Tuesday, January 27, 2009

From Pryluky with Love

At the Table
Edna, Bohdan, Tanya, Nastya, Yana, Joshua, Kolya, and Vlad sitting down to eat borshch

On Saturday, five people came from Calvary Chapel Pryluky to help us out with worship in our church here in Bila Tserkva. Vlad, Kolya, Bohdan, Tanya, and Yana blessed us with fellowship and some help learning to play guitar for me and Nastya. Vlad also helped us to pick out a guitar that we can use for worship at church. (I don't know how, but Vlad was able to get our internet to work with our Macintosh for the first time, so we are especially excited about that. Life just got a little easier.) We are so grateful for all the help and advice they gave us and honored to have them as guests in our home. Thanks again guys.

Worship at Home
Oksana, Edna, Tanya, and Bohdan

Our neighbor, Oksana, came over to copy some songs to a CD, but when she heard the worship music coming from the other room, she forgot about the CD and sat down to listen. We were shocked at how much she enjoyed listening. When we told her that they would be leading worship on Sunday, she asked excitedly if she could come. She was at our door dressed and ready to go an hour before church the next day. I was totally amazed at how she was drawn to the worship music and how she intently listened through all of the teaching. Praise God.

Joshua and Bohdan
Joshua and Bohdan

Nastya practicing
Nastya practicing some of what Vlad taught her

We are excited to see how quickly Nastya is learning to play guitar. We aren't surprised since her entire family is so musically gifted. We hope some day that she will be able to play well enough to lead worship at church. She already made the first sacrifice when she had to cut her nails to hold the strings properly.

Worship
Worship at church on Sunday with Bohdan, Nastya, and Kolya

Also on Sunday, we were happy to meet a girl named Masha who joined us at our church for the first time. Interestingly enough, she found us through this blog, so I'm encouraged that God would use it in such a way. I have no doubt that Masha will be a blessing to us.

Thanks to everyone from Pryluky, we were able to have one of the most intimate times of worship we have ever enjoyed here in our church. Including the time spent in fellowship after the service, we were in church for almost four hours and it still seemed too short. We are eagerly looking forward to future visits and joint outreaches with Calvary Chapel Pryluky. We are currently working on a few ideas, so please pray that God will use us all for His Glory.

2 comments:

Ira said...

Awesome to hear about that!! I'm glad you guys had fun. It's hard not to if you have Bohdan at your house =)
Missing you!!

Greg and Edna Silva said...

Our only regret was that we didn't have enough time with everybody.

We miss you guys too.

We still have a spot open on the worship team for you two. ;)

-Greg