Belarus 2013 Finding my purpose for being in Belarus

Love, thanks, and peace to you! I wanted to write and give an update on my recent trip to Belarus to share with my supporters, my family, and my friends. The Lord taught myself and my team a lot on our trip. I will share some of my highlights here but if you want to hear more please let me know.


                                                    Team = Family

Our team before leaving for our first flight at the Lexington airport

One of my first highlights started before the trip really began. One big part of trips like the one we went on is the team you go with. We had 7 girls and 7 boys, young and old. I could say that I felt like I had a mom on this trip, a little brother on this trip, a few older brothers, a few younger sisters,  a few older sisters, an uncle and some cousins. The only thing I was missing was my husband, but he was praying for me the whole time and thanks to wifi and iMessage we were able to keep in touch. Before we even made it to Belarus we spent 24+ hours traveling so we already felt close before we even got there. Then through having morning meetings, doing ministry together, and enjoying time together in Lithuania and Germany I really do feel like I have some great friends.

                                 Encouraging Women of the Church

Jan and I with some of the ladies from New Land Church in Belarus

Tanya and Jenia from New Land

As I prepared for my time in Belarus and when I first arrived in Belarus I tried to remind myself not to view this trip with the same expectations from my first trip. Regardless of me trying not to, I put expectations on myself about my purpose of being on this trip. I thought my purpose of going to Belarus was to meet a lot of non-believers love on them and try to tell them about Jesus. The Lord had a different plan for me on this trip. I did meet a few non-believers during my time in Belarus, but most of my time was spent getting to know some women from New Land Church. I was given the opportunity to speak with Jan (a member from our team) to some of the women of the church (first picture). My topic was on the importance of discipleship. The Lord blessed me in college with a wonderful woman who discipled me and helped me learn to walk with the Lord, so I was passionate about the topic and was able to share that with the women from New Land. I also spent a lot of time with two women from New Land named Tanya and Jenia. They did a lot of things with our team, they went to the soup kitchen and the orphanage with us. They were also very good at trying to get to know the non-believers that were with some of the other people on our team. The Lord taught me that sometimes it's not about bringing new people to him but loving on those that are already his children. I feel like these women are my Belaorussian sisters and sisters in Christ. I pray that my time with them was an encouragement to fight the good fight in Belarus because I know my time with them was such an encouragement to me. 

Old Friends

Dasha, Olga, Kate and I

Nastya and I

Natasha, her son, and I

All of the pictures above are friends that I met my first time in Belarus that I was able to see again. 

The first picture are all girls that have finished with the University and they are all working women now. They are very sweet girls but I don't think they are involved with a church yet so that is still a prayer. 

The second picture is of a girl that I spent a lot of time with my first time in Belarus. Her name is Nastya. We have kept in touch over the past two years over facebook and email. The girl that she was living with two years ago that was her best friend (Kate) committed suicide last fall so I really wanted to make sure I saw her and tried to encourage her. She was so excited to see me and it was if 2 years had not gone by. She is still not attending a church but I was able to give her a Russian New Testament and she met Jenia from above and Jenia is going to try to invite her to church. Please pray for that. 

The last picture is of a lady named Natasha that I met from the Soup Kitchen 2 years ago. She doesn't speak any English but through a translator we became friends. Her and I have written to each other once over the past 2 years. It takes a long time because I have to get her letter translated and she has to get mine translated. When I saw her this year she was so happy to see me that she started speaking in Russian very fast. I just smiled and shrugged my shoulders and hugged her. It is amazing to me that the Lord van bring two people with so many barriers together as friends. Please pray for Natasha and her son.

I have many more pictures from the trip. You can visit this link to see all of them: https://www.facebook.com/becky.staton.9/media_set?set=a.677936060053.1073741848.151201036&type=3

This is a picture of our team and some friends that came to tell us by when we left, such a bittersweet moment

Things to pray for:

• The non-believers our team met would get connected into New Land Church.
• That Dasha, Kate, Olga and Nastya would come to know Jesus as their Lord and savior.
• The 2013 Belarus team to continue building on the friendships that were started.
• The God would show me if he wants me to return to Belarus in the future, because he has renewed my heart for this country and it's people.

I want to thank all of you for your love, prayers and support for my trip to Belarus. I know that I would not have been able to have this opportunity without you all.

Our team before leaving Lithuania to head back to KY

It's been a while

 So friends I have not updated my blog since before I went on my trip to Belarus. I am so sorry but as you know the Holiday season can be kind of crazy. To start off I wanted to share some stories of my time in Belarus with you.

