Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men in whom he is well pleased! (Luke 2:14)слава в вышних Богу, и на земле мир, в человеках благоволение! (От Луки 2:14 Russian)
«Слава Господу на Небесах, і хай мир панує на землі між людьми, які Богу милі». (Лука 2:14 Ukrainian ERV)
Glorious God, our Dear Father in Heaven ~ Thank you for the vastness of your love on this new day that arrives with fresh hopes in spiritual realities that are far superior to any earthly wealth or fame. As we ponder over the great announcement about the birth of our Savior that was made to humble shepherds, give us wisdom and boldness to teach the truth that anyone in the world who accepts your Son - Jesus of Nazareth as Lord with complete faith, repents of their sins, is baptized according to Christ’s example and command, and lives faithfully until death is pleasing in your sight. Help us to remain faithful to this spectacular announcement of peace to all the brotherhood of believers. In the blessed name of Jesus we pray, Amen.
Yesterday we both woke up with something closely resembling a bad cold. We decided to follow some old advice and take a day off to help our bodies deal with this foreign invasion. Once during the day, we had a case of cabin fever from not being used to staying around the apartment, so since it was a sunny but cold day, we decided to take a walk up to the top of the bluff at the area where the city and regional government administrative offices of located. I convinced Galina that we needed to do this to allow our bodies to soak up some vitamin D from the sunshine. She may not have been 100% convinced, but it was a refreshing walk that we always enjoy. We were also able to buy some fruits and vegetables from a little street market that we often visit. And to our pleasant surprise, we discovered a new restaurant called the Paprika. The place is a cafeteria style establishment with a good variety of soups, salads, pastas, meats etc. It is clean and has a restroom. This perked us up a bit and we were able to get a good night’s sleep. As we walked down Sovietskaya Street, we were pleased to see that our advertising agent Irina had placed the extra posters she had on hand on both sides of the street. This was a nice surprise gift to us and we’ve already had one phone call from these newly placed posters. We were also happy to see the fresh New Year’s tree (yolka) near St. Nikolai Park in the center of the city. We call these a Christmas tree in the western world. New Year is celebrated here and in Russia with gift giving and each family will try to have a New Year’s tree. Christmas is celebrated here in the world of Eastern Orthodoxy as a religious holiday marking the day of Jesus’ birth on January 7. Today we are going to try and get ourselves back to a normal schedule and decide on whether to go to visit the boys or not tomorrow. Some of the boys are nearly always sick with something, and may be the source of our little discomfort. What with all the problems trying to insert pictures in my daily message, today will be the start of a new solution suggested by none other than our dear friend and brother in Christ - Dick Ady. He suggested that including the pictures as attached files would be a good solution. I had tried it a couple of times recently but wasn't sure if it was acceptable to the majority of readers. In any case, I don't have the time or wherewithal to spend trying to figure out the whys and wherefores on why AOL will not send my inserted pictures. I hope you can view the pictures that are attached today and in the future. They are also available for viewing on my Facebook page and the Blog. Thanks for your patience and prayers!
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