If you fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well. But if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors. (James 2:8-9)Если вы исполняете закон царский, по Писанию: возлюби ближнего твоего, как себя самого, --хорошо делаете. Но если поступаете с лицеприятием, то грех делаете, и перед законом оказываетесь преступниками. (Иакова 2:8-9 Russian)
Most Holy God, our Dear Father in Heaven ~ Thank you for the gift of life on this new day that is running over with blessings that help us live with love, joy, peace and hope. Give us wisdom so that we will not be biased toward some people who may look, speak, dress or behave differently from us whenever we do deeds of kindness. Thank you for the completely fair and impartial gift of Jesus Christ to this sin filled world. In the name of Jesus we pray, Amen.
New Year's Day was cold and misty, but nothing prevented thousands of people from coming out to stroll down the avenue with their families and friends. We finally found a nice little cafe that didn't allow smoking inside. They didn't have a sign posted anywhere, but we noticed outside that many guys were talking and smoking by the entrance door to Gusto's. I don't have anything against folks who burn paper and tobacco products, it’s just that we don't enjoy their residue when we are eating. Society here and in Russia still generally favors the smokers. We do see signs that this is changing to make it possible for families to take their children out to eat. There are many political posters all over the city, since the people of Ukraine will choose their next President on January 17. We are constantly in prayer that this will be a peaceful process for all Ukrainian citizens. Democracy is still very young in countries of the former Soviet Union that were only recently under the dictatorship of the atheistic Communist Party. I have attached a short clip of some babushka's singing an old folk song about a girl wailing to her mama that she had fallen in love with a Gypsy. This was just one example of what was going on in the streets and parks of the city on New Years. Some were coming to the large decorated yolka to greet Ded Moroz (Father Frost) and his granddaughter Snegurochka (Snow Maiden) and have the children's photo taken like is done with Santa. Most of the New Year's Day we spent at home with me working on Russian studies and crafting sermons to be translated, and Galina working on our bookkeeping. We are always on the go so much that we just try to keep up with receipts and little pieces of paper and jot notes down in my Day Timer calendars (thanks to Bink and Deb's annual gift). Then whenever we have any slow time, we try to play catch up with our computer software program called Quicken. Galina laughs at the generous use of the word "we" in describing how this process works. Today we have much to do in preparation for our business trip to America on January 18. It is going to be incredibly difficult to leave this flourishing work even for a brief time. However, we must take care of our visas for long-term work in Ukraine and take care of personal business in the US. We are very thankful to God that this work of evangelism is going in a positive direction and we have the strong support of our elders at the Dalraida Church of Christ, our sponsoring church for this gospel mission work. We have a small regret about these past six months, and that is we didn't get to visit our dearly beloved brothers and sisters in Magadan. We remain in constant contact with them by e-mail and other means of modern communication. They rejoice with us about each new conversion to Christ here in Nikolaev. One brother in Magadan is even seriously considering moving to Nikolaev and helping the church when he retires in a couple of years. Your prayers and encouragement are very important for us as we make our plans and carry out the daily tasks.
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