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Oleg umer

IMG_9073“Oleg umer.”  Those were the abrupt words I heard from Pasha as I answered the phone a few days ago. 

Oleg, the quiet, diabetic book-binder, was with us for slightly over six months, but sadly left a few weeks ago without our blessing to “make his way in the world”.  We don’t know if he experienced the cleansing work of God in his life resulting in salvation.  It felt as if he did, but we don’t know for sure.  He was asking about baptism shortly before he left.  We had hopes that he might get in touch with the church we co-operate with in the city he is from, but that didn’t happen.  And now his body is dead.  His Spirit… we can’t help but hope that his spirit is with our Savior. 

The rest of the guys at “Armageddon” are doing real well.  The rabbits and pig which we’ve added to the small collection of animals, (cat and dog), are also doing well and are lovingly being cared for with the knowledge that they will eventually become meat-providers. 

We are meant to be meeting a lady in a few weeks about joining our team and serving in the ladies rehab center.  We will drive to a city about six hours away and visit a successful rehab ministry there where we will meet with the leaders and with our lady. May God give us all wisdom.

We are a week out from Camp 120.  This year looks like being a bit of a reprieve from the last few in that we are looking at 90 people coming instead of 120.  It is expected that Shane will get a new boat too, which will make a beautiful difference!

The church was meant to be meeting in the public town hall this last Sunday.  Amusingly, the key wouldn’t turn the lock, so we gave up and happily came back to our ministry center in our home.  We will fix the issue and likely be down there this coming Sunday.  We’ve always put off having our own church building, believing that when the church was growing quickly and we regularly had over 80-100 people meeting, then we should consider it.  I don’t know God’s plans for Rzhyshchiv or for our church, but we are willing to shoulder growth in numbers of people who consider themselves a part of our church.  We pray that God will glorify His Name in our town.

I dropped Angel off this morning at a village not far from us.  She will be serving there at a kids camp.  Her health is pretty fragile as she continues to go through the ups and downs of this syndrome, and we are hoping that she has a good week.  The last two days have seen her improving, but if she gets bad again, the pain will probably require us to go pick her up.

Elle is somewhere about the house… reading, no doubt.  We will go out in a bit and paint the “cubby” we’ve been making together for her.

Pris is… active.  Over-active?  I don’t think so, but she sure has her fingers in a lot of pies.  She’s an inspiration and blessing to many.

IMG_9382We’ve enjoyed doing more personal discipleship with several different couples the last six weeks or so.  One of the couples has been Mitya and Sveta… as they go through pre-marital counseling.  Mitya, (the on-site-leader at the rehab center), was doing drugs three years ago and had no idea that Jesus was God the Son who had died for him.   Sveta became a Christian as a teen about 15 years ago.  We feel like it’s a beautiful work of God that has brought this God-loving couple together and will celebrate with them at their wedding in late August.

The holiday we took with Pris’ parents at the beach last week was pleasant.  We had rented little cabins on the Black Sea for five nights and despite the serious chill still in the water, enjoyed swimming and laying about on the beach.  Five star – those cabins weren’t.  But what they lacked in other areas, they made up for in location.  We were grateful.