Tremendous Truths for Tuesday.

Hi great friends, supporters, and prayer trojans.
Today has been an awesome day when the privilege of being part of this great project has really hit home. We can summerise it in 5 truths.
1) It is a great privilege to provide good people with good things to do good work for God (who is always good). We had the privilege this morning of presenting our friends at transition house with the gifts for materials and tools that the church and friends in the UK sent us with. Exceptional gratitude was communicated to us, but our hearts were full and united  by how awesome our God is in providing for his people. We are very grateful to the generosity of the Barrane foundation and the churches  in the uk which enabled us to contribute to the provision of much needed resources at such a critical time in the project. We were able to present our great brother, friend and foreman Igor with some wonderful new tools, which will grately help us rattle up some walls and ceilings over these next 3 weeks.

We are thinking of asking the diy store to buy this photo off us for their Christmas advertising, with the caption "new toys make big boys very very happy!".
Truth 2) Ukranian markets sell everything !. To acquire tools and materials today (at great prices) Pieter Kindly drove myself and John accross the city where we entered the street market quarter. To say it was "eyeopening" is an understatement. You could buy any pet that was required, (whether to walk, eat or dunk) - I particulraly enjoyed the terrapins and tortoises. We think we counted 15 stalls selling tropical fish and numerous others with fairytale castles and plants for said fish to live a happy Ukrainian life. Of course next to the fish were... yes you guessed it ...the power tool stalls.. (I think we hid our surprise very well.)
 Pieter is a shrewd man. After entering "Aladdins cave for big lads in overalls" and signing the store card entry for maximun discount, we purchased one item and looked at several (hundred). We then exited the shop to repeat the process in several stores just to see if any of the store owners would buckle under the pressure and offer further discount at the prospect of multiple sales. They did and we exited as very happy bunnies, with a new Dewalt SDS drill light enough for ceiling work, a new angle grinder ideal for metal work, new intellegent drivers (ideal for boarding), and various magnetic spirit levels,  and drill bits ready for the mission ahead.
Truth 3) Ukrainian driving is ... unpredicatable. On our journey home we encounterd a section of road wherby due to road works, 6 lanes converged into 2. The large Ukranian man who drove the large artic truck decided he had chosen the slightly slower of the two lanes and so used a local custom / "temparary throttle system", in the hope that every time he dabbed the accelerator, someone would be gentlemanly enough to move out of his way. They weren't, and they didn't !!!! ...but praise God we escaped the carnage that ensued. There is always mess and mangle in this world when it is every man for himself !! We were grateful to be reunited with a team where everyone is united in one purpose, and where God brings people together to construct and not destroy.
Truth 4) We should be thankful for water and electricity. Thank GOD if you have both today. Yesterday we were without water, today it was electricity, (at least for a good portion of the afternoon session)  which just makes you appreciate how precious these things are - you can't do a whole lot of building work (or anything else for that matter) without either.
Truth 5) God is bigger than all the ups and downs of life. As we awoke this morning to put the kettle on and meet for our bible study this was the view outside our room...

As we started a new day we studied  Joshua chapter 2. It is all about a new day for Israel in God's forgiveness and a new day for anyone who trusts God in the mess of this world. Verse 11 says this..."for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below." Joshua chapter 2 is about how God uses insignificant people in his gloriously big plans. Rahab, is known only for being a prostitute and a nobody up until this point. She is normally not into trusting men too much (it comes with her profession) ...but this new day she  trusts two men from God and puts her trust in the God who offers sovereign protection as we trust ourselves to his faithfulness. Reading the story in the big picture of the bible we see that this was the best of days for Rahab, her faith was exceptionally wisely placed. In Matthew  1:5, we are reminded that she was engrafted into God's big plans, and after being rescued by the good news of who God is, married Salmon, became the mother of Boaz, and ultimaely the line which produced the greatest tesminoy to God's faithfulness to all generations, the birth of Jesus Christ. As she professes that God is good, so her life becomes a staggering story of the God who loves to take messed up people and turn them into a lasting story and trophy of his protection and possesion. In turn she posseses all the privileges of a God who never ever, ever. lets down those who trust in him. Today is another day when God is faithful, his mercy is new every morning and his faithfulness lasts from one generation to the next. As a bunch of messups, we as a team have been blown away by God's failfulnnes in forgiving us, and bringing us together in his great purposes. God is good, however "not good you are", turn to him today, you can trust him,  he loves to accept those who do.

With deep gratitude in our hearts, some more walls and ceiling metal in sutu, and some shiny new tools in our kit bag. We have a good God. We have had a great day in his big plans. You are part of his goodness to us, thank you for your prayers and support - you know who you are, and hopefully you know how much you mean to us.  Much love till we chat again, BLOGSKI.