Friday, August 24, 2012

From the Hillsides of Maine


 Standing outside, the hills in the background and laundry in my hands, I could not help but close my eyes as the Maine breeze swirled my hair around my face.  The sun beamed gently warming my face.
(The kids' club house.)

My mind wandered back to the post Maine is in the Air and the times like it when I longed to be standing here enjoying a moment like this.


I could barely contain the swelling in my heart from spilling forth as tears through my eyes.

Oh!  How I love the light breezes, the fresh smell of the trees, the buzzing of the hummingbirds, the chirping of the squirrels, especially when they are mad at me for getting to close while attempting to photograph the hills.

 I love the little deer peeping curiously over the rocks at us.


Someone once asked me, "You've been practically everywhere (I was a church planting pastor's daughter), is there still anywhere you'd like to see?"

And I can sincerely answer, just Maine.  I would be content to stay here forever.  It truly is the most beautiful place on the face of the earth.

How is it that my heart still longs to be home (or how I can even call it that) in Ukraine?  "I don't understand," you say.  I'm not sure that I can completely understand it myself.  Maybe it is that my flesh loves Maine and my spirit (by God's grace and through His love) loves Ukraine.  What I do know is that for the short moment I am here, I will close my eyes and savor this moment.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Update from Joyce White

Here is an update from Joyce White in Ukraine.  We were SO excited and wanted to share it with you all.
 
First day of Bible Camp went well.  We had 10 children, 2 teens from Bro. O'Brian's church came to help.  What a blessing they were.  It made it so much easier on Lina and I with them to help play games and do crafts!!! Praise the Lord they are going to come back and help for the rest of the week.  Slava (Slavic) helped with a skit that went over VERY  WELL!!  The kids loved it and Mike was so caught up in watching the skit he forgot to take any pictures!!
 
I think we will probably have more tomorrow.  Ola is bringing 3 of her neices and nephews and all the children said they were going to bring a friend tomorrow, so we will see.  Nastia's father agreed to let her come and we told her to bring Masha too.  Masha had a fun time.  The camp is for children 6 to 12 but we aren't turning any away no matter their age.  A lady from a near by village (I did not recognize the name) that goes to a Baptist church brought 3 of her grandchildren.  She thanked us for having something for the children.   Keep praying.  I trust that the Lord is going to give some of these children for Sunday School.
 
Although we have not had many for church - usually 8 to 10.  We have had wonderful services.  You can feel the presence of the Lord.  We have 3 to 4 lost adults every service.
 
Will keep you up to date about the Bible Camp and will send some pictures at the end of the week.
 
Thank you for your prayers!  Continue to pray for the youth of Vvedenka and for the lost attending the services.

Monday, August 20, 2012

Furlough Ministries

Furlough truly is a ministry.  As we travel to different churches we have noticed the great need for laborers even here in the states!  Recently when we were in Maryland, we were able to help with their VBS.  It was a privilege to be able to help.

While we were there, we got to visit with the Shulls.  Our kids had a blast together while Carole and I talked as fast as we could to get everything in.  It was like visiting with an old friend. 

As you can see, my kids enjoyed their first VBS too. :)


Amidst all of the excitement of VBS, Daniel came down with a fever of 103.9 under the arms.  We finally brought him in the 3rd day and were told that was more like 105!  They weren't sure exactly what he had, some type of infection, but they gave him antibiotics.  He is doing much better now and we appreciate everyone who prayed and helped with the cost.  Besides that, it was a great week!

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Ukraine Update

We have been busy, but enjoying visiting with some old and new friends.  We have some pretty amazing supporting churches, but I'll share that with you later.  Right now, I wanted to ask your prayers for our little church in Ukraine, the White family and their upcoming VBS.  Joyce White emailed me and I thought I'd share some with you.  I pray that it will give you a greater desire to pray, not feel sorry for us. :)

We were out for about 3 hours yesterday passing out invitations for the Bible Camp.  I don't think I was truly prepared for the reaction that we got from most of the people.  The adults we were able to talk too said their children COULD NOT come to anything that had to do with us! (meaning the church)  Young children mocked and cursed us.  But some took the invitations and said they were interested.  In the 20 years of ministry in the former Soviet countries we have never experienced the hate of God's Word, His church, and His ministries as we do here.  Only God can break the hearts and open the blinded eyes of these people.  Pray earnestly, as we know you do, for us the next two weeks as we continue to give out invitations and  from Aug. 20 - 24 hopefully have a Bible Camp with children attending.  We are praying for 15 to 20 children to come.

 
Will you pray with us?  What a blessing it would be to see God work upon these stony hearts!

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...