WORD OF THE DAY - Saturday 12 September 2009

Then Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now, whatever you will ask of God, God will give it you.” (John 11:21-22)
Тогда Марфа сказала Иисусу: Господи! если бы Ты был здесь, не умер бы брат мой. Но и теперь знаю, что чего Ты попросишь у Бога, даст Тебе Бог. (От Иоанна 11:21-22 Russian Synodal Version)

Exalted and Authoritative God, our Merciful Father in Heaven ~ Thank you for the opportunity to enter into your majestic presence on this new day. Help us to have the same strong faith in Jesus our Lord as did Martha long ago. Give us wisdom and courage so that we will encourage one another in the one true faith and lovingly challenge lost souls to seek your forgiveness and grace. In Jesus name, Amen.

We began Friday with had an early appointment with Yuri at a little sidewalk cafe at the local bus station where people catch busses and route taxis to cities and towns near and far away. He and his wife live in a small farming community on the road going south and west toward Odessa. Yuri along with his wife and daughter attended our services a couple of times, and we had a discussion about the possibility of us coming down on Sunday afternoons after we finish our services so that I can preach for a mixed group of 'believers' that he has been meeting with and trying to steer them toward New Testament Christianity. He will try to get their permission and we will meet again soon. He told about his journey of faith and how he spent 4 - 5 hours with our brother Alexander Prokopchuk who preaches on a TV broadcast each Sunday morning that is broadcast all over Ukraine. He and his wife bring dairy products from their community to sell in the Nikolaev market on Tuesday's and Fridays. Yuri reminded us a lot of our brother Ivan in Magadan who spent much time visiting different religious groups before our team arrived in 1994. We could have spent all day with Yuri, sharing our common beliefs regarding our faith. However, we had scheduled a Bible study with our faithful attendee, Lyudmila at 11.00 in the morning. At 10.30, we realized that we could not walk back over to where the trolleys, trams and busses stop in time to make it back across the city. We called Luda and told her we would be about 30 minutes late. We made it in the nick of time, and had a most productive study with this most studious person who has been mixed up with the SDA religion. That study lasted much longer than we anticipated, since we covered many scriptures about the wonderful New Covenant that she had not considered before. Later in the day we decided to walk across town and go across the long bridge that turns to open the lane for ships when they enter or leave that particular port area. We wanted to experience the long walk that our Nigerian students must take each time when they come to all our meetings. We are now even more impressed at their devotion! It took us well over an hour. Of course we stopped on the bridge over the Bug River to have our photograph made. We finally made it over to the university where they attend. It is housed in one very large building that was built during the years when this was an important strategic center for that now defunct country. We sometimes need to be reminded that nations rise and fall, but the Kingdom of God last forever. Since we had already made it that far, we went a little further to a large establishment called Praktiker. It is very similar to Home Depot or Lowe's. The room where we are meeting only has one light bulb hanging from the ceiling. We found an open box 5-lamp fixture, which we will ask the electrician in the building to install. With that in hand, along with 5 of those ‘green’ economic bulbs (lampichkie), we caught a taxi back to our church's office and brought our sign in for the night, and made our way home. We were so satisfied that we had many opportunities to share God's love during the day. This morning we plan to head out with some of our hand-outs and do some more street evangelism. We constantly thank God that we have no hindrances from our work! Thank you for your many prayers and words of encouragement.