WORD OF THE DAY - Friday 03 Spetember 2009

Blessed is he that considers the poor: the LORD will deliver him in time of trouble. The LORD will preserve him, and keep him alive; and he shall be blessed upon the earth, and you will not deliver him unto the will of his enemies. (Psalm 41:1-2)

‘Начальнику хора. Псалом Давида.’ Блажен, кто помышляет о бедном! В день бедствия избавит его Господь. Господь сохранит его и сбережет ему жизнь; блажен будет он на земле. И Ты не отдашь его на волю врагов его. (Псалтирь 41:1-2 Russian Synodal Version)

Almighty God, our Eternal and Generous Father in Heaven ~ Thank you for the abundance of blessings that we enjoy on this new day that dawns with increasing evidence of you supreme kindness toward all creation. Give us wisdom to discern the true needs of the poor that are living in all societies – often surrounded by people with great wealth. Help us to realize the constant benefit of helping those who are poor and beaten down. In Jesus name, Amen.

The vast fruit and vegetable markets around Ukraine offer an abundance of fresh produce for those with available cash. Not all people have ready and available money when they need food, so they go around looking for scraps. We witnessed two young men in pitiful clothing at a well known restaurant where diners were enjoying themselves at sidewalk tables. These boys would watch from a distance, and when a group got up to leave they would rush over and grab the leftovers and drink what was left of the sodas and eat the remainder of the fries and pieces of the burgers. It was disturbing, and we approached them and bought them something fresh to eat. They were so accustomed to this kind of poverty that they were very suspicious of our attempt at kindness. We think we might have eventually got through to them. Some elderly here and in other parts of the world are often forgotten or ignored by those with the means to help. Often the only thing we can do is to offer some small kindness since many of the elderly resent people looking at them with a pitiful attitude. Last night at our Wednesday night service, two young female students who recently moved to Nikolaev to study at the Nikolaev State Pedagogical University showed up for our meeting. They were looking for a church to attend while living here as students. Both came in with their own Bibles in hand. This is an obvious sign that they are from good homes. We hope to get to know Nadya and Anya better in the days ahead. Thank you for the many prayers!

WORD OF THE DAY - Wednesday 02 September 2009

When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you will also appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:4)

Glorious and Majestic God, our Beneficent Father in Heaven ~ Our mere words cannot express the depth of our gratitude for the gift of life that sparkles inside our mortal bodies. Even so, we say Thank You Father for this new day. And ask that you help all believers to be alert and ready to meet Christ who definitely will appear in the most powerful and elegant display of royalty that the world has ever seen or imagined. Help us to realize more earnestly than ever before that there is really no life without Christ our blessed and only Savior. In Jesus name, Amen.

What a wonderful, busy and at the end- satisfying day in the vineyard of the Lord here in Nikolaev. We began the day having a meeting with the director of the new meeting place. The woman, who greets people at the front door of this hall, and also helps around the building in other ways, greeted both of us warmly with a hug. We are in! We worked out our arrangements for the various meetings times as well as paid our rent for the storage room we need to store our Bibles, literature and hymn books closer to the large meeting room downstairs. We will begin using that room for worship this coming Sunday. On one walk about town, we stopped briefly at the Post Office to check to see if we have any mail. We shouldn't be surprised that our 2nd mail was from our dear Olga in Magadan. She read one of my reports that we needed some English language Bibles and literature. She gathered up a few things from our stash in Magadan and put them in a package without even being asked. That is the kind of good and faithful servant she has been since she gave her heart in full obedience to the Gospel in 1996. One person who visited us on Sunday was scheduled to meet us for a Bible study before noon, but he called and had a meeting connected with his business. We quickly decided to do something that we have had to put off. Here in the south of Ukraine we are in the heart of where the fruits, vegetables and grains are grown. The markets are still plentiful with all types of produce. One of our chores was to purchase the apples for the Children's Home. We made a promise to do that a couple of weeks ago, but only found a slice of time yesterday to make the purchase, stand on the side of the road where the tram narrowly misses you, and wait for a taxi to take us and our big bags of fruit to the orphans's home. It was a joyful experience, and neither of us had a free hand for a photo of that but we will have more opportunities to be with these children later. While walking through one part of the market where they buy, sell and trade in all kinds of fowl, Galina could not resist ooing, and cooing over the little ducklings for sale. The guy selling them claimed that they would be ready to eat in 57 days. On one of our walks from our new meeting place to the old place to return some materials that got moved by mistake, we passed School 22. September 1 is the first day of school in the former Soviet Union. It is still a big day for parents and kids all over Ukraine and Russia. The little girls dressed so pretty with the bows in their hair and the little boys with their suits. Near the close of day, we were finally back to the center of the city near where we live, and doing a little necessary shopping and along came a huge parade. Never ones to miss out on something this big, we went to the top of the hill where the dignitaries were expounding on the values of higher education and learned that 1 September is now a holiday in Ukraine to celebrate the value of going to college. All the various colleges, trade schools, and universities that are in Nikolaev were represented. It was all very colorful and it seemed the young people were in a good mood. Some of that was artificially induced. We watched that a while and finally made it home. Thank you for remembering us in your prayers.

