Category: Bruce Posts (Page 176 of 211)

The past week has been so relaxing and enjoyable I’ve tried to stay off the computer as much as possible.  I need to update everyone on the outreach, and thank everyone that participated in prayer and financial support.  It was a frantic final few days with everyone pulling together for the evening.   We made the costumes from scratch, ladies from church spent many evenings sewing away!  We made the desserts, decorations (well, we bought some decorations and assembled them), stage props, Neil even painted huge backdrops of Jerusalem, the manager scenes etc.

In the end, we had over 100 guest show up, literally a perfect amount of people squeezed in to the old cold (but not too cold!) building.  We had heaters purchased (in exchange for rental of the building next year) that worked well enough for folks not to be uncomfortably cold.  We replaced light bulbs on stage that were probably out for a decade it looked like, the biggest bulbs I’ve ever seen, and they worked!   The electricity held up and we had a wonderful evening.  I believe God was pleased with our efforts, we’re reaching out, building relationships and sharing about our faith in God.  The Christmas ‘message’ is really the message of the gospel, God’s rescue plan for lost sinners like us.  Neil shared at the end of the message and emphasized a personal relationship with this God who has become flesh.  We had Micah from Kharg and my neighbor Vica play some Christmas music, and everyone served the crowd with coffee and desserts.

The students are back home on break, but church was still nice and full this past Sunday.  We are going to have some space challenges soon, if we continue to meet up at Dan’s.  We will be starting home groups in Jan, and I will be leading a new believers type class, using the book of John.  Pray that we continue to see God drawing young people, and that we have listening hearts to how best to ‘keep it real.’  I have a concern that what has worked in the past (eg. cafe nights) gets driven into the ground.  We need to be agile in our obedience, unconventional if necessary, and avoid becoming a predictable religious group doing ‘things’.  We desire to see Jesus Christ revolutionize hearts, not for a church program, but for His Kingdom.  Lord keep us from becoming impressed with ourselves, or satisfied with seemingly small victories.

This week we are trying to get heat working in the Cafe building.  The kotyols (we have two old Ukrainian hot water heaters) aren’t working, one is actually dead and needs serious repair or replacement.  We also found some of the water wasn’t fully drained out of the house pipes, and some radiators burst.  We do have electricity working, just not heat making it a huge freezer, you can last about 10 minutes inside before your face loses feeling:)

Wrapping up end of year business with Cypress & EDsuite.  God has been so gracious the past few months, lining up some really great work, and building more unity among the guys.  We have a series of changes coming up in the company in order to prepare and handle potential growth we are anticipating.  The acquisition of another company this fall was a big undertaking, and is already starting to produce fruit we were hoping for.  I’m praying about possibly going back in Jan to work with the guys on some strategy and planning.  I don’t want to go personally, but it may be necessary.  Pray for me in this if you would, I want to trust God but I also realize sometimes trusting Him means pressing and working hard.

Deb and I are enjoying one another, refreshed in our marriage over the past few weeks.  We are spending more time in prayer together, and believe God is strengthening our marriage.  I have mentioned before how the previous year was probably the most difficult for us, all the challenges we were facing took their toll on our marriage.  God has revealed areas of hardness in both of us, and by His Spirit opened our eyes to areas we each have been lacking in focus.  Many of our friends and church in Texas have prayed for us, and our family. I want to thank you seriously, we have felt the support and believe your prayers have had an absolute effect in keeping this most important building block strong.  Praise God for that too!

In the next few weeks I’ll be posting some construction trip dates, you can pray about coming!  You can also pray about helping support financially the cafe building construction, we are going to need the body of Christ see this through together!

Thanks,

Bruce & Deb

It’s done. You have no idea how long I’ve waited to type that sentence:) The cafe property has been purchased, documents are completed and keys in hand!

Svetlana worked very hard all last week preparing the documents. It ended up being 6 separate purchases, 2 buildings and 4 pieces of land, a lot of extra paperwork for anyone that has ever tried to purchase in Ukraine. We are so thankful this was completed before the end of the year, and can now rest a bit before jumping into the project.

This week the entire church has been busy preparing for the upcoming Christmas Play we are putting on for the town this Sunday.  We have 20 cast members, lights, stage help, sound, and a fearless director in my father-in-law Neil.  It has been slowly coming together, we have a full practice again tomorrow night.  I’ve been in charge of the other aspects of the evening like making sure people come and trying to heat this silly building!  It’s currently about -12 C / 13F, and whatever the temp is outside, that is what it is inside this theater…

We plan to use a new heater that we helped the city purchase (in exchange for a year of rental of buildings downtown for outreach or church).  Together with that special heater, and a few of our own, we’re praying we can get the temp to a bearable state.  If not, we’ll rip up some of the old wood floor and set it on fire, it will be romantic!

*Deb and Mom snuggle during play practice.

Must go, praising God for new building, and aiming prayers toward spring/summer groups to come and help us renovate and provision for all the materials.  God’s got us this far!

Bruce & Deb

“Ukraine was caught between Stalin and Hitler, between planned famines and outright slaughter, to be relieved only by the grinding misery of post-Stalin communism.”

– George Friedman

As foreigners, we’re in a constant state of learning.  Culture is an amazing dynamic isn’t it?  The longer we are in Ukraine the greater the appreciation we have for the freedoms back west.  Totalitarian dictators, devastating wars, and a history of abusive power has seem to all but sniff out the hope of a thriving middle class here in our new world.  This is the first thing that strikes me when I re-visit back to North America; the strength and dominion of the middle class.  A country that lacks it like Ukraine, suffers from the two extremes, very rich, and very poor (and the rich like it that way!).

This is a very well written (in my opinion) article on Ukraine’s past, and current state of affairs.  If you are interested, take a read!

http://www.kyivpost.com/news/opinion/op_ed/detail/91967/

I find the history of Ukraine fascinating because it not only provides a contextual backdrop for the ‘why’ things are here, but it gives hope.  Hope that the reality of God’s love through the coming of His Son is VERY good news to the oppressed, and needy.  The eternal perspective of everlasting life, of the destruction of sin being ultimately destroyed, and justice winning in the end, is a new kind of story here, and one I long to share and live effectively.

I also really enjoyed this speech, it’s on the current state of the European Union, and the freedoms being potentially denied as it struggles to continue it’s authority.  When you hear someone speak like this, doesn’t it inspire you?

Bruce & Deb

Had our first Christmas Play practice last night, the thermometer read 0C on stage!). Here’s a picture of Neil casting the play, and directing everyone. About 6 students came from the cafe nights to be in the play. We have Mary and Joesph both being played by two of the students, integrating them in the center of the play!

Things we could use prayer for with the outreach:
– community support (they’d come!)
– electricity to work
– somehow we could heat up this building
– electricity to work (yes, pray twice!)
– God’s Spirit to move upon hearts on Dec 19.

Property Update!
The money has successfully arrived in Ukraine, and we are paying for the tax portion this week in preparation for the Thursday signing. We’ve blogged about this before, but the whole process of signing is like this native cultural dance. They don’t have ‘title companies’ or those arbitrating services that manage the step between signing and handing over the money… so it’s this whole negotiating process of “we want the money first”.. “no, we’d like to sign first’… This is what we are doing now, they literally want us to drive the sellers to Kiev, to help them deposit the money, with the local notary as a witness. Everyone here is rightly nervous about any sort of transaction involving strangers, corruption is so normative.

Anyway, we’re trying to be open to how they want to do it, at the same time not wanting to put ourselves in an impossible situation if the sellers turn at the last minute. God help us to be gracious, and watch over the process!

Bruce & Deb

Neil Directs Students