Category: Bruce Posts (Page 202 of 211)

We got a tree today!  The kids are pretty excited.. We have been trying for a while but because they don’t celebrate Christmas until Jan 6, they just came out this week…. delivered in Soviet army trucks… how cool is that?

We love little Clarkie, he is a sweet boy that has required the least amount of training (comparitively… but then Noah makes everyone look good).  He’s sporting my ‘helmet’ as he likes to call it… my cool Ukrainian winter hat.  His favorite movie is Milo and Otis, and lights up each time Otis rescues Milo from danger.

Ug.. I just clicked the wrong button and lost 15 min of typing/pictures… so now you get a picture of me, in my ‘boyz in the hood’ hat, freezing in my office.  Been working on the Christmas Event this week, things are going really well.  We’ve invited the entire list (in person) and received a wonderful response.  The event has opened many doors, building relationships already that we look forward to pursuing.  Remember us Friday, Dec 26… 5pm… which is around when you get up in Texas.  40-50 public servants, police chief, mayor, economic development, chamber/cultural folks, hospital director and 3 college directors with their assistance… it should be a very interesting and enjoyable evening.  The ladies (deb, priscilla especially) have been working hard and planning all the american food (using ukrainian ingredients…).

Noah and his mom.  He’s a stinker, and constantly has our head on a swivel.  He says, “pazsha – loosta’ in russian which is ‘please’. He will have the best little Russian accent.  The kids are all doing well with russian.  We are proud of them and their attitudes.  Broderic is already starting to translate for me sometimes… how scary is that… I can’t keep up!

Ok, well I had other stuff and photos but it’s 8pm and I haven’t seen the family today, or eaten lunch or supper.  The days fly by, we are busy, but busy about good things so it’s enjoyable and rewarding.  If you have time, email us a family update.  We’d love to hear how you are doing, what’s new.  We’d be thrilled to read some updates to the kids as well, if your kids could say hi.  This Christmas and end of year has snuck up on us.  We are looking back at the trail of dust behind us… recounting what we’ve done this year, with the move, the transition, and ready for a vacation… bermuda sounds lovely.  Do they speak english there?

“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Mark 10:45

Sincerely,

Besides Ukraine being mighty chilly at the moment (25F during day), this week I was able to locate a couple other very cool places.

Cool place #1 – Tic Tak Music Center.. I don’t get their name, but they sure have some very cool stuff at this large music store downtown Kiev.  I actually had a productive trip to Kiev last week, finding and purchasing a small-mid sized sound system.  We’ll be using it for the Christmas Dinner Event we are hosting December 26th for the City officials here in Rzschichiv.  I believe it will be a real asset this summer as well as we ‘get out’ and ‘reach out’.  I met a nice employee there names Sasha, he spoke enough english for us to put a deal together quickly.  I told him to check the blog out, that he’d see his picture, “hi sasha, thanks, it works great!”.

By the way, I have to start filtering what I write on online, this blog is open to the public which means not only friends and family, but local inquiries are being made to this site, not all are guaranteed friendly.  So, I’ll be writing for the broader audience if you know what I mean, and keeping more personal and ministry details to those on our mailing list.  If you would like to be included on this list, please email me at bruce@liftupyoureyes.org and I’ll make sure you get these updates (probably once every two months).

Cool place #2 – EPOS Printing Center.. I was excited to find (thank you Danny from Khargalyk) a print and design business in Kiev.  They print banners, posters, flyers and even t-shirts.  I felt at home sitting in the lobby watching the employees shuffle about, printing documents.  Probably the first time in 6 months I felt like I was in an environment like our business Cypress Interactive.  We printed the Christmas Event invitations, they are in Ukrainian (thank you Svetlana), and thank you Coy/Jon for designing, you can take a look at them by clicking on this picture.

It’s getting dark around 4pm, making for very short days.  Our electricity goes out 2-3 times per week (our street for some reason), but only for 5min-30 min.  It really makes you reaslize how we manufacture ‘daytime’ in our houses.  We are stumbling around looking for flashlights at 6pm, and the night is young!  We have been trying to go to be earlier.

They don’t salt or plow the roads here, but they do leave a pile of sand along the side of the road every 40 ft or so… So many people walk that I think it’s more for their benefit.. they spread it around.. it doesn’t help your vehicle too much.  Oh, dad, I did get 2 front snow tires… it has made for a smoother ride for sure.  I visited my cool Auto place and they were so much more friendly this time, I even have  discount card now, I’m in the club.

