When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you will also appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:4)
Glorious and Majestic God, our Beneficent Father in Heaven ~ Our mere words cannot express the depth of our gratitude for the gift of life that sparkles inside our mortal bodies. Even so, we say Thank You Father for this new day. And ask that you help all believers to be alert and ready to meet Christ who definitely will appear in the most powerful and elegant display of royalty that the world has ever seen or imagined. Help us to realize more earnestly than ever before that there is really no life without Christ our blessed and only Savior. In Jesus name, Amen.
What a wonderful, busy and at the end- satisfying day in the vineyard of the Lord here in Nikolaev. We began the day having a meeting with the director of the new meeting place. The woman, who greets people at the front door of this hall, and also helps around the building in other ways, greeted both of us warmly with a hug. We are in! We worked out our arrangements for the various meetings times as well as paid our rent for the storage room we need to store our Bibles, literature and hymn books closer to the large meeting room downstairs. We will begin using that room for worship this coming Sunday. On one walk about town, we stopped briefly at the Post Office to check to see if we have any mail. We shouldn't be surprised that our 2nd mail was from our dear Olga in Magadan. She read one of my reports that we needed some English language Bibles and literature. She gathered up a few things from our stash in Magadan and put them in a package without even being asked. That is the kind of good and faithful servant she has been since she gave her heart in full obedience to the Gospel in 1996. One person who visited us on Sunday was scheduled to meet us for a Bible study before noon, but he called and had a meeting connected with his business. We quickly decided to do something that we have had to put off. Here in the south of Ukraine we are in the heart of where the fruits, vegetables and grains are grown. The markets are still plentiful with all types of produce. One of our chores was to purchase the apples for the Children's Home. We made a promise to do that a couple of weeks ago, but only found a slice of time yesterday to make the purchase, stand on the side of the road where the tram narrowly misses you, and wait for a taxi to take us and our big bags of fruit to the orphans's home. It was a joyful experience, and neither of us had a free hand for a photo of that but we will have more opportunities to be with these children later. While walking through one part of the market where they buy, sell and trade in all kinds of fowl, Galina could not resist ooing, and cooing over the little ducklings for sale. The guy selling them claimed that they would be ready to eat in 57 days. On one of our walks from our new meeting place to the old place to return some materials that got moved by mistake, we passed School 22. September 1 is the first day of school in the former Soviet Union. It is still a big day for parents and kids all over Ukraine and Russia. The little girls dressed so pretty with the bows in their hair and the little boys with their suits. Near the close of day, we were finally back to the center of the city near where we live, and doing a little necessary shopping and along came a huge parade. Never ones to miss out on something this big, we went to the top of the hill where the dignitaries were expounding on the values of higher education and learned that 1 September is now a holiday in Ukraine to celebrate the value of going to college. All the various colleges, trade schools, and universities that are in Nikolaev were represented. It was all very colorful and it seemed the young people were in a good mood. Some of that was artificially induced. We watched that a while and finally made it home. Thank you for remembering us in your prayers.
Glorious and Majestic God, our Beneficent Father in Heaven ~ Our mere words cannot express the depth of our gratitude for the gift of life that sparkles inside our mortal bodies. Even so, we say Thank You Father for this new day. And ask that you help all believers to be alert and ready to meet Christ who definitely will appear in the most powerful and elegant display of royalty that the world has ever seen or imagined. Help us to realize more earnestly than ever before that there is really no life without Christ our blessed and only Savior. In Jesus name, Amen.
What a wonderful, busy and at the end- satisfying day in the vineyard of the Lord here in Nikolaev. We began the day having a meeting with the director of the new meeting place. The woman, who greets people at the front door of this hall, and also helps around the building in other ways, greeted both of us warmly with a hug. We are in! We worked out our arrangements for the various meetings times as well as paid our rent for the storage room we need to store our Bibles, literature and hymn books closer to the large meeting room downstairs. We will begin using that room for worship this coming Sunday. On one walk about town, we stopped briefly at the Post Office to check to see if we have any mail. We shouldn't be surprised that our 2nd mail was from our dear Olga in Magadan. She read one of my reports that we needed some English language Bibles and literature. She gathered up a few things from our stash in Magadan and put them in a package without even being asked. That is the kind of good and faithful servant she has been since she gave her heart in full obedience to the Gospel in 1996. One person who visited us on Sunday was scheduled to meet us for a Bible study before noon, but he called and had a meeting connected with his business. We quickly decided to do something that we have had to put off. Here in the south of Ukraine we are in the heart of where the fruits, vegetables and grains are grown. The markets are still plentiful with all types of produce. One of our chores was to purchase the apples for the Children's Home. We made a promise to do that a couple of weeks ago, but only found a slice of time yesterday to make the purchase, stand on the side of the road where the tram narrowly misses you, and wait for a taxi to take us and our big bags of fruit to the orphans's home. It was a joyful experience, and neither of us had a free hand for a photo of that but we will have more opportunities to be with these children later. While walking through one part of the market where they buy, sell and trade in all kinds of fowl, Galina could not resist ooing, and cooing over the little ducklings for sale. The guy selling them claimed that they would be ready to eat in 57 days. On one of our walks from our new meeting place to the old place to return some materials that got moved by mistake, we passed School 22. September 1 is the first day of school in the former Soviet Union. It is still a big day for parents and kids all over Ukraine and Russia. The little girls dressed so pretty with the bows in their hair and the little boys with their suits. Near the close of day, we were finally back to the center of the city near where we live, and doing a little necessary shopping and along came a huge parade. Never ones to miss out on something this big, we went to the top of the hill where the dignitaries were expounding on the values of higher education and learned that 1 September is now a holiday in Ukraine to celebrate the value of going to college. All the various colleges, trade schools, and universities that are in Nikolaev were represented. It was all very colorful and it seemed the young people were in a good mood. Some of that was artificially induced. We watched that a while and finally made it home. Thank you for remembering us in your prayers.
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