Transcaucasian Ministry

Georgia ATL Ministry, Part 1

Wow- it is crazy that it’s already Month 8 of the World Race! Time is for sure flying by! Currently, we are at our 7th country on this journey: Georgia. Georgia is located in western Asia along the Black Sea. Turkey, Armenia, and Azerbaijan border it to the south, while Russia borders it to the north. There are a lot of important updates with regards to what we are doing here and what will be taking place over the next few months that I wanted to share with you. Excited to see what takes place, and let the Lord’s will be done!

For the first few days, we stayed in the city of Tbilisi- the capitol of Georgia. It has turned out to be one of my favorite places of the entire Race, and we got to hang out with a missionary family that I met while in Kosovo. Tbilisi is also home to Calvary Chapel Bible College- which trains and equips missionaries and others to be sent out. Our group got the chance to sit in one of their classes, which went in-depth over the history of missions. We talked about missions efforts in the Congo basin in Africa and other places. The group also swapped stories together.

One of the most powerful moments happened at the Calvary Chapel service that we went to while in Tbilisi. It was the first Sunday after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Throughout Tbilisi, Ukrainian flags are everywhere, and there is a tense atmosphere against Russia in the air (note that Georgia was invaded by Russia in 2008). We worshipped the Lord, and the pastor reiterated the powerful message of loving our enemies- in the midst of the world stirred up by war. At the end of the service, we (many of us from different countries) prayed over Ukraine in different groups. A very sweet Russian lady and her husband were part of my group. A couple of days later at the mission training school, we let our hearts “travel to Russia” to pray over that country and its people. It’s so crucial as Christians now to love the people of not only the country that is being unjustly treated (Ukraine) but also those from the aggressor countries (Russia and Belarus). This is how the Gospel shines and is set apart.

This month is going to be ATL (Ask the Lord) month. It’s a special time on the Race to rely on the Lord and follow His leading without a host. While in Tbilisi, we got ourselves oriented to the Georgian landscape. Getting to climb up a mountain and see the city was absolutely amazing! Loved the views and the good fellowship with friends while in the city. Yet as a team, we continued to pray and press in for what the Lord has in store for the month. We ultimately decided to head west to Batumi, where we are now! Please continue to pray over us as we serve here and also as He continues to guide us.

And now drumroll please! This is the projected rest of the route for the World Race! After our ATL month, we are planning to have a debrief in Georgia going into April. Immediately following this, we will be doing a “prayer burn” in Georgia’s mountains to pray over the nations, our squad, drawing closer to the Lord, etc. It’s going to be a very exciting time together as a squad! After that, we will be heading south into Armenia to do ministry for a month. I don’t know what Armenia is going to look like, and it’s a pretty big mystery at this point. Once we exit Armenia, we are going to Central Asia to finish out the Race. For the last 10 days (ish), we have a free-for-all time to explore and go anywhere in the world that we feel led to by the Lord. Please be praying into this! Then, we get back into the States, debrief everything that’s happened with our time on the field together, and return home at the beginning of July.

So for March and April at least, we are planning to be in the Caucasus region. This is a very neat area filled with mountains and sandwiched between two large bodies of water (the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea). Furthermore, there are lots of different ethnic groups here. Islam and Orthodox Christianity mix here a lot as the different ethnic groups mingle. It’s also an area that’s seen its fair share of conflict as it lies in a geostrategic region between Russia to the north and the Middle East to the south. I am excited to continue working here for the month, and it’s also one of the most beautiful areas of the world to visit (so stay tuned for pictures and other stuff on social media).

To wrap this up- I say this: Let the Lord’s will be done. We live in an unstable world, and we are called to trust Him. This is the projected finish of my time on the World Race- yet we are ultimately called to hold it loosely. Please continue to lift this up in prayer as we serve- and for the Lord to get us to where we need to be. An important Bible verse summarizes this (James 4: 13-15 NIV): “Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money’. Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that’.”