Noah watching Daniel play the guitar.  Noah is an interesting little dude.  Most kids would bang away on a musical instrument without any care of the actual sound, but Noah watches, studies, and when you aren’t watching he carefully picks the strings, listening after each pluck as if to enjoy it.  He’s the same way on the piano.  He loves for me to take his finger and play a simple song with it.  He’ll try a bit himself, then hold his finger back up for more lessons.

That’s it for now, missing everyone this holiday season.  Our business in Texas just had their annual Christmas dinner, I was sad and for the first time since arriving, I genuinely wanted to be back in Texas (not just for the food either!).  We love it here, we are in the middle of God’s will for our family.  I’m thankful that we are not homesick that often, I think the Lord keeps us motivated and full of joy.. we’re probably like a kids needing to be distracted, if you think about things too much I’m sure it would be more difficult… but we are busy weekly hosting guest, probably feeding 12-15 people per week between homegroup and our weekly guests for dinner, pulling people out of the snow and everything else that fills our days.   I think the busyness helps us from getting too emotional about our location this time of year.. but we are thinking of you, and do wish you all a very blessed holiday.

PS, here is a picture of a large room the Khargalyk Christians hope to someday turn into a coffee shop.  They own a former sewing factory, downtown, which they use for church services and have renovated for some housing as well.  We want to start a coffee shop here locally in RZ, but the available building hasn’t presented itself yet…. I’m considering a possible construction trip this summer for the purpose of blessing our friends in Khargalyk accomplish this vision.. they have the spot, the desire, the people to run it… they just need the funds to complete and a week-10 trip of energized US/Canadians could put a serious dent in the remaining work… consider it in prayer!

“Let no man deceive himself.  If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise.” – 1 Cor 3:18

Sincerely,

This week we pulled out some old DVD’s for the younger kids… it had been quite a while since Thomas was playing.  Neat to watch the eyes of a 2yr old as the toy trains choo-choo about on the screen.  I had my own reality version of Thomas this week, pulling stuff around in the mud.  The snow has melted and it feels like spring at the moment.  It’s been 10yrs since I’ve had to look down a muddy road and think to myself, “can i make it?”… For the guys out there, I’m going to post some truck pictures (insert Tim Allen “arh arh”).  After all the headache of importing my truck (still not finished the process), I’m so glad I brought it over.. it’s not only a reliable vehicle but I’m able to help others.

  Last night I went searching in Kiev for a Tire/Auto shop.  I struck gold!  This place was amazing, it was everything you’d find in America, but with 10x more employees on hand.  It had 10 bay doors to drive in, and all the gadgets you could want to service your vehicle.  I had blown my tire a few nights prior late at night in a small town (hit broken curb going 60mph), so I was driving without a spare.  I decided to replace the back two tires with snow tires.  It was all going well until I asked them to put anti-freeze in my radiator and change the oil… simple process right?    Two hours later, these guys were finishing up.  No joke, the took FOREVER on the oil and rad.  First they poured in some liquid cleaner stuff and had to wait 20 minutes for it to drip, drip, drip out.. then poured in the oil… check it, start truck, shut off truck, check it, little more oil, start truck, shut truck off… 20 times, no joke.  

Well, enough truck talk.  The family is doing well, Deb and I have started doing our Russian classes together, that has been nice.  She is ahead of me (4-5 weeks more of classes) and helps me remain calm when considering the many insane gramatical requirements.  My vocabulary is around 300 words, we’re learning how to conjugate verbs and talk properly in short sentences.  I’m already having to ‘undo’ several sentences I thought I was crafting correctly.  The human brain is an amazing thing, I need to use it more.  What’s become a wonder to Deb and I is language itself.. we have a new perspective on our own English language, how it has formed, things we say without every thinking about it… It’s a wonder anyone ever learns english, it has to be the most diverse and complex language out there, these other languages are so structured and literal.  We were joking the other night with some other americans that we can carry on a conversation without ever meaning what we say literally.  For example, “Do you feel like breakfast? No, I think I’ll hit the hay in stead.” At least 50% of what we English speaking folks say is literally translated as something unintelligable… every day there is something that strikes us as funny, I should keep track of them.  I have a new appreciation for translators too, they have a tough job.  They not only have to translate actual words, but concepts, and interchange words that will fit the intent of the speaker.  So many english words won’t have a Russian counterpart, or even concept they’d understand.  Understanding the little Russian we do now helps me provide better English sentence structure when using a translator.    I’m supposed to be studying Russian right now, so I’d better get going.  Oh, I’m typing now in Russian, that has been a lot of fun to learn… I’m about as slow typing in Russian as my dad is in English, it’s pretty funny.

