WORD OF THE DAY - Sunday 16 September 2012

For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. (1 John 3:20 NKJV)

ибо если сердце наше осуждает нас, то кольми паче Бог, потому что Бог больше сердца нашего и знает всё. (1-e Иоанна 3:20 Russian)

бо коли винуватить нас серце, то Бог більший від нашого серця та відає все! (1 Йоаново 3:20 Ukrainian)

Almighty God, our dear worshipful Father in Heaven ~ we give you the greatest thanks for granting us the indescribable gift of life on this new Lord’s Day. Give all followers of Christ our Lord the wisdom and courage to overcome whatever obstacles stand in the way of their attendance with other Christians. Help us not to be overly self-destructive or hyper-critical of ourselves since we know that Christ died for our sins and we have obeyed His gospel message. We pray in Jesus precious name, Amen.

 We spent a big part of the day yesterday looking around the city for some items that we needed to take to the boys. Natasha had requested some basic necessity type items - toilet paper, bathing soap, cleaning supplies, paper towels, etc. Part of the boys training is to learn how to take care of their space. We took socks, lined and graph notebook notebooks, paper for teachers, plastic files, pen and pencil pouches, ping-pong balls and a paddle, and of course Snickers. They really need some underwear, and we are anticipating a shipment of those from dear friends in the USA. The boys and Natasha were really excited to see us. They have had a tough week getting back in the groove of school which is rather the same around the world.

They truly made us happy when every boy recited his memory verse and made a little comment about what it meant to him. Those comments easily become fodder for criticism from your friends, but they know they are in the same boat and don't become too critical when another boy makes a mistake. Natasha said she had extra duty as the acting Director of the Boys Home since Vladimir was out of town. She told the boys what they had to do, and she said they acted very responsibly.

We really like these boys! In the beginning, we had a review of our first English lesson from last week. We assigned our memory verses for Saturday and had time to visit with each boy. As we made the long walk back to the pontoon bridge, we had to walk past a goat herder who was letting her goats feed on the grass by the side of the road. Galina was not too excited to ease by these 59 critters with various horns. We then had the pleasure of passing a goodly number of cows that were under a watchful eye from somewhere. As we got close to the bridge, we noticed a family loading all their fishing gear in the back of an old station wagon. The son/grandson was loading the boat on top of the car and we said to each other at the same time, “he looks like Sasha.” He looked at us with a little smile and we knew it was Sasha the Korean boy who used to come to our Children’s Bible Classes in 2009 when we met on Frunze Street.  He is now about 6 feet tall and towers over the rest of the family. We could only exchange greetings since they were anxious to leave and our taxi showed up.

Each day brings some special surprises as we serve our Lord Jesus Christ in the harvest field of Ukraine. Thank you for the prayers.