Oct. 7-9, Bread of Life Church, Poltava, Ukraine; poltavachurch.org
Thursday noon: Now we’re driving to Poltava, which is approx. a 2-hour drive. Bread of Life Church was pioneered by Sergey in 2010. We met in Sacramento, CA. Erik and I are looking forward to this 3-day conference in Poltava, Friday thru Sunday. Here’s a rough schedule as I understand it:
-Friday night (they have requested I speak to pastors on being a friend of the bridegroom)
-Saturday morning (Erik and I both ministering)
-Saturday evening
-Sunday morning and evening
Friday 11:00 p.m. Erik and I have been enjoying good fellowship with our hosts. We had dinner in the pastor’s home both yesterday and today, just lovely, a great family, and his wife Natalya has done an outstanding job hosting us. Tonight we had our launch, and we had a good start. The worship team ministered well, Erik led in a couple songs in English, and then I preached. Pastor Sergey served as my translator, and we seemed to flow well as a team. There was a good response at the close. The folks seem to be pleased to be together, and seem ready to celebrate their unity in Christ and to delight in the Lord together.
I had a good prayer walk this morning down the main street boulevard. They have a lovely walkway that runs between the traffic going both ways. This city of 300,000 is quite robust, very active, the people are obviously hard workers. They labor in an economy that lags behind its neighbors. I was suprised when I learned that Poland’s economy is considerably stronger than Ukraine’s. Average incomes here are just so low.
Sunday 5:00 p.m.: Greetings from the back seat of a car, we have just embarked on a car ride from Poltava to Kiev. It will likely take 4 hours to get to Kiev. We will grab a hotel by the Kiev airport tonight, and then I’ll take a hotel shuttle to the airport in time for my 6:30 a.m. departure tomorrow.
So now, a quick summary on our weekend in Poltava. Saturday morning I spoke on Envy, and enjoyed grace in the delivery. Then after a sub lunch, Erik spoke. He concluded with a couple stories that were just fantastic. He’s a great storyteller!
After a nice afternoon break, we returned for an evening session, at which I taught on Heb. 12, chastening. Good spirit in the group, good response. After the meeting, Erik and I were invited to the pastor’s home, along with a few pastors, for a time of fellowship. Erik began to tell pastoral stories—of ministry they’ve poured into the lives of especially needy people or tragic situations. The table was engaged and the fellowship was sweet. Then we prayed together. By the time we were done, it was after midnight by the time we got away. Thankfully, we were not to be collected until 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, so the late Saturday night wasn’t too hard to handle, smile.
This morning (Sunday) Erik and I went to separate churches to minister. I was in our host church, and Erik went to a nearby church whose pastor was away for the weekend. Our service was blessed of the Lord, and He really helped me in the preaching of the word. Erik says that his service was also very much blessed of the Lord. So we’re both overflowing with thanksgiving today. Afterwards, we grabbed a lovely lunch at the pastors home, with some other leaders. And now, we’re headed for Kiev.
By the way, I just did an internet search on whether it’s correct to say “Ukraine” or “the Ukraine,” and found this interesting article:
http://time.com/12597/the-ukraine-or-ukraine/
So now I know! It’s Ukraine!
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