Meet Yulia

This is my little friend, Yulia, who studies at the boarding school in Podusovka (a neighborhood in Chernigov). I met her in the Priluki orphanage when she was 4. When she aged out of that orphanage, she was sent to school here in Chernigov. I was delighted to see her when she began 1st grade here. Now she is in 4th grade and is 10 years old. We see each other every week when our church has a Sunday school time at her school. Every so often, I have her over for lunch and then take her to church with me in the afternoon. She’s a smart, serious girl who knows how to stand her ground and has a happy giggle.
Some other kids from her school have been coming to church lately too. It’s been eye-opening to relate to these kids out of their institutional environment. They are unaccustomed to what for us is everyday social interaction. Practically all their life activities revolve around their school where they eat, study, sleep, play and train for sports or dance. When they do go off the school grounds, it’s most likely for a field trip or competition with their whole class or team. Going to someone’s house for lunch is foreign.
Communicating with these kids can be a challenge. They often deflect compliments about their nice bracelet or hair ribbon because if the other kids around them hear that something might be valuable, they will take it from them. They aren’t used to people making small talk with them either. They normally relate to their classmates or their teachers. They aren’t sure how to answer when you ask what they did today. Didn’t they do what the other 100-some kids did? Why would you ask me that?
It’s my prayer that our church would reach out to the Podusovka kids more. Pray that God would help us to love and care for them, to invite them into our homes and to teach them about Jesus. Pray that the kids would desire to know God and have confidence in God. Pray that God would take away their insecurities as they grow in the security of Jesus’ love.

No Glory Without Sacrifice

Congratulations, you are all my surrogate roommates for this moment. For those of you who live with spouses, friends or some other being, you have someone to share your random thoughts with. I tend to be a bundle of random thoughts and bringing them up in conversation can sometimes be awkward. It’s less awkward to post them to you all as you click through cyber worlds in search of something or nothing depending upon the day. So here’s the random spouting of the hour. There is no glory without sacrifice. This is true in the spiritual realm as well as the secular. Musicians, athletes, actors and executives may pursue a different kind of glory and their sacrifices may look different, but the principle is the same. The question is, are we living for the true Glory (of Christ)? If so, then the sacrifices of life are worth it. Some verses come to mind. Philippians 2:8-9 “…He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name.” 2 Corinthians 5:15 “and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.”
Whatever your sacrifice today, may it ultimately be rooted in your love for and worship of Jesus. He is worthy and He is glorious.

The orange and the potato: dysfunction within self-made paradigms

Late night musing are often not worth sharing. This may be one of them, but since I’m new at this blog thing, I’ll take a risk and post. There is this husband and wife who have, it seems, a difficult arrangement. The husband lives most of his time in a different city than his wife and often travels abroad for business. It’s almost as if this couple looks at marriage like it is, let’s say for the sake of illustration, a potato, when in fact, marriage is, let’s say, an orange. So they cook and fry their “potato” and wonder why things don’t come out they way they expect. If only they knew that they were dealing with an orange and not a potato. People often define things the way they want and then operate within that paradigm, suffering in relationships and not realizing their mistake. Haven’t we all suffered the dysfunctional effects of our self-made paradigms at one time or another? God save us, and He can. That familiar verse Ps.119:105 puts us on track in stating, “Your Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” May God’s Word enlighten and free us.