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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