God's beautiful, amazing blessings in the midst of war!

After the Service at 1st Baptist on Sunday, Maxim Kushnir and I went to get a pastry and a cup of coffee because we hadn't eaten yet that day! I realized while we were talking about our families and personal things that every day we had been in meetings, eating meals and fixing scheduling issues and had yet to take time to just talk as friends!  We had an hour before the next Service at another church and it was a wonderful break and time of unexpected refreshment for both of us!  

After the second Service of the day, one of the dearest families to us in Ukraine, was passing through Chernivtsi from Dnepro in the East to Lviv in the far West, next to the Polish border.  They were picking up friends who were just coming in from other Countries in support of the humanitarian aid program.  God gave us almost three hours together at a friend's restaurant where we had a chance to share news from the different sectors of the War, reports on loved ones safety and whereabouts and ways that we are all trying to share resource!  Both of their boys are doing life threatening service in the most dangerous areas!  Small things are not so important any more and most people would say, as terrible as War is, it is changing their own personal faith and their churches in profound and unifying ways that they have never seen before!   Today is Monday - in the past, it has been a huge Soviet holiday called 'Victory Day'. Vladimir Putin declared last week that they were going to unleash terror all over Ukraine on this day.  But our friends in the East and we here in the West have seen none of it!  This War is first of all Spiritual.  The prayer here is that our God would destroy the works of the devil - I John 3:8, that every evil thing on both sides of this War would be defeated, and plans for destruction and death would be completely frustrated and nullified!  Even to this point, God has done what no one imagined could happen!  

This morning, we got up early for a short workout and then came back to Max's home to spend time with the Lord and prepare for meetings later in the day.  The first one was a meal at the home of a man who preached the first Sermon at the church I spoke at on Sunday. Andre' did a great job of speaking plainly about our own failures and responsibilities!  His wife was one of our volunteer cooks in the first feeding site the city had ever had!  It was a miracle story, one site turned into many and had a great effect on the whole city!  I hadn't seen her in many years, her babies are now grown men and all serving the Lord!  

After an amazing meal with this dear family we were invited to eat again at another friends' restaurant with the whole pastoral staff at 1st Baptist. These dear brothers who serve to the point of exhaustion, had paid the bill for our meal in advance, so I didn't have a chance, it was very humbling!    

I experienced something in this meeting that has never happened to me before.  As we were talking with these strong men who have sacrificed so much to be God's servants, some of them started to water up as they explained their work with refugees, their own families and church dynamics as 70% of their members and trusted co-workers have left for safer grounds! I felt an overwhelming love for them and all of those who are experiencing the same things in Lviv, Kiev, and Kharkiv and what we have been through together over the years and especially now in this time of War! The thing that was absolutely new to me is how you could feel the deepest joy in oneness and have grieving hearts at the same time!  I didn't think it was even possible for this kind of combination to exist, but I felt the Holy Spirit say, don't try to explain it, just trust Me, this is where Jesus walked...   We have a picture of us sitting together after the dinner. The smiles are certainly not because of the War but because of what we have experienced together in the midst of War!