Sunday

Sunday was the most encouraging day we had in awhile. About half an hour before anyone else came to meeting, Katia arrived. This lady has been coming to the meetings regularly this spring. She was a co-worker with Tanya at the hospital. Tanya told us about her and her husband who are taking care of their grandson. Katia had called Flo earlier last week and told her that she really wanted to speak to her about what she had been hearing at the meetings. They had a good chat and Flo mentioned to us that this dear lady is very near getting saved. Then another knock at the door brought another pleasant surprise. Natala with her two children arrived. They have to take a 25 minute bus ride into Lviv and then get on the right marshrutka to get to Flo's apartment. It was the first time they came and we were very happy to receive them. We have visited them on several occasions, bringing some groceries and clothing. Natala is a school teacher making a very small salary as is the case with all teachers here. So to have them come all the way from the village to attend the meeting and hear the gospel was very encouraging for us. She had heard the good news of salvation at her house before as Flo has spoken to her. Then the regular people came in for meeting. A few minutes meeting started Oleg (Flo's nephew's son) came in and he had brought another guy along with him. This was very encouraging to us also.Anatoly sat and listened and told us that he would come again next Sunday and bring his wife along with him. We look at this and again wonder at the fact that we are leaving for Canada in ten days when there are so many people interested in the gospel. We are so thankful that Misha keeps the meetings going by himself throughout the rest of the time when there is no one here.
After the meeting we headed out to our local wholesaler and purchased groceries for the gypsies we were going to go visit. When we arrived at the gypsy colony we were so well received. We know that perhaps we are well received because we are bringing food and clothing. But this time things were a bit different. The people were very relaxed and seemed to be comfortable with us, not clamoring for what we had brought. Gilles and Misha spoke a word in the gospel to the group that had gathered. For the most part people listened very well. You have to be there to appreciate the distractions that come with speaking to this group of people. Of course there are many children and the smaller ones are often crying. So the mother breastfeeds them while listening to the speaker. Other little children are running around. There was rock music coming from the "house" where some of the men had gone to sit not being too interested in what was being preached. Dogs are barking in the background. So it is quite the task for the men to speak and stay focused. But overall there was a good crowd listening. We distributed the food afterwards and stayed and talked to the people. Rylan entertained some with his juggling expertise. And of course we took many many pictures as they all would like a copy for themselves. We promised them the pictures when we returned either in the fall or next spring.