OLD FRIENDS - NEW MINISTRY OPPORTUNITY

The first one-half of the day was being entertained by our hosts and the Palaeontologists and the Geologist (I thought but it turned out she is a specialist in Geography - bad first translation). They took me to the home of an ancient Hun King and his palace. Then up the hill to a Greek Othodox Monastery and the first capital of Crimea. It was interesting because the Monastery was built into the limestone hillsides. The only part that resembled a house as the front. This was the way the early settles lived in this region because if afforded excellent shelter and protection from the various peoples and armies that cris-crossed this area from the Mongolians in the east to the Gauls in the west.

They ended the day by taking us up on a mountain ridge where we could see valleys in all directions and the mountains beyond them still with snow on them. There we had a “picnic” – Ukrainian style. Tea, bread, cheese and sausage. I had coffee. YUP! You read it here! They have a very tasty instant coffee. It even smells good. I’ll bring some home.

This allowed me thirty minutes to catch a “catnap” before heading out for the evening service. I would tell you the name of the Church, but Oksana is already deep into a conversation on the telephone with her husband in her room and I do not want to bother her so just accept the fact that I was at a Church tonight.

It was the result of an invitation for a couple who had been on staff at Revival Fire in Dnipropetrovsk - Nicholay and Marina Alexeyenko. The Church they pastor is in a working relationship with another Church and pastor for the purpose of seeing if God is leading them to combine the Churches. The pastor with whom they are laboring is a graduate of Christ For The Nations, a Ukrainian with US Citizenship – Dmitry and Helen have three children and I found them to be right on target. They understand the struggle of how many Ukrainian pastors are destroying the very foundation of the Church by “driving” the people to work for God and yet lose their own families as they do the “work.” It was an exciting evening of ministry.

Nicholay and Marina asked be to go by their house after the service and pray for their three boys. We did and as I was praying for them I began to prophesy over the boys. We departed and headed to the office to eat and have fellowship with Pastor Dmitry and Marina began to tell me that I prophesied over each boy exactly what at had been prophesied over them by others. The oldest will be a man of the word, the middle will be involved in music and the youngest will be a business man. Nicholay then told me that the first word the youngest boy said was a word that is used in Ukraine for the equivalent of the Euro and/or dollar.

For me it was confirmation that even with the barrier of the language, God still speaks confirmation into the lives of people.

We now have another open door for ministry. In fact, Nicholay said that he was in the process of building a five bedroom house and the next time I would only have one place to stay when I came and that was with them. That makes for two really nice places to stay here in Crimea. I think I hear God saying, “Crimea!” Well, maybe it is only my body enjoying the very pleasant hospitality and homes that are open to us here.

O yes! Another new experience! The van broke down on the way to Church– a Mercedes Van! So we had to catch one of the van-buses and ride it all the way across Simferopol to our destination. The last time I was here the car of the same pastor had to be towed 45-50 miles back home after he took me to my next assignment. Please pray for Pastor Barilo – this is just another trial for him.

I made the mistake of asking Oksana if “they” had anything scheduled for us for Tuesday. She said “yes!” However the van situation may change all of that. It would be good to have Tuesday completely free. I have a leaders’ meeting Wednesday and a Communion Service Thursday and then two 9 hour days of teaching concluding with Easter Sunday (There Easter is one week behind ours this year. It varies and is in more line with the Jewish Passover date because they use a different calendar for the religious days.)

Time to hit the sack,

Dr D