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| Our family photo Easter Sunday |
Praise God from whom all blessing flow!
We have been busier than ever with wonderful blessings. Along with warmer weather and clear blue skies, we have had an overflow of rejoicing to do. Ukraine's Easter (Paska) took place on May 5th, and we spent a beautiful day with our church family. The service was three hours long and an outdoor dinner followed.
It was wonderful to experience Easter in Ukraine. Weeks prior to the day, the whole village was preparing for Paska. The townspeople gathered at the park and around the village to work together to clean up. All of the tree trunks and sidewalk borders were freshly painted white, leaves were raked, and trash was removed. You could sense the excitement of the upcoming holiday of Christ's Resurrection. Paska was not only celebrated on Sunday but also continued into Monday. People spent both days walking around the village center to say to each other, "Christ is Risen!"
The Monday following Paska, a young friend who is a new believer in Christ, came to our home with his wife and new baby daughter to visit with us. We spent the day together getting to know each other. Mike and A. were both encouraged to have time to talk about things of the Lord. As they got ready to leave for home, the four of us planned to come together soon to do a Bible study. That day came sooner than expected, praise God. The following Friday our young friends arrived, Bibles in hand, and to top things off, all three of our dear friends were with us also. This was the first time Oleg, Vova, and Vitaly have been to our home at the same time.
It was a fantastic weekend as we watched the Lord working in the lives of all who came to visit. On Thursday, Oleg and Vova spent the day at the park with our family during another Ukrainian holiday. On Friday our first official Bible study took place, and on Saturday, the Lord blessed two of the young men and Mike with a Biblical Conference in another city. Vova had a great time cooking dinner (sheshleek) with Matthew on Friday evening for all of our Bible study guests. On Sunday, one of the young men publicly confessed his sins to the church Body. Our dear friend V., and the young man who attended the Bible study both made known their desires to be baptized. Preparations are being made for their baptisms for this summer.
By the time the weekend was over, we were all a bit closer to God and definitely closer to each other.
If you are moved, please pray for these fine young men. Although not all of them love the Lord, it is obvious that they are open to hearing the Gospel and willingly attend church with our family. Two of the four are truly, truly on fire for Jesus.
Praise God from whom all blessings flow! Great is Thy faithfulness!
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| Easter morning |
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Enjoying one-on-one time making cupcakes
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| Paska morning in the church kitchen. |
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| Practicing..... |
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Children's Choir practicing before Sunday's service
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| a walk into town |
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| Friday night and Shashlik! |
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| The cooks! |
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| First Bible study! |
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| Cooks in action! : ) |
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Friday night dinner together - the shashlik was DELICIOUS!
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| A. and V. in front of the Bible college |
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Homeschool is still going on....art class in the park.
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| slipping this pic in to say, date nights are still important.....every Tuesday night. Have you had your date night this week? |
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| Vova preparing potatoes for planting. |
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| All of us worked together to get the field planted with potatoes, corn and beans. Vova and Oleg were happy to help. It does my heart good to know two young men willing to help their friends - it is a big field! |
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| Favorite Pic! Oldest and youngest! |
