Category: Bruce Posts (Page 190 of 211)

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Crowes.

We’re thankful to our God this year for:

– our health; no hospital visits required for the 8 of us!
– our home; besides our own use, it’s continually used for ministry.
– our new friends; growing closer in christian ‘community.’.
– our old friends; for the emotional and spiritual support. 
– our kids; a challenge, give perspective, teaching us, blessing indeed.
– our marriage; undoubtedly the most difficult in 15, refining!
– our ministry; natural, rewarding, a privilege.
– our home church; thank you CCC for your commitment to our family.
– our business; the team at Cypress Interactive for dedication.
– our town; leadership that seems to elevate ethics over personal gain.
– our God; for making an event over 2000 yrs ago a present day reality.

May our year together in 2010 be one of joy in Christ and productivity in His Kingdom wherever we live, move and have our being!

Sincerely,

Bruce & Deb

Thank you for those that have prayed for our heating situation.  For the past week Ukraine has been blasted with sub freezing temperatures.  The second floor in our house (where we all sleep) has a problem still in the piping/radiators we haven’t been able to find.  Then, this morning without warning, our entire house shut down.  The gas boiler refused to light, and we’ve been scrambling all day to keep the house above freezing temperatures with electric heaters in order to keep our pipes from freezing (which would really be a problem).  This afternoon, our electricity shut off on the main and top floor, leaving only the basement with electric heat.  To make matters a little more difficult, I, along with the younger kids have been sporting colds, and we got about a foot of snow today, it’s a winter wonderland out there… trying to keep it ‘out there’ too!

The furnace guy was kind enough to come out tonight, and after an hour of troubleshooting, the radiators on the main floor are working again.  This is a huge relief, and will hopefully make for a warm night.  We’re all sleeping in the basement, which the kids think is a treat! 

Pray we can find the solution to our top floor heating, it would be great to get back into our bedrooms and bring some order back to the day. 

Tonight Deb, with the ladies of the church have organized a ‘cafe outreach’ up at the Gollans.  They’ve transformed the ministry floor into a Christmas wonderland, provided shuttle service to unbelievers/guests, and I’m told there is a good showing.  Pray for the seeds sown tonight to take root, there are some relatives and grandmothers of some of the younger Christian girls that come to church, it’s a special opportunity and they’ve all worked hard, and much prayer has gone into it.

Thanks for checking in, stay warm!

Bruce

This year our family is going ‘all Ukrainian’ for Christmas, well, at least with the date.  In Ukraine they celebrate Christ’s birth on Jan 7, December 25 is a work day.   No decorations or trees until the end of the month.  On the 25th we’ll stop, pause and reflect on the amazing food and friends (notice the order) we are missing on that day, then move on!  It’s interesting to see some of the western traditions of Santa and Christmas trees creeping in.. the retail stores are just trying to spread cheer right?  I like the fact that Ukraine hasn’t adopted everything, but the big stores in Kiev (especially European owned) are doing their best.  What’s comical is the wide variety of western/eastern styles, decor and themes.  Today, I saw an elf riding a tiger, forget a reindeer.

Ukrainian Santa, the kind that give kids nightmares (and some adults too).

I enjoyed this email from Ben Stein this week.  Hope you enjoy it too, remember he’s the teacher from Ferris Bueller movie, so keep his droning voice in your head when reading.

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS

Sunday Morning Commentary.

 

My confession:

 

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it

does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up,

bejeweled trees, Christmas trees. I don’t feel threatened. I don’t

feel discriminated against. That’s what they are, Christmas trees.

It doesn’t bother me a bit when people say, ‘Merry Christmas’ to me. I

don’t think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In

fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters

celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn’t bother me at all that there is a

manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu .

If people want a creche, it’s just as fine with me as is the Menorah a

few hundred yards away.

 

I don’t like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don’t think

Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think

people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around,

period. I have no idea where the concept came from, that America is an

explicitly atheist country. I can’t find it in the Constitution and I

don’t like it being shoved down my throat. 

 

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that

we should worship celebrities and we aren’t allowed to worship God as

we understand Him? I guess that’s a sign that I’m getting old, too.

But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities

came from and where the America we knew went to.

 

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is

a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it’s not funny,

it’s intended to get you thinking.

 

Billy Graham’s daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane

Clayson asked her ‘How could God let something like this happen?’

(regarding Hurricane Katrina). Anne Graham gave an extremely profound

and insightful response. She said, ‘I believe God is deeply saddened

by this, just as we are, but for years we’ve been telling God to get

out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives.

And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect

God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?’

 

In light of recent events… terrorists attack, school shootings, etc.

I think it started when Madeleine Murray O’Hare (she was murdered, her

body found a few years ago) complained she didn’t want prayer in our

schools,and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school.

