IS THIS REALLY HAPPENING?
I can hardly believe that we are leaving in just under two short months! Overland staff has already purchased six flight tickets to Zambia, Africa for our family for May 7th! Even Moses (whose currently under two) gets his own seat which excites me considering the amount of time it takes to get there.Total amount of flight time (without layovers) is about 20 hours! May the packing begin! If any of you have some pack smart tips for international travel with kids or neat programs/ideas in general to keep children entertained, then please please send me a personal message or leave a comment below on your recommendations!
God is so faithful. Did you know that Jehovah Jireh is one of Gods many names? It means “the God who provides”. Did you also know that our God is the God of the impossible, the God who cares, and is passionately in love with you? Well He is! Romans 8:38-39 says so, “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities no powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to seperate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”. Now thats deep! Our God is a God who IS LOVE itself. That’s worth dying for. It doesn’t stop there. God himself, sent His SON to be born into this world, to live a perfect life according to “the law” which no one could keep; lived 33 years as a perfect example who knew no sin, made the choice to give His life a ransom for you and I to be reunited to God. He was beaten, bruised, stripped for our sickness/diseases, crucified (the bible says that He became sin itself!), His blood poured out for our sins, died, and rose on the third day! DEAFEATED DEATH, DEFEATED THE ENEMY, and from then on, anyone who calls upon His name will be saved, and given a NEW name “child of God”!
That is the simplest way of the gospel, and THAT is what we are going to the ends of the earth to proclaim. We aren’t going because it will be a cool adventure, or some other wacky excuse, but we TRULY believe and know for a fact that people everywhere are living in darkness, blinded, captive of themselves. The bible teaches us to GO and to make disciples, set the captives free. We said yes to Jesus, what’s stopping you? What’s keeping you from spreading this great news at school, work places?
If the Holy Spirit is tugging on your heart right now, take a moment to acknowledge Him. We are ALL called to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Wherever we might be.
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So where did it all start? How did we make the decision to choose Overland Missions?
Let me take you a few months back, to the beginning of January 2018, where it all began. Our good friends Russell and Kathy Thomas from Jacksonville, FL invited us to a missions conference hosted by an organization called Overland Missions. We’ve never heard of it before, but we decided to take a little road trip south into Port Canaveral, FL to meet new missionaries that have the same love for people and a burning desire to spread the Gospel to all nations. As soon as we entered the building where the conference was held, I immediately noticed to my left, a coffee brewing station (if you know me, you can understand the joy) and right beside it I saw a gentleman praying healing over a lady like it’s something that they do while standing in line to grab a cup of coffee. My heart just began to sing, I knew that I was home…
A little background, Phillip Smethurst, (whom you see above) is the president and founder of Overland missions. Overland Missions is a dedicated organization who communicate the gospel to the neglected and isolated people of the world. In 1999, Phillip and his wife Sharon founded Overland and under their guidance, it is currently at work in 14 countries. *Copyright Since 1999 Overland Missions All Rights Reserved
After 2 days of incredible worship, encouraging word, and meeting people who are sold out for Jesus Christ, who are making Him known all over the world, we made the decision that THIS was the organization that the Lord was leading us to. (FUN FACT: we actually attended this conference 9 days before online registration opened up from a different organization that we had pretty much made up our mind into joining).
So what did we do next?
We filled out the applications for AMT of May 2018(Advanced Missions Training)! I think my husband would agree with me that it was one of the most important, yet easiest decisions we had ever had to make!
We were so privileged to meet this man of God- David Smethurst (above), who has been traveling the world (and still does) making a HUGE impact wherever he goes. We connected with him by our heritage roots, coming from eastern Europe-Latvia and the Ukraine. Born and raised in South Africa, God has really opened the doors for Europe in his ministry. How truly amazing it is when God connects us all with incredible people. Andrey and I like to call those “divine appointments”. An appointed time that only the Lord could plan!
All in all, Overland Missions has been such a tremendous blessing to us, and continue to be so as our paths merge into one. We have met such incredible men and women of faith through them, they have an amazing staff who answer any/all questions, and most impotantly, they love JESUS and walk in the power of the Holy Spirit! We are so excited to join the vision that they have into reaching every tribe/nation and making new disciples.
In the next two months, our family will be traveling quite a bit. We ask that you keep our family in your daily prayers, but taking the next step further, you can share/repost our blog link to your profile. We are looking for people who will stand in the gap for the lost, and keep our family in their daily prayers as we begin this journey of trusting as well as walking in faith for what He has told us to do.
Thank you friends!
If you would like any additional information on how you can help, feel free to contact me personally on instagram @yg1989 or email me- yana.gorlachev@ymail.com.
“May the Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.” numbers 6:24-26
Till next time,
Yana Gorlachev
