Well, this serves me right for joking about our team members not doing anything to draw the attention of the Ukrainian police!  (And yes, it is only because of the OBVIOUS GOODNESS of God that I can even be thusly cheeky about this day right now.)

It's 12.44a Tuesday, local time.  The last day has been ... bizarre?  And yet not, because God's voice kept speaking to every person on the team: "I planned this.  I wrote this day.  I want you to walk through this with Me.  I WILL carry you, and I WILL be glorified in this, and My Name will STILL be lifted high because that is My perfect will, and it is GOOD."

We had some items stolen from us last night (Monday night).  The sordid details can wait; for now, it's sufficient to say that each person on the team is MORE THAN FINE, untouched and healthy and safe.  Each item that was taken is replaceable; thank God that we are each in a position to be able to do so; we're counting our blessings, and they are indeed abundant.  What is NOT replaceable are the hours of videotape.  It was going to be our greatest joy to show you more of these folks who are becoming more and more like our true brothers & sisters, to the point where it seems like even our English inflection or the raising of an eyebrow or a crinkling of a nose is sufficient to communicate all we want to say to each other.  No grotesque hand gestures needed as much.  We are sad about the video, the faces, the moments.  We thank God for our brains being capable of memory, our mouths being capable of sharing through speech, and YOUR hearts, capable of receiving NHC and its members no matter what.

The police were wonderful, and wouldn't you know it, NHC was praying and asking the Lord to give them a ministry to the local authorities.  Perhaps another route might have been more - how do you say - preferable?  But two detectives who were particularly sour and dour at the start of the day ended their day with smiles and the potential to come to our church banquet tomorrow evening.  What God is planting here is SO evident, our eyes can hardly stand to gaze upon His glorious work, but we do and we drink it in greedily.  We believe more than ever in the power of the Lord to work miracles.  And big ones, at that.

Luda, one of our interpreters and basically our lifeline here, has also been a great encouragement.  She and Sasha (who visited last August) spent the whole day with us, just going from place to place, helping us write email after email, make phone call after phone call, and basically just encouraging us with their immense faith that GOD IS GOOD.  Luda has not for one second allowed the thought: "too bad we lost things."  There is no room for loss in her faith in God.  That lifts us up and the Lord is using her to help our unbelief and to lift our (momentary) discouragements.  They have been not only essential, but PROVIDENT GIFTS from the very hands of God.  Please, would you be praying for them even in these last couple of days - sustenance, strength, refreshment, rest and heaps of blessings from our Father.  (And on a side note, the best thing about Luda: every time the police call us with an update, she half-jokingly scolds: "I thought I TOLD you not to call me until you FOUND something!  Now, go FIND something and RETURN it to us!"  It's awesome and hilarious to witness.  It's even better to witness this same boldness when she speaks the love & truth of Jesus into people's lives.  We are much chastened and challenged by her boldness, and that of most of NHC here.)

This morning, before i learned of the robbery, I opened to Romans 12.14 for my morning devotional and read to the end of that chapter.  Paul's words struck my heart with compassion for the needy and those who just need the love of God, especially after our ministry to alcoholics yesterday morning.  AFTER hearing of the robbery, I felt God's promise for this day: "I will rest upon you in power today, and give you all you need to use MY power and MY Spirit and MY Word to be fortified to repay evil with good, to love your enemies, to want to serve them and not curse them."  I thank God and continue to do so, that His Word is always true, always correct, always relevant, in each and every situation, even those that turn on a dime. 