Still have guys working on our house, they’ve spent the last 3 weeks mudding/taping and now sanding one room, I can’t even go in there anymore without getting frustrated.  No matter how many times I give instruction they won’t follow.  They are taught ‘one way’ in school and they refuse to go against the ‘proper’ way of doing things.  So my walls now have 2 inches thick of plaster, I don’t even need to paint it, it’s already all white.   I took the three of them this week and showed them how to paint, they were confident in their reply that they knew how to paint… but when I asked one of them to show me with the roller, he dunked the roller in the pan, didn’t roll it first and proceeded to splash the wall with dripping paint coming from the soaking roller.  Maybe they thought I said, “have you guys ever ‘seen’ paint before.’  The answer everyone gives here is “yes we know”.. they are afraid to tell the truth, their experience is that if you say no, you may lose your job or not get the one you are trying to get.    They are good kids, and hopefully seeds are being sown.

Speaking of seeds sown, we are officially hosting the first Rz Christmas Dinner for the Mayor and city officials.   We are finalizing dates right now, but have the reception hall picked out and ready, and our church is meeting this coming Sunday night at our house for a planning time.  Pray for this would you? 

Pray for:

The Christmas/Gospel message to be clear and received.

Relationships/Trust in the community.

The church here to grow.

“That God in all things may be glorified.”  1 Pet 4:11

Sincerely,

Well, ‘real’ turkeys straight from the farm aren’t very tasty leading me to believe that Americans have genetically modified this usually tasty bird… or perhaps what we cooked and ate last night was not a turkey at all… it’s possible.  We were however thankful for the friends we gathered with from around the area for a time of fellowship.  It’s been a blast hosting groups and eating meals in our new home.  A special thanks to Dan and Pris who offered up their home to be sacrificed to all the kids… making it a quiet and enjoyable evening at the Crowes!

Hey look.. our first Ukranian news article!  The webcast last week made the front page of Rzshichiv’s paper.  There’s 4 pages in the paper, so we took up 25% :).

We had snow here for a few days, and the kids were in heaven.  They sled down the street all day with their friends only stopping a few times to ‘unfrostbite”.   

I’ve had a wonderful time (sarcasm) dealing with the Kiev police trying to register my vehicle with Ukraine plates.  Been several times, each time they remember another document I need in order to proceed.  For now, I’m going to simply drive across into Belarus every two months until I can find a more permanent visa situation.. we only have 6 months left on our visas, can’t imagine going through all of this annually, thinking about trying to get a 5yr business visa and dumping the religious visa approach, it seems to only work for the big denominations and even they often use cultural visas instead.

Today Deb, Daniel and I looked a few places to possibly rent for an outreach.  Here is Deb looking all wintere’d up… this building didn’t have any heat so we passed on it but found a good option down the street.  We are going to host a Christmas Dinner for city officials.  We are going to aim for 50, which is about maximum capacity. We are planning to get the church involved in serving/pulling it off.  It will be a free dinner, and we will buy decorations, make it very pretty and festive.  The details have yet to be fleshed out but the heart of this is two-fold, A) to promote Christmas and the gospel and B) to appreciate our Mayor, and those in positions of authority.  I believe this will be a big step forward in building more relationships in the town.  Crossroads, our home church in Longview is going to be helping us fund the event financially, would you join with us in prayer that it would be a blessing and have an impact? It will be either the last week of Dec or first week of Jan… Orthodox Christmas is Jan 7.

So many other things to write about, what the Lord is teaching us, convicting of, so little time.  I blew my tire on the way home from Kiev at 9pm.. in the middle of a tiny town… ran into a curb that tore a hole the size of a baseball in my tire… somebody please ask Chris Gordy if that is covered under warranty and to ship me a new one:).  It wrapped up a horrible day of Kiev traffic and many other things that made me want to quit… thankfully God created days, they end… and start again afresh!

Kids are healthy, Deb is a bit under the weather.  Cassie is moving into Masha’s tonight.  You can visit Cassie’s blog to learn more, but it’s a big step for her and I think will be a wonderful experience for her to live ‘with’ a local and truly understand the lifestyle…. they do not have indoor plumbing… yeah… send some prayer that way:).  Cassie will continue to help us through the week with the kids school and around the house, but have more private ‘on your own’ time which will be great for her. 

Thankful for eternal life, that this one doesn’t last forever… in the meantime, let’s get some stuff done (make a good t-shirt?) 🙂

“but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ”  1 Cor 15:57

Sincerely,