Where are they?

I thought I would post this up here so everyone could see just where we are on the map. Chernigov as a population of 300,000 people and has more dogs then Christians!

Broken glass

After our midweek Bible study on Wednesday night, we had all but one of the windows in our church shattered by bricks in the middle of the night. It's the fifth time it's happened now and by far the worst.

Summer's here

I love Ukraine for many reasons. One is that I love all the fresh fruit growing everywhere. When we bought our home we were so excited about all the fruit trees. We have apple, apricot, pear, and cherry tree's. We also have strawberries, black and red currants, and raspberries. Gavin and Emma always have something on their faces after the latest batch they've picked!

Voice

Next month we are going to offer free English courses every day for a week. We will meet at 10:00 and finish up at 1:00 with a English movie in the evening. We will break up into groups for grammar, meet in a hall for a short lecture, then break up into discussion groups. We will be giving away dictionaries and classic books each day. We will also break the people up into 3 different levels, beginner, intermediate, and advanced speakers.

We are praying for many to hear and understand the gospel through these classes. Please be praying for this time.

ht: Chernigov

Papers on Preaching

In 1999 I was in a used Christian book store in York, England. Books lined the walls of this little shop and I scanned the room for something interesting to take home. At the time all I wanted to do was find a cool, old, book that I could take home as a souvenir. What I ended up finding that day was much more then just a souvenir. It was a book entitled Papers On Preaching. It was published in 1887. It is a series of articles on sermon preparation and preaching written by different pastors. Since that day in York, England I have probably read one particular chapter well over two hundred times. I have not come across such powerful words in any other book, besides the Bible, that encourages me so much to lift up the name of Jesus. I read these words often before I teach. They have brought me so much encouragement in my life that I thought I would share them with you.

I.

BY THE RIGHT REV. MAURICE S. BALDWIN, D.D,

BISHOP OF HURON.

"We need a ministry that believes in Jesus Christ. I mean by this, a ministry that believes in Jesus Christ against the whole world; that not only merely believes that Jesus Christ is a power, or even a great power, but that all power in heaven and earth is His; that he is before all things, and by Him all things consist; that He is not only King, but King of kings, and Lord of lords; that believes when it enters the pulpit, Bible in hand, to lift up Christ as the infinite salvation of God, a blessing not only may, but must follow, because He is the power of God, and because this is the hour when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live.

This is the ministry we need: one not afraid , as has been well said, to step out on the deep blue of God's promise and trust where the whole world derides ; not afraid to stake the awful inviolability of Christ's word against the despair of a nation, and to rejoice in sunlight where the world sees only the blackness of the storm. Oh, we need always to be wrapped round in the very folds of the Redeemer's garments, to realise Him so personally present, that above us we can see His glorious form towering up into infinite divinity ; His head crowned with many crowns, and shining above the brightness of the sun ; beneath us, as the Rock of Ages upholding the whole church with the omnipotency of His power ; around us, as the hills are about Jerusalem, that we being encircled with His presence may be saved from all our adversaries, and rest in the fulness of His peace."

Saved

I thought I'd post some things about it's amazing meaning.

• Saved, Salvation - to be eternally saved in every respect from all the influences of sin. Thus it means to be made whole, to be made complete, to be made healthy. Salvation, according to the Biblical revelation, is always and only a work of God for man, and never in any case a work of man for God.

• "And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved"Acts 4:12

• "if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." Romans 10:9

• "They cried to you and were saved; in you they trusted and were not disappointed." Psalm 22:5

• "Since no man is excluded from calling upon God the gate of salvation is open to all. There is nothing else to hinder us from entering, but our own unbelief." John Calvin

• "Is it not wonderful news to believe that salvation lies outside ourselves?" Martin Luther

• "Salvation comes through a cross and a crucified Christ." Andrew Murry

Happy Birthday Priluki!

On Sunday, Calvary Chapel Priluki celebrated its 7th anniversary. I was able to go down with a few friends from Chernigov and join the celebration. It's been almost a year since the church was handed over to all Ukrainian leadership. To visit and see how God is blessing them and growing them was a joy! They are such a loving church! My good friend Vlad is now pastoring the church. He was one of the guys that the Lord saved the summer of 2000 when the church first started. He is now married to a great girl named Zhanna and they are expecting their first child in August. Please continue to pray for the church in Priluki, Pastor Vlad and the rest of the church leadership.

Baptism

On Saturday, Valya, a young lady in our church was baptized! She's been saved for almost a year. It's been awesome to watch her grow in faith and knowledge of God. Many people in our church have known her for a while and have been able to see God's powerful work in her life. Baptism is a sign of the former man being buried with Christ and being raised again in a new life.

One day

"You may speak but a word to a child, and in that child there may be slumbering a noble heart which shall stir the Christian Church in years to come." -Charles Spurgeon

Good Night

They play so hard on these summer days and then sleep just as hard. I am so thankful for our little one's. Emma is 3 and Gavin is 5. They both seem to fully understand who God is and what Jesus did on the cross for them. It brings me so much joy to read the Bible with them each morning and watch them grasp so much of it and believe. I want more kids!

Truth

"Either sin is with you, lying on your shoulders, or it is lying on Christ, the Lamb of God. Now if it is lying on your back, you are lost; but if it is resting on Christ, you are free, and you will be saved. Now choose what you want." - Martin Luther

Thank you Rubbermaid

You have not only helped us to haul our stuff around the world, but you have brought a lot of joy to two hot little kids.....

Just so you know, we have a little pool but they perfer the tubs!

Meet the family

I knew the first thing that I wanted to do on this thing was show off my church family. Here are a few pictures from church today. I got shots of the people that come before the Sunday service to help setup and pray. This is just some of the family.