Top: 11:00 Service -- Bottom: 2:00 Service -- Children were gone to their classes.
Saturday is over (almost) and Sunday is coming! It will be the last day of this trip in the Yenakievo area of the Donetsk Region. It is a good feeling but also a sad feeling. Good to know you have completed a task assigned by our Heavenly Father, but sad because will be leaving some old and new friends (old only in terms of knowing them for a longer period of time than the “new” friends I have met on this trip.) In fact, I better correct myself: CORRECTION! I saw again some of my “family” and met some I have never met! The Family of God!
Today at Good News Church, with Pastor Alexander and Tamara Gorbachev we had their Sunday Services on Saturday – at 11:00 and 2:00. Why? Because they desired for me to be in their Church and switched their services to Saturday so other Pastors could keep theirs on Sunday. That almost sounds “Christian”!!!!! At least the “spirit” of brotherly love between pastors and Churches.
It is thrilling to sit down and just talk to these pastors and discover how God saved them and placed them in the ministry position they have leading their Churches. And to hear their burden for the lost and how they have heard from God the direction they are to use to accomplish their assigned task.
Pastor Alexander, four times, recited the events that led him to the Olenivka Pastors’ Retreat. He had given me his card when I was here in this area and speaking at Rock of Salvation (where I will be tomorrow) and that was back in 2008. Then when we started the Retreat in 2010 we sent everyone whose name we had an invitation. He saw the location, noticed it was on the beach and a resort. Saw the “cheap price for food” (as he said) and noticed there was no cost for the rooms, so he decided he needed a rest so he came just to get the “freebies.” But God touched him and has ministered in a special way to him each year. The last words he said to me as he left the house this evening was: “I will see you next year in Olenivka!”
He has a quiet demeanor and I had conversations with him at the retreat, but he was hard to “gage.” In fact this last year he was one I asked to bring devotions one morning. I was shocked! When he opened the Word, his whole personality changed and a “dynamic” Alexander appeared. So spending this time with him was a privilege and I am honored to be able to count him as a “friend.”
O yes! The services! How were they? They WERE GREAT! I mean how do you explain the leading of God to share His Word – 4 times while here in Good News – and to hear the Pastor and other leaders tell you how you spoke directly to their needs as a Body and to them personally. Then to lead them in body ministry praying for one-another and see the expressions on their faces as God healed them. And to spend time praying individually for others and hear God put something in your mind and you tell them and they begin to weep, wondering how you knew their personal situation. Only God! I am blessed to be a “Pipeline” for the Holy Spirit’s flowing into these precious people.
Tomorrow is the last service and I am looking forward to a great move of God.
Thanks for your prayers.
Dr D
PS: Nicole got the car home safe and fixed. Thanks for you prayers
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