Monday, December 24, 2007

Merry Christmas from Ukraine

This is a portion of an email from a from a recent Bible School student who listens to the odcast. Just another example of JCFC "redeeming technology."

I just had to write to you and let you know what a blessing you and JFCC have been to me recently, especially these last few weeks leading up to Christmas. I have been living in Kiev, Ukraine since September teaching English to University students and young professionals here and am loving it. However, the holiday season has been rather discouraging for me. The country still has a residual atheist feeling left from its time of Soviet occupation, and the Christians here are Orthodox, so they do Christmas later, on January 7th, but focus mainly on the secular "New Year" holiday. I have found a wonderful church family to be a part of but listening to your simple yet impacting messages on the reality of Christ's coming and what it means for us has been a constant reminder of how blessed I am this season, whether I have to work on Christmas day or even if I don't get Christmas dinner or time with family and friends.

It seemed fitting to tell you thank you and that your commentary on God's Word (praise Him for podcasting!) has been encouraging in a potentially discouraging time for me.

I pray for you and your family and the church, and hope that your holiday travels and festivities go safely and that you enjoy this time. Again, thank you and may you have a Divine realization of what this season truly means. I guess the short way to say it is simply "Merry Christmas."

Hannah Larsen

1 comment:

Joel Asmus said...

Joshua, How awesome is that! That is totally great and just amazing that God can use us to touch someone half way around the world. Praise God and Merry Christmas!!!