Testimonies

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Testimonies

This testimony from a wonderful friend of Revelation Ministries is for those of you who are considering going on a mission trip.

I received a call and email this past Sunday night that Hazel Patrick was in a convalescence home and that she was asking for me to come pray with her as she had a limited time left on this earth. I did so yesterday.

I would like to share Hazel's story with you:

I had been to Ukraine several times in the year of our Lord 2000 and met with pastors and other Christian leaders in the city of Donetsk. One pastor was Sergei Karpenko of First Baptist Donetsk. He invited me to bring a team and teach and train his young adult class how to do street dramas. At that time, 2000-2001, you could share the gospel in Ukraine schools, prisons, streets, army camps, anywhere.

So I called and emailed people about going. Only 5 other people responded "yes". I asked the Pastor of Northeast Baptist, my church at that time, if I could share about the trip with the congregation. He let me do so one Sunday morning. Afterwards, this elderly lady came up to me, using a cane, and said, "God told me I was to go on this mission trip with you." She pulled out a jar of pills and said, "This is what keeps me alive, I take this many pills a day." I almost fainted. This was my first time leading a mission trip and I said to her, "You can't go!" She said, "Who are you to say no, God told me to go and I'm going." I then explained that Ukraine was not America, and if she got sick, I didn't know if we could get her help. I asked her to get her doctor's permission and she agreed. I also asked her if she had the money to go and she said, "No." So on both accounts I began to get my breath back.

On Tuesday she called to say she had gotten written permission from her doctor to go on the trip. I dropped the phone. But she still didn't have the money. That Friday she called to say she had the money. I was numb by then but managed to ask her how that happened. She said the year before her drug store had given her the wrong prescription and that it had almost killed her. They called on Wednesday to settle her claim and she took the settlement so she could go to Ukraine.

Then she told me something about herself. She and her husband had planned for years to retire and serve on the mission field. Just after he retired he had a stroke and was paralyzed. She took care of him for 15 years until he passed away. By then she had almost given up hope of going to the mission field until she heard me speak that Sunday. She had no idea what she would be doing on this trip, but she was going anyway.

I want to share with you how much of a blessing she was to the other six of us who went on that trip and to those young Ukraine adults she loved and prayed with and read the Bible to during those 10 days. Those young people have emailed me for years to ask about her and talk about how special she was to them. She has prayed for Revelation Ministries and me ever since that trip. We have a special relationship. I know if she could talk to you about doing what God has placed in front of you she would say, "Go. Go now. Don't worry about the time or money or tomorrow. Just trust God in everything."

Thank God for Hazel Patrick going on that first mission trip so many years ago. And for her teaching me lessons I needed to learn and praying for me and this ministry all these years.

Travis Johnson

1881 North University Drive, Suite 107

Coral Springs, Florida 33071
(954) 648-4516