Sunday, January 28, 2007

What does Missionary Mean???

Something that I thought about a lot in the States was being able to be a missionary when I was working a “normal” job and leading a “normal” life, whatever that means. I had a conversation with a friend one time who said he didn’t think he was making any difference because he had a “normal boring” job. I encouraged him to know that it didn’t matter where he worked, we can share Christ with people every day. Think about people you work with, the check out lady you see every week at the grocery store. Think about the relationship you already have and how that relationship can grow and how God can use you in their life. Be bold!! God can do anything, we just have to say yes. It’s really that simple. Our faith in Him will lead us into an amazing life of leading others to know Christ; we just have to believe what God can do, not what we can do.

I pray that I can have the boldness to start inviting neighbors up for coffee or meals. I know that Jesus ate with people all the time to share True Life with them. Are you opening your home up to people who are not able to pay you back, and to people who need to know Jesus’ love. It doesn’t take much to show people you care about them. Brett and I don’t know people in this building very well; first because we haven’t lived here very long, and second because we are limited in our conversation skills. Despite this, or even because of this, they will be totally shocked when we invite them here. If we do things for people without wanting anything in return, they will begin to wonder why we are doing these things and they will start to ask questions.

I pray for the faith and the boldness to share our faith with everyone around us.

Matt 25:35-36 For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Weekend in Gorlovka

We had a wonderful visit with some new found friends, the Kenny Payne family. I would like to introduce you to them and what better way to do that than to link you up to them:

http://www.crossculturegorlovka.blogspot.com/

Thanks for your hospitality, Kenny, Lora, Leanna, Dema, Lexi-- love to the church in Gorlovka!

Monday, January 22, 2007


Happy new Year!


Our White Christmas


Our Dog Lilly

Happy Birthday, Leesh!


Christmas New Year’s Tree



Alicia and the Snow Girl


Brett and Deed Morose
(that's the best English spelling I could muster for the Ukrainian name for Santa Claus)

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

С Новым Годом!

(That's Happy New Year, in Russian )

We have enjoyed our time off from school. We are started back Monday, both of us are already starting to study again. We had really good times for Christmas and New Years. We had a good trip to Sumy to spend some time with the Christians there before Christmas. Thanks to both our families and dear friends sending us some really nice packages, we had a grand Christmas morning.

In class:
Well, here’s the progress… it seems little over time, but when we consider that we’ve only been here a few months, we are stoked by the fact that:
1- our teacher is only speaking Russian in class now. No English allowed.
2-
Alicia’s friend Anya was impressed of Alicia’s knowledge of Kiev. She has been here for as long as we have (she’s from a smaller city), she’s Ukrainian and she said Alicia is making her way around better than she is. Alicia gave proper credit to all our fellow classmates supplying our networking information.

Our prayer for the new year:

Господь!

Благодарим Тебя за любовь Твою, за то что Ты даровал нам возможность служить Тебе.

Благодарим Тебя за то что Ты даровал нам возможность изучать русский язык

Благослави нашу учёбу

Дай нам мудрость и терпение

Во имя Иисуса Христа, Амин.

God,

Thank you for your love, that you grant us opportunity to serve you.

Thank you that you grant us opportunity to study Russian language.

Thank you for your teaching.

Give us wisdom and patience.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.