The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and he knows those that trust in him. (Nahum 1:7)Благ Господь, убежище в день скорби, и знает надеющихся на Него. (Наум 1:7 Russian)
Добрий Господь, пристановище Він у день утиску, і знає Він тих, хто на Нього надіється! (Наум 1:7 Ukrainian)
Dear LORD, our Heavenly Father ~ Thank you for the precious gift of life on this new day that is bright with hopes for fresh blessings and opportunities from your endless bounty and constant presence. Give us greater moral strength and wisdom so that we will cast all our troubles and fears upon you whenever we feel surrounded by trouble, as we follow Christ whom you appointed over us. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ we pray, Amen.
Photos: Monday morning began early as we heard the sounds of a sweeper cleaning up some of the common areas around this old apartment building. Like is common all over this part of the world, she uses a broom made from tree branches. Don't knock it till you've tried it. They are easy to repair simply by gathering some fresh branches and tying them together. We had another wonderful session yesterday with the 4th and 5th year students at the University. Several were absent due to a memorial service, or as our friend and the Head of this English language department agreed with me - spring is in the air. Nevertheless, there were 11 present and we had a lively discussion about what the Bible teaches about the matter of benevolence and respect for people of all distinctions. One of the students brought back her translation of one of my sermons that she took last week. Galina scrutinized it and said she did a good job. I invited this student to help us on some Wednesday or Thursday night to interpret for about ten minutes of practice with Galina's help. Nadya accepted and may come this week. She already talked about this with her husband and they agreed it would be something good for her to do. Later, we scrambled over to the church office/meeting place for our meeting with a new WEI student. Fortunately, the University is only a 10 to 15 minute walk from where the church meets. After that we spent some time with Elena, the director of this large grounds and facility. She was telling about how badly those large white columns needed fresh paint. Later I suggested that we could help purchase a little paint since they had nothing in the budget and she just had to find resources to get things done. We noticed that a sign advertising one of the groups that teach dancing was lying in the grass due to some kids work. She surmised that it was the work of kids since the different dance groups are competitive. Anyway, I picked it up and helped carry it back inside. She offered us another prominent place for our more permanent sign. We still make good use of the portable sign we had made last summer. Oksana, our new WEI student works for a fancy Georgian restaurant that caters to the new rich of Ukraine and their visitors. We have walked by it a few times and peeped in. Oksana wants to get a job with an American or Greek owned passenger ships. Since Nikolaev is a seaport, they do lots of recruiting here aimed at young people with some knowledge of English. She has been studying English on her own, but doesn't have much knowledge of the Bible. We asked how she heard about us, and she explained that the people she is talking to must have seen our advertisement and suggested that she go talk to those missionaries and then come back to us. Maybe there is a door open there. We are just amazed each day at the way God keeps challenging us with fresh opportunities to share the story of His amazing grace. Thank you for the prayers.
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