There is so much more to say -- we spent the evening back visiting with folks in the area where there is a large alcoholic community and learned so much there about the love of Jesus, and later in the evening, we had dinner & dessert and awesome fellowship with a couple that is quite active in NHC -- but let me end with this: the past several days that we were back in Kremenchuk, only Edward's computer was able to access the free WiFi in the hotel.  We joked that my little 12" PowerBook, now coming up on 5 years old, was too small and weak to get onto the network, which is also quite weak and unstable.  With Edward's laptop gone now, I had just prepared to not have Internet access until we got to Frankfurt airport.  To turn on my little lovely machine tonight and be able to write these words to you ... call it timing, call it luck, whatever.  I call it God smiling upon me, and our team, once again.  It is a small thing - the Internet.  It is also a luxury that we do not necessarily need, even in these circumstances.  But I believe in the cores of my brain and my heart that this is also God's provision to us.  It lightens our load just a little bit more; it provides lines of communication when we need them most.  Thank you Lord for thinking of even this small detail to comfort and provide.

Please, please, we continue to rely on your prayers.  We ask you not to worry - we are SAFE and we are HAPPY.  Truly happy.  Our team has held each other up well today.  Luda and Sasha and Pastor Sasha have taken and continue to take exceptionally good and loving care of us.  Best of all, we have learned in ways that we may not have in New York that GOD.  IS.  GOOD.  ALL.  THE.  TIME.  There is nowhere we can go to walk out of the boundaries of His goodness AND His provision.  The song running through many of our minds and on the tips of our tongues today:

"The name of the Lord is a strong tower
The righteous run into it and they are saved
The name of the Lord is a strong tower
The righteous run into it and they are saved.
BLESSED BE THE NAME OF THE LORD, O MOST HIGH."

So please continue in prayer for us,  mostly that even in this last coming day in Kremenchuk, that we would be usable instruments of God.  That our first and last thoughts of any second would be of our Father, that our only heart would be for His work here through us and through NHC, and that our only concern would be for the salvation of souls here, for HIS glory and HIS reknown. 

As for us and our team, we trust in the Lord, for HE IS GOOD.

His great love, peace, strength and grace to you,
Love,
Cathy and U08

July 20 4:58 PM ET, 11:58 PM in Kremenchug 

It's Cathy, writing on Sunday night - 11.40p.  A long and wonderful day.  It can be summed up in one sentence:  WE GOT FREE MASSAGES.

Thank you, and good night.

Just kidding.  Today was a blessed day - a good night's sleep for most of us, a beautiful, cool & breezy, sunny day throughout, a delicious breakfast (and then some for The Baby).  We spent the morning serving coffee/tea to some alcoholics who gather locally to socialize, chat, drink.  What interesting histories and stories we heard.  How our hearts broke at the brokenness we witnessed.  But how uplifted we were by the Spirit reminding us that we have hope, and this hope we have to give, and we were able to do so.  Most of all, we were inspired and so moved by NHC and their work, their commitment.  It's not just the Western mentality of "we SHOULD do this b/c it's right to do" but a greater urgency and a deeper love.  They love Jesus more than anything else and want to share Him.  They want to win souls for Him more than doing anything else, and understand the urgency of outreach.  We - NHF and the United States and anyone else who would be wooed into complacency - have much to learn, from NHC and churches like this, and ultimately from the loud commands of the Lord.

We have to tell you about the massive mall here too ... not as great as the free massages, but still pretty cool.

Sunday worship = warm & touched by the hand of God.  You can use your wildest imagination to consider what it must have been like to be here with our friends, brothers & sisters, and to feel the language barrier melt away in praise and being together in God's Word.  By the time we got to our meeting with the NHC leadership team, it was as if the interpreters weren't even there.  Communication & fellowship was natural and free, and so, so warm.  Thanks be to God that like any relationship, our sisterhood is growing and becoming stronger.

Frivolous news: Soyeun is constantly hungry and needing to graze on an hourly basis.  Minjung's bug bites are lessening in their pain & intensity.  Edward wore a tie today (and was the only one who did, for Pastor Sasha wore a bowling shirt.  For real.)  John is composing a Ukrainian-Korean dictionary; you'd be surprised ... and me, I'm much more refreshed, largely because of the massage.  FREE MASSAGE.  Awesome.

God's love to you,
Cathy