DAY 11 - Saturday: In Chernivtsi

I thought today would be an easy day, since I did not have any speaking engagement. It was and it wasn't.

However it was a day in which I was able to spend time with Vika Kosovan and her daughter, Alena. It was good to see the healing that has taken place in their lives and how they are going forward with God. Alena will be 18 in November and will complete one year of Bible Institute at her Church. The youth graduate from High School around the age of 16-17. I always delight in the time she takes to talk and share her life with me and the four hours passed quickly as the conversation went from youth talk to adult with her mother and back again.

Pastor and Ira Pavlenko met me there and took me to a restaurant. The food was excellent and the time was centered around more questions from an eager pastor who desired to lead his people forward into their new found freedom. I was able to sense the heart of him even more during the conversation as he focused on meeting the needs of his people without the baggage of their past experiences.

As we were preparing to go I stopped by a table where the sound of voices clearly indicated they were from the USA. He was from Wisconsin and his wife from West Palm, Florida. I found out that he works for the US Embassy in Kiev.

His question to me was, “It is obvious you work with a religious group, which group is it?” I told him I was with the Charismatic - Pentecostal group. He then said, “They are on of the two groups that the communists could not destroy. The other was the Baptists.”

Faith made it through the dark years here! And faith will still take anyone through the dark days.

Sunday is coming – Easter Sunday here! The schedule after the service has changed three times in the past three days. First I was scheduled to eat dinner with the pastor. Then we were going to have a picnic in the forest after the service. Now we will all meet at Vika’s house and have our picnic in her back yard. I’ll take that over the picnic in the forest.

Standing by until tomorrow,

Dr. D.