Love.Walk.Keep.Hold.Serve

"But take careful heed to do the commandment and the law which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, to keep His commandments, to hold fast to Him, and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul." Joshua 22:5

Love. Walk. Keep. Hold. Serve. These are just five simple words when standing alone. But once these five words are applied on a daily basis in a life following the Lord, man, they can totally change your life. This is what I (Byron) have learned over the last few weeks. I'm so amazed where the Lord has brought me and what He is doing. It's such a great place to be in. Walking in His ways, keeping His Word, loving Him, clinging onto Him, and finally, serving my heart out for Him. So awesome!

The Lord is clearly doing a good work here in Ternopil. We have had so many open doors for ministry and discipleship. Pastor George has been amazing in helping Emily and I figure out our roles here. What a blessing it is to serve under him and to serve the people of his church and this city.

This past Wednesday (24th) we kicked off a new ministry that Emily and I are overseeing. A Bible study for students and young adults. Our first meeting was very encouraging as we had an awesome time of fellowship, worship, and the Word in our home. We had four international university students and one YWAM student attend. We are working our way through the book of I John. Please pray for this group as we seek opportunities to reach out and draw in more students.

Like we mentioned in a previous post, Emily and I have also started a youth group that meets every Sunday night. We designed this group so we could meet students and youth, fellowship with them and play games. Please pray for us as we build relations with this group and pray that more of them will attend the Wednesday night Bible study. This Sunday (the 28th), we're hoping to take the group out to play volleyball near the dorms (weather permitting). Please pray for this event.

This past Wednesday (24th) was a very busy day for us. Not only did we kick off the new student Bible study, but the church also began a new mens' inductive Bible study... hosted at our apartment bright and early (7am). The Lord did not make me a morning person : ) Please pray for this study as Pastor George teaches the men of our church how to study the Bible for all it's worth.

Okay, so Wednesday (24th) was also our first Ukrainian language lesson. We've been blessed with a great teacher (Oksana) from the church. We will be meeting three mornings a week for our lesson. After studying Russian for some time, we feel like we have a pretty good understanding of the Slavic languages (thanks Ira!). However, Ukrainian seems a bit confusing to us right now as some of the words and rules are the same or very similar to Russian, where some are completely different! But we're very excited to start speaking. Please pray for us as we study and please pray for Oksana as she teaches us.

Prayer Requests:

10/27 - Saturday we are heading down to the university dorms to meet and invite students to church/Bible study.

10/28 The city is using the building we meet in for church to hold voting for the upcoming Ukrainian elections. This means the church body will be meeting in three different homes around the city. Emily and I are hosting a group at our apartment. Pray for these three different services on Sunday morning.

Blessings,
Byron