Як трибого, то до Бога.

Ukrainian Proverb: When in trouble, then you'll turn to God.

Within the past several months, a group of teenage boys have been calling the youth center home. They seem to be really connecting with everyone there, which is amazing to me, as these boys are typical un-churched teenagers, who smoke and drink regularly, and the youth center is a clean, Christian environment. Recently these boys have developed great relationships with the staff as well as with the church youth who spend their free time there.

However, one Friday night, all of these boys came into the center completely drunk. The frequency and commonality of this in society is what makes the situation even more unfortunate. Apparently, the local youth had not had school for several days, due to a flue quarantine, and th eboys took this opportunity to drink.

They were back on Saturday completely sober, and seemingly unaffected by the events that had transpired the day before. One February 15th, the youth center held a party in celebration of Valentine's Day. The boys were there. During the party was a time of worship to God and everyone was told about God's unfailing and true love for them. All were attentive and not a word was uttered in objection or mockery. It seemed like God was moving in their lives.

Every Sunday night the church holds youth group in the same venue as used by the youth center throughout the week. At these meetings the Bible is studied, there is prayer as well as a time of fun and fellowship. This past Sunday, only two weeks after they all came into the center drunk, all of them were at youth group, where they read the Bible and prayed.

Each and every one of these boys is seeking after something. God is using this opportunity in order to reveal Himself to them, to meet them in their point of need. I am taken back with awe in terms of how God is moving within the lives of this generation, and this experience helps to remind me that I am in face serving a real and living God who is still very much at work in the world today.

Слово не горобець, вилетить не спіймаєш.

Ukrainian Proverb: A word is not a sparrow, if it flies away, you won't catch it.

Due to weeks of holidays, final exams, and work conflicts, our college fellowship was not able to meet successfully for quite some time, a fact that was to say the least, very frustrating for me. But on Sunday the 11th, God proved His faithfulness, and we had our first extremely successful fellowship group!
Our group!
There were eight of us in all, all of the usual crowd plus one! It was such an answer to prayer! We managed to discuss chapter two in Drury's book, overall it was a good discussion, as far as I could tell. Sometimes it absolutely feels as if I am herding cats while blindfolded (that one was for you, Eli) with the language barrier. I feel as if I am taking shots in the dark as far as discussion questions go sometimes, but I'm sure that it all works out in the end. Don't get me wrong, it is all extremely rewarding!
This is what I look like while herding cats.

At this past meeting, for the first time I was able to feel as if I were back at the university hanging out with my peer group. We had a lengthy discussion about holiness-what it is, certain scriptures that tell us how to make ourselves more holy, as well as holiness movements in our own cultures. Following the discussion we broke into partners and prayed with one another for the upcoming week. It was a perfect end to the study.

To unwind and to fellowship with one another we ended the evening by playing a game, which was extremely fun. It strikes me as interesting how when it comes to games and parties, that even the most reserved of people choose to participate, and suddenly people are no longer quite as reserved and modest as you thought they were.

Praise God and thank you for all of the prayers!

Recent Odd Cultural Experiences:
• Recently while sitting and reading by the sea, I was approached by a pair of Jehovah's witnesses, who wished to attempt a conversation with me. Though by itself this may not seem like such a strange occurrence. What makes it odd is the fact that it has been my third encounter within the five months that I have been here.

• Along the same lines, I was also recently stopped by an obviously inebriated man while on my way to the bus stop. He was apparently in need of relationship advice, either that or he was asking for my hand in marriage, I of course was not able to help him with either.

• While riding the bus downtown one day, a woman stood up and began preaching. This was something that was unexpected though quite refreshing given the country's all to recent religious suppression.