He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. (Daniel 7:14 NIV)
Almighty God, our Dear Father in Heaven ~ Thank you for the exhilarating gift of life on this new Lord's Day that brings new challenges and blessings. Give us the necessary wisdom we need as we study your perfect Word, so that we will be able to properly present the truth to those whom we encounter. Help us to show proper love and respect for the Lord Jesus Christ who rules over the kingdom - his church that he purchased with the blood he shed on the cross. Give us strength to do everything we can while we have life to expand this great and wonderful kingdom. In Jesus name, Amen.
Almighty God, our Dear Father in Heaven ~ Thank you for the exhilarating gift of life on this new Lord's Day that brings new challenges and blessings. Give us the necessary wisdom we need as we study your perfect Word, so that we will be able to properly present the truth to those whom we encounter. Help us to show proper love and respect for the Lord Jesus Christ who rules over the kingdom - his church that he purchased with the blood he shed on the cross. Give us strength to do everything we can while we have life to expand this great and wonderful kingdom. In Jesus name, Amen.
Photo: Galina will punish me for displaying this picture, but it shows how exhausted and travel worn we were upon our arrival in Nikolaev, Saturday morning. A caption for this picture might read, "This is the last time I am lugging all these bags around the world!" On the overnight bus ride from Kiev, we were awakened suddenly by water pouring on top of Galina's head and all over her new bag she had recently purchased at her favorite Ross's. We were at the back of the bus where the A/C is located and the condensation built up and had no place else to go. At the bus station in Nikolaev, we had to negotiate a while with some people to use their car to take us to our temporary home - the same hotel where we stayed in May. We plan to be there until we find an apartment that we can rent. We hope to begin this process on Monday. After we got to the hotel, we collapsed for a few hours, then we had to venture out to the city and see how things were without us. We went down to the place where the church met before and everything was just as we left it. Then we walked around town for a while seeing who we might encounter. The temperature was sizzling somewhere in the high 90's with high humidity, so we began to quickly lose our energy and headed back to the hotel. Later at night, our dear friend and brother Nikolai, who invited us returned our call. He is out of town on business, so we spoke about our arrangements for a place to meet and conduct our evangelistic activities. He agreed that we can stay in the same place where we were the last time. This was such good news! We do not have to look for a place for the church to meet since this has a good place for worship and a separate room for conducting children's Bible studies. Around midnight last night, we decided to go and send out the WORD message that I had prepared while we were in Kiev, but had no opportunity to send it. Just as we got a place set up in the hotel lobby which is the only place where we have a wireless connection, we received a very nice surprise phone from our brother and friend Charles Campbell of the Dalraida congregation. Tomorrow, I will be sort of back on schedule and get up early in the morning and send out the WORD.
Today as we prepared for worship, we had the Lord's Table set up with our new communion trays that were donated by the Dalraida church. We looked out the window and saw not only Afolabi and Akinrinde, but they were coming with three of their friends from their maritime university. So, we had seven for worship and one lady who just wanted to listen in the hallway from outside the door. We later had a nice visit with Nina who lives upstairs in the same building where the church meets. We then took all five of these students from Nigeria to have lunch together and restore our friendship and become acquainted with the new men. They are all very bright and eager to learn more about Christ and his church. Some of them promised to be at our nightly Bible study meetings that begin tomorrow evening at 6.30. On the way home today after worship, we spoke on the phone with Viktor and Oksana and their two boys. They plan to arrive next week on Monday and stay for at least one week in helping us conduct our children's Bible study. Viktor preaches at the church in Svyatogorsk and we have known them almost as our children for several years.
Thank you for the many prayers for our travel mercies. We enjoyed God's care and help all the way here and now we rejoice at the way our work begins with big challenges.
Today as we prepared for worship, we had the Lord's Table set up with our new communion trays that were donated by the Dalraida church. We looked out the window and saw not only Afolabi and Akinrinde, but they were coming with three of their friends from their maritime university. So, we had seven for worship and one lady who just wanted to listen in the hallway from outside the door. We later had a nice visit with Nina who lives upstairs in the same building where the church meets. We then took all five of these students from Nigeria to have lunch together and restore our friendship and become acquainted with the new men. They are all very bright and eager to learn more about Christ and his church. Some of them promised to be at our nightly Bible study meetings that begin tomorrow evening at 6.30. On the way home today after worship, we spoke on the phone with Viktor and Oksana and their two boys. They plan to arrive next week on Monday and stay for at least one week in helping us conduct our children's Bible study. Viktor preaches at the church in Svyatogorsk and we have known them almost as our children for several years.
Thank you for the many prayers for our travel mercies. We enjoyed God's care and help all the way here and now we rejoice at the way our work begins with big challenges.
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