What is the image that comes into our mind when we hear the words "righteous man"? Are there any saints today? Do they go to our church? Did you make friends with them?

Through the years, as you live the Christian life, you become more and more convinced that a righteous man is a real, living person who makes mistakes, who, like all others, is flawed and needs improvement, but nevertheless has certain characteristics that distinguish him from most other Christians.

One of those characteristics is respect for the environment. And we are not talking only about the people around us, but also about animals, trees ... The Book of Proverbs has an interesting illustration of this thought: "The righteous care for the needs of their animals, but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel." (Proverbs 12:10).

Caring for cattle while living in a high-rise apartment building isn't very convenient, but helping to clean up the banks of the Vorskla river, right across the street from our church building, that's something that everyone in attendance at the most recent SMS Club meeting could do. Then from the mouth of Vladimir Golovash came the call to mobilize the Christian youth to help in improving the environmental situation in our area. The meeting was scheduled for Saturday morning (April 20). Requirements: a good attitude and a sincere desire to help.

What happened next ...? The sad facts. Only 5 people showed up. Interestingly, one was an American who is staying for a short time at the church and another was a student from Uganda who is studying at the of Medical Academy. Later a few more stragglers arrived, three of them were members of churches in other regions of Ukraine. That brings the total to at most ten. To some people that may not sound too bad, but given the fact that the average attendance at a meeting of the club SMS is over 60 people, well, you can draw your own sad conclusions.

Vladimir Golovash, the youth ministry leader at Salvation church and the head of the SMS club, believes that the reason for the low turnout of young people for the work day was just plain laziness. According to him, the young people were perfectly able to participate in this effort, if only they wanted to.

However, inspite of their small number, this dedicated group managed in a few hours to clean more than an acre of forest and collect thirty-five bags of garbage. For this we sincerely thank them and we believe that this is a good deed will not go unnoticed by the all-seeing eye of the Lord.

And as for all the rest of us ... We, my friends, have an opportunity to rehabilitate ourselves on April 27 at 9:00. The church work day requires your sincere contribution. Such events promote godly qualities of Christian character and demonstrate our righteousness tp the outside world. We're expecting you!

Tatyana Varyanitsa