New Every Day

One of my favorite scenes in the Bible is in the Gospel of Mark where a father comes to Jesus and asks him to help his son. When he comes to Jesus, the father asks for help with the words "if you can" and Jesus replies, "'If you can!' All things are possible to him who believes." But the part that always strikes me is the father's earnest response: "I do believe; help my unbelief." This has been a prayer of mine for many years now, as doubts come up more than they should.

Just a few days ago, I was with Sergei Skiba, who is now on staff with us at Straight Ahead, when he called the director of the juvenile prison colony to see if I could finally go in there. As they were talking, Sergei sounded a bit doubtful, my heart sank, and my unbelief started to rise. I prayed. Sergei finished and said that the director was going to call his superiors to let them know how much we have done to help the boys in the prison. Ten minutes later, he called and said I had been approved to come in for the next six months. The Lord continues to help my unbelief.

Bogdan and friends

This past weekend, Bogdan, Anya, several others and I went to the orphanage/internat in Kaniv to follow up with the kids from the camp. Well, that was the plan; in reality, we ended up spending most of the time with the little kids who were not at the camp. It was fun to see them,to let them jump on us, to swing them around, and to realize what joy there is in being Christ's hands and arms for them.

Kostik, Ruslan, me in 2007

I also had a treat as a young man, whom I met when he was 8 and now just turned 15, came up and gave me and Dima big hugs. Kostik had pulled away from all of us over the last few years, but lately, there has been a softening of his heart. That is a huge blessing as many of the kids we work with in the detention centers, colonies and internats end up pulling away when attachments start to get deeper. They do that in order to protect their hearts, which have been broken before.

Kostik now.

So when Kostik gave those hugs, hung around with us, and then followed up with a phone call the next day, it was a nice gift.

Those are the things that renew and help our unbelief.