WORD OF THE DAY - 24 June 2010

If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O LORD, who could stand! But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared. (Psalm 130:3-4)

Most Kind and Holy God, our Dear Heavenly Father ~ Thank you for the splendor of life on this new day that arrives with new opportunities to make a fresh beginning. Give us wisdom as we strive to obey Christ so that we will be able to sincerely forgive others as you forgive us. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.

Photo 1:After sending and receiving our e-mail at a Wi-Fi hotspot at the Central Post Office in the center of Slavyansk, we made the usual 30 minute walk back to the outlying village in the shadow of the almost defunct insulator factory in a record 50 minutes. If there weren't ice-cream stops along the way on this hot day, it could have been a little quicker.

Photo 2: At the end of a long day of going to town, gardening, helping feed rabbits, chickens, dogs and cats, it is time to get in a little reading before going to bed. What a wonderful blessing from God, to live long enough to spend time with your great-grandchildren. This is Sonya's first time to be with Babushka Elena in 5 years. It has been a grand re-union is helping to heal Elena's grief. Today we will spend some time gathering berries to be used in making preserves for the long winter. We will not likely have time to do any e-mailing, but will give this last day to helping Elena with the garden and other needs. Later today we catch a ride (yet to be determined) to the train station in Donetsk. Then we ride the long trip down to Kherson where we will arrive, God willing, tomorrow around 1.00 PM. We will then have a taxi to take us 'home' to Nikolaev. Yesterday while we were walking down the street in Slavyansk, we had a call from a young man in Nikolaev who wants to study English with us using the Easy to Read Bible course from World English Institute. It pays to inform people about our offers, and then watch God bless efforts to plant the Gospel seeds. Since we have been here this week, we received an answer to our prayers also when we got a wonderful e-mail message from Dick Ady, the founder and President of WEI suggesting that I contact Tom Langley who heads up their short-term mission teams. Tom and I are now in ‘conversation’ about the possibility of a 4 weeks course in the summer of 2011 with teams of teachers coming from the USA to teach English and at the same time introduce people to God’s wonderful plan of salvation. Thank you for your prayers for the new student Pavel and other people here that we are teaching about God's amazing grace in providing us the perfect Savior and Lord.