Northport church sees fruits of Ukraine partnership

If asked, 13-year-old Elizabeth Evans wouldn’t have any trouble pointing out Ukraine on a globe — or telling how the nation changed her view of missions.
   
Evans, a member of Chapel Hill Baptist Church, Northport, recently went with her parents, younger brother and 18 other members of her church to the eastern European nation on a missions trip, her first ever.
   
She came back with a new song etched on her heart — in Russian.
   
“We learned a song, ‘My God, My God, My Solid Rock,’ in their language, and it was so funny — they were amazed I could speak Russian,” she said with a laugh. “I miss them. I hope we’ll keep in touch, and I want to go back.”
   
Evans, who made friends with several Ukrainian youth while working at a day camp, now has faces to think of when her church leaders talk of the nation’s people, whom they have partnered with for more than two years.
   
The personal connection between the church and the Ukrainian people began when Michael Allen became Chapel Hill Baptist’s minister of music in 2003, bringing with him his wife, Yana, whom he met on a missions trip to Ukraine in 2001.
   
The church soon adopted a partnership between Chapel Hill and Yana Allen’s home church, Illichovks Baptist Church. 
   
And though several from the church — including staff — have traveled back and forth to Ukraine since then for various purposes, the church’s July trip marked the first time a large group from the church has experienced firsthand what Chapel Hill has been praying for and supporting for the last two years.
   
“Our connection with them is good for them and it’s good for us. It’s such a blessing for our team, and it’s a frontier of people that need to be reached for Christ,” said Tommy Honeycutt, who, like Evans, was experiencing his first missions trip. 
  
“Personally it’s an experience I wouldn’t trade, and I’m even more open to the will of God than I was before I went.”
   
Honeycutt and the rest of the team served at several different camps during the trip, some at a base camp at the church and others at makeshift day camps in different villages.
   
Each day of the village camps, the number of children present doubled. “It was an awesome opportunity to leave a lasting impression,” Honeycutt said.
   
Erica Livingston said the trip — her first international missions trip and her husband Rob’s first one ever — had the entire church involved every step of the way. 
   
“Because of their (church members’) involvement, it was neat to see their reactions when they heard from ‘regular’ members that it really is like the staff has been telling them it is (in Ukraine),” she said.
   
David Fletcher, Chapel Hill’s minister of education and administration, said the church’s best missions development to date is to actually get people going, as well as sparking interest in those who can support the effort from home.
   
“Hopefully it’s just the beginning — to get people going and doing so God can change their lives,” Fletcher said.
   
Pastor Tim Patrick said the church’s response to the project has been overwhelmingly positive. In addition to auctions, financial gifts and fundraisers supporting church members who have gone to Ukraine, the church has been over budget for the first time and exceeded its normal missions giving by $6,000 this year. “The more church members get involved personally, the more they are active in giving and serving in missions efforts,” Patrick said.
   
Members like Forrest Johnson seem to agree with that idea. Though he didn’t feel called to go on the trip to Ukraine, Johnson said he felt called to support it financially and through prayer.
   
“It was a burden on the hearts of my wife and me, and He has already repaid us more blessings than we could have ever given,” he said.
   
His church’s endeavor has already been of help to his sister Pam Johnson’s new project — a trip to Ukraine for Eden Westside Baptist Church, Pell City, where she serves as missions coordinator.
   
“We had heard that Alabama was going to have a partnership with them (Ukraine) next year, so we wanted to begin planning a trip for next year and work through the state’s partnership,” Pam Johnson said.
   
She added that the information and experience Chapel Hill had already gleaned from their relationships in Ukraine were helpful to her church in casting a vision for their tentative August 2006 trip.
   
“I’m planning to attend one of the State Board’s missions summits in September and decide specifics after that,” she said.
   
Upcoming statewide partnerships with Ukraine as well as Guatemala are being prepared for kickoff in 2006, and missions summits are planned on various dates across the state to inform Alabama Baptists about the coming year’s missions opportunities, said Reggie Quimby, director of the office of global partnerships and volunteers in missions for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM).
   
More than 18 months’ worth of intense prayer, consideration and vision-casting on the SBOM side has gone into preparing for the statewide partnerships, Quimby said, and many extra hands are needed to help.
   
“There are a number of churches across the state such as Chapel Hill that already relate to Ukraine, and I think that will add emphasis to the partnership effort,” he said. “A number of individuals and churches have already come forward and shown interest in the new endeavor, and I think that will enhance the effort from the very beginning.”
   
Patrick said any work with Ukraine from now on at Chapel Hill will be a cooperative effort with the state’s partnership.
   
“The Ukrainians need partnership. It is a good work they are doing there, and they need encouragement, support and resources,” he said. 
   
For more information on partnerships or missions summits, contact Sheron Poole with the SBOM at 1-800-264-1225, Ext. 298, or at spoole@alsbom.org.