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Seeing

Something nice has occurred in our family.  God has healed Priscilla and Jesse from something that has bothered them for years.

They have worn glasses for a combined total of over 40 years – with Priscilla being classified as legally blind without them.  Today, they are seeing perfectly without glasses after a visit to a clinic in Kiev that specializes in laser eye surgery.  Jesse, (yes, he’s back for the summer), has commented a couple of times so far that he loves his “upgrade” and thinks he now has better than 20/20.  Pris is loving the freedom she feels without glasses.  She feels a bit like she’s in a new body. 

It was a pretty special birthday present for Pris – a day that will be remembered for the rest of her life! 

We had a Sunday recently which was also special for the church.  Dima – the only Ukrainian in our church who is not a first generation Christian – preached his first sermon.  It was definitely a blessing to many and absolutely thrilled me.  God is good.  The next week, Sergei, a young guy we befriended on the local beach over 10 years ago, preached.  Two years ago he married and now has a little girl… and is preaching!  May these two guys grow in the Lord and serve Him greatly in His church! 

We’ve had the last session in the parenting course.  17 weeks of meeting and learning and discussing… it was greatly valued by all the parents.  We announced that we hoped to do a conference next year opening it up to anyone who wanted to learn.  This idea was met with enthusiasm… so it looks like we’ll plan to bring that about in February/March… 

IMG_4740Kids club last week went off without a hitch.  About 30-40 kids came out each day and were loved and cared for by the Christians who volunteered their time.

Marie has graduated.  She did pretty well academically, finishing up with a grade average of over 97%.  For the next year, she plans to be in Australia working in Brisbane for a year with Jesse.  Her plans after that involve Bible college of some sort somewhere… but she’ll figure those details out over this next year.

This Sunday, Oleg and Ura will be getting baptized.  I’m kinda glad it’s June and not January.  These two guys have been thinking about baptism for a while now, so it was great to finally hear them say that they were ready.  We’re scrapping our regular church service and having a picnic afternoon after the baptisms on the beach.  I’ll include a couple of pics in this post after Sunday.

Today we went to Kiev for an outing with Esther, my sister, who is here for a couple of weeks.  We decided to risk taking the van as the temps were in the mid-20’s.  The ol’ gal got us home in perfect time and the only trouble she gave us was overheating a few times, which is an easy fix – just turn off the motor for a while!  It’s worth noting that the fact that we knew it was dicey taking it to Kiev made our thanks especially meaningful upon our arrival home. 

I was talking with someone recently about being thankful.  Trusting God is something that is closely linked with being thankful to Him, as the Almighty.  And thanking Him for the way in which He chooses to bless you and grow you and work in and through you for His glory is something that comes with a mature faith.  Selah… and have a great day!

 

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Beautiful weather for the baptism of these two young men.  It was another special time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Had to include this from Jesse’s birthday, too.  Shane managed to jump off the wall and catch a cherry in his mouth.  Pfffft…