David & Katya

So… yesterday was weird for me in a few ways.  I’m only going to share one story from that day, though.  While I was walking down the street to the train station here in L’viv, I came across a pool of blood on the sidewalk.  I looked to my left, and, sitting in the grass, there was a man who was in his late forties with bloodshot eyes, scraggly, bloody hair, and a really bloody shirt.  There was an old woman standing over him, trying to keep him calm and seated, because he kept trying to stand up.

I got someone to call an ambulance and tried to help them as best I could.  I didn’t really know what to do.  I had my guitar in one hand, my backpack on my back, and a pizza in the other hand (I hadn’t eaten lunch yet).  I tried my best to help the old woman keep the man calm and prayed for them a couple of times.  I stayed with them until the ambulance came.  When I was done, I gathered up my stuff and went to the train station and met a friend who helped me clean up myself and my stuff that had a little blood on it.

That plus a few other things really rocked me last night.  After I got home, I suddenly started feeling alone…  Then I was reminded that God is our help, our sustainer, and our comforter.  He did comfort me last night, when no one else was there to do it.  I’m very thankful that He’s not just a God up there in space.  He’s our Heavenly Father, and He’s personally involved in our lives.

Right now, a, I’m sitting alone again, and the feelings are coming back, but I’m praying and God’s faithful.  He’ll get me through this time just like He did last night.

Don’t fear times of trial and testing.  Don’t fear the wilderness.  God knows what you can handle and won’t let you be pushed beyond that (1 Cor 10:13).  He wants to use those times to grow you in many ways (James 1:1-4).  Remember that He will be with you in the valley of the shadow of death (Psalm 23:4), and you, in Christ, never are forced to sin (Romans 6:12-14).  Christ has already walked through the temptation (Mark 1:12-13, Matthew 4, and Hebrews 4:14-16), and He will help us (Hebrews 4:16).

– Mark 1:12-13

Please pray for a homeless friend of mine that I met on the street about a week ago.  I’ve seen him almost every time I’ve been downtown in the last four or five days, so I’ve gotten to talk to him a little about God and stuff.  I think he *might* come to church tomorrow, but the chances are slim.  Let pray him in!

It’s pretty cool how God can open doors in different ways.  A few months ago, I joined a website that helps you learn different languages by hooking you up with native speakers of that language.  A guy messaged me on that site, and we’ve been talking and helping each other ever since.  He’s from Ukraine (pretty close to where I live, actually), and he speaks Russian, Ukrainian, and a little English.  He wants to learn English so that he can move to Australia to study and be an architect there.  That is his dream.  I’ve been helping him with his English and he’s been helping me with my Ukrainian.

The other day, he and I were talking, and we started talking about what I do for a living as a missionary and the different religions in the world.  As the conversation progressed, he came to the point where he admitted that he was a sinner and that he knew he was going to hell.  He said that he knew that God was giving him a choice, and that half of him wanted to choose God while the other half wanted to continue in his life of sin.

Please pray for him.  I believe he’s so close to where God wants him to be.  He let me pray with him at the end of that conversation.  I prayed for his studies, his travels, and his relationship with God.  Thanks a lot!