July 2014
Met with a
couple for dinner Ruslan and Anna, Ruslan works mostly out of the country and
Anna works too thus they haven’t been out to any of the meetings lately. This
is not a good thing because they are getting no spiritual encouragement or food
from anywhere and they are Christians. They are thinking of leaving the country
due to the political problems Ukraine is in, like the war in the East. Had plan
to spend the evening together hoping to give them some encouragement but that was cut short when he
got a call from his boss to leave right away to Poland, he did not want to go
but his boss gave him no choice. I drove him to the bus stop and may not see
them again in this trip.
I was brought into contact with a young family
from East Ukraine that needed some help. They came over for some clothes for
their little 2year old girl, a very cute little girl. I also gave them some
food to take with them and drove them to where they are staying. They are here
as refugees leaving the war in the East but the government stopped helping them
and now they find themselves in need. They have been coming to the meetings
regularly and seem to like it and are hearing new things that they were taught
different about like good works for salvation. Hope they continue to come to
the meetings and hope for their salvation!!
Visited the sanitarium in
Yassen, after a ½ hour drive I remembered that I had forgotten to put the New Testaments in the van so had to
turn back to get them and push back our appointment. This is one of the reasons
for our visits, to give each person a N/T so they can read the word of God on
their own time! Made it to Yassen in good time where we met with about 150 kids
in a hot room that might be for half that amount of people. Some were sitting
on the floor close to me and others were laying on the floor while listening to
me. There were times when we had to raise our voice to tell them to quieten
down, even though, under such conditions they did very well! They all received N/T, Bible text with a
tract and some sweets. Then met briefly with the director and gave them some
boxes of clothes for the poor families.
The next day we loaded up the
van with some more boxes and headed back up to the mountains in Verhovena.
There we met with the director of the school/orphanage just for a short time. We
were able to give her some funds to continue the work on the two rooms so the
children can get the benefit of these classes this coming school year. We then
met with the social worker and visited some of the homes of the children who live
in very poor and sad conditions. When we see them at school they look like some
of our own children back at home but going to their houses their living
conditions are so much worse! Truthfully I was a little embarrassed to be in
their homes but they were not, some of these kids do not even know that they
have it so bad because it’s all they know. Some of the homes we visited were
very high in the mountains.
We drove till the end of the
roads then from there another 30 minute walk up hill to get to their houses. We
were hoping to meet the parents but none were home so talked with some of the
kids and some came back to the van for clothes.
We were there for two days; the first day had
dinner with the director and her husband and nice couple. Her husband thanked
us for all we have done for the school and for the children and wanted to
assure us that many have benefited from all that has been done and they too are
very thankful!
On the way back from Verkovena
we picked up 6 young campers that are from Lviv who needed a ride to Ivano. We
had some small talk but after a while they all were sleeping. Dropped them off
at the train station then canceled my plans to go to Lviv on Sunday because the
van didn’t feel just right! I took the van in on Monday and as they put the van
on the lift and began to raise it, the spring just fell to the ground in two
pieces and the top part of the shock had broken off and was not even attached
to the van. The men that were there all looked at each other wondering how the
van continued to drive but I was just so thankful for God’s mighty hand to
provide and protect us!!
We were very thankful to all
the saints that have been keeping us in their prayers, truly God hears and
answers prayer!! Ended up getting two new springs and shocks and could easily
feel the difference now!
Had some of the people over for
clothes, would like to thank those how have put so much time and care in
preparing , packing and sending these boxes to help with the Lord’s work here
in Ukraine! We made some plans with one of the ladies that were here for
clothes to visit her village and have a meeting and distribute clothes with the
people there on the Saturday before I leave Ukraine, do pray that the hearts
will be open to the gospel message!
Sasha our Interpreter has improved much and is
doing much better and has shown some interest for salvation of his own soul. I
do pray he continues to seek and to search for Him who is the lover of his
soul, the Lord Jesus!
I will be leaving Ukraine next
week and am feeling a little sad for leaving these people but I trust that the
Lord will continue to work in the hearts and minds of the people through the
gospel message! The Lord hears the prayers of his people, thank you so much for
all your prayers!!
In Christ our Lord!
dan
No comments:
Post a Comment