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