Thursday, February 22, 2007

Молитва № 9

Наш Господь! Наш Творец и Спаситель!

Благодарим Тебя за прекрасный зимний день,

... за постоянную заботу о нас.

... за то, что Ты прошаешь нам все грехи.

Благодарим Тебя за то, что Ты слышиш нашу малитву

Господь! Научи нас верно служить Тебя

Помоги нам слышать Твой слова

когда мы общаемся с Тобой

Мы славим Тебя Господь, Аминь.

This is probably my favorite prayer so far. I'm trying to memorize it this morning before going to class.

Nedezhda always asks us to begin class by quoting our latest prayer. She asks, "Kto pair-vee?" -- Who's first? And Alicia always goes first because she's always got the prayers down better than anyone. Lately, I've been next, we are missing Joel who's back in California for furlough, and then our newest student, a Korean missionary, Jason goes last. After each student gets through their prayer, Nadezhda pauses for a few seconds at the "Ameen" and then slowly raises her head up and whispers, "Spaceeba." (Thank you). Then with the wisdom of a seasoned teacher, not trying to imply that your prayer was wrong, she asks us about the places where we may have gotten the grammar wrong.

It's my favorite because it's got the "chiasm" of Hebrew literature, the cohesion of a haiku. We have learned prayers not knowing what we were saying, the memorizing sometimes overshadows the understanding of the words. We're getting to a point in our understandings where we are beginning to memorize more quickly because we're understanding the sentence structures more. But I really just like the meaning:

Our Lord! Our Creator and Savior!
Thank you for this beautiful winter day
thank you for your continual care for us
thank you that you forgive all our sins
thank you that you hear our prayer
Lord! Teach us to better serve you
Help us learn to forgive and forget offenses
Help us hear* Your Word while we fellowship with you
We praise You Lord. Amen.

* The "hearing" here is a deeper meaning than simple hearing. It's hearing with understanding followed with action


Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Jan Gorlovka Trip to Meet the Paynes


Brett holding Lena



Alicia and Christina

At the children's hospital in Gorlovka


Kenney and Lora Payne, and Tanya, a nurse
at the children's hospital




Family Care Center in progress



Me with several girls in the youth group at the church in Gorlovka



Dima Payne






Cute Lexi Payne(she's always posing)



They are so precious!!