Category: Bruce Posts (Page 187 of 211)

Pray for us!  We have a couple important events happening this week.

 #1 – Meeting with the Mayor and the City Council tomorrow (Tuesday) at 1:30pm.  I’m presenting the business plan for a new ministry center.  It will be a private business, operating as a cafe, with several offices and a larger room for events.   We don’t want it to be viewed as a specifically ‘religious’ building, but have Christians from the community work and serve in it, as well as host special events during the year that will promote Christian values and the gospel.  I have a powerpoint ready and translated, how we have churches and businesses ready to help donate and make this possible, as well as construction teams joining in on the building of it.  Essentially I want the town officials to see the motivations involved, to give and invest into the future of this community.  These authorities can’t always help you necessarily pro-actively, but they can stop you.. we want them to ‘not stop us’ and have their friendship on our side.  The Mayor has communicated that they have worked on some options for us to consider, I have no idea what they look like or entail, but I pray God opens the doors and guides us through this process.   The fact that I have the opportunity right now to share my/our heart before this group is exciting to me.  I’m nervous, God give me the words and attitude to represent the Kingdom of God, it’s an entirely different worldview that they are accustomed to.

#2 – Wednesday Video Conference with 4 Ukrainian Mayors and some other government officials. They will be at my office in Kilgore, Texas during a week of economic development training.  This group can’t speak english, we’ll be doing everything through a translator.  My business is buying their lunch, and they are touring the industrial park where we are located in Texas.  Pray that we make some friends there too, if we ever work in other communities, relationships like this are key.  One of the Mayors is my age, and been a mayor for over 10yrs of a town south of us.  I want to get to know him and this will be a great start!  Pray for internet to work here, electricity, and all those things we take for granted.  Two days in a row the electricity here has gone off.

#3 – Registration – Svetlana and I have been working through the courts, paying fines and trying to get registered before the end of this month.  We were penalized for not ‘re-registering’ once we left and came back after our last Texas trip.  Our original registration was still good so we didn’t think anything of it, however they have a new electronic monitoring system when they scan your passports now, which calculates how many days you are ‘unregistered’ inside Ukraine.  Once you leave, your registration if canceled.  Anyway, we broke the law, paid fines, and now have a week to get registered properly again, and our vehicle as well.  Pray the famous lady from Kiev Ovir shows grace, according to Svetlana she is extremely anti-foreigner (especially american) and feels we just come in and take jobs (what jobs?) and advantage of the Ukrainian people, live in nice houses etc.. She looks for any and all ways to ‘not’ let you stay legally.  I would love to take her back to Texas and show her our life we left, our friends, church family, house, cars, offices, and then ask her, “really?  we really left all this to come here and take advantage of you?”

On a lighter note – The many faces of Clark Neil Crowe, age 4, click to enlarge.

This is a picture from today.  The tractor delivering sand (to mix with rock and make concrete) was stuck in the snow.  Neil, together with a few other guys were digging it out.  I thought of the irony, from Broadway to RZ Ukraine, shoveling a tractor out of the snow:)

Work has begun on their house this week, pouring the basement floor in preparation for their container.  How the container will actually get down to their house, will be interesting!  The other house we built for the notary is complete, except for some bathroom and kitchen tiling which was added as extra.  It will be wonderful to have only one house project going.

We just found out that the registration rules for staying here have changed once again.  I have permission to stay basically 6 months at a time.  However, because I exited the country last October, they are penalizing me and now I have to go to court and pay a fine.  At that point, I will then have to get 6 month permission again BUT not allowed to leave the country or I will again be required to repeat the whole procedure.  This may not sound like a big deal, but I ask you to pray for us.  Our vehicle, possessions, and family are all tied to these registrations and it could really cause problems if this isn’t figured out.  They are changing rules every time we go to renew our stay, making it harder.

I share this Sunday at the “All Church” meeting.  The topic is the resurrection and I pray God is glorified and the people encouraged!

