by Pastor Jerry Theckston
Our discipleship group met last night! We have dwindled down the last few years in number as folks immigrate to the U.S. and other Countries during the War! But the Holy Spirit filled the room with His warmth and love throughout the night! It was so exciting to hear them express their deepening passion for Christ and all the ways He has been using them to extend the Kingdom of God and loving others in practical ways!
At the end I shared some things about how exactly opposite life with Christ is compared to what the World values! I used a Superhero analogy - what the World is impressed with and what our King is impressed with! God had some really clear things to say to us and at the end I was asked to share these same things at the City’s largest church tomorrow! I could use your prayers!!
These dear followers are such a joy to our Lord and to me, because of their faithfulness and our long journey together! I have known some of them since they were 5 years old or younger and others since they were teenagers- now some are sneaking up on their 40’s! We prayed for each other to close the evening. and prayed for my eyes which I'll tell you more about later. They must have hugged each other a dozen times before leaving and finally started to drift out sometime after 11 pm! I got to bed around midnight, dead tired but full to overflowing!
Today, we had a late lunch because, as often happens, there is no power here, so they drove our Sea Bass dinner over to relatives that have a gas stove! We finally sat down for lunch at 4:30 pm. Our sweet host demonstrated again how they go through their days making the best from what they have, which is becoming less and less…
God continues to work miracles and favor through every event during the day!
Yesterday, Lev received his permission to leave the Country for our trip to Israel. We leave Ukraine for Chisenau, Moldova on Monday, then fly to Tel Aviv on Tuesday, so there was no time to spare!
We have working through some friends to help set up our time in Israel and then they were recalled back into the IDF, Israeli Defense Force, and were whisked away! We haven’t heard from them since! We weren’t sure what God wanted our next step to be, but we were surrendered to anything He had in mind!
Then He said to write to some dear friends in Israel, even though we were now in the eleventh hour, and He would tell us all what to do from there… it has been miraculous! We had nothing on the table just yesterday and today it looks like all the needs and decisions have been resolved! How does He do that? And, the great part is that we are all learning how to trust God better whatever happens! And, because it is God and not us scrambling to force things, there is fun and great joy for everyone involved! Amazing Grace!!
A very small thing but a helpful prayer request for myself...
When we were driving into Kharkiv a couple weeks ago, Dr. Lev was telling me how filthy the water in this city of 1 1/2 million people had become! And the same was true for Dnepro and Novomoscosk! I just passed it off because of all the bad water I have had over the years, thinking I’ll be fine. But I picked up a really frustrating eye infection! Apparently when I rinse my face the water gets into my eyes and they have just been pouring out eye stuff and tears constantly- it doesn’t feel good but even more frustrating is how gross it looks! It is humbling… which I am sure I need more of!
I told you that our discipleship group here in Chernivtsi met last night and they prayed very earnestly and with great tenderness-and my eyes are almost completely healed today! I think just a second touch and they will be fully restored! Mark 8:22-25
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