 

New Friend Nastya

I had a few pen pals from Belarus that I wrote to before the trip and I was able to meet both of them while I was in Belarus but I didn't get to spend much time with them. I can say that I believe it was from the Lord that I was unable to spend a lot of time with these girls because I was able to spend some time with a girl named Nastya. Nastya came to our team with her friend Kate. We had a lot in common as far as our interests go. I didn’t get to share the good news of Christ with Nastya as I would have liked but I did build a friendship that I hope to continue building on while I am home. The day our team left Belarus Nastya met us at the train station to tell us bye and give me a gift before we left Belarus and that was one of the sweetest things for me. In the short amount of time we were in Belarus the Lord gave us favor with the people. The last thing Nastya told me was she wanted to learn more about the church we went to in Belarus (New Land Church).  I was very excited to hear that and my prayer is that she does check out the church and falls in love with Jesus.

Kate, Me, and Nastya

 

 

 

American Party

Another highlight of mine while in Belarus was an event our team hosted. We invited all the students we met at the university  through the week, and around 50 students came to the party. We played a few large group games. I was able to teach a few line dances that are popular in the U.S. Then we split up into small groups for some discussion time. We shared with our groups about Thanksgiving and then we were able to share what we are thankful for. I shared with my girls that I was thankful for the day I heard the gospel and understood it for the first time. I explained what the gospel was to my girls. I don’t know how well they understood what I talked about, but the seed was planted and will hopefully be watered. I did make some friendships that I hope to follow up with. A few of my girls also went with our team to the orphanage the next day. I enjoyed my time with these girls and they were a huge encouragement to me. 

My group of girls from the American Party

We Are Family

Another part of the trip that was a big highlight for me was our team. It is so amazing to see how the Lord orchestrates things like the people that go on trips together. We had men and women, people of all ages, and we had all different types of personalities on our team, but I can say that we were so close. In as little as 10 days our team started as random people getting on a plane and ended as a family. It all happened by seeing the Lord work in each other in Belarus to team-time in Lithuania and Germany. I am very thankful for the friendships that were built on the trip and the ones that were strengthened. 

This is our team picture :)

 

 

 

 

All the ladies on our team :)

 

 

The 5 of us became very close (as you can tell)

 

 The Rest of 2011

Once our team got home from Belarus the Holiday season was in full swing. I had lots of Christmas parties to attend. We had our youth group Christmas party. I had a dance team party. I go to see the lights at the Cincinnati Zoo with Austin. I spent Christmas with my mom and both my brothers. Then I got to go to the Alumni National Conference in Chattanooga, TN, which was awesome because I got to hang out with some friends that I hadn't gotten to see in a while and there were some great speakers (Matt Chandler, JD Greer, and John Piper). On New Years Eve we had a huge party at the conference with 5,000+ college students and alumni and I have to say it was an awesome way to bring in the new year. 2011 has been a crazy year but a good year, I did a lot of things I never thought I would. I am very excited to see what the Lord has planned for 2012 :)

Georgetown College Dance Team Christmas dinner and gift exchange

Pictures of Charley and I for Christmas

Austin and I at the Cincy Zoo to see the pretty Christmas Lights

Little bro and I before the Christmas Eve Service

The bros and I on Christmas Day

Sweet friends

Alumni ladies at the Alumni Conference

T-Minus 9 Days

As I look at the calendar I realize that I will be on a plane to Belarus in 9 days. I can't believe it. I feel like it quickly and quietly snuck up on me. I am very excited. There are several things that are happening as the team is preparing to leave. First of all each person on the team (there are 11 of us going) received a few emails of men or women from Belarus that we could go ahead and start communicating with that hopefully we will be able to meet once we get there. I was given 3 pen pals and I have had great dialogue between two of them. One of them is 16 years old and the other is 21 and is studying at the University in Belarus. They both have been very sweet answering any questions I have had and they both have been really interested in my hobbies, interests, what my home is like, and several other things. Most of the people that we have as pen pals are not Christians but our hopes and prayers are that through writing them before our trip we can possibly meet them while we are there and through spending time with them and loving on them they will see that light of the Lord in us. There has also been some small set-backs for our team in preparing for our trip and we know these things are Satan's way of trying to keep us from going but with every set-back we have been able to over come it. I finally ordered some wool socks and bought a very warm coat. It's supposed to be very very cold there and I just hope I am prepared. The highs I have seen have been in the 30's and the lows have been in the 20's. I also have to fit 10 days worth of layers in a 50 pound suitcase and if you know me you know that is going to be my biggest challenge of the whole trip. The Lord has been so good to me throughout this whole process of preparing for Belarus. I can't wait for my first trip out of the country and to see what the Lord is going to do. I know this trip is going to change my life. Thank you so much for all the prayers and support and I hope that you will continue to pray for my team and I as we get ready for the trip. I will probably post again the night before we leave, but don't worry I will have lots of pictures when I get back.