Bruce & Deb

Deb and I at the market this morning, for those of your enjoying spring weather ahead of us!

Men’s outreach last night, was a fun time in our basement.  It’s been a combination of Christian men from a few different churches, and a few Ukrainian friends from the area.  Only three of us were foreigners, which makes for a refreshing scene, mixing in with the Ukrainian culture and language.  Dan usually leads these times and the group really appreciate his zest for life and humor, I’m the designated slave / side kick.  Pray for these meetings, that the guys would embrace the short ‘messages’ each time, and more importantly, embrace Christ.

Can you guess what this is hanging in our furnace room?  Neil bought a hunk of meat yesterday, and has cured it, hanging it to dry.  His African roots coming out already, it’s beef jerky, or what they call “biltong”.

Our basement smells like dirty wet socks, soaked in vinegar, but I’m told it will taste great when complete:)

On March 24th a group of Ukrainian delegates (Mayors, officials) will be in East Texas.  Through some neat contacts, they will be stopping into our office in Kilgore for lunch.  I’m scheduled to skype video conference with them and share about our involvement here in Ukraine.  It’s a cool opportunity to build some more relationships using the Sister City model, and potentially work (future) in other towns.  One of the Mayors is my age, and been Mayor for 10yrs already.. from a town just 3-4hrs south of RZ.  They are in Texas learning about economic development and city government models.

Thanks for checking,

Bruce

Hi Everyone-

Took a picture today of the family, it’s been a while since we’ve had a group shot, the kids are growing like weeds.

Been studying this week (in between breaks with Cypress) the Nature of God, His attributes etc. Particularly this week the ‘Omniscience’ of God.  Tracing back through the bible everything that God literally says that He knows, or reveals to us specifically that He knows.  That’s not the only way to study something, but for me it was refreshing to be very practical with what He does ‘say’ He knows (comforting and convicting!).  We all believe that God knows ‘everything’, but what does it mean that he “knows’ , and what exactly ‘is’ everything?  It’s been almost 10yrs since I put much energy into studying this  topic, and I’m really enjoying it.  It’s neat how our study methods change (hopefully for the better) as we grow in our understanding of God’s word and how to ‘rightly divide’ it.  I’ve been opposed to putting to much ’emphasis’ on systematic theology in my personal devotion, it never really produced the kind of ‘fruit’ that I think pleased God in my life.  It mostly produced pride and a desire to debate and win. There are so many scriptures that I ‘do’ understand and still have yet to implement perfectly.. thinking of all the moral teachings for example in the epistles, or Jesus words to the disciples in the gospel.. I don’t think we should spend to much time as believers getting wrapped up in the mystery of God’s nature as to neglect the very practical teachings we want to pretend we don’t see sometimes.  However, studying God Himself, what makes Him tick (according to the Word), should surely stoke the flames of our heart for Him.

Consider this quote from the prince of preachers, Charles Spurgeon –

“It has beeen said by someone that, ‘the proper study of mankind is man.’ I will not oppose the idea, but I believe it is equally true that the proper study of God’s elect is God; the proper study of a Christian is the Godhead.  The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy, which can ever engage the attention of a child of God, is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the great God whom he calls his Father.

“There is something exceedingly improving to the mind in a contemplation of the Divinity.  It is the subject so vast, that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity; so deep, that our pride is drowned in its infinity.  Other subjects we can compass and grapple with; in them we feel a kind of self-content, and go our way with the thought, ‘Behold, I am wise.’  But when we come to this master of science, finding that our plumbline cannot sound its depth, and that our eagle eye cannot see its height, we turn away with the thought that vain man would be wise, but he is like a wild ass’s colt; and with solemn exclamation, ‘I am but of yesterday, and know nothing.’ No subject of contemplation will tend more to humble the mind, than the thoughts of God…”   – Charles Spurgon 1855

He was around 20yrs old when he wrote that.

I hope you can find some time to study God’s attributes, we have been doing this in church and it’s been a refreshing study, opening my eyes and heart to His greatness again.

Bruce