WORD OF THE DAY - Saturday 19 June 2010

Do not trust in extortion or take pride in stolen goods; though your riches increase, do not set your heart on them. (Psalm 62:10 NIV)

Не надейтесь на грабительство и не тщеславьтесь хищением; когда богатство умножается, не прилагайте [к нему] сердца. (Псалтирь 62:10 {61-11} Russian)

Не надійтесь на утиск, і не пишайтесь грабунком; як багатство росте, не прикладайте свого серця до нього! (Псалми 62:10 {62-11} Ukrainian Bible)

Dear God, our Heavenly Father ~ Thank you for the sparkling gift of life on this new day the brims over with your lavish gifts. Give us wisdom so that we will not be tempted to equate the value of our lives or those of others with the size our balance sheets. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.

We had an accidental (I don't think so!) meeting with our brother Nikolai Tkhor at the train station yesterday. He was escorting our sister in Christ Nataliya Sekerina, who is from Donetsk and was visiting her daughter in nearby Kherson. We already "knew" Nataliya through her great reputation and by e-mail. She told how she and some others prayed that someone would start a Church of Christ in Nikolaev so that our new brother Nikolai could come to Christ and have a church to be involved with. We told her how we had been praying for God's guidance in choosing a place to work in Ukraine and how it was suggested for us to come here by some Christians at the Obolon church in Kiev. Don't forget to pray and be prepared to act on God's answers. Vlad, one of our previous WEI English students called us and wanted to make an appointment to resume his studies on the 29th. God always provides the challenges and opportunities to share our faith.

After the train station, we rode a bus back toward the center of town and had time to chat a while with our dear Nataliya. We got off at the large Kolos market area and went shopping for some walking shoes for Galina. She didn't find what she was looking for, but we loaded up on some fresh fruits - cherries, raspberries, strawberries and chernika (similar to blueberries but darker and more tart - yummy) We also bought some fresh vegetables and later enjoyed the fruit of Galina's cooking a pot of borsch.

At the end of a long day, we finally kept a promise to take Sonya to a very nice park situated next to our apartment building. It is on some land set aside by the city and is kept up very nice with some security measures in place and lots of families make use of it. We finally ran out of gas chasing her up the gangplank to the deck of the mighty schooner - the Nikolaev.