Thursday, July 25, 2013

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Week Five and Kentucky Trip


Week 5: Probably my favorite. Why? Because we got to study the book of Romans! The most studied, yet ignored, simple, yet complicated book of the Bible (my opinion). I loved it! It's the basic gospel message. And in the end it points to our foundation: Jesus Christ and what He did on the cross.

  Our teacher from Cleveland, Ohio. He is a man of passion. You can see how much he wishes us to understand and grab hold of the truth in the Scriptures. I loved that we actually opened up our Bibles in class. Sounds silly, but it was nice. I like not having notes printed out for me.

 Our dear Paul preached for the first time! Praise God! It was a touching message about our Jesus :) My favorite topic! I can't wait to see him preach in Rochester.



We had two presentations during week five. First was about Modern Christianity (my group) and the other was about Mormonism. A quote I thought was noteworthy by David Wilkerson: "God hates the LUKEWARM GOSPEL OF HALF-TRUTHS that is now spreading over the globe. This gospel says, 'Just believe in Jesus and you'll be saved. There's nothing more to it.' It ignores the whole counsel of God, which speaks of repenting from former sins, of taking up your cross, of being conformed to the image of Christ by the refining work of the Holy Spirit. It is totally silent about the reality of hell and an after-death judgment."

 It was our first bus trip with the 50-seat bus! It was so much fun!!

Oh yeah and half way to Kentucky the air conditioning inside the bus broke. The temperature reached just under 100 degrees. I think God was preparing us for the extreme conditions the missionary world. I am just glad that I am not too heat sensitive compared to others. Not bragging or anything, but I sleep under blankets no matter how high the temperature. Maybe I am destined to live in the Sub-African Sahara. Or Florida. Or on my own private island.

 First stop: Creation Museum!


Everything is based on God's word.

Noah's ark. There is so much at the museum, I would not be able to share it all with you.

Yes, dinosaurs too! Rawr!

The new part of the museum: all about bugs. So many different kinds of bugs. So grossly interesting. The guys really loved the bugs while most girls were pretty freaked out. They were all real bugs (not alive) and the only ones that scared me were the "mammoth" African Beetles or something. Those things were the size of my hand. Ew ew ew ew ew.


And the petting zoo. Look, it's a zorse! A zebra horse! Such a cool creature. Yes, I got to pet a zorse.

Then there are the chickens we got to pet. I think this picture is funny. Yaro has this super-compassionate look on his face while holding this chicken. Lol. I love chicken too. Fried chicken.

We are not ashamed of the gospel of Christ! This is our class motto for this year. Romans 1:16.


Then back on to the hot bus, singing songs, talking to each other about our favorite topic: dating and marriage haha.

At the end of the day, someone's gotta clean up. Looks like "Michael Motorcycle" doesn't mind too much.


So the trip was a success, praise God. This upcoming weekend we plan on visiting Cleveland, OH and Erie, PA. I am looking forward to everything. Guys, I am so glad I went to Bible school. God is so good! Now I am off to do some research for my paper! God bless y'all!


Friday, July 19, 2013

SFG Bible School Weeks 3 and 4

I cannot believe how much time is flying by! So here is an update of what we have been up to and how we are doing here in our little own world called "SFG Bible School". Above is an awesome girl, Liliya Silkovska. She is one smart cookie.

Twice a week we have "Student Church". Pretty much one group (5 groups in all ) leads service. And it is always blessed and interesting. I love seeing people get out of their comfort zone and preach for their first time, or sing. It's a good atmosphere to start.

We sang an old hymn and my favorite line was "One in Himself, I cannot die, my soul is purchased by His blo-o-o-d, my life is hid with Christ on high, with Christ my Savior and my God."


This is our week 3 teacher and it was his birthday! He taught on evangelism.

Here is Lesya, presenting on the topic of Atheism. She is so funny, just look at everyone smiling! :)

Resting on the Word. Maybe just napping. Hehe.

Our group. From left to right Julie (NC), Dennis (TN), Vadim (OH), Liliya (MI), Rostik (OH), Ninja (OH), me (NY) and below us is Tim (OH) and Yaro (NY). I'm actually surprised at how close we have gotten.

Week 4 was different because we had different teachers come in everyday due to a teacher not being able to make it from Ukraine because of Visa issues. Pastor Olesh was an amazing teacher for a day, we are hoping he could substitute in for a teacher again!

Planning and voting on our t-shirt designs.

Our main administrator: Alex Sinyk. He said "I am not photo-hygenic" Lol he meant to say "photogenic". I have a feeling that he really really loves us. And he really loves to scare us.

I love this shot. We have so many talented students in our class. When we have alone time, you can catch students throughout the church (inside, outside, here and there and anywhere) reading the Bible, praying, napping, playing guitar/piano, working on sermons, practicing for church or just chillin. It is one of the best feelings to walk in on someone praying in a room (that sounds wrong, I mean it just makes me so happy to see us have a passion for the Lord). What a blessing it is to be here! 

In the end, this is what it comes to: Living IN CHRIST. It does not matter if someone is in Bible school, at home, at work... If we are in Christ, we are in the right place. We are secure, our Rock is steady and our joy is great because our Jesus is good.

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Love To Worship Spoken Word

Thoughts on Gods Will


God's will for you is unique. You will touch the lives of people no one else can touch. Just like that puzzle piece that touches certain pieces, no one else can stand in the place you stand in your life. Be it family, school, work, or neighborhood. There is no such thing as coincidence, it is all a beautiful master-mind plan of God. Every person you meet, every seemingly "random" encounter with those hungry for the Jesus in you; that is a circumstance that can never be repeated. So take a chance. Stand out. Be the light. Let Jesus be Jesus in you. Depend on Him. Jesus Himself said He cannot do anything without the Father. Who are we, mere humans, thinking we can be independent from the Father? So don't worry about God's will for your life, He will work everything together for the good of those who love Him. So love Him, depend on Him, cling to Him, stand on His firm foundation. Don't forget what was done on the cross. That's His will for you.

Thursday, July 4, 2013

SFG Bible School Weeks 1-2 Video



This video was made by a few of our students. Made me want to laugh and cry. God bless :)