Joshua, Edna, and Dominic
As you can see from the photo, we've had snow throughout this last month making for some fun play days for the boys. It has also given us the chance to spend more time in fellowship with people from our church, our neighbors, and friends from our English Club.
Edna leading Lusya, Zhenya, and Maxime in a Bible Study
Five members from Calvary Chapel Pryluky came again this month to help us out with worship music and planning for a playground restoration project. You can read more about their visit by clicking HERE.
We are really excited about fixing up the playground near our building. It is used by so many of the neighborhood children along with their parents and grandparents. Over the years it has fallen into disrepair and has been vandalized making it ugly and unsafe for the children. It has always been on our hearts to do something about it and now we can. God has shown us that it would be a wonderful opportunity for us to reach out to the neighborhood and get our church excited about serving. We'll be posting a detailed blog about the project as soon as we complete all the planning. We would love to have everyone help us make this project a reality through prayer and support as God leads.
(clockwise from left to right) Dominic, Edna, Vlad, Max, Joshua, Yana, Zhana, Tanya, our neighbor Olya, and her granddaughter Alyona.
While Vlad, Zhana, Yana, Max, and Tanya were here from Pryluky, we were able to have a Friday night Bible study like we had been praying about starting. Our next door neighbor Olya came, our downstairs neighbor Oksana came, and to our joy, Maxime's mother Vera came. We had invited her, but were still surprised that she came. We were blessed to be able to share the Bible with Olya and Vera in a way they had never heard before. We also prayed for them afterwards and really felt that God had opened a door for sharing who Jesus is with them.
Olya was especially excited about the group from Pryluky coming so she spent a lot of time with us and made sure we had plenty of traditional Ukrainian food for each meal. We all had a chance to pray that her knee surgery would go as scheduled and that she would make a full recovery.
It is also our pleasure to let everyone know that Tanya, from Pryluky, will be staying with us for the next month to help us with ministry and to serve in the church here. She has already been a huge blessing to us and we are looking forward to what the next month holds. Tanya and Edna will be working together closely with Children's Ministry and Women's Ministry. They have already planned a day of fellowship for the women in our church to celebrate National Women's Day in Ukraine.
I love this picture of Edna and Alyona.
As some of you already know, Edna has been having some health problems so I thought I'd have her explain it in her own words.
"I just wanted to ask for prayer. I received the results from my MRI scan that I had done on my back. I had the scan done because my Doctor suspected I had a problem in my spine because I have constant shooting nerve pain in my right arm, hand, and also into my chest wall. Well, the results are not so good. He said that the C5-C6, and C6-C7 vertebrae in my neck are prolapsed by 3 MM and it is causing nerve compression, which explains the pain in the chest, arm, and hand. He also said that I have spinal stenosis (narrowing of the spinal canal) and spondylitis. Spondylitis is a disease that can affect your whole body. He told me that there is no cure for this and that it will get worse. The spondylitis affects not only the spine, but also all of your joints and ligaments, and even your heart. I also read that this can affect your kidneys, and so maybe this is the reason I have kidney stones. He said my spine can eventually fuse and I will need surgery. He started me on a lot of medications that are very expensive and also told me that I need to swim twice a week and do daily exercises. The goal is to keep it the way it is now because if it gets worse I will need surgery. Will you please pray with me? I need God's healing, wisdom, and provisions.
Thank you,"
Edna
"But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. So you too should be glad and rejoice with me." - Philippians 2:17-18
"I would go to the deeps a hundred times to cheer a downcast spirit. It is good for me to have been afflicted, that I might know how to speak a word in season to one that is weary." - Charles Spurgeon
Нехай Бог Благословить Україну
(Let God Bless Ukraine)
(Let God Bless Ukraine)
Prayer Requests
• Please pray that God would provide for us financially so that we can complete the playground restoration that we have planned with CC Pryluky.
• For God to use us as we teach God's word to the children on Sunday.
• For God's Spirit to lead us as we continue the Bible study in our home on Friday nights, for Jesus to be made known to those coming, and for God's name glorified through it all.
• For God to lead Tanya and us as she joins us in ministry for the next month.
• For God to lead us in the planning of a party for National Women's Day.
• For a skilled worship leader at church and for guitar lessons for Greg and Nastya.
• That the churches we met with in America would keep us (Ukraine) on their hearts and minds and in their prayers.
• For Edna's health problems stated above in the post.
• Pray that Maxime would continue to grow in Christ. That nothing would hinder him from coming to church on Sunday, or being able to stay with us here at home.
• For our neighbor Olya, as she will be recovering from her second knee surgery tomorrow.
• For continued friendships that lead to Christ being made known as a personal Savior.
Support can be sent to:
Calvary SLO
P.O. Box 1463
San Luis Obispo, CA 93405
With an attached note: "For Greg and Edna Silva"
In Christ,
Greg, Edna, Dominic, and Joshua
Our blog: On Second Thought
Our photos: We Desire Him
