Category: Bruce Posts (Page 203 of 211)

Thank you for any prayer sent this way for the Webcast this past Wednesday. The meeting lasted 45 minutes and was as smooth as you could hope for considering all the technology involved to stream live video between Kilgore, Texas and Rzshichiv, Ukraine. The meeting was scheduled for 8:30am in Texas, which was 4:30pm here in Ukraine. We got a little bit of a scare when at 4:28pm the lights went out.. literally, in all of Rzshichiv the power went out minutes before our official start! Fortunately everything kicked back on minutes later and we started on time. It’s a regular occurrence here in town, when your power goes out (2-3 times per week) it usually means somebody is getting work done, I think it’s ‘all on’ or ‘all off’ around here.

The Mayors exchanged a few ceremonial gifts on behalf of both cities, then we were introduced to other department heads from both communities. Daniel did the translation during the meeting, thank you sir! I was impressed with the overall attitude of joy, and interest. They are so dramatically different in terms of history and culture, but still face similar challenges they could identify with. The big difference between the two cultures are their respective histories… Kilgore’s starts around the early 1900’s and the Oil Boom in the early 30’s. RZ however has a series of histories, dating back to (they say) 3000k BC… it’s a hotbed of archeological activity as they continue to find out more about their ancient past. This was also an important trade route for merchants traveling back and forth from the East and Greece, once the center of the world. The area has been invaded a number of times, Mongols, under Kiev rule, Russian occupation, it’s amazing to think of the amount of history a student would have to study over here to get an A :).

The Kilgore Paper had the event on their front page: http://www.kilgorenewsherald.com/news/2008/1119/Front_Page/

Thank you everyone who helped make it happen and promoted it.

CBS 19 the local TV affiliate also covered it, I will try and post the video for you tomorrow.

We are discussing a possible Christmas outreach downtown, perhaps a free dinner of some kind. It could be a very special thing as it would garner a lot of interest, this sort of thing is not common here at all. We will keep you posted on the details, I think we need to serve the community and show the love of Christ, taking advantage of the season.

On a family note, we went to the Kiev Circus last week with the family. The kids loved it, lions, tigers and bears. Andrei Murzin and his family invited us and was great to visit with them again. Cassie stayed in Kiev with them and was brave enough to take the Marshrutka home two days later.

No snow yet, but the kids are praying for it sooner than later. Gaven found a turkey at the market last week, a rare find that we ‘gobbled’ up and purchased.. it was pretty pricey but we have to have turkey for thanksgiving! We are meeting next Thursday with several other American missionary families for dinner.

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

We are a thankful people!

Sincerely,

Started reading an Oswald Chambers book entitled, “So I Send You” the other day.  I started reading it a number of years ago and remember really enjoying it.  He was a tremendous writer, amazing that he died his late 40’s.  It’s interesting to read it now that we are here, sent and ‘doing’ missionary things.  He makes a very good point from the start, that the call to missionary activity is a call to every Christian.  I believe this more than ever now, as our Christianity doesn’t magically improve when placed in another culture.  Trust me, it doesn’t:).  God has chosen each of us as His vessel, this is something naturally understood by all of us.  Are we all ‘called?’… in this respect yes, if we know God’s heart at all, we know He seeks to save the lost and to know God is to intrinsically care about souls around us.  I like what he writes here,

 “The call of God is essentially expressivbe of the nature of God; it is His own voice.  Paul says that, “God demonstrates His own love toward us” (Rom 5:8), the love that is exactly expresive of His nature.  Get that thought with regard to the call of God.  Very few of us hear the call of God because we are not in the place to answer; the call does not communicate because we have not the nature of the One who is calling.  In the case of Isaiah, his soul was so attuned because of the tremendous crisis he had passed through, that the call of God was recorded to his amazed soul.  God did not lay a strong complusion on Isaiah. Isaiah was in the presence of the God and he overheard , as it were, the soliloquy of God; “Whom shall I send , and who will go for Us?” and i n conscious freedom he replied, “Here I am!  Send me.”   – pg 13/So Send I You

The soliloquy of God, I’ve been thinking about that.   I get tired of life so quickly, the difficulty of getting stuff done and feeling helpless in this strange culture.  I’ve found myself asking “why am I here?”, “I don’t care enough”, “can we go home now?”… as I’ve found the limits of my strength, my personal perseverance and flesh is weak..  I’ve felt dry, unburdened by my surrounding and anxious.  Ever felt like that?  I’ve been resisting prayer, the ‘get alone and seek Him kind’, and His word.  Why do I run from my source of strength?  When I read this portion of the book I went to prayer, and I found Oswald’s comments to be true.  The soliloquy of God accompanies our great God doesn’t it?  You will hear it if you listen.  You will see if you spend time with Him, He will open your eyes to it.  It doesn’t change, He doesn’t change.  It’s His call, He fills us with the desire, the hope and peace.  I left that time of prayer refreshed, encouraged to trust Him.  He cares more about those around me than I could ever understand, by spending time with Him I will get His soliloquy more in my heart.  I will ‘know’ the Lords heart and burdens.  They are not too heavy to bear, in fact scripture tells us that they are easy and light.  A great mystery to me is how God’s burden can be so joyful to bear, you’d think they would crush us and make us miserable, but it’s just the opposite.  When we care about what he cares about, God’s soliloquy becomes our favorite song.

