WORD OF THE DAY - Sunday 25 December 2011 from Mykolaiv, Ukraine

And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. (1 John 4:14 NIV)

Y nosotros hemos visto y testificamos que el Padre ha enviado al Hijo para ser Salvador del mundo. (1 Juan 4:14 Spanish)

И мы видели и свидетельствуем, что Отец послал Сына Спасителем миру. (1-e Иоанна 4:14 Russian)

Ми самі бачили й зараз свідчимо, що Отець послав Свого Сина, щоб Він став Спасителем світу. (1 Йоаново 4:14 Ukrainian ERV)

Great and Glorious God, our Dear Father in Heaven ~ Thank you for this new Lord’s Day that is set aside each week for Christians to assemble in worship of our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ. Give us wisdom as we search the scriptures and put all our trust in your Son for salvation. Help us to honor Christ each day with joyful, sincere and obedient hearts. In the precious name of Jesus we pray, Amen. 

We enjoyed another very special time yesterday with our boys at the Boys Home. Our Saturdays have become busy days also as we make various preparations for our visits. We have been shopping for things that the boys have asked for, and unfortunately the places we have looked so far are out of ping-pong balls and volleyballs. We learned about a place that has them but it was too late to do anything about it before we left for our visit. First thing we did in the morning was to carry bags of things we have recently purchased from our fourth floor apartment downstairs and call a taxi to help us get them to the church office. Some things we need there and most of the things are for the boys. Galina spent time organizing our gifts for each boy by putting things in a nice person gift bag for each boy. Even though New Year's is the day of gift-giving in most of the territory of the Former Soviet Union, the boys all knew from TV and Internet that Christmas - 25 December (Catholic Christmas as people here say), they were expecting us to celebrate with them. We were well prepared with some items for our 'tea' time and gifts for each boy. They were shy to open up their gifts and only did so when we were "looking the other way". It is something they are not used to and we do our best to make them feel loved. Some boys who have family have gone to be with one parent, aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc until after the New Year. They boys who spend time with us during the holidays are orphans with nowhere to go and they cannot help but be sad. They had lots of joy with us for almost three hours. We normally spend about an hour with a little extra visiting time. We didn't expect them to have their memory verses, but they were ready to display their knowledge of the scriptures by reciting their verse and telling what they think it means. I helped them stay on track by explaining passages that seemed difficult to them. We have been asking Natasha if we could come another day during the week since they are not having their regular class schedule. She surprised us by agreeing to a suggestion we had made last year. She agreed to bring the boys to the church meeting place and afterward we will treat them with a Big Mac and ice cream at McDonalds. As we came home last night, we realized that we are now bonding with this group the same as we had with last year’s boys whom we miss seeing regularly. We knew two of our current boys from activities we had in the summer, but we first started working with them in September. We were in America for a couple of months and now we have been with them enough to become closer to each boy. We always have high hopes for each one even though we understand the extremely difficult time they have without normal love as in a family. We know that God loves orphans and widows and in order to be like God in some small way, we must never overlook such people anywhere in the world we go with the message of love and eternal life.