Angel Wings

Happy Independence day Ukraine!!!!!

I’m sitting home nursing a cold…what are you doing tonight to celebrate???

Sniff, sniff, blow, blow, achooo, ACHOOOO!!!!!

The training seminar was really awesome. I found myself wishing that I had done something like this earlier in my ministry as a counselor for Healing Hearts ministries. The tools we learned for counseling in a Pregnancy Center environment are great tools that can be used for counseling in any situation!

The teachings were intermixed with one on one discussion groups as well as small group discussions. The Lord really challenged me in many areas, language being one of them as the teachings were done in British English (our main teachers were from Great Britain) as well as Russian (we had two trainers from Kharkov, a city in Ukraine).

The Russian teachings were not translated except for the main teachers, and during the one on one and group discussions I participated all in Russian!!! There was a point in time when I had stepped outside for some fresh air during one of our breaks, and had a break down with the Lord. I poured my heart out to Him, sharing how inadequate I felt in my language skills, and how I wasn’t so sure I was cut out for this ministry, for doing this ministry in Russian. I solicited His help in a way I have never done before.

After my break down, I went back into the seminar and had a break through with my language. The Lord really worked through me and gave me words as well as comprehension/understanding that I didn’t know I had! PRAISE GOD from whom all blessings flow.

This week, the volunteers of the Poltava Pregnancy Center, myself, and the director met to discuss all of our roles. I have the privilege and the honor to pray with each of the counselors for their times with the clients, and for any of the clients who come into the center or call on the “hot line”. What an honor to be considered for such a role, and that the director feels my Russian is “up to par” that I can communicate in prayer with each of these ladies who do not speak any English.

Please pray for my prayer times with these volunteers. That the Lord would use me mightily, that my prayer language skills would increase, and that all the glory and honor would go to Him!

L-R

Ira (translator), Joanna Thompson (Head of CARE Centres Network), Sheelagh Clarke (Course Trainer)

Ahhhh…”taste and see that the Lord is good”!!!!!  Psalm 34:8

To see more of these pictures, go to Life in Ukraine pictures

The other night as I walked home I looked up and just stared at the stars.  There were so many…to think that God gave this to me as a gift.  To be able to live in a place away from the city lights/noise and to be able to look up and see His glory displayed in the Heavens above! How absolutely cool!

Then, I saw a shooting star!  WOW GOD!!!! THAT WAS REALLY COOL!!!! I had never before in my entire life seen a shooting star!!! Thanks God for showing me your splendor in the night sky.

 A friend reminded me that God named all the stars in the galaxy.  Think about that for a moment.  He named ALL the stars.  What an imagination (and such a wide expanse of vocabulary too) He must have!  Thanks God for the gifts You have given us to remind us of Your Glory!!!

The Work of the Accuser

One of the names of the enemy is the Accuser. It is his doing, when we have sought God’s guidance and been as obedient as we knew how, and then remain in an agony of doubt as to whether God did guide, whether we really did obey. There is no end to the “proofs” the Accuser can present to sow doubt in our minds. “Hath God said?” (Gn 3:1 AV) was the first seed he sowed in the mind of Eve, and he has had a great deal of practice at that kind of planting ever since.

It is to be expected that every decision made with the desire to be obedient to God will be attacked. Spread your doubts before the Lord. Pray for correction of any wrong in thinking or doing and for his word of assurance as to the action you must take. If there is nothing else required of you at this moment, leave it at that. Trust God. Put the whole weight of your doubts and cares on Him–that will foil the Accuser.

“It is God who pronounces our acquittal….It is Christ who pleads…our cause” (Rom 8:33,34 EB).

Ordering the Stops

Author: Mrs. Charles E. Cowman
Source: Streams in the Desert
Scripture Reference: Psalm 40:1 

“In waiting, I waited, for the Lord” (Ps. 40:1, margin).
 
Waiting is much more difficult than walking. Waiting requires patience, and patience is a rare virtue. It is fine to know that God builds hedges around His people–when the hedge is looked at from the viewpoint of protection. But when the hedge is kept around one until it grows so high that he cannot see over the top, and wonders whether he is ever to get out of the little sphere of influence and service in which he is pent up, it is hard for him sometimes to understand why he may not have a larger environment–hard for him to “brighten the corner” where he is. But God has a purpose in all HIS holdups. “The steps of a good man are ordered of the Lord,” reads Psalm 37:23.
 
