Spreading Easter's TRUE Meaning

"If the church does not go out and make disciples, the culture sure will"

If we do not go out into this world and spread the gospel and tell others about Christ, the ways of our world will grab them and mold them into its warped and twisted views. As we are told in the Great Commission, in Matthew 28 from the mouth of the Son of God...make disciples & preach the GOSPEL to all nations

Playing Easter games and eating a traditional meal with my students

Our team had such an opportunity to go out and spread the good news of Christ and Easter (celebrated this coming Sunday in Ukraine) at the school in which we teach English. Our theme for the lesson was Easter traditions and what we believe. After hearing so much about the culture in Ukraine and the way that they live out this season, legalism binds the people to the church, not a relationship with the God who defeated death and not by faith. So to put it in the simplest terms, we each gave a full GOSPEL presentation in each one of our classes. In my classes, I went through the main points of the truth of Easter with a picture to explain each main point and a few verses from the Bible. I started with saying that I know that I am a sinner and I am not perfect, and because of His love, God sent Jesus to come and live in the flesh and He lived a perfect life.

Jesus paid a debt He didn't owe because we had a debt we couldn't pay

I explained the word "debt" and told them that I deserved death for my sins, but Christ through his life, death and resurrection has saved me from this payment. Another picture I showed was stating the verse
John 11:25-26 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, ²⁶ and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” Something that I stated with great importance was the fact that this is a belief of FAITH, we are saved not by good works of through baptism but through confessing our sins and declaring our love and allegiance to Jesus Christ.

The students and the teachers we very curious at what I had to say and the response was so great. We brought invitations for the Easter service being held at The New Hope Center this Sunday and all of the papers were taken! I am praying that God will bring some of the students and hopefully some of the teachers to come and see the truth and the faith that they can have in Jesus. One of the teachers spoke to me and said that she can see such passion inside of me and that I have been given the gift of teaching and of being a pastor. I was at lost for words, this was not a believer speaking to me but just a bystander to the powerful message of the love of God and she noticed and could see the Lord working through me...All the glory to God!

Earlier in the week I was blessed to speak in church in a village two hours out of Zaporozhye on Palm Sunday (Willow Sunday in Ukraine). It was such a loving congregation of about 20 adults and about another 15 kids that were so excited that a group from North America would come and share with them.

We also went to a town called Tokmak to visit the local orphanage. We put on a presentation of games/songs and a message about Jesus. The kids were so active and very welcoming to our team and they were excited to be able to play soccer with us and listen to our songs.

Please pray for a harvest amongst the non-believers coming to our Easter service this Sunday that we may see people come to know Jesus and that they will have faith in the living God! Evil will try to attack and deceive both our team and the non-believers into a lack of faith and pray with the authority that we have in Christ that this will not be so and that they will be bound and forced to the feet of Jesus for judgment. I am asking also personally that you will pray for me that I may have a peace of mind and that all my focus will be directed to Ukraine and not focusing on the things I will confront when I come home. 
 God is good, He is faithful and His love is beyond anything we could ever imagine...JESUS let us see the lost come back into your loving arms! Thank you for your prayers, many blessings from Ukraine.
-Mitch (aka Meesha)