Old New Year's Day

As I write this Maxime, Joshua, and Dominic are off amid the fireworks singing for candy and money again as they celebrate old New Year's Day according to the Julian calendar. Once again children have been showing up at our door singing. This has to be the longest holiday season we've ever experienced. Dominic and Joshua love it. It has been a wonderful experience for them to be able to be a part of the culture here. We are so grateful to call Bila Tserkva our home.

Today we had church at the invalid center as a combined service with the church there. Presents were handed out to the children to celebrate old New Year's Day so Maxime, Joshua, and Dominic were blessed once more. One of the items in Maxime's box was a pair of Groucho Marx glasses. Maxime thought they were the funniest thing he had ever seen. He insisted on wearing them after church when we took him out to eat. He even wore them on the bus home.

After church we met with the pastor and some of the members of the church to discuss how we can best reach out to the community and evangelize. Everyone agreed that an English club would be the best option, which is what we have been praying about. Thanks to our good friend Fedir, we can use a room in the Palace of Culture where he works. We are planning on meeting on Saturdays from 6:00pm to 7:30pm maybe once or twice a month. Eventually we would like to meet every week, but we are going to first see what kind of response we get. We have several people who are already interested or have friends who would be interested.

We want to reach out to people in the community who have an interest in speaking English. Our goal is to lead as many people to Christ as we can by our actions and our words as we build relationships based on the love that Jesus first showed us. Please pray for us as we begin this outreach and please pray for the people of Bila Tserkva as more come to know Christ.