Category: Bruce Posts (Page 186 of 211)

Am I the only one in disbelief that it’s April already?

This morning Tom and I drove to Kiev to the automarket in search of a second vehicle, in particular one that could help shuttle more people around besides just my family.  There are only a handful of working vehicles at any given time among the church community, and last fall we asked Crossroads (our home church in Texas) to help us raise some funds for this. It’s been two years since we had a second vehicle, we’ve managed fine so far, but with increased activity, incoming groups, family, and church ministry desires which require more transport, it is time we expanded our wheels!

We found a 2006 Toyota HiAce, not a brand found in North America, but one that is very popular over here among the road warriors.  Vehicles are under constant repair here because of the treacherous road conditions, so we wanted something that will endure and I’m a loyal Toyotian.  It only has 80km on it, one owner, seats up to 12.  A very large Ukrainian business firm which took clients to Germany and back frequently.  Thank you Crossroads family, everyone that helped us get this.  It will be a great blessing to our family, and church family as we serve together.. and to you if we need to pick you up at the airport with your 6 suitcases.

We met a very nice guy who represented the company selling it, he offered to help us look into residency actually, something we weren’t expecting.  He has ‘contacts’ in high places who have helped foreigners fast track documents which can take months.  We’ll see what comes of it, he’s supposed to contact us next week with some information.  We’re considering Residency for a few reasons:

1. No more visa/temporary registration every 6 months (costs, time wasted, potential new rules that change)

2. Import my truck at no (or little) cost.  Currently it’s tied to my registration and a royal hassle and additional cost to keep road legal.

3. Travel in/out of country without worry (or starting paperwork over).

4. Can own vehicles and better management of property/ministry assets.

Pray that we make the right decisions with this, it has a few repercussions we’re looking into in terms of US legal status/documents and potentially our children medical/schooling requirements… not sure of the logistics yet.

Trying to plant some grass, we miss having a lawn. Right now our yard is a dirty, weedy, and bumpy mess, with clods of grass here and there.  It’s the one thing Deb and I were amazed at when we returned last fall, particularly in New Orleans, the immaculate, finely kept, soft to the foot lawns.. oh how orderly and pleasant to look at after 2yrs of concrete and dirt!

Calixto, do these instructions look right??  🙂

Pray for the local church here in RZ.  We are slowly but surely putting what we (as elders) believe to be biblical principles of leadership and structure in place, for the benefit/growth of the believers, and glory of God in this town.  The body is still small in number, which can sometimes make changes more difficult.  We need to break out of a small minded mentality, there’s still a present ‘youth group’ feel.  I sometimes feel as though I’m still in high school or college myself as we gather together.  I miss being around older believers, their sobriety and wisdom add so much to the mix of a church body.  The strength and weakness of the church (at least our local gathering) is our ‘youthiness’, pray that we harness the positive idealism and energy, and grow in the weaker areas that keep us from growing numerically and in depth of spiritual commitment.

We love and miss you all!

Bruce & Deb

Can’t remember an Easter weekend where I pondered the significance of the Cross so heavily.  I’m not a builder, the guys here don’t let me swing a hammer, but I know what a plumb line is (although I checked dictionary.com to be sure!).  When you survey the wondrous Cross, like Isaac Watts did when he penned that hymn, you get the sense that the further you survey, the further away the bottom actually is.  Like a plumb line that reaches far into an abyss, it keeps going, and going.

The Atonement, to me, is the richest study we can embark on.  It unpacks in so many different ways.  Even the apostle Paul, guided by the Holy Spirit, seemed to pull from all sorts of human reality to try and convey different aspects.  From reconciliation & redemption (commerce terms), to justification and payment (legal), to salvation and forgiveness, each expressions of this divine act we’ve experienced.   In any case, I’m encouraged to know that no matter where I live, what circumstance I find myself in, I’ve been given this gift, and like the nature of the one that gives it, it’s eternal.  Now that’s encouragement!

‘Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God!
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood. ‘

Some spring cleaning, and great helpers, especially the old guy!

Thanks for checking in,

Bruce & Deb

More specifically, they stopped in for lunch and a tour of our offices at Cypress Interactive / EDsuite.  A group of Ukrainian Mayors were in Texas this week for Economic Development training and networking.  Through a friend that works closely with Ukraine relations in Washington, we were able to host the group for lunch this past Wednesday at our office in Kilgore, Texas.

The Mayor of Kilgore and several other public servants joined the party as we fed them lunch and shared what we do at Cypress.  I was able to Skype in via Video Conference, and share about my family, and what we are doing specifically in RZ along with our friends here.  I encouraged them to contact me when they get back to Ukraine to learn more about how we could potentially work in their town as well, under the umbrella of social services, promoting marriage, family and Christian ethics.  I shared about our desired Family Center project, and that if they had any available land they would like to donate for this purpose, I would be help them connect with like minded Christians, churches and businesses in America.  This touches on more of our long term heart in Ukraine/Russia, to simply connect.  It would to start working in other communities after we have a family center established here.  I have this thought in my head about taking a team of individuals that will help to build, setup, and train Christians in other towns to operate similar facilities.  Working side-by-side with the community, not as a sect under a lampstand, but a bright shining light for the gospel, out in the open, normalizing Christianity.

