Rejoicing Together at the Lord’s Harvest

A Letter from Nadia Ayoub, serving in Ukraine, currently visiting United States

January 2018

Dear friends, family and partners,

It is with a grateful heart that I thank God for his great love, and for the grace and comfort that have followed us in the past years and especially 2017. I also thank each one of you for your great love and faithfulness to the Lord that was expressed in your partnership in the ministry with the Roma children and people. Your prayers, encouragement and financial support have sustained me throughout my seven-year appointment in Karpatalja-Ukraine.

On Thanksgiving day, I reflected on one of the

reasons we celebrate: the harvest that comes after sowing. I thought about the kind of harvest both you and I are gathering from seven years of laboring with the Lord here in the Peterfolvo area. And I remembered the Lord Jesus’ words in the Gospel: “Do you not say, ‘Four months more, then comes the harvest?’ But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may rejoice together” (John 4:35-36). The harvest of the people themselves, fruit for eternal life, was the main fruit that the Lord Jesus was looking for. But I also rejoice because of the songs of transformation in the lives of Roma children and adults.

Praying before and after meals.

Here are two examples of transformation in the lives of the Roma.

1. The Bible story that day in the kindergarten was about Hannah and Samuel. When they came to the part about Hannah having to take Samuel to the temple of the Lord, the teacher said to the children, “You know that Hannah loved her son Samuel very much, but she needed to bring him to the temple to learn things about God.” Then the teacher asked the children, “When you need to learn how to read and write and things about God, where do you go?”

With joy, the children answered, “We come to the kindergarten.”

2. On December 10, one 14-year-old Roma girl and two Roma women finished their 10-month confirmation class. They have now been received as members of the Hungarian Reformed church.

I thank God for my time in Ukraine, for the seven years of sowing and harvesting. I thank you, for you have made it possible for me to witness to the fruits of eternal life in the lives of those precious Roma people in Ukraine.

My time there has now drawn to an end. I left Ukraine on January 4, 2018, and am now in the US for six months that will be devoted to sharing with church groups what the Lord has done there. I trust I will see many of you.

I also want to share with you that God has granted me a new call and appointment. The Lord has opened a new door for my ministry: I will serve among refugees and forced immigrants in Greece. I will be able to share more details in the near future. I invite you to please pray for my new field of ministry and to ask the Lord if he is calling you to partner with me in my new appointment.

Thank you so much for all your generosity in supporting me during my time in Ukraine. May the sowers and reapers rejoice together at the Lord’s harvest.

I pray that your celebration of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ and the blessed gift of a new year was joyful.

Together serving Christ,

Nadia Ayoub