Category: Bruce Posts (Page 183 of 211)

Busy, blessed.  A quick note to all my family and friends that are out there, we miss and love you!  Kids are daily running around my office, little Ukrainian girls today were laughing and throwing apples at my window.  They’d come to the door and yell, “brooooooce”… then giggle and run away.   It’s cool to meet new kids every day from the town, they come in waves.  We try to love them, but are strict as well with them.

I’ve been asked to speak at the Rz day next Saturday.  Actually, they want me (and anyone else from texas) to represent our fair state in song (thankfully they didn’t say dance).  I will be working up some sort of country song sample to play for the city, and trying to recruit some vocal talent.. yeee haw!

Property is still in document stage, ask me again in 2 weeks, hopefully it will be completed by then.

Friends from Ireland, via Latvia, are coming to visit us next week.  Their church would like to talk about hosting a children’s camp in the fall (or some sort of outreach).

Deb just found out that her close friends from Texas (Dana and Tracy) are coming July 26th, for a week to visit!  Yeah.. for her.  Bring oreos, doritos, and.. mm.  Steak?

Kids are in full school mode, my wife is cruel, starting their structured semester right in the middle of summer.  It’s been hot, 80-90’s most days.  Beach here is packed full of naked beer bellies and babushka’s in their undies.  We like our little beach.

Deb’s parents are still living in our basement, I think they like it and are getting a little too comfortable.  Actually their house it looking great, probably another month?  Ukraine, that means 3.

Grace and Peace to you all in Christ our Lord, He is a Great God… and happy July 4 all our American friends!

Bruce & Deb

This week Ukraine was hit was a major heat wave, upper 90’s for 3 days straight. Today is back down in the 80s and feels like a dream! Without AC it gets pretty tough. The kids were running around in their undies, we were crowding down in the basement among the in laws and their boxes:) Speaking of Neil & Noline, their house is nearing completion, however will be another month before they can move in. It has been slow going because they added an extension and studio for painting, it will be gorgeous when finished and the extra space will be a blessing to the increasing amount of visitors and groups that will be partnering with us in RZ (construction teams etc.).

I told myself I would keep this short, I’ve got a staff meeting coming up and draft floor plan concepts for the family center waiting to be rendered to scale. Andy & Drew Farrell are in Ukraine now, we will meet up with them next weekend and they will come back to RZ for a 2 day visit before returning to the camp they are serving in. Brent and Tucker will be attending the 2nd week of camp, how cool is that… we’ll have Andy there to watch out for them (or protect the others from them).

Family is doing well, Deb has started a new series of curriculum for the kids. The added schedule for the summer will be nice to keep things from going totally wild around here. We have a permanent fixture of neighborhood kids at our house, they’ve become pretty independent of our own kids. We’ve had several interesting stories with them, from minor theft to abuse of our property, all of which has worked out for God’s glory I think. I’ve had the opportunity to be strict with them, but in love and fairness. When one of them abuses the privilege we are giving them, they all suffer (had to take away the trampoline a few times) and that seems to be working out. Putting healthy group pressure toward honesty and mutual respect.. there’s a few sneaky characters still among them, but for the most part they are really great kids who love to hang out and jump/play and ask for cookies, ice cream, or anything else we offer. Don’t feed the animals! Our little kids ATV we brought over was holding up well until we blew a tire, and a chain last week. It’s in need of some attention right now but it’s too hot.. it’s another attraction that has the kids here in a line up when it’s running. Our most effective and natural influence here, I think, is to these kids, they literally watch in our windows when we sit to eat, interact as a family, we believe some will come to Christ, by God’s grace, and these seeds will be a part of their eternal history.

Thanks for checking in, no news on the property documents yet, keep praying with us for God’s will to be known through all of this and for finances, this is such a big step of faith that for some may look easy, but it’s not!

Bruce & Deb

Today we signed a contract and gave a deposit toward the new property downtown.   In approximately 30 days the official documents should be completed allowing us to fully purchase and own the property.   In the meantime we will begin some initial architectural drawings and more importantly figure out how we will best handle the very wet and sunken ground.  The entire property is too low and collects a lot of run off.  It must be elevated before we can build on it.  I think this fall we will concentrate on deconstruction of the existing building, cleaning up the property and preparing for 2011 main construction.  That will be the plan unless God provides the money to move more quickly this fall before winter sets in.

Here we go, one step at a time:)

Bruce & Deb

Quick note to ask you to pray this week.  We have our friends at Light in the East (Kiev, Andrei Murzin church contacts) ministering all week in the town center.  They have a tent where they are doing morning kids ministry (about 50-75 coming, I’m helping to bus them in), and evening services where people are sharing testimonies.  They also have this painting gallery outside on the main street that takes people through the gospel message.  It’s a very creative and effective method to sharing the historical narrative in a non-confrontational way.  They are telling us that they’ve already had over 15 people pray at the end of it for salvation.  We are organizing ourselves now to always have local believers there for better follow up.  This morning Dan said while he was there, one of the husbands of the medical director for our town went through the exhibit.  The man remembered Dan from the Christmas dinner we hosted together last year.  He asked to pray and receive forgiveness for his sins right there on the spot.

Please pray that there would be fruit this week, ultimately souls saved from their sin and given new life in Christ!

Been thinking this week how wonderful to know that God uses many people in the process of salvation.  Ultimately, it is He that causes the heart to respond to truth.  Thank you God for your pursuit!

“I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth.” – 1 Cor 3:6

Bruce