I have given you authority to …overcome all the power of the enemy.
Luke 10:19
Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
1 Peter 5:8
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.
Ephesians 6:10-11

I’ve been thinking back over the last several months to January. Looking back at how this team began to form. I think something good; no something great is going to happen this summer. God knows it. The seeds of Christ will be planted into the hearts of many children. Many prisoners will be set free becasue of one deed. Something marvelous. Something miraculous. Something uncontainable.

The enemy knows it too. He opposes us. How do we stand against such an enemy?

Like always teams are slow to form. Funding is always slow to come it. I expect that. I expect the usual struggles coordinating a group of people. Especcially when they don’t always live in the same place. Most of us live in TN. Chuck’s in CO. “Z” is in Moscow. The other half of the team (our Ukrainian mentors) hadn’t even been identified then. So, in order to get at least the American side of the team in the same room we use technologies available to us like Skype. But that means struggles with the technologies themselves. Not to mention user error.

Almost as soon as the team was formed the attacks began. Sickness among the team. Sickness among the team’s families. Then there were the personal, mental and emotional attacks not just on the team; but attacks on the families of the team. Stresses from work. Stresses of school. Stresses from graduating. Stresses from life and living day to day.

We seemed to have come through those either as a team or with the help and prayer from family and friends. Then the enemy had another strategy. Attack the very children and ministry team we are going to support. First, news of the orphanages being closed; one of them permanently and the other for the summer. This meant no access to the children. The orphans from the village orpahange would be dispersed permanently to other orphanages throughout Ukraine. The children at Central orphanage would be dispersed throughout the country at camps for the summer.

We prayed and prayed hard.

Then news came that the enemy was once more repelled, at least somewhat. The children from the village orphanage would not be dispersed and the orphange would not be closed for at least the remainder of the school year.

However, the Central Orphanage will close. So the seeds of Christ we carry with us will not be sewn into their hearts. So, we’ll pray and pray hard for those children that they will not be passed over.

Last year we met with bureaucratic opposition. Inspectors came into every camp where WWYC teams were present. We were fortunate. The orphans we taught for a week left to go home with the seeds of the kingdom planted within their hearts. However, the relationship with our camp director disintegrated. We left there to take up residence at a camp nearby. We were welcomed and cared for and made new friends. We discovered when we returned home that all the other teams were opposed and many were forced to leave camps.

I pray that we are prepared; that we know our enemy; that God will grant us foresight and foreknowledge to see the looming forces of dakness like storm clouds stacked against us. 

When he is through preparing us; when He has made us ready; when He has outfitted us with every weapon; when we know our armor and are ready to stand firm…

…bring it.

Bring it on! Let the lightning flash, let the thunder roll, let the storm winds blow
Bring it on! Let the trouble come, let it make me fall on the One who’s strong
Bring it on! Let the lightning flash, let the thunder roll, let the storm winds blow
Bring it on! Let me be made weak so I’ll know the strength of the One who’s strong
Bring it on.

“Bring It On”, Steven Curtis Chapman

 -Joel