Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Hallelujah!


This past weekend was fulfilling. God continues to amaze me with all the ministry opportunities. Last Sunday was a day off for me so I went to Cherkasy to visit friends and enjoy some great worship and preaching. It takes 2 ½ hour ride to get to Cherkasy, so my day began at 4 AM. To make it to the 10 AM service, I have to be on the bus by 7 AM. Complicated, right? Well, it is inexpensive transportation and I love the chauffeurs! I can leave the driving to them whether it is raining, sleeting or snowing.

My two and a half hour ride was amazing. I met a couple who are missionaries here, also. They are Mormon! What an opportunity, I was able to witness to them the entire time. Also they are going to attend our Passover Seder in Kyiv! What an even greater opportunity to witness about Jesus Christ. They are truly interested and desire to learn more about the historical significance of this celebration. Praise God!

While visiting Word of Life Church, I helped in the children’s ministry. The leader, Alena, is my friend who opens her home to me. While Alena stayed with me in Kyiv during a conference I taught her how to use the tambourine. She learned a couple of basic movements and was so excited about the opportunity to teach her children, that I gave her 3 tambourines. Thank you Edie, your gift continues to give! I was amazed to see the children had already learned a pattern in a few weeks. God keeps expanding the field of worship. Of course, this is my heart, so I get so excited to see it spread across the country.

There will be four Passover services this year. We are updating the material and preparing for the services. In preparation, we visited King David Synagogue (store) to purchase matzah and a Seder plate. They permitted us to go into the sanctuary. Sitting in front of the door of the sanctuary, was a menorah with the servant’s candle and two lions sitting on each side of it. Immediately my spirit jumped, though they don’t know Jesus, it is in their spirit. Even in the sanctuary, they have 2 lions guarding the Word (scroll) along with a crown above it! What awesome symbolism. I am at a loss for words. I felt the Spirit of God so strongly in the Synagogue and throughout the rest of the day.

While in the sanctuary, one gentleman was teaching on the ‘afikomen’ which is a broken piece of matzah which is hidden during the service, redeemed and taken as communion at the end of the meeting. It is this matzah that replaced the lamb sacrifice when the Temple was destroyed. Luda was translating for me and I stood there in awe, I received affirmation of what I am about to teach to Christians about our Lord Jesus Christ and His feasts!

God blesses me in so many ways. Yesterday was a renewal of peace and comfort for me. Orthodox Christians truly love G-d; however they do not know Jesus. Let us pray for the Peace of Jerusalem and the exposure of the Truth!

"May the Lord bless you and take good care of you. May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord look on you with favor and give you peace." Num. 6:24-26

Monday, March 16, 2009

Our God-given Gifts and Passover


Greetings again!

This past weekend I traveled to Dnipropetrovs’k. We had class for two churches and the Master program. This month we are teaching “Discovering Your God-Given Gifts.” Everyone enjoyed the class. Taking the tests surprised even me! I discovered my third gifting. This class gave us insight into how and why people function they way they do. This information will help us in our personal relationships, work relationships and ministry relationships.

Do you know what the oldest religious holiday celebrated today is? It is Passover.

We are preparing to teach the traditional Jewish Passover Service in April. In this teaching, we add the New Covenant (Jesus) to the traditional Passover Seder. This year the material has been reviewed and approved by several Orthodox Jews.

Please pray hearts are open to seeing Jesus in the Passover service. Scripture tells us to study and practice the ‘Feasts of the Lord.’ As we study the feasts we are able to see Jesus in these feasts. There are seven feasts, some have been fulfilled and we all look forward to the rest being fulfilled!

"May the Lord bless you and take care of you. May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord look on you with favor and give you peace." Numbers 6:24-26

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Time is flying!

It is already March 10th! I cannot believe how quickly time has disappeared this year. Ukraine and Europe celebrated Women’s Day on Sunday. We were in Kharkiv for a seminar on Saturday and stayed to enjoy the service on Sunday. If you would like to see the seminar, the web address is; www.good-news.in Please feel free to check out the site. Be warned: the site is in Russian.


We had a great time during the seminar even though we had a late start. We took an express train which was an electric train and during the night it rained becoming ice by morning. Everything was so beautiful with icicles. However the train could not make the electrical connections needed to run the train. We waited almost two hours for a diesel engine to rescue us!


Saturday evening, the Pastors wife, Nadia, took us to an organ concert. Now this was not your ordinary organ this is one of those huge pipe organs. The concert was fabulous. The organist was Taras Bagenets from Russia.


Sunday was a special holiday, much like our Mother’s Day, there was a special program. Of course, the signing was my favorite part! Many of you know that I love worship dance and I learn so much with signing.


The office has completed reviewing and updating the first four years of material; including our maps and charts. Now we will begin to translate the Master and Doctorate materials.


This spring we will have a conference in June. which will include graduation for all the colleges. The administrators are excited about getting together to fellowship. We will have two keynote speakers. In the afternoon, we will have graduation. Each college will have a special presentation throughout the day. We are looking forward to something new this year.