A Gift from Grandmother! This week we went over one night to give Sally a break and had the Bible study for the children of the House of Hope! They are great kids and God is helping them. I'm not sure how much of a break it was for Sally for she had to interpret, which is even more difficult.

To those who have ever met this dear lady, she's just Grandmother! Whether you're her kin or not, she is Grandmother to all! Many over the years have enjoyed her cooking, Southern Hospitality, Christian Spirit or just her "meanness". She's a wonderful lady and so much fun to be around. Her name is Stella Mae Scarbrough, but as I said, you can just call her Grandmother. The box of Cany Canes that she sent is for some of her new Grandchildren. You can see them in the picture.

Date Time! Amidst all of the business, I found time to take my oldest daughter on a date. We've been doing this since she was just 4 years old. By the way, our first date was to a Symphony with the feature artist being a violinist from the Ukraine. Ironic how we would end up learning the Russian language and some of our dearest friends are Ukrainian and Russian.

Due to all of the craziness in our lives over the last year, our times together have suffered. So I took time out to make sure and work on the Most Important people that I can possibly influence, my family.

We went to a local resturaunt that is very nice and pretty reasonable. We had a good time talking, enjoying each others company, and of course eating! The thing I like aobut taking my girls out, is that I usually get to eat out somewhere with them. No, there's a whole more to it than that, just some twisted humor!

Pursuing Goal number 3! (check out previous post for 07 goals) Here I am standing in the hills/mountains of Ukraine! I made a trip up to the Ukraine, to continue to see about the possibilities of ministering there. Due to our familiarity with the Russian language, similarity with the people, the close proximity it is to where we are in Romania and the fact that God seems to be opening up some doors there, we feel we need to walk through the doors.

Thank the Lord for the opportunity to minister to some dear Ukrainian people. God helped in the Bible study, gave travelling mercies, and a "quick" border crossing of 45 minutes as opposed to 2-3 hours.

Thank you for your prayers for we need God's daily help!

Goodies from the USA! Thank you so much to our dear Brothers and Sisters in Oregon for this wonderful Christmas treat. Oh, how much excitement there was when I pulled out the wonderful treats from the U.S. Reesies, Tootsies, Gummy Bears, Peanuts, Doritos, as well as other treats. Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness and expense. The smiles say it all!

Don't worry one bit about it being late for it really wasn't. In Russia, Christmas is celebrated on Jan. 7th and we still have "Russian blood" in us! So this box as well as another from a church in SC, came 2 days before our "Celebration" of Russian Christmas.

Two peas in a pod! Laura was planning a big Christmas party at our house for the Orphans but for some reason it wasn't God's will! Even after delaying the party for a week, we still had much sickness in our family. So, the kids and I took the treats she had made over to the Orphanage.

We promised the kids that we would plan a get together a little later after we are all well! It was disappointing for Laura had worked so hard but we are trusting God, for He does all things well!

Goals for 2007! Many people make New Years Resolutions but statistics tell us that most of those resolutions don’t last very long. A former student of mine who worked at McDonald’s told me that the first 3 weeks of January they sold more salads than any other time period during the year. The reason was most people made New Year’s Resolutions, but those Resolutions only lasted 3 weeks. After that, it was back to the same old eating habits. Personally, I don’t like to call them Resolutions for they seem to go as soon as they come.

Since I am very goal oriented, I love to set goals. Sometimes those goals don’t come about or sometimes God changes those goals. However, I believe strongly if we shoot at nothing, we are sure to hit it. So let’s shoot for the stars, we may just be able to get off the ground, but at least we will be on our way.

In all of the goals that I set, I want them to be for the glory and honor of God. It is only because of God that I can accomplish anything. God said, “Daryl, without me, you can't do ANYTHING!”

Since God has called us to Eastern Europe, here are 3 ministry goals that I feel the He would have us to attempt for His GLORY:

• Finish the construction of Hope Christian Fellowship Center
• Begin working in the Fellowship Center to share the love of Jesus and teach and train people about God and His word.
• To plant churches in this region, which would include Romania, Ukraine, Hungary, & Slovakia.
  

I don't know exactly how God will choose to work but would you pray that for the Glory and Honor of God, these goals would be accomplished?