Category: Bruce Posts (Page 174 of 211)

This morning we met with the regional ‘food inspector’ for all cafe’s and restaurants in the region. He was in town and had heard of our plans. He wanted to meet with us to review the requirements. We had heard from several people that this might prove to the most difficult of the steps in operating a functional cafe in Ukraine. He proved to be (at least so far) a very reasonable and professional man, and gave us some money and time saving advice as well as general good-will regarding our efforts.

Praise God for a good first step, and we’re moving forward tomorrow with the destruction of some interior walls and first floor renovations!

Some of the more interesting requirements include:

– separate rooms for preparation of various menu items (meat in one room, veggies in another etc). This must be why 90% of the restaurants in Kiev all have such limited variety and so few foreign restaurants are here.

– They inspect the cafe every three months, and test the water, kitchen cleanliness and tables / chairs for usage of proper disinfectant. They do not care about bathrooms (because hardly any cafe’s have them, they are a luxury, seriously!)

– We shouldn’t call it a cafe, as it then requires more documents. If you say it’s a restaurant, it’s even worse! So, we may just go with ‘mayak’ or ‘lighthouse’..

I really look forward to seeing the kitchen worked on, and the main area completed, it will be a blast to host these same inspectors, police, and other public servants and bless them with some good food and build relationships with them.

Bruce

Thank you Crossroads youth for the package you sent!  We received a warm blanket (see pose below!) and a stack of personalized prayer cards.   It was VERY special to get that package and to know we have been prayed for by all you guys!  Thank you from all of us!

Thank you Crossroads youth for your love, prayers, and this blanket!

It’s been pretty chilly the past few weeks. We decided it was time to break out the skates and finally get on the river. Below are some shots from this weekend, it’s a pretty big river, it would take me probably 10 minutes to skate across it (if I were in shape).

We even had Clark and Noah lace them up.  Noah didn’t last long, he decided to lay down and eat the snow, face first.  It takes about 30 minutes to tie everyone’s skates, by the time I got mine on, the little ones were frozen:)  It was fun to get some exercise and be among some Ukrainians in their element.  After about 10 minutes more people joined us, then the next day we went out, and 3-4 people were there already, in our spot… let’s go Rz!  Their skates were from the 50’s, literally they are the kind of skates my dad had, but they work:)

Ladies had their Asian outreach (asian theme, no asians in RZ), they had about 25-30 total there, and a handful of visitors that seemed to really enjoy the fun.  Shane did a faux-cooking show, with live video and everything.  It was a lot of work, and the ladies really pulled it off.  Now to pray for those seeds that were planted to grow!

Bron (she's getting so tall!), Brent and Tucker pose while Broderic takes the pic. Noah and Clark in the truck getting warm:)

Ice fisherman ministry.. actually they were too far out there and I got nervous, hey I weigh a lot!

Spent this afternoon with a neat couple.  Misha (below) is a man who has experienced the life changing power of God’s forgiveness.  He’s a new creation.  He served two 10yr sentences behind bars in the rough, barbaric confines of the Ukrainian prison system.  In there, God’s Word found him, then a series of events that brought him to a place of repentance.  5yrs ago he was released, God blessed him with a wonderful wife, and a new start.  They attend church in Kharg with our friends 20 minutes away.

Misha spent 20yrs in prison & now reaches prisoners for Christ

He made a promise to God and himself that when he got out, he would go back and reach the men left inside prison.  God has opened doors for him to get inside secure facilities and share his testimony, share supplies like bread and spiritual resources like the bible.  I was very encouraged to sit and hear how God has changed this man, and his sincere desire to reach the forgotten in society.

We are praying how to best serve this man.  He wants to go monthly, the prison is 150km away, and he doesn’t have a car so he takes public transportation.  They barely get by as a couple, making less than 2000hrv per month ($250/mo), but they still manage to save up and go, taking whatever they can every couple of months.  If God puts Misha on your heart, like he has mine, would you consider a donation to help him take his testimony of God’s grace into these prisons?   Basically $30 covers the transportation for a day visit, and anything beyond that allows the purchase of food, blankets, and other basic necessities that many of the prisoners do not receive.

