"The Lighthouse 516" ministry center in our village has very quickly become a hub of activity and curiosity!  We have prayed daily that the Lord would bring people who need to receive His Word and be exposed to a Christian witness, and not a single day has gone by since the opening when people have not stopped in.  

  The most frequent visitors are village children with names like Sasha, Nastya, Vanya, Ira, Valya, Daniel, Yegor and many others who eagerly come by not only for the Saturday English lessons, but on a nearly daily basis to get books from the library, gobble down cookies and tea, and delight in having someone who listens to them and talks with them.  In addition to all the small talk, how thrilling it is to hear the questions that come from some of these children.  One little girl recently asked, as I gave her a children's Bible story of the life of Christ, "So, I don't understand why Jesus had to die!  He didn't do anything wrong, did He?"  Oh, if only more adults asked those kinds of questions!  "No, He didn't, but we did..."  

  As the word get around that we are open, more and more adults stop in for a chat, a cup of coffee, free Bible verse calendars, New Testaments, tracts, or books, films and music from our Christian library.  Some of them, like Sergei and Oksana, are parents of some of the children that come by regularly.  Sergei and I have  had some good chats as as we sit and visit over tea.  "I love this inspiring music that you play here!"  Sergei commented recently.  "It's so different from the stuff I hear everywhere else."  Oksana, his wife, has been reading Christian books from our library about raising children according to Biblical principles.  

  One elderly babushka named Maya comes by every few days to talk about the Bible and take out literature.  Much to our amazement, she especially loves the Bible encyclopedias and dictionaries!  "There's so much in the Bible that I don't understand, and these help me!" she exclaimed.  She listened in wonder as we shared with her about the importance of asking God to open and reveal His Word to us so that it can change our hearts and lives.  

  Still other familiar faces have peeked into our center.  Even the influential secretary of the village council, who is running for mayor, Nina Mikhailovna, dropped in for a cup of coffee, a calendar, and a pleasant talk.  Showing her the framed picture of Jesus' "Beatitudes" hanging on the wall, I shared with her my vision to see people's hearts in our village changed from within by the grace of God.  

  Much to our joy, not a day goes by without the chance to be a light for Jesus Christ in the spiritual darkness of our Ukrainian village and to plant the seeds of God’s Word.  Please pray for these precious souls, and the many others, who are having the chance to come into the proximity of God's message of salvation.  Pray that the work that is done through this ministry will not be of our own feeble efforts, but of God's Spirit.