Bible study #5 last Wednesday - 14 people! Why did Christ die on the cross?

Just wanted to share that this Wednesday we had 14 people at our group (well, including us:-) and three of them were non-believers (Anya, Olena and Svyatoslav). There were quite a few students from the conservatory, who are Christians too. We had a GREAT study and then discussion about "Why did Christ die on the cross?"...

We thank everyone who's been praying - please keep doing that!! We know of at least other 5 people who were going to come, but didn't come for different reasons.


I will update this post later with more pictures and details. Here's a quick one though (apologies for a medium quality of the picture, I made it with my phone, since we still haven't fixed our camera:-(

Our 2 years engagement anniversary.

Whoooa, time flies FAST! It seems like just recently we've been dating each other and here we are celebrating two years of our engagement. At the same time I realize how many wonderful and important moments we've already lived through together over the period of these 24 month...

We've got engaged (Nov. 16th, 2007), registered our wedding with the State (May 8th, 2008), GOT MARRIED before the Lord (May 31st, 2008), I've quit my job with 1+1 (July 2008), we visited the States (Sep. 2008) , moved to L'viv and I've started working for GSM Server (June, 2009)... started student Bible study group at the L'viv's conservatory (Oct. 14th, 2009).

On this day we usually go to the Grand hotel restaurant (where I have proposed to Katya), eat dinner and then just go for a walk down the city center. We've done the same thing this Wednesday. It was a wonderful time together. We've eaten great food, talked and remembered all the details of that miraculous day... The day was quite cold, as in 2007, with the only difference that it didn't snow this year.

Katya, before we've ordered our food (2009)

At home after dinner (2009)

One thing that we've missed this year though, was the pianist that usually plays in that restaurant every evening ... This time he wasn't there. They said they don't invite him to play anymore, which was very sad. His light classic and jazz music was a GREAT addition to a ROMANTIC evening together. Talking about two previous years, here are some pics as well:

Katya the graceful food fairy (2008)

Andriy - the STAKE master (2008)

Right after proposal... (2007)

Wednesday student group: 9 people - good discussions.

This Wednesday, we had nine people at the group. Turned out that one of the new students couldn't come, even though those two guys were one of the major reasons for us to do the group this particular day... however some other people called me and asked if the group is happening, because they wanted to come. So, it was a good thing that we've had the group. It seems like the Lord is adding more and more new people.

Most importantly - we had a very good Bible study. We've talked about "Why Christ came into this world?" and the discussion spurred a whole lot of very interesting questions, including one unbelieving girl giving her version of "how do I get to Heaven?". It was GREAT to see, how, in the process of reading the Word of God people get to their own conclusions, on such important question.

This time we also had short time when we sang praise and worship songs and we plan to continue this in the future, even thought couple of people mentioned that they really want more of the Bible study time and discussion. Well, we decided to make the singing time short.

So, that's how the group went and we're excited now to see how it will be next week, and even more, how the groups will go after quarantine is over. THANK'S everyone for your PRAYERS. Please, keep praying.

P.S. Apologies for the fact that last four posts are "pictureless" - our camera broke down and we haven't fixed it yet. I promise to try to post some pictures later, so you can see a more visible account of what's happening in our life:-)

Tomorrow is FIRST group during the quarantine. Please PRAY!

OK, this does sound exciting!! In spite of the flu quarantine (where all colleges and Universities have been closed for three weeks - till Nov. 23rd), we've decided to continue our student groups. The thing is - there are couple of students that really want to come, so we thought why not.

So, tomorrow we will meet at 19:00 and this time also plan to have some Praise and Worship time at the group as well. This should be really cool.

OK. That's briefly it. Please, please pray for the Lord to work at this meeting.

Swine flu outbreack in L'viv. No student group this week:-(

Well, at least they say there's a flu outbreak... I personally do not feel that, except for the fact that there are absolutely NO face masks and flu medicine left in the aphoteka's (pharmacy stores). Many people are wearing masks, if they are outside, or stay at home altogether just to limit the risk of getting infected. If you ask me, all the fuzz about it in the media sounds like pre-elections turmoil, just to lift up and praise some of the presidential candidates.

All schools are on quarantine for THREE weeks (can you believe that) including the L'viv Concervatory where we work with students!! That's why we had to cancel our Bible study group this week... Sadly that means that we will have to cancel groups in next two weeks as well. However, we've decided to pray about it and may be have a group anyway next week. We will see. Seems that some students still have stayed in L'viv and didn't go to their home towns.

Me and Katya are doing good (praise the Lord) and are not feeling any signs of the cold. We continue our preparations for going to Passion 2010 conference in Atlanta!! I have already sent our itineraries to the Passion team and have confirmed my vacation at GSM Server. We're looking forward for attending this conference very much. Also, after the conference we will be able to go visit with some friends of ours in Florida. Which is

also so great, and we're looking forward to that very much as well.

P.S. Ok, just to add some more visualization to this swine flu thing (I personally think politicians in Ukraine took it way to far, with overestimating the danger of the situation. But then, on the other hand - it is the PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS YEAR). So, here's a bit of a humorous view on all this (you've probably seen this already, but still

wanted to share):

Poor little piglet... it ain't that dangerous - leave him alone!!