paul said ‘...give thanks in all circumstances for this is God’s will for you in Christ
Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Beloved, we recognize God’s sovereign hand being in charge of every situation that we have experienced. As the year begun it started in a tough way for our church. When I sit down to reflect I cannot imagine how we survived the storm; the family of the land where the church operates from had strong wrangles, and by all means everyone thought the church building would not survive. But God in His greater mercies gave me the grace to stand firm and encouraged the church to pray. As a result, we saw every storm calmed in ways we could not imagine. We have been operating in all difficulties. We had no money because some of the people left the church and they feared that the church was going be dismantled. Personally, I had no other option but for us to live and serve God up to now.

Thank you Calvary Chapel Lincoln City for standing with us. Whatever donations you have made have helped the church to stand.

We have two services on Sunday 8am-9:30 am and 10am -12:00. Bible studies are going on during the week. What has been affected is the children's ministry since we don’t have space where they can sit and be discipled. How we dealt with it, was to call children in the morning service and adults mainly attend the 10am service.
Our rent has been doubled this year from $150 to $180 every month; per year, $2160. Our prayer is to buy land we can move the church to, in a new community where we can have land cheaply. For instance, if we can be able to raise $5000-6000, we can get church land and put semi-temporal structure that problem will be solved. That means if we raise something like $15,000 we can have land permanently and structure on it. Secondly, we need to renew our registry with the Government that needs $400.

We bless the Lord as continue lifting us in your prayers.

Yours in service,
Bartholomew Mayombwe, Pastor at Agape Calvary Chapel Bulenga