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Not a Bad Way to End the Day

Just thought I'd share an overview of the day today, with a few photos too.

I spent the morning working on some translation and preparation for my sermon for our assembly time this evening (in the Russian-speaking church plant). I adapted and translated a study and handout that I did for our Friday night Bible study with the Nigerians a couple of months ago.

After wolfing down some lunch I hurried out to pick up the LST team from the apartment they've been staying at. David was there already and we all rode together out to the airport to drop them off. It's been a quick two weeks that this team of 5 from the Seattle area spent here, but it's been productive and has definitely broken some new ground in the development of the work here in Kharkov. They read the Bible with a good number of folks -- I don't have the final tally available, but I know it was at least 34. Both Friday evenings while they were here, we hosted an "LST party" for all their readers here at our apartment. This last time a couple days ago we had 40 people altogether.

LST party Friday night

Many thanks to Dave, Kathy, Leandra, Janice, and Amber for their willingness to come and for the service they gave. They, and the word of God, definitely made an impact on people during these two weeks and we look forward to seeing how God grows some of the seeds that have been planted. I'm heavy-hearted about the fact that right as it's time to start working on follow-up for these, I'm needing to leave Ukraine for an extended period of time. But our teammates will do a good job. 

Interestingly enough, while driving from the apartment to the airport with them to drop them off, we happened to spot three of the people who came and read with them for the past two weeks -- one lady on one street, and a lady and her daughter at another spot a couple of miles away. "One and a half million people in this city," commented one of the LST workers, "and we've just passed three of our readers."

From the airport David and I came straight back into town to Brandon and Katie's apartment. When we arrived the English-speaking assembly that our team started a month or two ago was already underway. This assembly is mainly geared toward an initial handful of Nigerian brothers, but we pray that it can grow to serve and evangelize a wider swath of the population of non-Russian speakers in Kharkov. Just this last week one Nigerian young man that has come to a couple of our events in the past few months was baptized by a Ukrainian preacher here in town. He joined the other Nigerian brothers at this English assembly today and we made a point to celebrate his new birth in Christ with him. His name is Kelvin.

Three Nigerian brothers and the five AIM students. That's Kelvin with the black pants.

Directly after the end of the English assembly it was time to head straight to another part of town where our normal (Russian-speaking) church assembly was to gather. This week was the first time we've had a formal Bible class in conjunction with the assembly (the hour before it). We hope that will serve to edify the church and each person in it. Our numbers were down a little today with one brother sick and some people out of town, but it was a good time together. For the sermon time I shared my handout and the thoughts that came from this particular study of the word.

The kids coloring together after our Russian assembly.

On the way home at the end of all this, my phone started ringing. It was Sergei, a neighbor of ours in our last apartment with whom I had a couple of Bible discussions quite a while ago. I haven't had any contact with him in over a year since we moved, although I have thought about him repeatedly and have been wanting to call and reconnect with him. So it was very interesting that he called me, seemingly out of the blue. He called to thank me for the Bible that I had given to him (this was at least a year and a half ago now). At the time he had shared with me about how he was reading from his Bible, which is a traditional, old translation that is sort of the Russian equivalent of the King James. At that time I gave him a Bible in a modern Russian translation. At the time he seemed mildly curious about it but was put off by how small the text was (he had a large print version of the old translation). 

So I was a little surprised but very delighted to get this call from him a year and a half later, and he is singing the praises of the Bible I gave him. He said he has been reading and comparing several different Russian translations and after all this time he has decided that he thinks the translation I gave him is the best. He didn't go into detail on the phone call about how he came to that conclusion but I'll be curious to hear more. He said that it (the one I gave him) is now his "настольная книга." Literally translated, this means "tabletop book." A looser, but more meaningfully accurate, translation would be "the book he keeps closest within reach," "go-to book," or even "handbook."

That was one of those rare and very valuable "Oh yeah, this is what it's all about" kind of phone calls. And right before I'm having to leave for several months at least (he is out of town, so I can't even get together with him before we leave). But we agreed to exchange email addresses and I told him I'd love to hear, while I'm gone, about what he's reading (in the Bible) and what he thinks of it. God's word will be doing its work.