Evil Spirits

I guess it has been a while since our last blog.... the days are going by quickly.

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately.  I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior about 3 years ago and was baptized in July of 2011.  During that time I've heard many stories in church, from a variety of people, about how they were being attacked spiritually.  They've told us how they would pray and tell the evil spirits to leave them.  I really did not know what to think about this, and it felt very foreign to me.

Over the last couple of weeks I have been feeling very depressed and lost.  I could not figure out why I was in Ukraine.  I was irritated at Bill all the time for some really silly things, and all I wanted to do was just come home.  I was teary eyed all the time and could cry at the drop of a hat.  When Bill and I would talk there were times I would have to tell him we needed to change the subject because I could not handle the discussion.  Then there were times I just did not want to be in Bill's presence, and many times I did not want to be around the boys.  I would go up to our room as soon as I felt I could get away with it.  I would absorb myself into my book to be somewhere else.

Bill and I decided to go away for a few days to recoup and I thought that would make me feel all better.  Well, I was still getting very irritated with Bill, for no reason.  It was now Saturday and I knew Grace Place would be taking prayer requests, and I wanted to get on the list.  I e-mailed Pastor Clay my request and he not only put in the request, he sent me a wonderful e-mail back.  It was full of encouragement and some helpful advise about being spiritually attacked.  One of the things that Pastor Clay said to do was to verbally tell the evil spirits to leave.

I had to ask Bill what this really meant.  Am I just supposed to say a prayer?  I'd been doing that and I did not feel better.  Did it mean to yell at the devil, or what?  He said no, just talk out loud, and tell the evil spirits to leave.  I still felt very foolish.  I know I shouldn't feel that way but I did.  I waited until Bill was in the shower and I started telling the devil to go away.  At first I was timid, and then I realized I was getting angry at the evil one for even being there.  It was not until we had been back in Kherson for a couple of days that I realized I was at peace again.

While I was growing up one of the arguments that I had with religious people was that I wanted proof.  This week I got proof.  My plea to anyone reading this blog is to use the gifts that God has given us to maintain your Christian course, and if yelling at the top of your lungs to get the evil spirits away from you is what you feel like you need to do, then DO IT.

I am very thankful everyday that Bill and I found Grace Place and that the pastors and everyone that I meet is helping me to become who God wanted me to be all along.

Now that I was feeling better the evil spirits decided to attack Bill for a while.  This week has been extremely hard on him.  Today he is much better and our relationship is thriving better today than it has ever been.

We have four new boys at the house.  One of the boys (Arteom) goes to college in Kiev so we only see him every few weeks.  The other three boys are Kola (not pronounced like the soda), Losha and Vlad.  All of them are great boys.  Kola and Vlad both speak pretty good english and it is fun talking to them because when we are all laughing we all know why.

Other than what I've shared, things have been pretty normal around here.  Normal for Ukraine any how.  Karen Springs from CBN has a film crew here to do some filming of the Joshua house and we were informed that she wants to film Bill and I teaching English.  Boy I hope I don't make any bad mistakes.

Karen is a wonderful lady, and everyone coming here from Grace Place usually gets to know her.  Part of her ministry is a hospitality ministry.  She opens her home up to anyone that is coming to Ukraine to adopt or work with orphans AND she speaks English.  She is from Seattle, and has been in Ukraine for 7 years.  Karen has a huge heart for people.

To end the blog today we are attaching some pictures from our Odessa trip.

God Bless,
Karen