PRAISE
I’m sure all of you can preach the topic of praise and how we need to praise and thank God—and how we struggle to do that when things are difficult. We had a most beautiful Thanksgiving service last Sunday at our church. It was powerful! Not ignoring the war and the suffering but offering thanks up to God for the country of Ukraine—and for His goodness and His blessings.
On the one side of the platform was a memorial to the war, to the soldiers who have laid down their lives, and the living who are fighting the battle for the freedom of Ukraine. At one point a video played in the background showing bombing and devastation and suffering while a group sang “I thank you, God…” and proclaiming who He is in the midst of it all. I am putting a link to the full video of that service, and it is all in Ukrainian, but if you go to 19 minutes, it lasts for 3 minutes and will give you a fresh picture of Ukraine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuJh6BtkOZQ I could not help but cry, and I saw many people wiping away the tears.
On the other side of the platform was a simple display representing harvest and God’s goodness. A children’s group sang in part of the program, and one of the things we thanked God for were our children. This fight that is going on—it is for them, for their future to have freedom to worship God.
We left the service deeply touched, and deeply grateful. We can praise God and thank Him even in the midst of war!
PRAYER
Abe and I leave tomorrow morning early (Saturday) to hopefully finish up the whole visa process, picking up a document on Saturday and going to another place Monday morning to register them there. Then Monday afternoon another workshop will start. I will go on to the eye clinic for probably my final checkup since my surgery in June and will stay in Kyiv and take care of some other things while Abe leads the workshop. Then we will go on to Dan and Priscilla’s to be with family for a few days and celebrate Dan’s birthday. We don’t have many opportunities for family celebrations and we love it when we can get together! And their whole church is like family to us as we have watched many of them grow and develop through the years.
Pray that the documentation process will be smoothly finalized.
Pray that the travels hither thither and yon would be blessed. Pray also for Diane’s health with the travel as she has been struggling with an infection and it is slow to react to the antibiotics.
Pray for the men and women coming to the workshop, as they share what they are doing, as they learn, as they have fellowship, as they account for their time and ministry. It is all a learning and growing process.
PRAY—ALWAYS—with THANKSGIVING
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