Saturday, June 7, 2014

Report from Lviv in May from Edmund Johnston.



  Lviv  Newsletter                                                                                         May 2014
  Edmund & Agnes Johnston                                                                                    

Finally brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you: ...........”the Lord is faithful”.  II Thess. 3 v 1 & 3.
Hello dear friends

We are now glad to be back in Lviv to continue the work the Lord has called us to do.
Since last December the country has been in turmoil and racked by political upheaval.  It has been a very unsettling 6 months with the country facing a crisis and possible war.  Many hundreds have been killed and injured.  Most of the trouble was in Kiev and then more recently in the East – Donetsk and Luhansk.  We are so thankful that the west of Ukraine has been quiet and peaceful and on the 25th May we had a new president elected with a landslide victory, Petro Poroshenko,”  The powers that be are ordained of God” – Romans 13 v 1.

We would like to thank you all who unreservedly supported and prayed for us during this difficult time.  Also for many who emailed, texted, phone calls and those who spoke to us personally.  This was greatly valued and gave us great encouragement and strength to go on.

 We are glad to report that the Lord’s work here in Lviv has continued unhindered apart from the prison ministry which has been postponed until things settle down. We continue to visit the 8 different orphanages with God giving help to share the glorious gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.   In Lviv No 1 orphanage we speak to 25 management and staff.  Please pray that God would bless in salvation.  At Loupaton, Yosopovishi, Passagenay and Lubin we always have a very good children’s meeting ( sometimes like a noisy prize giving).  Recently we have been teaching the children the song “Jesus loves me” and “My God is so big so strong and so mighty” in their own language.

A few weeks ago we made several visits to the villages in the Carpathian mountains and had open air meetings, distributed clothes (kindly donated from Canada and USA) and some food.  Please pray that the nice number gathered will respond to this life changing message of the gospel.
Please pray for a town that we visit called Sosvneska where recently we had 25 children and 10 adults.  We preached the gospel from Exodus 12, with great attention from all.

This month we had a very pleasant visit with the late Flo’s family in Lisnevechia – we feel it is important to keep in touch with them and try and influence them with the gospel.  Please pray for Flo’s large family circle that some of them may soon trust Christ.

The assembly in Lviv continues to grow with the addition of our young sister Olya, recently baptized and received into fellowship.  We continue our special Friday night prayer meeting in which one of the elders reads and ministers and then we pray – this has been the exercise of the Ukrainian believers.

A few weeks back we had an assembly outing when we barbecued (very fatty sausages), played some games and had a very good time of singing.

The Christians here have been very concerned and worried and we would ask you to support them further in prayer and we believe God will over rule and that Ukraine will hear the voice of God and through this situation that many will turn to God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

We both are very thankful for the continued faithfulness of God in meeting our daily needs and encouraging us in the work of the Lord.  Please continue to remember us as we face the challenge of learning a difficult language.  We can understand more than we can speak – and when we do speak we make many mistakes.

With warm Christian love – Edmund & Agnes.
Commended from N. Ireland.