Dan and Pris Gollan

We are home again… it’s Monday night. The electricity situation is becoming worse… but not something unmanageable. The cold hasn’t hit us yet though… and Russia is likely going to keep bashing away at our electricity infrastructure with missiles and drones… so security regarding a warm future is rather uncertain. We have already deeply appreciated the solar system. Today, again, we had electricity for only two or three hours during the day time, so having the power for phones laptops and tablets, plus lights and pumps, was wonderful. The 11 people who had online lectures couldn’t have done it without that power.

Nine of those people were children. (The first group of refugees have arrived.) It has been a good five days of getting to know each other. I realize that these children are going to be ones whom I invest in and love quite a bit over the next several months.  Good.

We figure we have room to take in another 15-20 “kind of comfortably”. If Kiev gets evacuated because of further attacks on stations, I calculate that we could take in about 80 people into the church building, our home, and two other homes available to us. We would need a heap more blankets and mattresses to facilitate this, (and that may be a problem getting them if people have to evacuate), as well as a heap more food and other supplies… but I’m reluctant to spend 1000’s of dollars on these things just yet. (Having said that, ironically, I’m making a trip into Kiev tomorrow to pick up some extra mattresses and couches and materials to make temporary rooms.) You might like to pray that the Lord will give wisdom regarding the making of these decisions.

Theoretically, we have made our last trips to Boy-arka and Noviy Bikiv for this year to clean up and rebuild what was destroyed. This last trip, Mitya took with him a number of the men who are still in rehab.  They did well, and were excited to be going.  We will continue to visit Niviy Bikiv to teach the people who gather God’s Word – please pray for this. (In both places, people are in “the firing line” if Russia does have another bite at the cherry - Kiev.)

WOOD-CHIP PROJECT: We are looking to make a major push to get the drying room for wood-chips up and running – the next two weeks will be biggies. We need to start drying chips soon. The heating season has officially begun… We are hovering above zero, but in a couple of weeks should be seeing freezing temps steadily going forwards for a few months. There are a lot of people in our community who will struggle financially to heat their homes this year. I’m pretty sure that God will love it if we help.

Two men whom I deeply love, got baptized yesterday – both these guys come from extremely rough backgrounds. They love the Lord deeply and gave testimony to that in front of the church today. I’ve really enjoyed working with these two humble men over the last several months on different work projects, and it was so encouraging to see them take this step.  May God use them for His glory.

On Saturday, I nearly killed a dog. (Then the car in the opposite lane nearly killed it.) It was a German Shepherd and in its prime. It believed that it owned the road, obviously, and wasn’t moving for anyone. It got me thinking about confidence. Confidence can get you killed. But confidence also inspires. Something Sergei said on Sunday resonated with me because of these thoughts. He said that as a Christian now, he has confidence in God. When we have confidence in God, in His wisdom, power, authority, love, etc. etc… the security that this brings into our lives is impressive.  It reminds me of what God said to Isaiah before punishing Israel with war:  “In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.”  But the people weren’t having any of it.  They didn’t trust God.  They couldn’t, in a sense, because their deeds were evil.  And yet, God is always there for us if we will but trust Him.  Looking back, something that was a great comfort to our church was the trust in God that the leaders had.  It inspired people to serve and not “crawl into a hole” like many people did.

We are blessed.  We have confidence in God.  Thank you for your prayers.