Sunday, April 22, 2012

WORD OF THE DAY - Sunday 22 April 2012 Nikolaev, Ukraine


For I am the LORD, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, “Do not fear; I will help you.” (Isaiah 41:13 NIV)

ибо Я Господь, Бог твой; держу тебя за правую руку твою, говорю тебе: 'не бойся, Я помогаю тебе'. (Исаия 41:13 Russian)

Бо Я Господь, Бог твій, що держить тебе за правицю й говорить до тебе: Не бійся, Я тобі поможу! (Исая 41:13 Ukrainian)

Oh LORD, our God and dear Father in Heaven! Thank you for the spectacular blessings that rain down upon us on this new Lord’s Day. Be with all of Christ’s faithful followers who assemble in sweet communion today. Strengthen our hearts so that we will be able to truly stand courageously against the powers of darkness that seem to be prevailing in this world. Although, we know and firmly believe that Christ our Lord is victorious and we trust in Him as our strong Deliverer. Help us Lord, in our unbelief. We plead in the precious name of Jesus, Amen. 




 Yesterday, we had another fulfilling Saturday in God's service here in Mykolaiv, Ukraine. In the morning, we were invited to go with our new friend Nikolai up to the studio of the local TV station. As we were walking up Lenin Avenue, we met him pulling himself along the street because the sidewalks are so worn out and irregular that he can seldom use those in his wheelchair. He wanted to introduce us to his friends from the various intelligence clubs around the region. They have regular televised meets that are broadcast around the country of Ukraine. Our Nikolaev teams have won international competition in these events where a host or hostess asks questions from a wide variety of themes and each team competes to give the correct answer in a timed event. We went there at 10.00 thinking that it started then, but that was when participants began to show up on Nikolai wanted to introduce us to many people. We met one very friendly professor from the shipbuilding university. When we asked if he know our WEI student Natasha, he answered with a smile. "Of course, do you know that she is also a musician, singer and composer along with many other talents?" We said, "That’s our Natasha". She is the person who sang for us at Dick Ady's birthday 80th birthday celebration. Regrettably, since she is so busy and so are we, we've not had an opportunity to meet with her. Vitaly said he will give her our regards and perhaps she will get in touch. Two our new friends from the club for those with disabilities, were part of the braniacs who compete in these events. We were not able to hang around for the actual televised competition since our main priority on Saturday's is the visit to the Boys Home. We had just enough time to go to the local central market and buy some apples and a few other things to take with us. On the way there, we stopped and picked up our friend and WEI student Nastya who has recently graduated from 'our' university with her degree in English on the 5 year program. You would have thought that we brought a rock star with us. The boys were so happy to see her even though they were mostly too shy to say anything. Nastya introduced herself and explained how she came to Nikolaev from a small town. Our friend Natasha who is the deputy director at this home for orphan and wayward boys offered Nastya a job as an English teacher right on the spot. 
We presented T-shirts to each boy that was a gift from George and Kay Pudzis of Montgomery, Alabama. They also received a Hot Wheels car and rubber balls from Martha Henry also from Montgomery, along with our usual gift of Snickers and fruit. 
Our lesson was about courage and several of the boys had excellent comments to go along with the lesson from the Bible story of Esther. Since they had all be sick with the flu, we didn't require them to quote memory verses from our previous visit. However, we assigned them new verses for this coming Saturday and we know from previous experience, that most of them will complete this assignment with gusto. Thank you for the prayers. 




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