Saturday, October 11

Saturday began and ended. (That’s a reverse version of the statement in Genesis – “and the evening and morning were the first day.”).

Nine o’clock and we climbed into the pastor’s new Nissan mini-mini van (five seats) and headed for the location of our one day conference. Ten churches were represented with their people and pastor. I am not sure how big the crowd was, but they were crowded into the foyer of a former Lenin Cultural Center which the church in that city purchased for $5,000 (I wish I knew the name of the city – at least spell it since I would have a hard time pronouncing it.) I can only imagine what the building looked like when it was new. It is a smaller version of the building here where we are living. They have not completed the renovation of the entire building and so we were only able to use the foyer.

I toured this one on Friday and it is huge. There are three floors in the front and rooms almost too numerous to count and I probably could if I tried, since I did pass the first grade with flying colors. I’ll show you the pictures of this when we return.

Anyway, back to the conference. There were three services scheduled. When we entered I was handed a schedule for the day with every event listed and the time for each to start and finish. Now that is hard on me. But since they allotted me one hour to preach I settled in to wait for my moment. The wait was well worth it because the worship was super! The Spirit of God moved throughout the worship and I knew that God was wanting to do something special today. I did not even take time to say anything about what I do or where I am from or any such thing, I just started preaching. As they say, confession is good for the soul and so I will confess I used slightly more than my hour but the shouting and response in the latter part of my message just inspired me and moved me in such a way that if it had not been for the timer on my IPOD which I was using to record the service I might still be preaching.

Svetlana Pokhodina requested a place for us to rest while they had their seminar and took care of some networking business. The pastor – man I can’t believe I forgot to tell you about him. Driving up to the facility a tall, well dressed young man reached out and opened the door and then almost shouted, “I know you! I attended your college in Kiev. Dr. Deaton, welcome to my church.” Anyway, he took us to his apartment and allowed us to rest, drink tea and wait for his return.

Lunch was served at the orphanage he operates in a neighboring city. God also provided a miracle for him and he was able to acquire a building in which he now houses about one dozen children who were either or the streets or abandoned by their parent(s). The building is clean and neat but there is so much work to be done before. Many of us would look and the building and agree with the building department of our city and say “Close the doors now!” But you can see from the Church and the Orphanage and his home that this pastor does everything with excellence and has a vision for ministry. O - the food was simple - salanka soup, corn/potato sea-food salad, chicken cutlets and mashed potatoes and capped off with tea, lemon slices, some kiwi, banana slices, and another fruit (which I can’t remember).

A short trip returned us to the site of the conference with the service underway. Again the place was packed tight and sitting on the front row I had the worship team so close I could reach out and touch them without a hard stretch. We were all tired but as we drew to the close of the message the Spirit began to move and the healing power of God began to flow. I cannot tell you how many miracles were testified to by the raising of hands but it seemed as though everyone had their hand raised to say I received at least one healing. Praise God!

We returned to our abode (I like that word!) about 6:45 p.m. and served nourishment to our flesh which was crying out for some food.

That ends the experiences of Saturday. Except – it seems that every place we go there is someone around us that is sick with some type of virus. The pastor with whom we are staying got very sick during the first service and spent the rest of the day in his van. We are trusting the Lord to keep us well so we can continue the ministry set before us. We have two days left here in the Donetsk area. Sunday I have three services 8:00 (it is one hour from the second), 11:00 and 5:00. I will not return to the second service except in time to walk into the pulpit and share the Word. I’ve told Marilyn to be ready because I might just have to spend a lot of time praying for the people in the first service and so she would share the Word. Guess what reaction I got! Your are correct!

Anyway, God bless and thanks for your prayers!

Dr. D. & Marilyn