We’ll see how it goes.  One of the mayors said he’d take me to Bookavil, which is a very pricey ski resort in the Carpathian mountains.  That would be sweet, I’m going to follow up with that man!  The guys at work enjoyed the culture experience, and did me proud.  They said a few of them took my business card, so pray that I get some leads, these are serious inroads into entire communities that would otherwise be very difficult.  Pray for the Mayors, what they experienced and saw during this past week it going to have some serious lasting impressions, and they could all be very good ones, used by the Lord over here.

[Andrew explains to the Ukrainian Mayors how he designs and programs websites, right Andrew? 🙂 ]

[ Our Cypress / EDsuite team with the delegates.  Can you tell who is American or Ukrainian?]

So, praise God the internet worked, we met some potential new contacts over here.  Pray God would lead them to contact us, even if it’s just for a lunch meeting, it’s all about relationships.

Bruce

Yesterday marked a truly blessed day.  I say that with sobriety and joy, not being religious folks.  God blessed the day.  We started with our official meeting with the city council, which is made up primarily of businessmen and government workers that control property in and around RZ.  The Mayor had initially invited us, and we received a call in the morning from the second in command here Nadya confirming our appointment to present our ideas before them.

It did not start out well at all!  First of all, the Mayor and Nadya were not even in RZ!!  The group was assembling and looking at us like we did not belong.  The leader of the group actually started yelling at Svetlana, full volume, it was only the beginning!  They yelled at us, “why are you here?  what do you want!” After 15 minutes of confusion, we finally managed to talk to the group, convince them that we were just wanting 10 minutes to share our vision and heart.  They said we could, but would have to wait until the official proceedings were over.

We sat through 90 minutes of shouting, arguing and everything in between.  Have you ever been in the middle of a very tense situation and just wanted to get out of there?  That was my poor translator Svetlana.. her eyes were as big as saucers and the tension was building every minute.   People were coming in to complain about various regulations, land disputes, corruption, and the object was to simply out yell the other guy.  I was not blessed with a loud voice, so my chances at out-winning an argument Ukrainian style are not good.  After the final person had finished their complaint, we were up.

Laptop and projector prepared and running, we stood up and smiled.  I introduced Deb (how can you be mean around her!) began to share about who we were, the foreigner community in RZ, our collective heart for investing into the community through business, community service, and outreach.  It was cool to have their undivided, quiet (miracle) attention for 15 minutes as we shared about our desire for a Family Center downtown, why it would be a great thing, and what we would do in it.  I showed pictures of Bridge 281 in Texas, a similar style cafe we would want to build and it made an impact.  I was about 2-3 slides away from the end and the group started talking to one another.  At first I was a bit frustrated, they were ignoring me!  But then realized they were talking about land, and ways to help us!

I could barely finish the presentation, God had worked, softened hearts.  Even the main guy who was the loudest of them all was asking ‘how much land would you need’, and, ‘what do you think about the park area’.. we had questions like, “would you make the property nice, maybe a park for kids?”.  Another lady said, “they need to be downtown, that is where the young people are.”  It was amazing guys.  I rejoice in God for the way He showed up.  We came their immediate enemy, but left feeling they were not opposed to us and wanted to get on-board.  The next step is that they are meeting with the mayor and will make some recommendations for possible land purchase that the city owns.

A few reasons this was such a huge deal for us-

– This is a group we will not avoid, they approve/stop all activity downtown.  They now know our hearts, even if we don’t go with a property they suggest, they know our vision and we answered their questions.

– More relationships, we aren’t here ‘just’ to do stuff, but build relationships that will produce fruit for the Kingdom.

– We saw God work for us, I did not avoid the topic of Christianity and our faith. We read scripture to them and they know that as westerners, our faith is an important part of our motivation for this project.  They asked me specifically if I was ‘with’ a religious organization, it was cool to be able to answer honestly, ‘no, I’m a business owner from Texas’.  This is a huge step I believe in normalizing Christianity, we are real people, we want to help spread hope and love to a culture that needs God.

It was a great day.  It ended as great as it started.  We finished at our house with ‘Men’s Night’, we do this every other week and have had a pretty good cross section of guys showing up.  We play ping pong, some games, and someone gives a devotion or we watch a movie.  Last night my basement was PACKED!  We had 25 guys, at least 8 unbelievers, young students and they heard the gospel message.  My father in law Neil shared his testimony, and he had them glued for 30 minutes.  They heard about how he lived a life of no purpose, drugs, loneliness etc.. and how God found Him and saved him.  God is so good, I praise Him for pouring out His love on us, and hope just when we are about to give up.

[Neil sharing with Dan translating to 25 guys in our basement]

Keep praying, God is at work, and we are excited for the next steps downtown, and as He continues to draw young men to Himself!

Bruce & Deb