Category: Bruce Posts (Page 206 of 211)

I’d like you to consider helping donate toward a good cause here in Rzschichiv. Jono Miller has been diligently working on establishing a legal business here in town, for the purpose of teaching english in the schools as a ministry. This process has been, as you can imagine from my previous ukrainian experiences, quite difficult for a foreigner – especially a missionary with a limited budget and income. Jono has been pushing forward in faith, and made amazing progress. He now has 4 official students and in his second week of class. There is a lot of potential with this outreach and I’m very excited personally to see it established.

Now comes the challenge! Jono has run into some legal issues relating to his visa status/work permit and the business itself. I’ve encouraged him to connect with my friend Alex and his law office and do this right. Some local authorities have already notified Jono that he has some missing documentation and may be doing this illegally. It is virtually impossible to do anything here ‘legally’ without experience in law and connections. Jono has hired this law office officially as of today, and the total cost to ‘straighten it all out’ and help Jono get the right permits and continue this ministry, is $1300. Deb and I are going to help him personally with this cost, but would also like your help if the Lord leads you.

Please consider donating through this website, or by donating through our church (www.ccclongview.com). This ministry is ground breaking in the sense that there isn’t any other ministry like this in RZ, and it’s a really big ‘in’ to the schools and building relationships with families in the community.

I would like to see us raise $500 toward the legal cost by October 1. I’ve confirmed with Alex this will be ‘turn key’ and I trust him. Considering the amount of paperwork (literally 4 inches thick) they have to wade through, and the professional guidance we will get, this is a great investment toward securing a ministry for the Lord here. If more comes in, it will go toward the overall costs and I’ll keep you all posted!

Sincerely,

Hope you are all doing well out there faithful friends. We appreciate the encouraging notes and prayers, the past few weeks have been very difficult on the flesh and yet our hearts have been refreshingly encouraged…

Dan and I met with the Mayor this week, it went very well. I did an overview presentation on Kilgore, Texas. I don’t know if they were impressed more my cool presentation or the City, but they seemed excited to make things official. We are now exchanging some documents (and stamps) on the Ukraine side so they can get approval from the government here to proceed… they have a ton of policies to follow when communicating officially to any outside foreign community. Anyway, this is great news and they asked me to be ready to present to their chamber of commerce (approx 30 business owners). Also, CBS 19 in Longview/Kilgore picked up the update (sent an email update to the mayor in Kilgore) and Friday did an audio interview which aired that night on the news. So, things are moving ahead slowly but surely.

Deb’s parents arrive tomorrow for a 3 week visit. We have a wonderful list of home improvement/finishing for him, he’s quite the handy man and his skills will be put to the test:) This will mark our first family visit and the kids are very excited.

The neighborhood kids are continuing to frequent our house, I just finished kicking two young boys out of the kitchen, they come right in unannounced and we have to be strict, they don’t respect anything but a loud intimidating male voice.. I’m working on it. They are mostly all boys, ages 6-11, and Brent seems to be the leader of the pack.. it’s the funniest thing because he also seemed to have a gang back in Texas , he doesn’t come across to me as a leader but he is a confident little kid, and a bit wild.. as much as I’m praying the kids don’t negatively influence ours, I’m sure there are a few concerns from the other parents who let their kids go down to ‘the crazy american house at the end of the street.’

We’ve had a few close calls, but nothing serious so far in terms of accidents/injuries. I thank God for this because anyone visiting will soon find out there are no safety measures to be found in this country. Clark slipped on the narrow stairs to the basement the other day and was hanging by the arms.. a nice 12ft drop to the concrete floor was awaiting him but he was able to hold his weight until his sister heard the call (scream) for help and lifted him back up. I was doing a skype video call with my mother for the first time last week at our house, showing her around and all she kept saying was, “bruce you need to cover that up it’s dangerous’.. hey it’s Ukraine, a young boys dream out there, the wrong place to be if you like to worry.

Lastly, this week we ‘may’ get gas hooked up. Daniel just called and said maybe Tuesday. We’ve heard this so many times we just smile and hope for the best (occasionally want to punch something when nothing happens). This week we could also get our container, it’s in Odessa still awaiting the original registration from my vehicle, the copy supplied was not enough (about the 10th document we’ve had to supply this past week). So this week we could get my truck, our beds, and a hot shower… what will there be left to complain about!

Lastly Lastly, I just offered a job to a young lady here in RZ, she is a sweet young lady who has taught Russian to a few folks here in town. She come highly recommended, and she’s going to start next week I think. In addition to Russian, she will be my assistant for Cypress, I’m desperately needing someone to help me catch up on some work, and also with her translation skills can help me with this project we just landed in Kiev. It will be such a blessing to have someone on call through the day for things that come up like visiting the Mayors office, getting some documents for missions trips, we are going to try and find an office downtown in the next week or two, pray for that would you?

Thanks for checking in. I’ve been enjoying facebook.com lately. Been able to reconnect with old highschool and bible school friends. Being over on the other side of the world has given new value to networking. It makes this site/blog seem so slow though, I told Deb I may just switch over to facebook full time for updates, that’s where everyone already IS. So if you are out there, and read these, and pray for us occasionally, would you let me know, I don’t want to keep writing if it’s only my parents (no offense mom and dad!).