[Old electrical box, from the house, filled with leaves]

 
[Sasha Sr. and Jr. complete the installation of new box]

We are doing well, everyone is healthy.  The chilly days are great, we expected snow by now but not complaining.  The kids are getting used to wearing mittens (which they call muffins), hats and big fluffy coats.  It takes about 10x’s longer to leave the house, but we were always late for things anyway.  It’s adorable to watch them play on the street and in the woods all bundled up with rosy red cheeks.  I grew up in Canada and it’s bringing back many childhood memories.. like getting all those fingers in the gloves… hard to do with a toddlers little hand.

[Kids working on bikes, Broderic snaps pic of me doing something, 4 boys in tub.. save that water!]

I am off to the dump now.  I have access to a small trailer through a young family that just moved here.  I’m so excited to go use it… and get the stinky bags out of my basement.  If we leave them outside, the cats/dogs get into them.  Last night a cat was in our garbage, I didn’t realize it was in the house and shut the door in the basement, locking it inside I guess.  This morning the kids saw it race around in the house.  It’s off telling it’s friends now of the free nights lodging.  Our new friends are Tom and Lena, he is from Arizona and she is Ukrainian.  Tom is fluent, been here in Ukraine for 7-8yrs working in construction and serving with a church.  They believe God called them here to RZ and last week bought a small house down the street from us.  They have a 2yr old boy. 

Had our 3rd meeting last night, 14 adults and about the same kids.  It was neat to have missionaries represented from 3 towns.  Watched the history video, Micah shared his testimony and we had 30 minutes of prayer/worship.  Our prayer is that our collective faith would be encouraged and that families would be refreshed in the Lord.  We have some good ole american snacks and fellowship, it’s neat getting to know people here.  The interesting thing for me is that we’re all the same age approximately, young families, 2-6 kids.  There aren’t any (that I know of yet) older missionaries in the region.  You can find older (older than 40 is what I’m referring to) in Kiev, but not out here in the smaller towns.  I think this is a shame, the body of Christ needs the older, wiser, mature experience of seasoned saints.  I wonder if after the kids grow up people move on to other parts or vocations… 

 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
      And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”  Isaiah 6:8

Wait a minute, doesn’t EVERYONE celebrate thanksgiving? I may get desperate and go hunting.. or maybe one of you could ship us over a butterball. New Years day is the big holiday around these parts, Christmas is on a come back though. During communism the Russians suppressed anything religious in nature, they emphasized New Years as the ‘big event’. In schools children dress up on New Years, get treats… The Orthodox Church celebrates Christmas (click for history of Christmas) as Jan 7, following the Julian Calendar. Over the past couple of years in Ukraine the Western influence has also made a seasonal impact, we saw some Christmas stores in Kiev a couple of weeks ago complete with trees and colorful decor, Deb was overly excited.

We’re getting closer to having our basement ‘use-able’.. although it’s still a mess of wires, concrete, bricks and sheet rock at the moment. It will be great to send all the kids down there to the playroom when we have guests over. Oleg and Yura, the two college students continue to show up faithfully 4 days per week, chipping away at things in between smoke breaks. They are good kids.. I can say ‘kids’ now right? They rarely eat or drink anything. We feed them and try to show Christian love with our limited vocabulary. It’s been neat to watch them loosen up, I’ve begun asking them some questions about God, please pray for them, we probably have another month together with them.. well at the pace they are moving, let’s say 2 months.

We’ve had Sasha Sr. and Sasha Jr. from Karghalyk, replacing our electrical box. They can only come at night and on the weekends so it’s taken a while, but we actually have a breaker box now, replacing the ‘oh so safe’ on/off lever and open wires we had. They are also going to install a water filtration system, our well water is not drinkable and so hard that we’re told our appliances will not last too long if we don’t do something soon.

[Our garage from the street]

[Garage, now office from inside… excited to move in it]

The former one russian car garage is now my office,, it’s 90% finished needing only carpet to complete. I’ve been working from the kitchen table, Deb will be happy to see me take my computer and associated junk to my barn:). We are one of only a few DSL highspeed internet owners, especially with open access wifi.. we’ve got a few people coming over during the week to check email and use it, hey an internet cafe… it’s right here in Deb’s kitchen! Kidding Deb.

I don’t like waiting so long to update, too many things pile up to write about. Oh, the official date for the Sister City Web Conference is Wednesday November 19.. 8:30am CST / 4:30pm Ukraine. Both Mayors have committed to the date and I’ve worked with the city IT person here to test things out with Hunter back in Kilgore.. all systems are a go! Please pray for the event to work (internet to work!) and the first meeting to be an enjoyable one, I’m excited to see how things will move from here. We’ve already been shown much kindness and some doors have opened for Jono’s school, the city is donating a small building for his english classes, though I believe it will require a lot of fix up. I think the more the Christians here show themselves to be community assets, the greater opportunities will open up for us all, we are starting to see this and it’s encouraging. The lady at the Mayor’s office is trying to get our kids in dancing lessons, like the cultural Ukrainian dancing… I told her my boys would rather shoot something and asked her if there was anything in RZ for boys… she just shook her head with a frown. Imagine them dancing ha.

