Category: Bruce Posts (Page 149 of 211)

Reminded this week of the importance of prayer.  Here are a few verses that have stoked the flame of prayer, along with some provoking commentary on each verse.

Eph 6:18 “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints”

Prayer crowns all lawful efforts with success and gives a victory when nothing else would. No matter how complete the armor; no matter how skilled we may be in the science of war; no matter how courageous we may be, we may be certain that without prayer we shall be defeated. God alone can give the victory; and when the Christian soldier goes forth armed completely for the spiritual conflict, if he looks to God by prayer, he may be sure of a triumph.

Matt 6:6 ‘But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.’

We all make excuses that this place is difficult to find, but “the desire to pray, and the love of prayer, will create such places in abundance.  The Saviour had all the difficulties which we can have, but yet he lived in the practice of secret prayer.  To be alone, he rose up “a great while before day,” and went into a solitary place and prayed.  With him a grove, a mountain, a garden, furnished such a place, and, though a traveler, and among strangers, and without a house, he lived in the habit of secret prayer.

What excuse can they have for not praying who have a home, and who spend the precious hours of the morning in sleep, and who will practice no self-denial that they may be alone with God? O Christian! thy Saviour would have broken in upon these hours, and would have trod his solitary way to the mountain or the grove that he might pray.

Matt 6:8 ‘for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.’

Prayer is not designed to inform God, but to give man a sight of his misery; to humble his heart, to excite his desire, to inflame his faith, to animate his hope, to raise his soul from earth to heaven, and to put him in mind that There is his Father, his country, and inheritance.

May God excite your heart to pray.  Pray often, pray with thanksgiving.  The Father wants to abide in us, commune and share His heart, but we must come.

“He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on.  There is no other.” – CS Lewis

Bruce & Deborah Crowe
Missionaries | Rzhyshchiv, Ukraine

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  John 3:16

This morning I listened to a classic sermon from the late Paris Reidhead, “Not to be Wasted.”  In it, he takes this most famous verse and focuses on the second part, “should not perish.”

We often think of eternal punishment (or hell) when we think of what Jesus Christ saved us from.  However, Paris expounds on a more full explanation.  He’s not only saved us from eternal separation from God, but a meaningless or wasted life this side of eternity.

I needed to hear it.  I woke up actually thinking about the message, which I first listened to probably 15yrs ago on a cassette tape (remember those?!).  I was reminded again of my first calling to know and be found in Jesus Christ.  To get away with Him daily, to be filled continually and embrace all that He has supplied through the Son.  It’s not all about our actions, or our words, but who we are.  Only Jesus Himself can help us change, and that’s His plan for all of us.

If you are discouraged or your heart is wrestling with purpose, take 45 minutes and let this message encourage you.  Paris is my all time favorite speaker.  As a former missionary with SIM (Sudan Interior Mission), teacher, writer and businessman, I love his style, his passion and humility.  If you like it, check out his other message “Ten Shekels and a Shirt,” I think it’s more relevant now than it was 50yrs ago.

http://www.sermonaudio.com/playpopup.asp?SID=7130774425 (This message is from 1960’s).

It’s very rare we go to Kiev anymore.  We avoid it like the plague.  With our new grocery store ‘on this side’ of the monstrous mess, we only have to venture in for medical, government stamps, and airport runs.

With the weather a balmy 75% this weekend, we all piled into the truck (minus Bronwyn who elected a day of silence) and did our best to enjoy a family Saturday in the city.  You now what?  It was a lot of fun!  We village dwellers need to get out more 🙂

Mudboys midflight in our backyard

I had to drop off our sound system for repair, it’s conveniently located by one of the coveted Domino’s Pizza locations.  They’ve been in Kiev for a couple of years now, and the pizza really does taste like the real stuff.  We grabbed 4 large pizzas, spread out a blanket in the nearby park and had a really nice time.  The kids learned that pigeons eat pizza too.

A few months ago, during the many visits to Kiev for baby Abigail, I noticed deep within a forest, what looked like a go-kart track.  The first few times passing bye I thought I was seeing things.  Amusement parks in Ukraine, I don’t think so.  I had determined to find it again, and seek out the truth.

We eventually found the track, but it was impossible to locate the parking lot.  We drove up and down the highway, searching for a way to the promised land.  This is typical Ukraine, no signs.  I still find it hard to believe how many businesses exist here without any form of advertising.. in fact most exist doing the EXACT OPPOSITE, attempting to drive you away through attrition and terrible service.  It’s slowly changing, slowly.

We entered the park area by foot and realized there was more than just a track.  It looked like something out of 1950 USSR.  In fact, the rides did predate Ukraine’s independence.  The roller coaster here pictured was $2 per kid, and ran for at least 5 minutes, the kids loved it and the poor guy running it looked like he could use some company too.

They had a few other rides that we decided might not survive the winter so we passed.   They even had some rental paddle boats for their little pond.. but we have to spread out our fun, maybe next time.