“And he said unto them, ‘When ye pray, say…give us day by day our daily bread‘.” Luke 11:2-3

Sincerely,

We sold our first Ukrainian website! Remember Oleg the CEO of a building company in Kiev that I had lunch with a couple months ago (met him at the bank). Well we ended up sending him some complimentary logo designs and then never heard from him. Two weeks later I was ordering bacon at a grocery store in Kiev when I gentleman asked if I needed help (which I did, I was ‘butchering’ the pork order), he spoke english fairly well and so we started chatting. He (Igor) handed me his business card and guess what company he worked for? Yep, Eurocon, and Oleg was his boss. This is a city of 3 million people folks, and I know about 10 of them. Not only did he work for that company, but was in charge of reviewing the logos and had just looked at them a few days prior, he was a bit shocked at the co-incidence and so was I. Long story short, we are now having dinner with Igor and his wife in a couple of weeks when things settle down. Oh, then Oleg called me last week and asked if I would come to Kiev and meet at their office. They are doing a ground breaking ceremony for a new Radisson Hotel and business complex on the way to the airport, and they need a site up by October 1. The meeting went well, the proposal was accepted and we’re off to the races! The website will be in English, Russian and Ukrainian. God is good and showing Himself in cool ways like this. Praise Him with me.

We have a meeting scheduled at 9am this Wed (tomorrow) with the Mayor. Pray for favor as we unveil the sister city relationship with Kilgore, Texas.

There is a very cool looking building as you enter the town here in RZ, it has never been fully occupied and just recently has come up for sale. We don’t currently know anything else about it, but a few of us here have had our eyes on it prior it being on the market. Would have to be the Lord if we were to progress on it, I’m sure it’s way out of our financial abilities, but as I encouraged my kids yesterday, God owns a lot of cows on a lot of hills. I believe God is going to open up a door for more public outreach/business downtown, pray with us that it will be obvious and bring Glory to Himself even in the process, wherever that place may be.

[ Inside Russian Orthodox church in Kiev, wasn’t supposed to take any pictures, it slipped!]

“A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs His steps.” Prov 16:9

Deb’s parents arrive next weekend, we are excited and have lots of work for Neil. I hope he knows we don’t have any hot water, it will be a true missionary experience.

We are alive and well. Without internet unfortunately so our ability to update everyone more regularly has been delayed. I have 2 minutes left on my laptop battery so here goes:

– Container ‘may’ arrive this week, we’re told to be prepared to go to Kiev for customs and pick up the truck. I would say ‘pray this goes smoothly’ but that is no longer the kind of prayers we offer up, it’s now “Lord help us deal with the obstacles with grace and perseverance!”

– We need the gas at our house to be hooked up. The gas man came a few weeks ago and has yet to return. This week the nights turned briskly chilly and the urgency for heat in the house increases with each passing week. We are loving the colder weather though, ask us again this question mid Feb.

– Family is doing great, the kids are getting to know their new neighborhood friends. We routinely have 3-4 young boys Brent/Tuckers age, hanging out at our door asking us in Russian if the boys can come out to play. We have also met our neighbors (two families) directly down the street from us. They have been friendly and I’m excited about having them over for dinner and building a friendship that will allow for sharing our faith.

– Pray for our internet to be hooked up, we have a phone line now, which is step 1 (a big step 1) but the internet has not been activated yet, waiting on somebody in Kiev to flip the switch… this will be soooo nice to work at the house and provide a more consistent routine for my company in Texas. It’s been quite ridiculous lately to say the least, conference calls from smoke filled internet cafes, outside peoples houses with dogs barking and kids screaming… very professional stuff.

– We are praying for a local russian teacher for our family, we have asked a few people and they are considering it. Pray please for God’s direction and help solidifying the decision. We really need to get back into language lessons, it’s so easy to stay in English.

– We have met as leaders in the church here in RZ and determined to organize ourselves with biblical eldership model. I will be serving as an elder now with 2-3 other men, and I ask that you pray for the church, that it continues to form into something God enjoys and blesses with his power to impact this community.

– Jono is starting his new English Class business this week. Pray that God brings him a good amount of students and shows him favor as he reaches out into this community. This is an exciting ‘missional’ ministry that could be a lighthouse for many families to hear about the gospel.

– Deb just celebrated her birthday last week, and mine is this week. Most of you know we are not big party or game people (unless it’s Xbox), but the funny thing here is that you throw your own party.. so this is great, we will never have another birthday party again! I took Deb to Kiev last week, it was so nice to sit on a grassy hill and just rest. We didn’t want to do anything, just sit and reflect. It’s been a crazy past 2-3 weeks, many times wanting to throw in the towel. It’s been a compilation of many things that have become so frustrating to deal with on a daily basis, but we thank God for the times of relief where He ushers in His presence and allows you to see truly how blessed you are in Him. We thank you for the sustained prayer, folks we need it, more than you realize.

Bruce