Monday, November 19, 2012

WORD OF THE DAY - Monday 19 November 2012 Nikolaev, Ukraine


When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. (John 11:33 ESV)

Иисус, когда увидел ее плачущую и пришедших с нею Иудеев плачущих, Сам восскорбел духом и возмутился (От Иоанна 11:33 Russian)

Ісус був глибоко схвильований її горем, тим, як вона побивається і як плачуть юдеї, які прийшли разом з нею. (Йоан 11:33 Ukrainian ERV)


Dear God, our heavenly Father ~ we enter your gates with the deepest sense of devotion as we rejoice over the realization of another day under your merciful and watchful care. Give us more of a sense of sincere compassion like Christ our Lord, as we encounter the many injustices in this world where evil is running amok, and where so many people, speaking from their lofty pedestal of worldly wisdom, criticize our basic beliefs about life after death. Help us not to become jaded and unresponsive when we see hearts that are grieving over the departure of a loved one. Renew and strengthen our faith in the power of Christ over every enemy that challenges our joyful and positive expectations. We pray in the precious name of Jesus, Amen. 

Nine souls braved the cold wave that is currently engulfing this part of Ukraine. Elena could not stop congratulating us about our extension until February! Our two space heaters were no match for the freezing temperatures outside and about the same inside. The owners of the building where we meet decided they could not afford to heat the building this winter. So, it is up to each tenant to heat your own space. That is practically the way it has always been. We could at least feel a little warmth in those batteries, but now they are simply cold steel. They did winterize the windows for us in a way better than we usually do ourselves. We will now go shopping for one of the heaters like we have in Magadan. So far, the owners do not speak about charging any extra rent for the use of electricity. We hope that will remain through the winter. 
Speaking of Magadan, Russia – for almost a year, the church has been able to make the rent payments each month without help from Christians in America. Now, the owners of the building where we meet have once again hit the church with a 24% increase in rent. They are not at all certain what they will be able to do, but in our conversations with them, they tell about some possibility of moving to another space that will be more affordable. We join them in prayer as they do their best to work this out this challenge.
We have the opportunity now to begin this week here in Nikolaev and not back in Alabama - for that we continue to thank God. We are so very pleased at the responses from our various students and others that we work with each week. In some messages with Lesya at the University yesterday, we were able to solidify our schedule for this week. We also learned that Tatiana, our friend and head of that department is in the hospital with pneumonia. We hope to learn more details today. Thank you for your fervent and effective prayers regarding our service for the Lord in Ukraine. 

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