On Friday night, February 28, JIBC kind of did a thing. Actually, we did a thing again, and again. Now this is the third time we kind of did that thing.
On Friday night, February 28, we hosted an evening meal for our church leaders, the leaders of the Ukrainian Church, and the Ukrainian leaders from their “sending/sponsoring” church in Charlotte, NC. Almost two months ago, a small group of young adult Ukrainian believers showed up in worship at JIBC. They were welcomed and well loved. They went on to share that they were looking for a place they could meet for worship, discipleship and mission. We began a series of talks with them and started doing our due diligence allowing us to know them better. Everything we considered looked like it was put together by our Heavenly Father. They have actually been meeting at 11:00 every Sunday morning. They meet in the Youth/Student Worship Center after the Students are dismissed and leave to attend JIBC worship. They are easy to spot. They are the ones singing in Ukrainian language! Lol
Our leaders were asked to be in prayer and come prepared to hear the story of the Ukrainian group. You know we don’t really “vote” on many things. Instead, we ask “What do you sense God is doing and do you sense God is in this situation?”. That is the better question. Not “What do I want or what does anyone want?”. We only seek to discern what does God want. We have been blessed with a pretty good track record having hosted a Chinese Church family that grew to over 100 here at JIBC. And it is happening again with the Hispanic Church who is also reaching about 100 people per week. Now, let’s see if we can help provide fertile soil for the Ukrainians so they may reach 100 Slavic people living in the greater Charleston area.
Yep, we did a thing and agreed to welcome the Ukrainian Church to the JIBC campus and the JIBC family. We celebrated with food and observed the Lord’s Supper together. To God be the glory and may we see many come to know Jesus as Lord and our Great God as their Heavenly Father.
Next? Who knows. We did not manufacture this one, we were just trying to be ready when we saw Him working. As our old buddy says “You can’t make the wave, you can only ride it.”
See you Sunday, good Lord willing.
Pastor Tom