I, along with a few guys from RZ will be going with him to see first hand the conditions of both the facility he visits, and the hearts that are supposedly hungry for God.  3-4 new believers have been baptized recently, and when Misha shows up, many show up to hear him, he’s sort of a celebrity there having spent so much time, and then turning around and coming back!   We are going to support in prayer, and asking God for wisdom with how to bless financially to enable this wonderful ministry of God’s grace.  This Sunday we’ve asked him to come and share his testimony to the church, so more of the body here can catch a heart for this type of ministry.  Over 1500 inmates are at this particular prison.

Deb's feet, it was hurting for a few weeks so we went to get an x-ray. The doctor said she has flat feet. Um, ok.

We are still praying and planning as best we can for a spring and summer construction trip.  No dates have been set yet, but we’ve been talking to Crossroads and Times Square Church.  We’re leaving the timing and the ‘needs’ for renovating in God’s hands.  Svetlana continues to work almost daily on remaining tax, employee regulations, she even has to attend a course on electricity as every business registered like this must have an approved electrical person, don’t get me started on the red tape!!

The Gollans return next week, everyone is excited to see them again.   It’s been 3 months, and the church is still here, praise God! 🙂  Tonight we meet as a newly forming leadership team, a mix of some foreigners and ukrainians who are actively leading in some form of ministry.  It’s been a long time coming, believe me, but I’ve felt God wanting to develop a unity first among the many foreigners, before we could ‘add on’ the crucial pieces of ukrainian leadership.. needing to be in unity first among missionaries so that we are all pulling in the same direction once we form more long term leadership.  Anyway, I praise God for the unity that is here recently, everyone seems to be desiring the same thing, God to be glorified in the community, in the church… and there’s been increased prayer over the last few weeks, these are healthy signs I believe.  I wish we could just press fast forward on so many ‘developing’ things, would that be nice?  I don’t think we would learn as much though, and appreciate the end result of patiently working together and trusting God in the little things.

We have several conferences coming up you can pray for that we’re going to.  Pray for the 26th, a group is going to a kids event in Kiev, and another group to a discipleship conference.  We are taking a couple car loads of folks 3hrs away to our friends in Chernigiv on March 5-6, to a conference on “Loving God’, I’m hoping to take a few college students that are still on the fence, and that this weekend God could work on them even more.

We have a cafe night the last Sunday of this month, pray for that as well please.

All for now, thanks for checking in!

PS – kids are doing well, everyone is healthy, Deb is as beautiful as ever (and busy too!)

Bruce & Deb

Kids Under 10 @ Church

This past week we’ve been elevating prayer and the role of the Holy Spirit in the church. I’ve been sharing on Acts 1:8, the fulfillment of prophecy with the baptism of the Spirit, God’s plan to abide in, and empower His people, for His purpose. The work and purpose of the Holy Spirit has been, for me,

one of the most wildly misunderstood themes in my Christian experience. Scripture is packed full of very clear and encouraging versus that deal with this topic, and yet it seems that certain denominations and movements have

‘hi-jacked’ this crucial theme for their own experiences, resulting in unfortunate division (even in our little town). I’ve enjoyed studying and laying some basic foundations from scripture for our young church, we’re not denominational, we’re a mixed bag of doctrinal background, but we all love the Lord. God help us to live the abundant life Christ died to give us here on earth, nothing more, nothing less!

We’re in our second week of prayer emphasis, we had 11 guys come at 6:30am for prayer, most walking a decent distance, in freezing temps. It was surprising to see that many guys come, and very encouraging. A few of the students may not be Christians, we are still building relationships with some of them, pray for them with us!

We Need That Pizza Oven!

On Wed night we started as a church an outreach type home group for students from the cafe nights. It’s held at Shane & Jemimah’s and they had 6-7 come and we hope for a few more this Wed. It’s a more intimate alternative (and warm!) than the cafe nights which currently are on hold during these temperatures.

Kids are in full home school swing, we’re trying to get used to a new schedule. Jemimah (Shane’s wife, Dan’s sister) is helping twice per week with Brent and Tucker, which is a huge blessing to our family. Deb has wanted to spend more time with Broderic and Brownyn. Neil and Noline are also taking the kids a few times per week, down at their house for Math and Art lessons. Noah and Clark aren’t in school yet, we’re trying to get them into the half day school program here, but they don’t have the vaccines required, so we’re looking into that. They will be challenged to be understood and have the teachers understand them, but everything we’ve heard is that the young kids pick it up so quickly.

Ukrainians will fish anytime, anywhere!

It will also be Ukrainian and not Russian, so that is a bit of a twist as we’re all learning Russian.

Thanks for checking in!
Bruce