God's Hand

When we pray, God answers: yes, no, and wait. This summer my team and I have spend many moments in prayer praising, thanking, and asking things of God. This past week we were able to reflect and see how God has answered our prayers and guided us towards His perfect will.

About a month ago a false prophet came to Estonia and began spreading false teaching in the name of the Lord. The two biggest lies he was spreading was that you have to be baptized in the name of Jesus and not in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. If you weren't baptized that way you are not saved and need to be re baptized. The second lie was that if you do not have the gift of tongues you are not saved and the Holy Spirit is not in you.

Unfortunetly the youth leader at the Kohela church, a very close friend to all the guys on the Ko-ma team, fell into the teacher's trap. The youth paster, when approached in love, realized the lie and repented. However, after much prayer and counsel the Ko-ma team decided to cancel Kohela's English Camp. This youth group's number one priority should be to work on getting back to a healthy spot. Once they are there, they can work on outreach again.

So what does this have to do with God's hand and answered prayer?

This past term my team and I were able to work together at Rakvere's English Camp. When looking back we realized that Rakvere and Pärnu were the only cities in which the entire team meet with the church before camp. For the other cities, only those of us who were doing camp went to visit. My team and I were able to start camp on the same page. It also united us as we were able to serve together. Each person played a specific role at camp. God had specific students he wanted us to encourage, bless, and challenge.

A couple months before the summer began the American team that has worked with the Kohela church had to back out. Ko-ma worked hard on finding individuals who would be willing to help out but in the end we only had one American and a few people they knew from their church at Risttee. We were shorthanded leaders. It could have been done, but it would have been tough.

This was also the first year that Ko-ma put on a soccer camp. It was scheduled to take place this last term. All summer we have been praying for guys to register and for an American to help out. A week before camp there was still only one guy registered and no American to help. They decided to cancel the camp and instead  travel to different cities around Estonia and meet guys on the field to play soccer and share God with them afterwards. The one American who was suppose to help at the Kohela camp was the perfect fit to help out with the soccer ministry. The guys were able to travel around Estonia spreading God's love to a number of different people, including one of Estonia's deadly gangs!

God's hand is over Estonia and we can rest in the knowledge that His truth, hope and love will be spread on in His way and on His timing. We just need to pray and act in obedience. . .