Preparing a Mission Team in a Pandemic 

A peek into the hearts of Eastern European sisters

By Lena Wooten – Kyiv, Ukraine 

While writing this article, I am also preoccupied with packing my luggage for a 10-month journey.  God willing, by the time this material is published my husband, Shawn, and I will be at our REVIVE Eastern Europe mission team’s first stop in Istanbul, Turkey, or even our second stop in Odessa, Ukraine, or the final stop in Budapest, Hungary. The initial plan was simple, but the worldwide pandemic sparked some changes.

Hopefully one day I will tell the amazing victory story of our REVIVE Eastern Europe mission trip.  But for now, we ask for your prayers for God to use our team for His glory.

Shawn and I have spent the last 15 years serving in the Kyiv Church, and now God says go. So, here we go…

Over the years, we have lived in 26 different flats—in Moscow, Kyiv, Moscow again, and then Kyiv again. Yet I still never learned to enjoy packing.  It is even harder now.  This time for the first time we are leaving our daughter behind. Thank God for the great campus ministry in Kyiv. I am sure my 18-year-old “empty nester” will be just fine in her “nest” while her parents fly away!

At first I was very hesitant. It took a lot of prayers and thinking. The example of my friends, though, was very helpful. God surrounded me with wonderful, faithful missionary women!  I want to share with you about these women who inspired me and I am sure they will inspire you too.

Surrounded by Faithful Missionary Women

Three years ago, a courageous Ukrainian girl named Nadia followed her Albanian husband, Klodi, to serve as the leading couple for the Istanbul church, just a couple of months after their wedding. Nadia grew up as a kingdom kid in the Kharkiv Church in Ukraine. Her dad is a faithful disciple. His name is Grant and he is Armenian. 

For those of you not familiar with the history of that great nation, I need to say that historically there is a lot of pain and little affinity between Armenians and Turks. Also coming to a country that is 99.8 % Muslim (according to the government) required a lot of faith and love for people. Despite the obstacles, Nadia has been diligently conquering the new language and leading Bible studies in Turkish and English, helping several wonderful women become Christians, and training sisters to serve God and each other.

Nadia’s best childhood friends, Dima and Marina Dudnik, are also missionaries. Right before the pandemic, they moved to Sofia, Bulgaria, to lead the church. Marina is a talented musician and mom of a young son, Max, who is three. The church in Sofia is very small but faithfully waited for a full-time ministry couple for almost 15 years!

Needless to say that being isolated at home during the pandemic with a toddler was challenging enough. Try adding to this the experience of moving to another country where you are trying to learn a new language and become friends with people you met for the first time in your life just a couple of months prior. I am so proud of Marina’s zeal and loving heart. The church in Sofia is thrilled to have the Dudniks as their youngest (by age) members and passionate leaders.

“Amazed by Her Faith and Humble Spirit”

My packing is still in progress. Very soon I will meet up with more women (and men) who have decided to give God a year of service in the ministry and hopefully more of their lives. One of them is Ann Efstathion from the Worcester, USA, church. Ann just turned 60, and we have been serving side-by-side in Eastern Europe for many years. She and her husband, Chris, spend several months every year in Istanbul, Turkey, and Tirana, Albania, raising up leaders and helping disciples to mature. Ann has never served in the full-time ministry, but she serves whenever she can. I am amazed by her faith and humble spirit. She doesn’t just know all the sisters in Romania, Albania, and Turkey; she knows their families and has visited most of their homes.

Another friend, Masha Lyashenko, moved to Warsaw, Poland, a year ago. You may have heard her singing at the North American Discipleship Summit if you attended REACH in St. Louis, USA, in 2016. I have known Masha since our single years. We served in the full-time ministry in Kyiv and Moscow and in HOPEworldwide together. Our children studied in the same class at school. Masha’s daughter Arina became the first “empty nester” when her parents moved away from her and their home in Kyiv to lead the church in Warsaw, Poland. Now—just a year later—Masha sings and teaches the Bible in Polish and has helped several women to find their way to God in Warsaw.

God Still Wants Us to Seek and Save the Lost

I am so blessed by God to have such courageous and faithful friends!

What I want to say is this: There are many different ways we can serve God.  He still wants us to seek and save the lost. Some of them we know because they live next door. Some of them are in another city or even country. Yet, to reach them all, somebody needs to pack, move, learn another language, and serve God somewhere far away. Maybe you hear this calling in your heart. Maybe your friend or even your child hears this calling. Let’s pray that we will answer with full faith and encourage those who are called to mission.  As Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest field.” (Luke 10:2)