Ибо Царствие Божие не пища и питие, но праведность и мир и радость во Святом Духе. (К Римлянам 14:17 Russian)
Бо в Царстві Божому найважливіші не їжа і не напої, а праведність, мир і радість, які Дух Святий дарує нам. (Римляни 14:17 Ukrainian ERV-UK)
Most Holy and Awesome God, our Dear Heavenly Father ~ Thank you for the dawning of this new day that bursts forth with new blessings that delight our souls and help us successfully live another day on this earth. Give us wisdom so that we will never think that the true nature of the great spiritual Kingdom of Christ is about physical or material well-being. Help us as we seek true inner peace and joy as we follow the example and teaching of our Lord in matters of righteousness. In the name of Jesus we pray, Amen. Yesterday was another day of intensive activity here in God's rich harvest field of Ukraine. In the morning we returned the P.O. box keys to the guy who made them and he apologized while he quickly made the necessary adjustments. This is not the franchised computerized key making operation like people are used to in America and some other places. These people do it the old fashioned way. This was the first time we had a problem and he made us happy and restored his reputation at the same time. When we returned to the Post Office to test our keys, we noticed a small piece of paper telling us that we have a shipment of 3 parcels. It turned out to be two large boxes containing 15 pair of shoes! We also received another box of books and other goodies that we shipped ahead to ourselves before we left Montgomery. We waited in a long line at the Post Office for almost an hour to receive our shipment. In Ukraine people come to the Post Office to pay utility bills, receive pensions, send and receive money, etc. My brother Mike Binkley purchased these shoes a few weeks ago when he first learned about the need at the Boys Home. He shipped them just before we left Alabama to return to our work here in Nikolaev. They arrived exactly on time for us to have a wonderful day with the boys on our visit with them today. These shoes will be for the boys in the 9th grade group that we work with each week. We have promised the administration that we will also provide shoes for all 75 boys. We are aware of funds that have been collected by members of Dalraida Church of Christ, and my cousin Joseph Binkley with his wife and other donors sent money to Dalraida to help with this project. We will soon go shopping in local markets for good quality shoes for all the other boys and we will have a class with them and personally present the shoes from our partners. We already have their names and sizes. All of our visits are rewarding for us as we watch the boys grow in their inner spirit. We left the Post Office and carried the boxes up to our 4th floor apartment. We were made even more thankful that the Post Office is only one block from our apartment building. After being giddy for a while as we noticed the good quality that Mike purchased, we remembered that we needed to go pay our cell phone bills and our Internet Service Provider fees. After that, we walked from the center of town up to where the church meets and enjoyed the 25 minute walk in the fresh air. Galina reminds me that we always walk with weights - the various things we are always carrying, and that makes the distance 10 miles to her method of calculation. That way we don't need to spend money on some fancy gym or buy cool little hand held weights. I'm just mentioning some of the advantages of mission work. Once back at "our" building, we were able to meet with some people we wanted to meet with, but one person was not able to keep their appointment for Bible study. However, we were blessed to meet Alexander who called earlier in the day to make an appointment. He is a student at the local shipbuilding university. This is the place where some of our brightest WEI students hail from. He said a friend told him that he could learn English by studying with us and also learn about God. He is studying computer programming and already knows a great deal of English. We plan to meet with Sasha again on Monday. He was very impressed with the quality of the World English Institute lessons. Thank you for your prayers and involvement in our efforts to spread the good news of salvation through obedient faith in Jesus Christ.
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