Mid-January Weekend of Ministry

What do potholes, dry roads, and a sunny day have in common? Nothing particularly, except those were experiences for us this weekend in addition to ministering to youth and children, and preaching. Let us first share that today was the first day since mid-December that we had sunshine most of the day. Consequently, it was the first day that we had neither snow, ice, nor water on the roads. We have not traveled on a dry road since early December. But the drying of the roads has only made more evident the abundant and huge potholes. The constant freezing, ice, rain, and pounding of vehicle wheels have made the roads look like they have been bombed with thousands of shells. Yesterday, Tim returned home from Perechin later than usual. We like to get home before dark because the roads are so bad and it is very difficult to see, especially when it was raining, and it was last evening. So, he had to go very easy and be very alert for the huge holes. The sunshine was greatly appreciated today.
Tim & Stephen were the only ones who went to the Saturday meetings yesterday. Cheryl needed to stay home with Leah, who had not been feeling well; and Vita is still recovering from the birth of baby Timothy. At the meeting we had five children for the first service. We had one guest, Vita's youngest sister Masha, who is visiting Vita with their mother. In the youth meeting we had three girls and one fellow who just walked in from the street and sat and listened. Tim had never seen him before, but Stephen stated that he used to come to the services before. In the photo below are youth at the service with the man visiting. On the left is Masha, Vita's youngest sister. Sometimes the youth get started by asking questions before we even have a chance to begin a program. We really like when they ask questions and prefer that they do this unsolicited to help them with answers for things occurring in their lives at the time. Yesterday, they were asking about other religions and how should they respond to the youth they see dressed in all black and baggy clothes. They call them "hota", which means gothic. We shared with them that God is the God of the living, the God of truth and light. He wants us to live happy and not depressing, dreadful, and morose lives. He wants us to live in the light of the truth life and not in darkness. We shared that there was nothing particularly wrong with wearing black clothes, since many, many Ukrainians dress in dark and black clothes in the winter, but that the expression and attitude of what those clothes represented was the important thing. We talked about Buddhism, yoga, etc. You can see these are youth that are very hungry for truth.
Today, Sunday, we visited the Uzhgorod Church, and then in the evening we were preaching at Kamyanitza, where Tim has been preaching a series of messages on subjects relative to the Holy Spirit.

Masha, Bogdana, visitor, Yulya, Valya, and Stephen at the youth service