It’s been raining for the past 2 days, and temps have dropped enough to strike a dread in me for the coming winter that looms.  We love the winter, we just find it hard to keep our house warm, it’s a lot of work.  Today our electricity went out for 8hrs, I kept thinking.. I’m glad it’s not February!

This morning Deb, Abbey and I went to visit Babushka Vera.  We brought along our friends Sergei, Tom & Lena and their two kids.  We sang some songs for her, and visited for about an hour.  She’s a sweet lady, reads her enlarged font bible every day, and doesn’t think she has much longer to live.

Her knees are going, causing great pain and she tells that at night she cries in bed from the pain.  We prayed for her, we offered to get more meds or take her to the doctors (several times), but her response is basically, ‘What are they going to tell me, I’m old?”  She has no family around, only a grandson 5hrs north who should be coming soon to take her for the winter.  Her house wouldn’t stay warm enough, I think she fears this might be her last moments in her house she’s lived in for 80 yrs.

We have Cassie here with us for two weeks.  She’s hopped into the kitchen just like a pro and doing dishes!  The kids love her and recognize her special part in our family.  Bronwyn especially loves having her, the ‘older sister’ she never had.

Thanks for checking in.  We have lots going on this fall and look forward to sharing more.  Tomorrow I’m off to the Cafe to see the Phone and Internet physically installed/setup.. the trenches are dug and we’ve finished up the remaining paperwork (there was a lot!).

шаг за шагом – a saying here, when you are working through many projects and challenges.. it means, ‘step by step.’

Bruce & Deb

Phone Line & Internet Installation at Cafe

This week we finalized an agreement with the telephone/internet company for the Cafe.    You can see here the trench dug which goes under the main street in our town.  It is a big deal here to get a new line and port for Internet, they are very limited.  We’re thankful not just for the line, but that it cost $400 instead of their original ‘offer’ of $1,500.  Plus we got TWO lines, which will be great for WiFi and business use upstairs.

We’re still on hold with opening the Cafe, needing funds for chairs, tables and kitchen supplies.  Once we get about $2-3k the plan is to buy some nice wood and make our own tables/benches I think.   We continue to pray and ask God to provide, He knows our needs.  In the meantime we have a few events lined up this fall in the Cafe, including Deb leading a wives meeting every month, and the monthly men’s breakfast.  We can’t wait to get that pizza oven going though!

It’s been exceedingly hot this week, temps reaching 100F.  The weather has cooled a bit today, so refreshing.  Clark and Noah retreating to their pool, found these $10 tubs the other day.. Deb and I were wishing they made them a bit bigger for us!

Preparing for Cement Slab - Sport Court!

We are progressing nicely outside with our cement slab.  We’re calling it our basketball court, the kids in the neighborhood are seeing it come together.  When it’s finished, it will most undoubtedly be the main attraction in our neighborhood (and maybe even town).  It’s amazing to me that a town of 10k doesn’t have a single flat, paved or concrete area for tennis, basketball, roller blading, road hockey etc..  With 5 boys, and living on a hill, we had to something about that.  So we pulled out the vineyard that was producing nothing but wine making grapes that rotted on the vine, and leveled out an area with a tractor, and voila.. the beginnings of our backyard dream!

I didn’t realize however that digging out that much dirt would cause another significant project to surface.. the need for a big retaining wall! We’ve done a lot of the work ourselves, digging foundation, pouring cement with mobile mixers, wheelbarrows and sweat.  Alyosha has been researching with me online the best way to do each step, we argue and eventually meet in between western and Ukrainian standards:)  We’ll hopefully have it poured and ready by September..  I want to install some outdoor lights and get all of us away from the glow of the computer or DS screen, and expending energy outside.  We’ll have roller hockey, basketball, volleyball, and when it freezes, an ice rink.  Go Canada!   I suspect the trampoline kids will be migrating over to it as well, it’s going to be a magnet for kids of all ages – we’re excited to see how God will use this thing!

This week the church is serving together to host a VBS downtown.  They have 50 kids daily.  It’s been really great to see our own older kids down there serving, and younger ones coming home with excited faces and hearts.

We’re continuing to pray and asking around about school options for the younger ones this fall.  Please pray with us that God would place them exactly where He would desire, and give us the wisdom to navigate.  Also pray that Russian / Ukrainian language classes would be established soon, we have some teachers considering it from Kiev but it’s a big step for them to come so far out into a ‘village’..

My residence application is now at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  We aren’t sure (and they won’t tell us) if we need more documents, or how long we will wait.  In the meantime I had to take my truck out of country last week for a new stamp, that was interesting, and I came back with a lighter wallet but that’s for another time.   It would be so cool to get this residence.. currently I have no way to prove I’m legal, and can’t leave the country and return or will face difficulty.. sort of in limbo on that front.

Thanks for checking in –

Bruce & Deb