The Bible says thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal, and love

your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

 

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn’t spank our children when they

misbehave, because their little personalities would be warped and we

might damage their self-esteem. We said an expert should know what

he’s talking about. And we said okay. (Dr. Spock’s son committed

suicide)

 

Now we’re asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why

they don’t know right from wrong, and why it doesn’t bother them to

kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

 

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out.

I think it has a great deal to do with ‘WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.’

 

 

Ben Stein

Still without snow in Ukraine, however I have a feeling it’s not too far away.  This Sunday we met for our once-per-month “All Church Gathering” downtown.  We had a very good turnout, around 90 persons in total.  It was about 40 F in the building, maybe colder.  No heat, so we were all nicely snuggling our spouses and children.  I remember being in Mexico during sweltering 100 F August church services, I used to think how there was nothing worse than being sweaty and hot during church, but when you lose the feeling in your toes and fingers during church.. you start to wish you were back in Mexico!  Can’t quite call that suffering, but next time I’m bringing some heaters, put them up at the altar:)Here’s a picture of us from this Sunday:

Last week we were invited to Ivankiv, which is an hour north of Kiev for an American Thanksgiving meal for missionaries.  We had real turkey, which was snagged from the embassy ‘stash’ and met some new friends.

I spent a couple of hours with the director of Kiev Christian Academy, it was an encouraging time to speak lots of english and listen to a man who’s further along in the journey of life.  It’s always refreshing to hear the stories of how God calls, then directs, and the events that transpire along the way when we follow Christ.  Our great God really has it figured out.  What perspective God must have!  We’re so often fixated on the minutia, the bark from a tree, when He sees the entire forest.  Are you anxious?  Do you question God’s timing, or that He’s left you behind?  Step away from the tree, and surrender your anxious heart dear friend, He’s more than able!

Proof we had real turkey – Met a very lovely Korean family, missionaries serving as pastors of a church in Kiev.  Amazing that God calls all nations and peoples to His great cause.. there were about 4 of us gathered around taking a photo, it was quite an event:)

Many exciting things happening starting to happen as we wrap up the year, here’s a taste.. man that bird still looks good.

• A young missionary couple in our church has recently received a large donation from England to help towards the purchase/building of an orphan house.  This is exciting and brings with it some necessary decisions to be made for the future.  We are looking forward to helping them see God’s plan continue to unfold.
• Another couple from the US has decided to move to our area next year.  He is Russian, she is Ukrainian, and have one small boy.  They believe God is directing them back to Ukraine to work with children and serve with us.  (more translators yeah!)
•  We have settled on dates for a Leadership Conference next fall for this area of Ukraine.  I am working with two other brothers on planning and marketing this event to strategic US churches that we hope will get behind this event and help translate some books into Russian and sponsor the event.  A lot of work to do still but we’re excited about the impact it will have on the marriages and lives of the pastors and leaders that come.
• Met some neat contacts and friends from our Thanksgiving meal.  Andrew & Jenny Kelly are from Texas, they’ve been here for several years and have been working with orphans on a number of levels.  They’ve just completed building a Christian camp north of Kiev, you can see their ministry efforts and pictures here: www.jeremiahshope.org.  They have experience ‘running’ a charity and maneuvering within the ‘almost’ impossible set of Ukrainian laws.
• We may be receiving a number of Summer/Fall interns from a Christian bible college next year, the most interesting part of this opportunity (both for them and us) is that they are Ukrainian, or at least speak Russian.
• We have our first church group lined up for 2010, Donnybrook Church from Cork, Ireland.  The group will be focusing on construction and coming in May.
• Family possibly coming to visit us in Jan, come and help fatten us up for the winter months!
• All Church group is planning a Christmas outreach, a “Christmas Carol” time for the community.  I’m terribly excited not to be leading this, and will be serving and possibly sharing the gospel at the event.  We want to continue to promote Christ as the motive for true celebration among men!
• Prayer Advance:  As elders we’ve felt the need to increase the priority of prayer in the church body.  We are getting busy, but that doesn’t always translate into productive Kingdom work.  So, with that in mind we will be promoting and coordinating 2 weeks of prayer Jan 17-31.  If you are from RZ and reading, “what?”, just sit tight, more information coming Sunday:).

Deb and I have started back with some Russian lessons.  The kids are full throttle into school and now Russian lessons as well.  It’s nice to have Svetlana back in action!

Please prayer for:

– guidance and help (wise counsel) for the registration of a charity.
– our political elections coming up.  If you read the news, the general ‘feeling’ is one of apathy among the country, people are disappointed that ‘democracy’ hasn’t worked here, and are leaning towards voting in a ‘strong’ authoritarian leader that will get things done.  That is a scary concept for Ukraine and the freedoms we posses at present time.

Sincerely,

Bruce & Deb