David & Katya

You know, there’s a lack in the church today. There are not enough men that are strong leaders, faithful followers, and disciples discipling others. You see women getting involved in prayer groups, fellowships, Sunday school, etc. so much more often than men, and I don’t think it’s just because these women are stay-at-home moms.

“As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”
Proverbs 27:17

I know that, in my life, I need a blacksmith. What I mean is, I am SO appreciative of the older men that have come along side me to help me grow and change into the man of God that He wants me to be. Without that, I would not have grown as much. This is something that seems to me to be inherent in the lives of the men around me, too – we need that sharpening. We need other men to come around us, hammer us a bit in love, and invest real time and effort into us.

My question is – are we willing to do that for each other? Shaping metal takes time, patience, and a lot of hard, hot, dangerous work. The same can be said for helping a man grow and change. It’s what we are called to do (Matthew 28:18-20), but are we replacing that with just sharing a sermon on Sunday and having a monthly, manly get-together over some greasy food?

A lone soldier is a dead solder. The Christian life is a battle for the kingdom of God, our families, and our souls. Let’s get in there, get messy, and do the work of the ministry.

You know, sometimes even things that are somewhat ugly in some ways can be quite beautiful.  This is a picture of my apartment building from behind.  I was walking up the other day to it at sunset, and I was really blessed by the visage of the sunlight streaming in those orange and yellow tones.

Now, I like my building, but others would say, “That’s just an old, 80’s, soviet-style, blocky apartment building.  There’s nothing of beauty to appreciate!”  For me, that’s home.  I have the coolest neighbors, a great landlord, an apartment that’s just big enough but not too big for a guy like me, and I get to watch the sunrise AND the sunset from my windows on opposing sides of the building (if I’m home for them).

From the graffiti on the bottom left, you can see that I don’t live in the best neighborhood.  I live in an area known as Levandivka (“Lev-an-DEEV-ka”), and these guys called hopnyks (“hope-nicks”) are famous for living here.  That’s kind of like our English word for “thug”, but, in my opinion, a little less violent.  All that to say, though – they’re not “the best of company”.  Y’all can pray for me for that.  A lot of my friends in my neighborhood could be considered hopnyks.  I really want to reach out to those guys.  It’s funny…  I have an open door with them, but I didn’t really seem to be able to reach out to guys like that in America.

Anyways… just because someone else says you’re ugly, your life is ugly, or what you do isn’t good enough or has no purpose, doesn’t mean that when God looks at you He frowns.  Others may frown at the picture of my neighborhood and my building, but I look at it and smile.  I say, “That’s home!  I love my home!”  He looks at you and says, “That’s my child!  I love my child!”

Thanks, God, for looking at me and smiling!

That’s really all I have to say today.  God’s grace amazes me!  😀

Today me and the guys are in Ternopil!  😀  That is the next town over where George and Jonny Markey are missionaries with their families.  Joshua Pratt (the worship leader of our church and our pastor’s son) is recording a new album, and I get to play electric guitar for it!  Please pray for us as we are producing this album and just getting ready to glorify God through music.  We also have an audition with the band we’re forming on Saturday with a venue.  I’ll update you guys later if we can upload the songs to iTunes or something so that you guys can listen.

I know it is really old news for other churches, but I’m really excited about this!  I just burned the first three CD’s that folks ordered at church!  Think about this – there are people that want to, outside of the walls of the church, listen to the Word of God being preached.  In fact, they want to share it with other people!  The order I just filled was placed by a guy that wanted to share these sermons with friends of his and ordered three copies of the same sermon!

It’s easy to think that technology only makes a church “cooler” or “more current”, but the whole purpose of our lives is to share Jesus’ truth with others, and when technology helps us to do that, it’s such a beautiful thing!

We even now have a podcast up (which you guys can listen to, because it’s in both English and Ukrainian – click here if you want to!).  People all over Ukraine are now listening to the Word of God preached over the internet!  Please be praying for us as we keep seeking new ways to leverage technology for the Word of God and His Kingdom!