Waiting on the Lord as We Build Our Marriage

Right now, Wade and I are building our marriage foundation and enjoying each other as we do. We are praying and waiting for God to lead us to where He wants us to go and work with His people. Wade and I both know that we needed this time of building, waiting and praying before we get into the mission field.

This is my time of rest, refreshing, and adjusting to the new life that I have with Wade. I have many things to adjust to and I know that it will take some time. I am taking my time as I go through adjustment and enjoying it in the process. Wade is very supportive and understanding about it and I thank God for him on that.

As we are building our marriage, praying and waiting, we are helping in the church here in WV. We were asked to be in-charge of the Missions in our church (Boothsville Methodist Church). The Pastor (Michael Richards) asked us to be on the Missions Board, and we agreed while we are here in the US.

Being in-charge of the Missions, we started to invite everyone that is involved in any form of outreach to join us in the missions department. We then started a prayer group that will be praying for the Pastor and the ministries of the church, especially God’s leading.

We also starting a discipleship group for those that are willing and wanted to do any outreach ministry. The plan is to have a local missions conference this year, and to have a national missions conference next year. These program is help people focus and makes them aware of going or doing missions locally or internationally. Basically to mobilized them to get involved in outreach and missions work.

A couple of the outreaches that the church is been doing for years is the Potato/Banana drop and feeding lunch to the college students at Fairmont University, in which the church is working together with the Wesleyan Foundation Center. There’s much potential in these ministries and we are thinking of ways on how to use these outreaches effectively to share Christ truth and love.

Please pray with us as we work alongside with the Pastor here, and mobilize the people to get involve in missions. Pastor Mike’s heart and vision is about mission and we pray that we can be of help to him at this time as we wait on God.

God bless!

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Preparing for the Big Day

September of 2009 I came back to the US, this time not to attend any class or training but to attend our pre-marital counseling in preparation for our BIG day. Pastor Chuck & Sherry Quinley did our counseling. I told Wade that I wanted Pastor Chuck to do our wedding ceremony, and God is good as the Quinley’s were still in the US at the date that we want to have our wedding. God made everything possible. The whole preparation of our wedding is all blessings and favor from God.

All the details was taken care of before I arrived in the US. God is good and faithful, He answered our prayers. He blessed us with people that took care the details of everything about the wedding.

God blessed us with a Ukrainian lady and who is a Christian, she works at David Bridal Store in Pittsburgh. She (Vera), found me a beautiful dress. She worked on it in a week’s time notice. She worked on it beautifully and it fitted me well. Vera did a great job on the wedding dress. She was so happy to meet me and so do I, we talked in Russian every time we come to David Bridal Store. She also found me the shoes that goes with the dress, the veil, etc. She took good care of me like her own daughter that is going to get married, bless her heart!

Thank you also for the labor of love of Tess Straley for the lovely veil that we used for the veil ceremony. Tess did a great job on making our veil beautiful, its a gorgeous veil. Thank you again Tess for all your help and presence in our wedding, we appreciate you!

God blessed us through the women of the Methodist church. They took care of the food preparation. When they found out that Wade is planning for our wedding and looking for someone to cater the food, the Methodist women told him that they will take care of it. And that they did, the Methodist women prepared delicious food!

The reception place is provided by the Eldora Methodist Church. When Wade was looking for a place for our wedding, he was also looking for a place for the reception. When Eldora Methodist Church offered the church for our wedding, they also offered their big dinning place that is inside the church and with a big kitchen. The Methodist women used the kitchen in preparing the food. And we used the church dinning as the reception area. It was very convenient and practical. Thank you again, Eldora Methodist Church for letting us use your Church, the dinning area and the kitchen.

Our thanks to Scott and Linda Patterson for letting their beautiful daughter, Lauryn to be our Flower Girl, she is adorable! Thank you too for taking care of our Wedding Cake, we appreciate you so much, thank you for taking part of our special day, YOU made that day special!

The music was provided by our Pastor, Mike Richards. When Wade talked with Pastor Mike if he can play during our wedding, we didn’t expect him to play through out the wedding ceremony, but he did and we are grateful to him. Pastor Mike Richards played all the music beautifully in our wedding ceremony, bless his heart. Thank you again!

And of course, the wedding without photos is not complete. Wade and I would like to thank Sherry Quinley, Kat Stowe and Cy Bagwell for taking turns in taking photos during the wedding. We will not have those beautiful photos if not for them. Thank you so much, especially to Sherry Quinley for taking lots of photos. We appreciate and thank you all so much!

God used the wedding ceremony to touch the lives of the people that was present, especially the non-Christians that was there. God answered our prayers, as we prayed and want our wedding to be of some form of evangelistic wedding, as we knew that many of the guests are none Christian. God is good and faithful!

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God’s Sovereignty

The year 2008 is been an eventful year for me!

First, during and after the Summer Kids Camp, me and two of the leaders in our church in Donetsk, Ukraine(a Ukrainian couple)was working on our US visa application, to attend a three months Community Development Training/Practicum at SIFAT in Alabama, USA. God was blessed us with partial sponsorships with the training (which I believe I have already posted earlier).

During the course of study in SIFAT (Servants in Faith and Technology), I met students from different countries (students from five Continents). There was sixteen students in our class. There are American students as well that are taking the course, these students have a heart for missions and wanted to be equipped to do missions to the third world countries. Some of them have been doing short-term missions already. And one of the American students is, Wade Robinson, he’s been doing missions to different countries (South America, Africa and Russia).

Wade and I got know each other very well during the training at SIFAT. We both have the heart for missions and passion to reach out to the people that doesn’t know Christ. We spent much time talking during our breaks from our class and after classes. We became very good friends, and later on that friendship bloomed into a relationship as we continue spending time with each other during the training/practicum.

We both decided to pray and fast about how we feel towards each other. We want to know that this is from God, and that we are not only attracted physically because of spending much time together. We are aware that after the training/practicum, I will go back to Ukraine with my two Ukrainian friends and will continue my works in Ukraine where I am working with a church as missionary.

Before the end of our training/practicum, and before I went back to Ukraine, Wade and I got into a relationship. We asked the whole class to pray with us as we seek His guidance wisdom and leading with our new found relationship. I introduced Wade to my Spiritual parents and friends that are in the US after our graduation at SIFAT. He then introduced me to his family and friends before I left for Ukraine that year (2008).

I went back to Ukraine after Christmas of 2008, and we continue to talk and communicate with each other regularly through email and Skype, thank God for technology! Early January of 2009 when we both felt sure and decided to get engaged. We both knew and agreed that God ordained everything for the two of us to meet in Alabama after much prayer and fasting.

Wade did mission work in Africa before he went to SIFAT and planning to go back to Africa after. And I was in Ukraine doing mission and planned to go back to Ukraine and continue doing my mission works there. And in God’s sovereignty, Wade and I ended up at SIFAT in Alabama in 2008 where we met. God is amazing and sovereign, He will make things happen in His own perfect time!:)

God bless you all!

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