On the margin of his Bible at this verse George Mueller had a notation, “And the stops also.” It is a sad mistake for men to break through God’s hedges. It is a vital principle of guidance for a Christian never to move out of the place in which he is sure God has placed him, until the Pillar of Cloud moves.–Sunday School Times
 
When we learn to wait for our Lord’s lead in everything, we shall know the strength that finds its climax in an even, steady walk. Many of us are lacking in the strength we so covet. But God gives full power for every task He appoints. Waiting, holding oneself true to His lead–this is the secret of strength. And anything that falls out of the line of obedience is a waste of time and strength. Watch for His leading.–S. D. Gordon
 
Must life be a failure for one compelled to stand still in enforced inaction and see the great throbbing tides of life go by? No; victory is then to be gotten by standing still, by quiet waiting. It is a thousand times harder to do this than it was in the active days to rush on in the columns of stirring life. It requires a grander heroism to stand and wait and not lose heart and not lose hope, to submit to the will of God, to give up work and honors to others, to be quiet, confident and rejoicing, while the happy, busy multitude go on and away. It is the grandest life “having done all, to stand.”–J. R. Miller

To wait on Him, to spread my doubts before the Lord…that is faith, entrusting all, putting all in His hands.  What a grand thing to do, and what an awesome task to wait and listen and see where He leads.  And so I wait…and as my mom says “nuff said”

 
You never know, I could hear Angel wings as I wait …

This month I am meditating and reading in Scripture of God’s love for me (us).

If I stop and really think about it, the vastness of His love for me (us) is to great to really, truly comprehend. That is why I must take His love by faith.

Ruth Meyers in her devotional book, The Satisfied Heart, says this:

“…to think that Your Son loved me and gave Himself for me-what a costly and convincing way to show how intense and personal your love is. How I praise and thank You, Lord, that the key to living close to You is not how much I love you, for my love is but a shallow stream compared to Your love for me. How I rejoice that I can live close to You because Your love for me is a shoreless, bottomless sea!”

Isn’t it amazing that His love is a shoreless bottomless sea?! How can we comprehend such a thing? How can we understand that His love is limitless, that His love is unconditional, that His love is all we need for life and happiness??  Amazing!!!!!!!

I took this sunflower picture while on a VERY OLD bus as we were literally inching our way up a hill.  I thought that I might have to get out and help push, finally the bus did make it up the hill without my assistance, (I think the Angels were the ones doing the pushing …and then the singing once we actually made it up the hill ) in the meantime I took advantage of the time to take a few pictures of God’s scenery.

ENJOY

Ministry in Poltava has picked up for the summer.

For a couple of weeks as a church we traveled to several different summer camps for orphans.  The government, each year, spends money to send the kids to camp, mostly so the orphans can get some fresh air and come out from the confines of the orphanage.  “Spread their wings” you might say.  We had a great time getting to know the kids in at each camp.  Most of the stories they share about their families are the same, heartbreaking to say the least.  Mom or dad is an alcoholic, they lived with mom or dad for a while, and finally, because that parent was drinking too, or perhaps that parent had the responsibility of other siblings as well, the parent could no longer take care of this particular child.  So the parent, or a neighbor, or the government, put the child in an orphanage.  Sometimes the child’s parent(s) visit often, sometimes not at all.  This is all very sad, but true.  I had several conversations where I shared that instead of looking at what you don’t have, look at what the Lord HAS given you, a roof over your head, a bed to sleep in, clothes on your back, food in your stomach etc.  This was a hard concept for them to understand, but I feel that it gave them something to think about. 

I also had a conversation with one girl about where is God.  She said asked me how do I know there is a God if you can’t see Him? We talked about this for a while, she listened intently with all I had to say, but was not ready yet to make a commitment to the Lord.  We shared photos, of her times spent with different people (foreigners) who have visited her at the orphanage or camp, and have stayed in touch.  I shared some pictures I had of my family. 

The way to and from the camps was beautiful.  The Lord blessed us each day with GREAT weather.  Just looking at the scenery reminded me so much of how He loves us and created all that we have around us for our enjoyment. 

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Next week I will be attending a training seminar with the Pregnancy Center in Poltava.  Many volunteers from the different Pregnancy centers around Ukraine will be at this seminar.  I am not sure if the teachings will be in Russian or translated.  If they are in Russian, I pray that my language skills will hold me through the duration of the seminars.  I’m not fluent, but I can carry listen to a sermon in Russian and carry on most conversations.  However, there are times when my brain gets tired and it wants to shut down…all that to say is, pray for me please. 

I’ll write again after the seminars are finished.  In the meantime, you never know when you might need assitance of an Angel, if you listen veryquietly, you might even hear the sound of Angel wings…