Category: Bruce Posts (Page 121 of 211)

Tonight we hosted 20 invited guests to help us choose our Coffee blend.  We’re going to try to open in the next couple of weeks.  We still don’t have gas, so we’ll have to open without pizza.

The guests were a mix of neighbors, business owners in town, and some friends of Dema’s.  It’s such a cool and unique place for our town.  Here are a few shots from our evening.

Shared last night with a team of Youth Leaders in Kiev with a ministry called, “Hope for Orphans.”  The group consists of about 20 from a few different churches that are organizing 4 week-long kids and teen camps around Ukraine.  It was a refreshing time of laughter, worship and study around God’s life giving Word.

Interestingly, their new headquarters is literally 2 minutes from the church we are attending in Kiev.  On weekends the house is full of orphans, and during the week is used for ministry training/planning and our family can use if we want to stay in Kiev.  I’m becoming friends with the leader, this is the same ministry that has purchased 20 Hectares 5 minutes from our home in Rzhyschiv for a Christian camp.

They’ve invited our family to join them first of June to Western Ukraine to visit another ministry they have with Gypsies.  We’ve been praying for more doors, and more language immersion… nothing like a road trip!

Sviatik is Brent and Tuckers friend who lives next door, when he’s not at our house.  His father is well known (in Ukraine) artist/painter.  It’s amazing to see how naturally gifted Sviatik is when they all sit down to draw.

The other day the kids were into paints, and within an hour or so, Sviatik had created this little piece on his arm –  I want to start a creative ministry on the 2nd floor of the Cafe.  These young minds could use their gifts for God – this guy needs to be a make-up artist!

Really been enjoying the Spring weather – although allergies are a killer.  The wide open fields, rich deep browns contrasting with the bright blue skies – what a difference from the gray winter blues.  When I drive in the country here, I think of my Dad, who’s probably in a tractor himself spring planting.

We have finally the list of shoes and clothes sizes for the kids and are told by the Bank the $ will be arriving (from donations last week) on Monday.  We had supplied some initial funds to help the kids but now will be going to an area market this coming week to complete the purchases and deliver them.  Thank you again everyone that helped us raise over $2,000!  The school is asking for help as the don’t have enough money to complete the renovations.  We are going to use a portion of the left over funds raised to purchase some of the electrical needs so they can get at least get power functioning.

Tucker my 12yr old is a gifted young programmer.  He’s been training on this MIT program for kids called,  “Scratch.”  It uses modular programming logic and pre-coded pieces (think legos) to assemble code.  He comes up with the coolest little games.  I know he’s a programmer because I employ several of them – they are a peculiar breed.   Like some of the hard core programmers I know, Tucker has very little concern for asthetics, he just thinks logic and function – here’s an example of a  little hockey game he whipped together in a few hrs… terrible graphic he just grabbed from the web, but it works!

Big storm knocked out power on our street for the day.  The wire was hanging dangerously low so my neighbor threw a warning branch on the street – This is for my Uncle Blaine, who’s a retired Electric Company engineer.  He was horrified by the lack of safety measures here – but as you can see, this branch kept everyone safe for the 12hrs it sat there.  🙂

On behalf of the children and staff of the government run foster/orphanage, thank you for your generosity!  It was amazing today to supply a timely sum of cash in a moment of need – the director of the orphanage was in a panic as the government had failed to provide funds promised in time for the holiday weekend –

The rest of the money will go towards clothing (letting the kids pick some out), and building materials as the reconstruction beings.

Besides running around trying to help organize some things with the school and kids, we’ve had an eventful week at the Cafe.  Our fire alarm system is installed, and tomorrow we sign the final papers and receive our coveted stamp.

The gas company continues to fail us.  This week was another promised deadline, but has come and gone without a viable explanation.  Sometimes I wonder if there is actually a gas company.. or just some buildings with bodies in them.  Yet, we preparing to open anyway and planning a coffee night, by invitation only to folks in the town, neighbors, students, friends – we are testing some roasts and choosing which brands by democratic vote!

Tomorrow is Victory Day in Ukraine.  It’s ironic that Ukraine is planning a celebration of the fallen Soviet Hero’s (of which Ukraine lost the most), during a time when Russia is threatening along it’s borders, and inciting within.  Tonight we received two alerts from the US government to avoid public parades and basically stay in doors because of possible pro-russian provocation.

All eyes are on the presidential elections on of this month.  Nobody is certain that these elections will take place with the existing tension or without more bloodshed.  The only difference we notice in our area is when you travel into Kiev – there are more police and occasionally highways reduced to one lane at checkpoints.   They seem to be looking for larger caravans of ‘things’ , and I found several gas/propane/chemical type transports pulled over and discussing with police.

Anyway, thankful to be here at this time.  The fire has incited some new relationship building, and allowed for some open doors.  Today Dema, Kolya and I went and visited some of the older teens at the orphanage in Burty.  They ended up being really sweet kids once we started chatting and messing around.  Many of them grew up in the Kuzmenci orphanage and know some Christian friends of ours that used to visit regular and teach bible lessons, do crafts before our kids started attending that school.  It’s neat to know there are some gospel seeds sown in their hearts and perhaps by the grace of God, all they need is some watering to produce growth for the Kingdom.   We plan to come back next week for a game of soccer and maybe teach them baseball (none of them have ever caught with a glove).

Pray for us in the coming weeks as we go out there, and visit both sets of kids.  We’d like to invite some Ukrainians with a heart to build relationships with these older ones.  In a year or two, most of them will be totally on their own, with very few places to go.  We’d love for them to feel like the Cafe a place to be, be loved and grow in a relationship with God.

This weekend we will be staying overnight in Kiev with a family from the church.  They are a neat Ukranian family that speak Russian – we’ve prayed for more Russian immersion, and God gave us Ukrainians with a house big enough for our entire crew!  We’ll also be eating a lot:)

Bruce & Deborah Crowe Missionaries | Ukraine

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