He's set my feet upon the rock....

Every Sunday in church, the words to the songs are put on the screen, so we can follow along. This has been great for me, so I can practice reading Russian at a fast enough pace, and make sure I pronounce letters correctly. I can recognize commonly-used "Christian" words/phrases, and identify adjectives and verbs. Comprehension is another thing, unless I know the song in English (even then, the words aren't always literally translated).

Today the first few songs WEREN'T on the screen, which reminded me of trying to sing along to Hillsong Ukraine CDs in my car when I didn't know the words. I found myself trying to anticipate what would come next--words or particular endings to the words. Then I started trying to read the lips of those on the worship team, and listen to what people were singing around me. It worked....not very well....I was basically mumbling the entire time.

However, later the words were back on the screen, and we sang "Jesus, Lover of My Soul." I was able to read every single word correctly, and didn't get lost in longer words (mostly because they weren't there). I was excited.

When I read in Russian, I have this tendency when I see a long/complicated-looking word for my eyes to jump back and forth within the word. They sort of gravitate toward the part that I think will be hard to say, and I miss the first few letters and/or syllables. In those times, I sound like a kindergartner (that word looks really funny) because I am slowly sounding out the words syllable by syllable. :)

Below are the lyrics in Russian. I would transliterate them for you, but it is late here (11pm) and I am being picked up at 3:45am to go to the airport to visit America. I will be in the US for Christmas (Dec 25) and New Year's, and then back to Ukraine in time for "Christmas-Christmas" on the 7th as Pastor Vova said.

Иисус! Ты любовь моя

Иисус! Не оставлю я Тебя
Из темноты Ты забрал меня,
Дал опору и теперь знаю я.

В тебе я нуждаюсь
Я люблю Тебя! Навеки будь со мной.
Спаситель, мой лучший Друг!
Прославлять Тебя я буду вновь и вновь.

Jesus, Lover of my soul,
Jesus, I will never let you go
You’ve taken me from the miry clay
You've set my feet upon the Rock, and now i know

I love you, I need you,
Though my world may fall, I’ll never let you go
My Saviour, my closest friend,
I will worship you until the very end