Hello All,
This is Brandon Owens and I’m excited to give to you my second life update and bring you up to speed on my journey as a missionary in Eastern Europe! I hope you were able to read my last letter that I wrote back in September, if not you can check it out on my site under the “Blog” tab, please do that before reading this letter. So here we go, let’s jump in for life update number two. So for the past one hundred days I have been living in the beautiful city of Odessa, Ukraine as our missionary journey was rerouted here due to covid adjustments. However I see it more as God guiding me where He wanted me to go, as there simply could not have been a better place in the world to land during this current time. Covid is fairly low here and we are fortunate to be able to experience life and ministry in what looks to be as close to a pre 2020 year as possible in our current world today. I totally believe that God has put his blessing and his bubble of protection on our team and the local church here in Odessa.
Upon our arrival on October 3rd, the church here has welcomed all twenty of us Americans into their homes and lives as we have been so blessed with this amazing church! We arrived on Saturday October 3rd coming in from Istanbul and on Sunday October 4th we shared an amazing welcome as we worshipped with the whole church together. I had the privilege to preach that first Sunday a sermon on how abundantly blessed and chosen by God we as as his family members. Then we went apartment hunting that first week and were extremely blessed to be able to finally have a consistent place to lay our heads after Airbnb hopping for almost an entire month prior. After the first week of getting our housing and the basic necessities of life in a foreign country we hit the ground running in week two of missionary training, bible study, prayer, and dreaming of the different ways that God could use us in this city. We got to check out the different “ponds”or places where we would scope out to share the gospel with others here.
Slowly but surely we were all able to adjust to this land which none of us had ever been to before in our lives. I did get homesick as I had to learn how to communicate in a foreign language to get simple things for living such as food, clothes, and toiletries. The simple luxury of having a Walmart nearby is simply not the case here and boy did I feel that! But as time went on I was able to learn how to communicate, shop, and transport around the city as needed. So due to covid restrictions shortly after arriving we decided to break up our ministries into 3 different house churches of 12-15 people each so that we would be able to still meet together for Sunday worship. This adjustment worked out very well for training purposes and little did I know it was just what I needed. Leading a small house church has given me so many opportunities to speak, communicate, and learn how to understand and appreciate the differences of everyone. I have been able to witness everyone else grow and open up more and more within the church as well.
Now as far as what my life has looks like on a daily basis, that has beena whirlwind as it feels that I have been working 100 hour weeks with the amount of time I spend talking to people, building relationships with people on the team and many more in this city, as we share our faith and study the Bible. (This is the reason it has taken me so long to write this second update….) however it has been time well spent as we have been doing our best to simply broadcast the word of God and give as many people as possible a chance to hear and see the good news about Jesus. There is nothing fancy about what we are doing, we are simply filling up with God’s word everyday and pouring it out to those we come into contact with. The best way that I can describe it is that we have been running a marathon and I have been learning how to keep putting one foot in front of the other without stopping despite catching a few cramps, blisters, and shin splints along the way.
This journey so far has been an amazing race and one that I never saw coming in this part of the world. We were so blessed as we got the chance to travel back to Turkey for Thanksgiving weekend as we needed to renew our visas in order to stay legally in the Ukraine. During that trip we were able to encourage the church there in Istanbul and we went on a tour to see three of the churches from the book of Revelation, those being Smyrna, Laodicea, Ephesus, and also the Hierapolis. Due to God working through our team as a whole we have been able to witness five baptisms during these first one hundred days which has been super faith building for everyone here. I have failed many times with different responsibilities but that is why I have grown and been succeeding overall. We have a simple phrase that we use a lot on the team and it is “enough good”. That phrase sums up my thoughts, efforts, and the work I am doing loving other people. It will never be perfect but as long as it is “enough good” then God will be pleased and I can find peace and rest in Him. These first one hundred days have truly been life changing and I cannot wait to see how much stronger my relationship with God will be after the next twenty four weeks of being on the mission for Jesus with RevivEE!
The biggest take away so far since moving away from the U.S.A. is that God loves me and He desires for me to have a healthy relationship with him as I continually get to know Him better.Just keep it simple. In 2nd Peter 3:18 Peter speaks about growing in the grace and knowledge of our lord and savior Jesus Christ and as long as that is my goal and pursuit then I know that I will be okay. There is no shortcut or lifehack for having great impact or spiritual growth. The hard work must be done of getting to know Jesus more as I open my heart, thoughts, body, and life to him! I look forward to my next update in the early springtime, but thank you for all the prayers and support as I continue to strive to bring God’s word to so many here in Eastern Europe!
With much love,
Your Brother Brandon
