Happy New year family, friends and faithful ministry partners! Can you believe it’s the beginning of a new decade? Talk about starting off fresh. This year I asked the Lord what my word for this year was going to be (which acts as a strategic target word in pursuing Jesus with) and He immediately responded with “PASSION”. I then paused and thought to myself, “Yes, at times when we focus on the “go-go-go” ministry, we can often lose focus on why we do what we do.” Our families ministry isn’t out of a work-base mentality, but rather out of a relationship with Him. Ministry should always come from the overflow, which comes from spending time in His presence. It’s the passionate love for Jesus and the love He has for the lost/broken that our motivation comes from. Passion. What’s your word for this year?
These last few weeks have been quite the challenge in my physical body honestly. I came to the local clinic to explain my symptoms in hopes that the Dr. could help explain the extreme amount of nausea that I have been feeling for the last 10 weeks, not to mention the loss of appetite, extreme food aversions and tiredness. LOL, if you haven’t quite grasped my sarcasm, Andrey and I are pregnant with baby #5!!! Surprise!!! We are all so thrilled to be adding another little one to our crew this year! For those who are curious, we plan to give birth in South Africa sometime in July and plan to be back on furlough in the states sometime September-ish(as soon as we receive proper documents for the baby, I hear they can drag out the process). We left with 6 people, and are coming back with 7:)
A little update on ministry and family:
Kids are doing very well, are healthy and counting down the months, weeks and days until they get to see their cousins again. Ella, Isaac, and Leila are working hard to complete their homeschooling curriculum before we leave for Livingstone at the end of May. Leila and Moses are starting a local private school here Monday the 13th (it’s only half day so Leila also gets to continue her HS school work as well)! This school is predominately muslim and is considered to be the best school in the eastern province. Our main goal for them is to make friends, be more social, and meet more parents/teachers from town. I will post pictures of their adorable little smiles Monday and Tuesday so follow us on instagram if you don’t already do so- yana.gorlachev.
Currently it is rainy season and Chanje is getting a good chunk of rain this year. Praise God! Most of us that grew up in the states were mostly raised in the city and didn’t farm for a living. As we are being deeper submerged into the culture and way of life in the eastern province, you begin to understand principles of sowing, reaping, harvest and the importance of rain and sunshine. The more we learn about the ways of thriving on this land, the better we are able to help the locals understand the importance of creation. The simple teachings starting from Genesis about how to cultivate the grounds and believing the Lord to be your provider for all the things instead of taking matters into their own hands and operating out of fear to witchcraft.
Im failing to upload photos of some of the events that took place in the last several weeks for some reason. If you look at our instagram account page, we have videos and pictures that you will be able to tie my stories to.
For Christmas, Andrey had the brilliant idea of treating our 2 villages (that we mostly work with in Chanje chiefdom) and cook pilaf for them (a signature dish slavics make). It required most of the time to prep and cook, but we managed (by the grace of God) to feed every child and adult that came that day (which was well over 100 ppl). We then asked them questions of why they think we celebrate Christmas today. Andrey then proceeded to read several chapters from the Bible to allow them to hear that this indeed took place and the story of Jesus’ birth wasn’t just from one man, but from multiple who confirmed each others story to be accurate. The locals gained a new understanding of what “Christ-mas” was all about.
We have such a packed schedule during the week with different forms of ministry, but one of our favorite days is Friday. Fridays are a day that we disciple in our own home with those who work side by side with us through out the week, Who constantly pour out for others and have and extreme desire to grow. Their love for Jesus is so inspiring. I love to worship together for an hour at a time some days and watch how the tears stream from their faces as they lift their hands to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords to honor and Praise Him. That to me…it’s worth it alone. Watching others fall in love with your precious Jesus. Yes Lord, again and again you have my YES. May our hearts burn for the things that burn His.
Bringing it back to 2020, we have some incredibly large goals to achieve this year before we head to the State for our rotation on furlough. Vision is something we don’t ever lack with Overland. Some of the events that need to take place in the next several months are a few large events such as crusades in two chiefdoms that are asking for us to come and minister to their ppl which is huge considering that the atmosphere in those areas hasn’t always been as open for the gospel. Headman Conferences (which are leaders by birth right that have authority over their village) in several areas, Queens/Chaplains meetings, and are hosting 2 expedition teams from America in June. If you would like to come on one of these trips, please reach out to us and we can direct you the the correct ppl in time to make this happen for June. Or just go online to www.overlandmissions.com/expeditions and select “Chipata, Zambia” .This year, our entire team of Eastern Province is going home to the states to see family and meet with as many partners as we can manage to squeeze in. For the next 9 months we will be running hard together! Let’s do this team!
I want to say THANK YOU to all of you who have faithfully walked alongside us and give into our family monthly, annually, and one-time gifts. We are so blessed by your families. The Kingdom of God is the greatest investment you can ever sow into, and as you sow in, God as your supplier will take care of all your needs. I want to encourage you, if you don’t see breakthrough in your finances, begin to give(ask the Holy Spirit where He wants you to give along with specific amounts). Andrey and I were called to give it all away before we were given specific directions from the Lord on where we were going and with whom we would go with. God is very pleased with OBEDIENCE and FAITH. Financial breakthrough was a HUGE mountain that had to climb in order to allow to bring us to another level of faith. I’ll share more on that story hopefully in another post.
If you feel called to give financially into our ministry, I’ll post a link below on how you can do that. As we seek the Lords heart for the nations, He allows us to dream big for the many souls here and the countries that border us (Mozambique & Malawi).
In the “Donation Memo” input our name “Gorlachev-3244”, select monthly/annually/or one time, and select the amount. You should receive a confirmation in your email that your donation went through. All donations are tax deductible. And Thank you!
We love to hear from you guys, so please feel free to call us via Whatsapp, or Viber (we still have our american lines) or simply send us a message on how we can stand with you in prayer today. We love you, honor the Holy Spirit that lives inside of you and bless your homes, marriages and children!
Till next time,
The Gorlachevs