WORD OF THE DAY - Tuesday 01 September 2009

“Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ Hear, O house of Israel: Is my way unjust? Is it not your ways that are unjust?” (Ezekiel 18:25 NIV)

Most Holy God, our Merciful Father in Heaven ~ We offer or highest praise on this new blessing filled day as we lift our hearts and voices in thanksgiving for your perfect Way that is revealed to us by Jesus Christ. Help us not to forget the duty and wisdom of recognizing that our sinful ways are not the perfect Way that leads to eternal life. Give us courage and good judgment to live with obedient faith in the Son. Please hear this prayer, in Jesus name, Amen.

Photo: Children from our Saturday Bible Class observe worshippers taking Lord's Supper for the first time. Sunday was a joyful day to make use of our new room that will serve us for weekday day Bible studies and an office where we can meet with people. Today we must organize everything in this room and a small storage room downstairs where we will keep song books, some Bibles and literature close to the room where we will conduct worship on Sundays. This week we will start doing some advertising in the local paper to announce to more people our location. We must continue to painstakingly search for that good soil that is receptive to the good seed. Thank you for joining us in prayer for a great harvest of souls here in Nikolaev, Ukraine.

WORD OF THE DAY - Monday 31 August 2009

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; and before you came out of the womb I sanctified you, and I ordained you a prophet to the nations." (Jeremiah 1:5)

Almighty God, Most Holy and Merciful Father in Heaven ~ Thank you for the wind that blows and reminds us of the words of Jesus that are immortal. Help all people to remember that our soul comes from you before we were even shaped into a human body in our mother's womb. Please help us to awaken this generation to the evil of destroying unborn babies. Help young mothers and fathers to be willing to make sacrifices to raise children who will be devoted to the faith of our fathers that we learn from Christ, the apostles and other inspired writers of the scriptures. We pray in Jesus name, Amen.

This morning we are having connection problems, hence the need to be sending this from a smoke filled Internet cafe. We need to get out of here quick before I start hacking. We had a wonderful day yesterday (Sunday) in our new meeting place. We had 18 present for our first service in the new facility. Two were new visitors we had not previously met. God is giving us plenty of opportunities to share the Word with people here in Ukraine. It was a great blessing that our brother Nikolai was able to be present. He is often out of town with his work. He, along with Evgeny Shevchenko suggested that it would be good for us to help get a church of Christ started in Nikolaev. This is not a small city, with a population somewhere around 500,000 souls. We just need the wisdom to take advantage of each situation with the greatest amount of tact and skill. We are praying for more workers in this harvest field. Our brother Ivan Tupchanenko from Magadan is originally from Ukraine, and will be taking his vacation in October. He plans to spend some time with us, and he will be a valuable helper. He serves the church there as the preacher when he is not working out of town. In his absence, Vasily usually handles the preaching responsibilities. Three of the children who attended our Bible classes when we met in Nikolai's office, found our new meeting place. They came with parents permission and we noticed how nice they were dressed for Sunday morning worship. Thank you for your prayers.

David Binkley, Sr., evangelist

RUSSIA UKRAINE GOSPEL MISSION

http://facebook.com/david.binkley/

http://gospeltorussia.blogspot.com/

http://twitter.com/binkword/

334-277-4628 USA (voice mail)

Ukraine phone: 380501379199

Mail address in Ukraine:
P.O. Box 196Nikolaev 17, Ukraine 54017

Sponsoring church:

DALRAIDA CHURCH OF CHRIST

3740 Atlanta Highway

P.O. Box 3085

Montgomery, AL 36109

WORD OF THE DAY - Sunday 30 August 2009

O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker. For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. (Psalm 95:6-7f)

Almighty God, our Maker, Redeemer and Friend ~ Thank you for the precious gift of life on this new Lord’s Day. Bless Christians around the world as they assemble in small and large meetings for the purpose of offering our worship. Please accept our praise as we honor Christ our Lord. Help those believers who must assemble in secret not to be afraid of anything that man can do. In Jesus name, Amen.

Today is the first Sunday that we begin to conduct our meetings in this new location. The director of this facility suggested that she will allow us to use a side door that opens directly to the stairs that lead up to the second floor area where our room is located. We will be allowed to place our sign above that door. Beginning next Lord's Day, we will use the big hall for worship and Bible study. This Sunday we assemble in our office/Bible study room. Therefore, we will likely have our usual faithful few. Yesterday, Galina and I worked on unpacking what we moved and straightening things up in preparation for this great day to honor Christ and the first day that the Church of Christ in Nikolaev meets in a public place. English language is in big demand here in this seaport city, so we have some plans in our mind about offering some free conversational English classes. In addition, we tell people about the wonderful free internet course offered http://www.worldenglishinstitute.org/.
Thank you for the many prayers regarding our work in the abundant Ukraine harvest field.