This is a picture of Downtown Minsk, Belarus.

"Sweetly broken, wholly surrendered"

It's been a while since I have updated my blog but if you remember in my last entry I filled you all in on some of the craziness that was about to happen. In case you all wanted to know I survived my crazy month of October. I want to share with you the big things that happened this month. Before I do I want everyone to know that through prayers, love, and support of friends and family the Lord raised the $2100.00 for my trip to Belarus. I couldn't be more excited and thankful that it is all raised. It is a burden I don't have to focus on, now I can use all my energy trying to prepare spiritually for this great opportunity that lies before me. Thank you friends, you will never know how encouraging it is to have othesr support what the Lord has called me to do.

Now to start off my month of October, it was the wedding of some sweet friends of mine. I have known Eric for several years now through Campus Outreach and Addie was one of my roommates on the last summer project I went on. Their wedding was so sweet and so fun. The gospel was clearly articulated at the ceremony and the love of Jesus was felt at the reception. Definitely one of the best weddings I had been to.

The Beautiful Bride- Addie Shrimpton

Room 11 ladies at the Wedding

Room 11 had to initiate Eric into the group :)

Congrats to you both!!

The next thing in my crazy month was my little brother's Marine graduation from Parris Island, SC. He didn't know that my older brother Shawn or I were coming. He thought we weren't going to be able to come, so when he saw us on family day he was pretty surprised. When he walked out with his Battalion on family day it was very surreal, I think that was the exact moment I realized my little brother wasn't my "little brother" anymore. After the drill instructors dismissed the recruits we had 4 or 5 hours to hang out with Chris. He took us to his barrack which where he sleeps, then he showed us around some of the base, then we ate lunch together, and finally we drove around the base where he has the Crucible, which is something they have to complete in order to graduation and it makes them put together everything they have learned over the 13 weeks. Then we had to leave him there for that night. The next morning was his graduation ceremony. All of the platoons lined up on the parade deck and we got to watch them march behind the American flag and we heard some speakers give them a charge and saw other very memorable things. I was SO happy I was able to go to family day and graduation. Looking back on it and knowing everything I got to experience while I was there I would have been so sad to have missed it. I only have one family and I want to be there as much as I can. I can't say enough how proud of him I am.

                 Shawn, Chris, and I during family day      

         Chris and I on his graduation day 

The whole family after Chris's graduation

He looks so tough

The same day as Chris's graduation ceremony was also the start of the college retreat that the church I work at was putting on. I had been planning this retreat for a few months and this was the day for 200+ people to come for a weekend to hear the Lord's word. It was kind of crazy driving from SC to Gatlinburg, TN in the 6.5 hours it took to get there but the Lord graciously gave us good timing to get there. I was so thankful for the retreat. It went so smooth and everyone loved it. The campus ministers loved it as well as the college students. I was also thankful for all of the help I had in pulling the retreat off. I knew the Lord was helping because there is no other way the Retreat would have been such a huge success otherwise. Friday was registration and the opening session. There was a session Saturday morning and then the students had free time Saturday afternoon to hand around Gatlinburg, and then we had dinner, another session, and the costume party Saturday night. The costume party was a lot of fun. The students are always so creative with their costumes. Sunday morning we had our last session and then everyone packed up and went home. During my free time on Saturday Katie and I went to Ripley's Aquarium which was a lot of fun and a good way to get my mind off the retreat for a short while. My costume for the party could have been several things but I decided that I would call myself a photo journalist.

 I got to be with the Nemo's and Dorrie's

Here I am as a photo journalist with Rapunzel and a Shrimp

 The Campus Outreach Students at the Retreat

There were other things that I had going on in October that weren't as crazy but definitely has fun. The first was the Huge Honkin Hoedown for our youth group at TCPC, where I dressed as Edna from the Incredibles. The Luke Bryan Concert where I got to meet Luke (ahhh). I went to a few costume parties to celebrate Halloween, I dressed like the green powerpuff girl for those. I finally got to go to Keeneland on the last day of the season. I went to a haunted trail, that did not scare me. Lastly, a sweet family that is so dear to me welcomed a sweet baby boy into the world. The Hardin's had little baby Bo Steven Hardin and I had the privilege to go to the hospital and meet him. The Georgetown Dance Team continues to do great, the football is as well, they are undefeated (8-0). We have our last football game of the season this Saturday.

