We are happy to report that on February 20, we had the second meeting of youth from Salvation Church with the youth from the Zenkov-Dikansko-Oposhnyanskiy area - and I will make the bold prediction that it will not be the last such meeting. It appears that a strong friendship has developed between our groups. It is surprising that such different people find common interests so quickly and easily. Watching the young people greet each other and talk, I became increasingly convinced that our spiritual kinship in Christ may be even stronger than blood ties. But, as always, first things first ...

The schedule was as follows: at 16:30 we loaded the gang into a van and after 45 minutes we arrived at the door  of the church in Oposhnyanskoy. At the entrance we were greeted hospitably and escorted to a room where everything was already prepared for a pleasant visit. We and our hosts exchanged greetings all around (there were about 25 people in the room) and then we sang a song together and prayed, inviting the Lord to bless our meeting. He answered the prayer immediately (and that's not just my opinion).

Next we enjoyed two games organized by Nastia Kryzhanovska that left us all holding holding our sides with laughter. After that we offered praise and a heartfelt prayer of gratitude to Christ for His sacrifice and faithfulness. Then came the skits, which served as a transition to the devotional of the evening. The topic that God laid on our hearts was romance, given that the celebration of Valentine's Day was still fresh in our minds, and it seemed a good idea to curb frisky spring feelings. We talked about how one should not expect blessings in life and relationships if scripture was not the foundation on which we, as Christians, construct our lives. That what is required is not just knowledge of the Bible, but obedience to the Word of God (Matthew 7:24-27). We also spoke frankly about the differences between biblical relationships and the so-called "Hollywood" model of relationships.

After the official part of the evening we got to the famous Oposhnyanskie food, and we all had a chance to get better acquainted with each other. In addition to those I knew, there were many that I personally had never met. Once we had visited to our satisfaction, somewhere around 20:00, all the Poltavites again piled into the van and forty minutes later arrived safely back in Poltava.

We are planning the next trip plan for May and this time the hosts will prepare the program.

As before I am asking those of you reading the article to pray for the youth of the Poltava region to be strong in God and to be transformed into the image of Christ. You can go ahead and do it right now.

Vladimir Golovash