David preached the sermon in English, and it was translated live into Ukrainian.
We (Katya and I) are going to be serving at a summer camp at the end of the month, so get ready for a lot of pictures from in the forest with muddy kids, camp fires, tents, and mountain streams! Katya and I love this part of our ministry so much! It’s such an awesome opportunity to share Jesus’ love with kids in the middle of God’s great, amazing creation!
Please be praying for my foot, Katya’s back, and Katya’s mom during our time at the camp. We’ll be staying in a tent in the mountains, so I’m a little concerned for how that will affect the day-to-day pain of my foot / joints. Katya’s back also often doesn’t do very well in camps. Our friends are literally planning on building us a bed when we are there so that it will be easier for us!
As far as Katya’s mom – she’ll be taken care of by Katya’s sister and one of our closest friends. She is still having a very hard time getting around our apartment. Her next operation is due in another couple of months, so please also be praying for the funds for that.
We have some other good news – the trouble with the inheritance laws here with the ownership of the apartment, etc., seems to be taken care of. Thank you all so much for praying for that!
Between thunderstorms, equipment issues, travel, and David’s first time being stopped by the police EVER in Ukraine, creating this first shortfilm has been a crazy adventure, but it’s done! We’ve gotten over 600 views in just the first few days, and it’s had a post reach of almost 3000 on Facebook alone! You can watch it below (be sure to click on the “CC” button to enable subtitles!):
We have learned so much and seen God’s faithfulness in every step through the process of producing this shortfilm. All we can say is that God is amazing! Unfortunately, we weren’t able to purchase the generator that we mentioned in the last e-mail, but, praise the Lord, God provided! We were able to borrow one from a church!
Please keep praying for us and for the process of raising funds for Katya’s mom’s surgery. If you would like to join in, you can click here to access our church’s giving page. Every donation there will go straight into our account, and it’s tax deductible.
We’ve also started getting more and more involved in God’s Love Church, Katya’s old church, on the south side of town. We’ll be going there and helping with Calvary Chapel Ternopil, the church where Jon Markey pastors, from now on. We’re going to serve in a summer camp there at the end of this month and early August after David goes to the Ukrainian Calvary Chapel Worship Conference in Ternopil.
Would you pray for us? In our new church, we are in a rebuilding phase, and we really feel like we’re in the midst of Nehemiah 1 and 2. Please be praying with us for wisdom, strength, and courage and that the people would “strengthen their hands for this good work.”
Thank you all so much!
The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah.
And it came to pass in the month Chisleu, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace, That Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.
And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven, And said, I beseech thee, O LORD God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments: Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father’s house have sinned. We have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou commandedst thy servant Moses. Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations: But if ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there. Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand. O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy name: and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.
For I was the king’s cupbearer.
And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that wine was before him: and I took up the wine, and gave it unto the king. Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence. Wherefore the king said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? this is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid, And said unto the king, Let the king live for ever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire? Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request?
So I prayed to the God of heaven.
And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers’ sepulchres, that I may build it. And the king said unto me, (the queen also sitting by him,) For how long shall thy journey be? and when wilt thou return? So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time. Moreover I said unto the king, If it please the king, let letters be given me to the governors beyond the river, that they may convey me over till I come into Judah; And a letter unto Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertained to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into. And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.
Then I came to the governors beyond the river, and gave them the king’s letters. Now the king had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me. When Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, heard of it, it grieved them exceedingly that there was come a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel.
So I came to Jerusalem, and was there three days. And I arose in the night, I and some few men with me; neither told I any man what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem: neither was there any beast with me, save the beast that I rode upon. And I went out by night by the gate of the valley, even before the dragon well, and to the dung port, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and the gates thereof were consumed with fire. Then I went on to the gate of the fountain, and to the king’s pool: but there was no place for the beast that was under me to pass. Then went I up in the night by the brook, and viewed the wall, and turned back, and entered by the gate of the valley, and so returned. And the rulers knew not whither I went, or what I did; neither had I as yet told it to the Jews, nor to the priests, nor to the nobles, nor to the rulers, nor to the rest that did the work.
Then said I unto them, Ye see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof are burned with fire: come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach. Then I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me; as also the king’s words that he had spoken unto me.
And they said, Let us rise up and build.
So they strengthened their hands for this good work…
Verse 19 and 20 intentionally omitted.
David & Katya 