 Edna from the Incredibles

 Katie and I at the Luke Bryan Concert

Nerds and the Green Powerpuff girl (Buttercup)     

Pink, Lobster, Cheerleader, and Buttercup

 

Me with Baby Bo Hardin. He was so sweet. What a blessing he is for the Hardin's.  

 The Tiger Dancers!!

Needless to say my October was so very crazy. However I took it step by step and day by day, I trusted the Lord with all of these things and as you have witnessed it all turned out well. Some of it better than I would have even thought. I still struggle with the idea that I am not in control over the things that go on in my life but this month alone was enough to remind me that I can't and I'm not in control of my life. The Lord was in control of all of this and I'm glad he was because I wouldn't have been able to do it on my own. A passage that I have meditated on for the past few weeks and even shared with some close friends of mine is found in Matthew 6:25-34. It talks about not being anxious about your life or anything in your life. The Lord provided for the smallest of this world so why would he not provide for his own children. This was huge for me because I think I spent 75% of October anxious about the things placed before me. I am thankful that the Lord has revealed this to me and it is something that I will be praying for as I continue to grow. 

In case you all didn't know Charley turned 1 on Halloween, so Happy 1st Birthday Charley!!

Seemingly Impossible

So, the craziness of the holiday season is hitting me a little earlier this year. I have many exciting things coming up that are going to keep me as busy as ever. Next week are two of these big things. My little brother is in Marine Boot Camp in South Carolina as I type and he will be graduating next Friday, October 14th. That same day is the TCPC College Retreat that I have spent the past several months planning so I have to also be at that which is in Gatlinburg. This sounds pretty impossible. However, the Lord has miraculously found a way for me to go to both. Through a very sweet friend of mine he has allowed me to get a rental car to drive to SC and then to Gatlinburg, because my car wouldn't make it that far. The timing of the graduation and the retreat are far enough apart that I can go to both in the same day. I am very excited to see my little brother achieve something so wonderful. The best thing is that he doesn't know that my older brother Shawn or myself are coming so it is going to be such a surprise. I am also excited about the College Retreat. It's in downtown Gatlinburg and it's with 250+ college students. I know I am out of college but it is refreshing to spend a weekend with college students. To see the Lord work in the lives of young people in just 3 short days will be very encouraging. I remember being the college student that attended Retreats, Conferences, and Summer Projects, so it's sweet to be apart of them now, even if it's just a little part. As the craziness begins please pray that I will work unto the Lord as I start to get busy and to see the work that I am doing as a service to the Lord. Pray that my dance team continues to do great, and they form lasting friendships with each other. Pray that the College Retreat runs smoothly and that many students strengthen their relationship with the Lord or come to know the Lord if they don't already. Pray for sweet time with my brother. Lastly, pray that as I start to get busy that I don't lose focus on my trip to Belarus, the support that needs to be raised, and the reason I am going. I am very thankful for my friends and my family, you all are an answered prayer from the Lord.

 Pictures of my little brother Chris and I 

 This is the group of students that went on the College Retreat last year from Georgetown College

"so we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well" 1 Thessalonians 2:8

Minsk, Belarus

As you all know I attend church at Tates Creek Presbyteian Church (TCPC). I love this church and all that it is allowing me to learn and do. I wanted to let you know what God has been doing in my life this fall. God has been increasing my desire to serve him in missions. I have the opportunity to join the team from TCPC in Lexington that is going to Minsk, Belarus Nov. 17^th to Nov.27^th , 2011.

TCPC has been involved in ministry to the Belarussian people for the past 17 years.  Belarus has a population of 10 million.  Belarus is located above the Ukraine and east of Poland.  It is the least politically and economically advanced country of all the eastern block countries occupied by the former Soviet Union.  Because of the depressed economy and the hopelessness of future opportunities along with the 70 year influence of the Godless communist government, we find that the Belarussian people are very open to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

While participating in this mission trip, I will be involved in the following activities:

• Sharing the Love of Jesus by taking Christmas gifts to orphans
• Building relationships and sharing the Gospel with College students
• Encouraging the Belarussian believers to be salt and light in the midst of their dark economic and political culture.
• Using my vocation to build bridges for the Gospel
• Helping New Land Church(our church partner in Minsk) reach their community for Jesus Christ  

I am asking for prayer from all my friends and family as I am preparing for this trip because I have to prepare mentally and financially. I have to raise $2100 to go and that is a lot of money. I also have never been out of the country before so this may be a huge culture shock for me. With all of that said I am very excited that the Lord has given me the opportunity to serve him in this way.