Reflections on Wartime Lectures

UPDATES | EURASIA

May 2023

By Alfie Mosse , a member of SEND’s Ukraine | Eurasia team

"I sensed (and you didn't need to say it) that the words of 2 Corinthians 12 were again lived out in your experience: When you were weak...he was strong!” This message was emailed to me from a friend after I taught a course at Kremenchug Evangelical Seminary (KES) in Ukraine. Near the end of my time, I wrote a brief update and my friend responded. The screen blurred as I read those words. Why did I tear up? Honestly, I’m still not sure, but I’m glad he sent them.

"For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong." - 2 Corinthians 12:10, ESV

In the update, I wrote about one small part of my experience at KES. I was teaching the course after traveling for two months. Since the course was at the end of the trip, I was concerned about my energy level, my language ability, the large volume of information to cover, and how the students would react to lectures in Russian. It turned out that my experience was both richer and harder than I expected.

After my first day of lectures, I was exhausted. I woke up the next morning still exhausted. I felt empty. I couldn’t even clearly recall the content I wanted to cover that day. I prayed for strength but felt no difference. I ate breakfast. No change. I went to class and decided to start with the first slide and my first page of notes and see how far I get. What else could I do?

Two things happened that day. First, I am convinced that God guided me and gave me special strength that day. I don’t remember being tired during class. Second, God encouraged me through the students. If I was having trouble expressing something, they helped. During the breaks, unprompted, they said things like, “I think you are worried about your language, but everything is very clear. If you are worried about speaking Russian and not Ukrainian, about half of us are Russian speakers learning Ukrainian, so we get it.” I was indeed weak, but God showed me again that when I am weak, he is indeed strong and can work through my weakness.

Learn more about SEND’s teams in Eurasia! T his vast territory offers an incredible diversity of opportunities to reach the unreached in urban settings or in tiny villages; in partnership with established churches or in frontier settings; in Orthodox, Muslim, Buddhist and folk-religious communities.