WORD OF THE DAY - Saturday 29 August 2009

He that believes on the Son has everlasting life: and he that believes not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abides on him. (John 3:36)

Merciful and Holy God, our Dear Father in Heaven ~ Thank you for the hope of eternal life on this new day that arrives with reminders of your watchfulness and involvement in our daily lives. Give us wisdom and courage to live according to the faith for which we take our stand. Lead us to people whose heart is open to learn about eternal life through obedient faith in Jesus Christ. We offer this prayer in Christ name, Amen.

Yesterday was moving day, so we called a taxi company and they referred us to a man that owns an older Mercedes 'bread truck' with seats for two in the front and some cushions in the back. We were able to get all our Bibles, song books, other literature and supplies on one trip. We are truly indebted to our young men Afolabi and Akinrinde who are both strong in body and spirit. No box or bag was too heavy for them. They delighted in telling "mom" and "dad" not to overdo it. These two never miss a meeting unless there is some unusual circumstance at their university that would prevent them from being there. They now bring many other students to our Gospel meetings. We thought of having this series to last two weeks, now we see no end in sight. People continue to come. Now that we have a new and more public location, we can do more advertising to attract more people to our meetings. So far, the only advertising we have done is by word of mouth and some small handouts to give to people we meet on the streets. Alexander Prokopchuk's response team has sent out letters to their viewers that have proved to be effective. So far, most of the visitors are from other towns in this region, but at least we have an opportunity to have their encouragement and to teach them God's word. All the going back and forth between the two places consumed the majority of our day. We met more people at our new location who gave us some good advice about where to put our sign out front and other suggestions. We realized when we got our big load over to the new place that we needed a storage room. God provides. There is a small room downstairs near the large hall that we will use for Sunday meetings and special Gospel Revival meetings. They made this available to us at an affordable price. Now we will keep some Bibles and song books downstairs along with the majority of our literature. We will need shelves in that room, and can have them built. We are very excited about our new location and hope against hope that we will begin to see new people in our meetings to hear God's eternal Word. Whenever we think about you and your prayers on our behalf, we are humbled and encouraged.

WORD OF THE DAY - Friday 28 August 2009

Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7)

Most Kind and Loving God, our Dear Heavenly Father ~ Thank you for another day that pulses with sights, sounds and other sensations that cause us to be aware of life and the wonderful physical world that has been given to us by your spectacular creativity and providence. Give us wisdom, courage, joy and peace as we study and obey the perfect will of Christ our Lord. In Jesus name, Amen.

Thursday night was our last meeting in the nice rooms that have been provided for us by our good friend and brother - Dr. Nikolai. Today we begin to move our belongings to our newly rented room on the second floor of "Dom Culturi Stroiteley". (House of Culture Constructors)
We purchased some chairs yesterday since there are not enough in the room we are renting. They will be delivered today as we are moving some of our boxes of books and literature that we have stored in our old location. This is a very exciting move for us in this early stage. We had two more visitors last night as a result of the invitations sent out from Alexander Prokopchuk, the preacher of the Church of Christ broadcast that airs each Sunday morning all over Ukraine. There are 77 viewers that are on their regular mailing list from the Nikolaev Oblast (state). This new couple, Vasily and Olga Kopous, live in the city of Voznesensk. This city is about 80 miles to the north of the city of Nikolaev, but in the Nikolaev Oblast. They are a wonderful couple that drove down to meet with us, belong to a 'Christians of the Evangelical Faith - Baptists' church in their city. This group is well known to missionaries as a Biblically conservative group that descends from a restoration movement in Russia and Ukraine that began in the late 19th century. Many of their views and practices mirror our own since they have been striving to use the scripture as their only source of faith and practice. The word Baptists was added to distinguish between a branch of this movement that is known the same way except the word Pentecostal is added to the name reflecting their affinity with the modern Pentecostal and/or Charismatic movement. We had a good meeting with them before our services began and received an invitation to visit with them in the future. This we plan to do - God willing. Yesterday morning, we took our new 83 year old regular visitor to the optician so that he could have some glasses to help him read. As always, it was a joy to be with Stepan and Luda for a while. The children were so wonderful yesterday afternoon. They started calling us around 12.00 on our cell phone as we were going around town shopping for chairs and some other necessities. None of them have a watch, so they just couldn't wait until the appointed time for our Bible class. Thank you for the prayers for this vital work with the children as well as our Bible studies with others who visit our nightly meetings. Thank you for the prayers!