April Donations

Thank you to our April Donors! Whether it be your regular donation, or your donation to help a student learn english...it is all SO helpful and we are just SO thankful to God for each and every one of you!!!

In the future Julia ans Sergey are going to give us an idea of how they use your donations every month! Stay tuned!!

Thanks to:

Rick and Mary Coates
Ken and Vera Gustafson
Edward Push
Les Stutzman
Russel and Donna Rediger

If you donated for the month of April and you are not on this list, please contact me...that means I don't have accurate records for April and I want to make sure that they are accurate. Thanks so much!!!!!!!

Definition of Sin

Billy Graham talks about the definition of sin:

The Bible says, "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" and God's request for your life. And you're a sinner. You have to confess it and acknowledge it; say, "Lord, I have sinned, and I'm sorry for my sin." Sin is when you disobey God. … If you've broken God's law, you have to pay a price. It's a terrible price because you're separated from God forever, unless you repent and receive Christ into your heart. … Christ took your sins, He shed His blood for you, and He said the reason was that He loved you.

He Wants You!

What does it mean that God loves us?

Here’s Franklin Graham:

He wants you, He loves you, He created you, He made you, He’s given you life. And you’ve turned your back on Him and He’s wanting to forgive you. He’s wanting to set you free. He wants to give you a new start. But you’ve got to be willing to come to Him tonight. Confessing your sin to Him, telling Him you’re sorry, asking Him for forgiveness, and receive by faith Christ into your heart, God will set you free. You see, Jesus said I am the way, the truth and the life and no man comes to the Father but by me. There is no other way to God, except through Jesus Christ. Why? Because Jesus Christ is the only one in history that paid the debt of sin.

A little bit about Easter in Ukraine

I asked Julia to give me just a small snippet of Easter in Ukraine. Here is what she said....

We actually celebrate Easter this year on the 19th of April. The Ukrainian orthodox tradition is to go to the orthodox church in the night (Saturday to Sunday) and the priest has an Easter service and "sanctifies" Easter bread, painted eggs, honey and other Easter food that people bring to chruch in baskets (he sprinkles it with holy water). Also we have a tradition of taking the Easter fire from the church. This fire is brought to every church from Jerusalem and people take it home and try to keep it for as long as possible. In Russian Easter is called "Pas-ha" which is similar to the Jewish name of this holiday.

Sasha

In 1999 Sasha was 10 years old, he used to come to a presbyterian church where we had a ministry for orphans and a great Sunday school where the kids from the orphanage were welcomed. After the Sunday school there was always lunch provided for the kids from the orphanage. Sasha came every Sunday. After he graduated from the orphanage he went to the construction college in one of the villages outside of Odessa. When he came back to Odessa he realized he has no friends to turn to so he found my number and called. He remembers the "good old times" when he used to go to Sunday school with warmth and is thankful to all the people in the presbyterian church of Odessa who cared for him. We got together several times and Sergey is building a friendship with Sasha. Please pray that he would grow in his relationship with God and get settled in Odessa.

Sveta and Vika

These are two girls Sergey met on the streets of Odessa. They are Sveta and Vika. One of them ran away from the orphanage and lives on the street. She sniffs glue, that is a thing most of the homless kids do. Another one has a mom who has a difficult life and hardly ever finds time for her daughter. As you pray for these girls pray for God to do a miracle in their lives and give them future and hope and please pray that we would be able to help them the best way we can. We want to give them clothes but they didn't come for an appointment.

Bible Group

Sergey and I had it on our hearts for a long time to start a group for young people who are interested in the Bible and spiritual questions. There are many young boys and girls we meet with, invite to our home and have chances to minister to and we want it to be a place for them to ask the questions they have about God and learn more about Jesus. Today we started...we had one friend who came (a 4th year student) - we had lunch together, prayed and talked about Easter and read a Bible passage about Easter. It was a good time and we are praying for more people to come and benefit from this time. Please pray for that with us!