Next week we have Ukrainian lady/friend coming over to teach Deb how to make Borsh. We have become friends with this couple, they are Christians but don’t really fellowship too much here in town, they go to Kiev sometimes for church. He installed our cabinets and counter-tops. The other day a drunk man came to our house and wanted to see inside.. I guess he saw it before it was finished when the guys were all working on it.. he was overly friendly/tipsy and thankfully Daniel was here to guide him back out of our coat room. There’s a definite socialistic mindset here when it comes to personal property, on one hand it’s a good opportunity to get to know people more intimately (like your neighbors who will be obliged to give you some tea if you show up at their door) but it puts us in all sorts of situations we’d never dream of back in the US.

I heard you all have a new president? Ok, we. Plenty of room in Ukraine 😉

“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body,” (1 Cor. 6:19-20) – Good devotion on this verse click here

[I just love these old bikes, I stopped and talked to this older man, told him his bike was cool, he just smiled]

The gas has been turned on! The radiators in the house now emit this pleasant warm feeling throughout our living area and it is good. Our tile floors in the kitchen were getting so cold that we were having to wear shoes… the weather here is the same as in Eastern Ontario, it’s been about 40F, what’s that, about 5 C or so? It’s been warmer some days, but at night gets mighty chilly for these East Texan acclimated bones. Anyway, we are very relieved and ready (we think) for the winter ahead.. hot water, internet, gas heat, what more can you ask for? Deb would say closets, we don’t have closets yet.. on the list honey.

The kids are doing well. Noah our youngest is talking more and more, walking around the house with a small hockey stick, hitting anything that is hittable (bags, food, people). Speaking of hockey, Brent has started going to weekly practices in Kiev. We aren’t sure if we can keep it up.. it involves a 1hr drive, 30 metro ride, 10 min walk to get there… but it’s sure cute to watch. Here’s a picture of him this past week, he is the one bent over on the left in black, catching his breath or about to fall. These kids practice 3 times per week, we are trying to get him there once.. so the other kids have an advantage but I figure he’s 50% canadian, so it makes it even;)

[Note this little kid on the right, in white, squatting. Locals here squat with regularity outdoors, it’s just a natural position for them to squat down and talk.. it’s the funniest thing. They say they can spot a foreigner immediately by their inability to squat and hold that position… ha. I find it impressive that they can squat with ice skates on.]

[Deb spills the potatoes at the market, I thought it was picture worthy]

This week we also had our first ‘lifegroup’ type meeting in our house. It was so neat to use our home for a gathering of believers. If you had seen this place a year ago, it seemed impossible to live in let alone be filled with 20 or so bodies, laughing, eating and warm. We are meeting Thursday nights with missionary families from the area. Micah and Christi Claycamp from Khargalyk (20 min drive west) are joining us in organizing a weekly time of fellowship and some study. We look forward to getting more acquainted in the context of a home group, this has always been our favorite environment. We are watching the Drive Thru History videos – if you haven’t heard of them you should check them out – www.drivethruhistory.com.

Deb is off for 3 days with the ladies from the area, a woman’s conference north of Kiev that takes place every other year. Cassie is going as well, this means I will be changing diapers…. they are actually about to leave in 10 minutes so I have been racing to type something up… I don’t think there will be time to type much for the next 3 days:).

Life is busy and unpredictable here in Ukraine. I can barely keep up with one update per week. Sometimes it’s the internet connection, this week for whatever reason it decides to shut off around 2-3pm for the rest of the day… just as work in America gets rolling. I’ve been wondering if it’s a signal from God, I’ve been forced to make more of a separation from the US time zones and plug in to what’s happening around me more during the day. I’ve not yet fully submerged myself here, with weekly work in the US pulling my attention away it still feels like I have two, or split personalities.. sort of like Jason Bourne but not as cool :). I was telling Deb this week, I don’t want to be busy for it’s own sake, any of us can very busy with little effort… being busy doesn’t mean we are being effective, sometimes it’s just the opposite. I want to do the things that matter. We met with the director of a nursing home here in town.. we were given permission (not a small deal) to visit with the sick/elderly once per week for 20 minutes. We all have opportunities like this around us, but don’t you want to know that what your hands and heart are doing, are sponsored by the Lord.. that He is both leading and blessing the efforts. A big part of joy (for me) comes from not simply doing good things our Lord would like, but doing them ‘with’ Him, remembering His last words on earth, ‘and I am with you always, even until the end of the world…’ I’m going to spend the next week or two praying for direction, re-evaluating the course before us. I appreciate any prayer, scripture, advice you’d like to send this way. I think my spiritual wheels need to be re-aligned and I need some clear direction before I take on more responsibility.

[Svetlana is a great teacher, and our Russian is coming along.. slowly]

‘If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.’ James 1:5

Miss you all –