I just returned from a long weekend in Enumclaw, WA to celebrate my father’s 93rd birthday.
After arriving and having lunch with Dad, my wife and I went for a walk around the small gateway town into Mt. Rainier National Park. As we wandered the small-town streets with our obligatory coffee in hand, we discovered a small church of Christ on Kibler Avenue. While we typically attend church with my Dad on our visits to Washingtom, this time we made plans to come back to Kibler Avenue the following Sunday.
Tom with Val Blinkov
As we entered the church building for the Sunday assembly, we found a small group of about 40 Christians meeting in this large auditorium. We were quickly welcomed by a very warm and friendly congregation that introduced themselves one by one to us.
Among those we met were Val and his wife. They described themselves as Soviet Union religious refugees who came to the US in 1986. We quickly found common ground with Val, because he had visited and was familiar with North Alabama. As our conversation warmed up, he asked if we knew of Project Rescue, a sister Christ-centered residential recovery program near Decatur. We enjoyed discussing our common passion of Christ-centered recovery as I shared about our ministry at His Way.
Val insisted upon this picture to share with our common friends in recovery ministry.
Val completed Project Rescue in 2015 and is celebrating four years clean and sober. He received counseling training and is now reaching out to addicts on the “Plateau” and sharing the hope of Christ, our bondage breaker.
Truly, our wandering into a small church on Sunday was more than a coincidence, but God’s divine appointment. It was for us to encourage one man’s lonely work and remind him that he is not alone but is waging a kingdom battle for hurting souls with warriors around the world. And it was also to remind me that we are sending out missionaries every day throughout the world to spread His message of redemption. Missionaries trained in recovery ministries like Project Rescue and His Way, to go into all the world.
As long as there are desperate souls trapped by the addictions of sin, God will be calling us into His mission field. And we never know when and where we will be introduced to another of His missionaries making an eternal difference.
Thanks Project Rescue for saving souls, transforming lives, and training life-transforming evangelists like Val.
Tom Reynolds
Director of Ministry and Chairman of the Board