David & Katya

Today is Ukraine’s Independence Day, so we had a big celebration in downtown L’viv.  I think there may have been more people downtown at one time today than there were at Christmas or New Year’s.  There were concerts, political rallies, and many other things going on all around.

Because today is such a special Ukrainian holiday, I bought a traditional Ukrainian shirt to celebrate!  Haha.  Now, it’s not in the traditional colors (red and white are the normal colors), but it’s still the traditional design.  Here’s a picture of me wearing it:

It’s been interesting talking to a few different people about Ukrainian independence and politics lately.  I haven’t started the conversations – I usually try not to give my opinions on anything like that here, but I like to listen to what others have to say.  Some of my friends regard people like Stephan Bandera and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA in Ukrainian) as heroes, while others regard them as traitors.  Still others don’t seem to care too much.  The colors of the UPA are black and red.

If you don’t know who Stephan Bandera is or who the UPA is, that’s ok.  It’s sufficient to say that, regardless of politics, Jesus is my King, and I am to be “all things to all men” as Paul said (1 Corinthians 9:22).  Believe it or not, just the colors of that shirt mean something here – especially because the shirt is one of the Ukrainian national symbols.  Now, I like the colors black and red, but I got a black and blue shirt.  While I was out buying the shirt, I was with some friends of mine that were from L’viv, but their parents were Russian.  They acted really concerned that I wanted to buy a red and black shirt, so I got the blue and black shirt (and really like it, too).

You see, I realized that, if I was standing as the worship leader at the front of the church and I was wearing a red-on-black shirt, it might alienate those people in the church with Russian roots.  I don’t want to stand in the way of anyone hearing the Gospel message and being affected by it.  I want to be all things to all men in such a way that I don’t offend anyone with anything except the pure truth of the Gospel spoken in the power and leading of God.  If they’re offended by that, then I can’t do anything about it.

If you would like to see more pictures of the fun I had with my friends on Independence day, please just click here.  I spent most of the day with Nazar, a guy who translates in our church sometimes, and with Dennis and Georgia, two missionaries that are helping with the church until Mike gets back.  There were lots of things going on downtown, where we were walking.  We watched concerts, motorcades, and thousands and thousands of people celebrating the birth of a nation 20 years ago and the first time that nation has been a free, united people in hundreds of years.

Hi, everyone!  It’s pretty cool that on the day that Pastor Mike (my pastor here in L’viv) flew out of Ukraine for America, my friends, Dennis and Georgia Janisse, arrived in L’viv.  Here’s a picture of us hanging out at a cafe in L’viv:

(Dennis and Georgia are the two in the middle… Janice, the one on the left, is a new staff member of ours, and Sasha, a friend of ours, is taking the picture.)

Dennis is a pastor and he and his wife, Georgia, have served in missions on at least five continents.  They’re a tremendous blessing here, and I’ve really enjoyed spending time with them.

Please be praying for us as we work together as a team to keep sharing the Gospel here in L’viv!

Hi, everyone!  I just wanted to praise God for a great birthday.  The day started with my neighbor coming over and bringing flowers, a book, and chocolate.  She’s practically turned into my Ukrainian grandmother.  She’s awesome.  Her name’s Anya… and… yeah.  She’s awesome.  Please pray for her.  Her husband’s in pretty bad condition, and she has no family around that can help her.  She has to help all of them instead.  She’s definitely capable, but she’s… gettin’ older.  I’ll put it that way.

Anyways.  Next, I went over to the train station to buy some train tickets, and that was extremely frustrating.  I spent about 1 1/2 hours to try to take back a ticket that I purchased for the wrong time coming back to L’viv.  I got less that 1/2 of the purchased price for it, too… even though I’d only bought it 2 hours before.  That was all ok, though, because God used that situation later.  I actually went home and started writing out a teaching, just for my own benefit, about how to handle stress the right way.

Later, I went to my birthday party, which was awesome!  You can check out pictures from it here.  It was at an awesome church called Божа Любов.  That’s a Baptist church in southern L’viv.  I actually got to teach that night, at my birthday, impromptu, about frustrating situations!  Haha.  God works in amazing way, eh?  The coolest thing is that some of my unbelieving friends were there, and I got to put the Gospel into the message.  Please be praying for them.  There were about 5 of them there.

Hi, guys!  Here’s some pictures from our children’s festival in Sykhiv: