Around 8.30pm on Saturday evening our ship docked in Lithuania following a 20 hour crossing of the Baltic Sea, and we commenced the final part of our journey to Latvia. As the roads worsened the sky darkened until we eventually were far away from city lights heading north to Latvia. Darkness fell quickly and all around us was black. I sat in the front of the car as Sven drove, looking out of the window and thought to myself …
‘As I gaze into the night sky and see the work of your fingers
The moon and stars suspended in space
O what is man that you are mindful of Him.’
I became over-awed by the presence of God and again deeply moved by the words of Scripture from Psalm 8 and I found myself singing silently
‘The majesty and glory of Your Name
transcends the earth and fills the heavens’
My heart and mind bowed before our Almighty God as I sat in awe of Him and wondered again:
‘O what is man that You are mindful of him?’
‘O what is man that You are mindful of him?
Mere man that You care for Him
Yet You made him a little lower than the angels
You crowned him with glory and honour
You put him in charge of all creation …’
And still: ‘O what is man that You are mindful of him?’
And yet, our Lord and God, is mindful of us … so very, very mindful of us. He is interested in everything that interests us … Concerned about everything that concerns us … Our Lord and God is so very, very mindful of us!
Mindful of little Laura and others of the children with scabies and sometimes battered and bruised …
Mindful of Captains Aizan and Sergey who have just moved from Sarkarni to Seda as the Officers there.
Mindful of Dimitry and Iliona new Lieutenants serving in the isolated village of Sarkarni and she pregnant with their first child.
Mindful of Ann, one of our team members living with cancer and awaiting surgery.
Mindful of Captains Ruslan and Marina serving alone as The Salvation Army in Crimea and having just moved from the beauty of Yalta to the hardness of Simfiropol.
Mindful of Lieutenant Kira as she takes up an additional appointment as the Divisional Youth Officer for Russia, alongside being a Corps Officer in Samara, Russia. And knowing that to reach some of her appointments requires traveling on crowded Russian trains for up to 18 hours, sharing 4 berth compartments with strangers, men and women.
Mindful of Major Kay, as she faces so many changes just now.
Mindful of young Lauren for whose healing we continue to pray.
Mindful of Natasha who returns to Russia without employment and longs to follow God’s plans for her life.
Mindful of all the young people and families whose lives have touched ours this week; children who know hardship, struggles, pain, neglect, who have seen and experienced more in their young lives than any child anywhere should ever have to.
And yet, in the midst of all of this and much, much more, we have witnessed:
‘Little children praise You perfectly’
and our hearts response has been:
‘And so would we’
‘Alleluia, alleluia,
The majesty and glory of Your Name
This week we have come as a group of very different people, from very different backgrounds, cultures, and languages united by God’s love and a desire to serve the people of Sarkarni and Seda. Praying that God would help us in this week to:
‘Make a genesis week from the chaos of their lives’ (Ps. 51 Msg Para) and that God would do it in our own individual lives too.
From the moment we first prayed together as a group, until this very moment as we near the end of our week together our heart cries out in worship, love, thanksgiving and adoration that one word that unites us all ‘Alleluia’. Amen and Amin!
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