Category: Bruce Posts (Page 211 of 211)

During the Passion Conference 3 weeks ago, Matt Redman sang his famous “Blessed Be the Name of the Lord” song most of us know by heart. My heart was in spectator mode but upon hearing this song, a song I’m terribly sick of to be honest, a phrase in the song truly convicted me;

“Every blessing You pour out, I’ll turn back to praise.”

In a moment I went from being a spectator, in awe that 4000 young Ukrainians had gathered for Jesus, to a participant, engaged with God in a question that convicted me instantaneously. The question, or thought was this, “Have I turned God’s blessings in my life into praise?”. I knew the answer. Most of the blessings I take for granted. The reality of God’s overwhelming abundance, His grace, His direction and favor in my life, His patience, and of course His faithfulness engulfed my mind/heart as I realized the initial burden deposited in my heart many years ago, was taking shape in this new phase of our life.

Do you ever have those moment where God pulls you back and allows you to see your life’s history in a moment, His hand scattered repeatedly throughout your experiences? Before the song was over, I had committed in my heart and mind to be more pro-active in my praise. We know that Sunday morning isn’t a time to ‘start’ our praise, nor any specific time really. I want my heart to be singing melodies of gratitude continually. Which one of us who have experienced God’s love and faithfulness need to be prodded like unwilling cattle into a loving response for our Lord? The time for praise is now, it’s a heart attitude and purposeful internal (first) expression that we can carry with us everywhere and always.

“But I will hope continually, And will praise thee yet more and more.” Psalm 71:14

We are in Kyiv now, arrived yesterday (another gracious deliver by Daniel the taxi man). If you have a vehicle, especially in the smaller towns like Rz, you are a minority and like a public well… many will call upon your 4 wheeled blessing for favors. Speaking of trucks, our 40ft container has been delayed another month, the date now posts July 12 as the expected date. I was discouraged, but after a day of considering our situation, realize we don’t really need the truck, we have 2 months in this apartment, and public transport is really the best means of getting around. Besides, until we learn to read Russian better, I would be a menace on the already dangerous roads. We’ll be forced to use the metro and buses, which means more Russian practice and getting to know this large city will be an asset down the road. The apartment is a major blessing, it’s fully furnished, complete with toys for the kids, games, bunk beds, nice western style kitchen and internet.  It even has a nice quiet office room and I’m now getting into a groove finally for work. We found a great grocery store 10 minutes away, Deb was delighted that some of the items (about 10%) were in English. God is so good, we’ve definitely been turning this blessing into praise.


{Brent & Clark find toys} …………………………….{Fish on ice anyone?}

{Crispy sun dried clothes}

Our house is coming along nicely, although our progress has been impeded slightly because our paint was not the right color in a few spots. This week the kitchen cabinets are scheduled to be installed and tiling has begun in spots on the main floor. Kolya, his brother Eloysha, Sasha and Elyosha #2 are great brothers who are working hard daily. Pray for Kolya and his new wife Jeannie, they are uncertain (like many construction workers here) of their next steps after our house project. They need a place to live for starters (borrowing Jono’s house, a missionary who is returning next month), and also aren’t sure about where God is leading them next.

There are a few available buildings downtown Rz that Daniel and I would like to pursue gathering information on. Be in prayer with us, this particular one pictured I took a liking to because it’s right on the main street and has glass front (not common here) and could be an inviting storefront type cafe. Half of the building is a small hardware store, the other half is empty or used as storage. God direct our steps and give us favor!

I’ve posted a new link on the left called Pray With Us, it will stay updated with the most recent prayer requests. The next big ministry event for the Church in Rz is the summer camps, please pray that God blesses this and the body of Christ in the whole area continues to grow stronger, united in faith, with a developing ‘mission’ to reach their communities.

Also, remember to consider if you haven’t already to help us with the meal we’ve volunteered to provide the Christians at the camp, donate any amount by clicking here. The total needed WAS $500US, we’ve now received $600 to date for this (Thank you!). Any extra received will go toward the cost of fuel for the participants ferry ride, which has sky rocketed over here as in the US, the cost of $2 per person does not cover this expense and we’d love to help with this too Lord willing.  We’ll keep you posted on this!

Giving thanks with you for His marvelous deeds in all our lives-

The Russian pronunciation for the capital of Ukraine is Keyeeev. I always think of chicken KiEv, does that mean it’s now Chicken Kyiv? In any case we’ll get our first taste of busy city life this Tuesday as we move into our rented apartment for 2 months. We had an adventurous day today as Deb, Broderic and myself took the Mushootka (small bus) from Rz to Kiev, all by our language challenged selves. After an hr of driving, and very clear written instructions to the driver to notify us when we reached the Metro (subway) stop, I asked the driver if we had passed our spot, he nodded and said something that sounded like, “Yes, but what do you think I am, your mother?”. So, there went our carefully planned, and GPS mapped out day. Thankfully there are taxi’s around, and they are readily available to charge foreigners triple rate. So after paying a New York City cab fare (by the way cabs here are no larger than a honda civic, they make for fun family rides, look ma no seatbelt!), we arrived our apartment, and had a quick tour from the owners (SEND missionaries) on how to pay the bills, run the foreign utilities and take care of the cat. It’s on the 17th floor, great view. Here’s a picture of our digs for through July as we finish the house in Rz.

We are starting professional language lessons on Monday, June 9. We were able to get two of the teachers from the language school here in Kyiv to commit for the two months, 3 days a week. Deb and I will have our own teacher, then a children’s teacher will take Broderic and Bronwyn. We will be learning Russian officially, but we can’t help but pick up the local Ukrainian vocabulary as well, which actually is making things even more tricky. The classes are 2hrs long, with homework, and we are told they are very strict… the teachers don’t even speak English… We’re excited (and lying), it’s going to be a tough summer but we believe the Lord has arranged for this, redeeming our time in the City both to learn the public transportation (basically impossible to drive around Kyiv in a car), the best shopping spots, and be forced into some intense language education. Please pray for us!!!!!

We’re fairly socially exhausted, we’ve met new people daily, and I don’t think we’ve had more than 20 minutes to actually sit and do nothing in the 2 1/2 weeks we’ve been here. We’ve not gone to sleep before midnight since we got here, if we have, it’s the only time Deb and I have to talk and that can take a while. With 6 kids you don’t get to sleep in (benefit of single missionaries), but our spirits are up, God is near and we are encouraged at how things are shaping up. We are meeting some neat Christians, missionaries, and unbelievers that we look forward to getting to know more, and practicing our Russian with. Today on the way home from Kyiv in the Mushootka, I had a lady and two other guys engaging in attempted conversation, it even turned toward religion and their interest in ‘why is a family of 8, from america in this part of Ukraine”…. I tell them I’m Christian, but that’s not enough, their interest is more specific, they want to peg you as protestant, orthodox, or a cult… I think this will be a continual theme in our updates, I believe God is directing us to remain as indistinct as possible and not allow the community to categorize us anything but a smiling, loving family that they are open to building a relationship with.

Lennon statue in Rz park still standing.

Community mailbox, we’ll stick with PO Boxes.

Thank you again for reading, and checking in. If you haven’t noticed, I’m posting 3 times per week, this will probably slow down, but for now, with so many things happening that are ‘new’ to us, we like sharing our thoughts. Tell everyone to check in, we hope to have some project info, and possible trip information later this summer. We have parents coming in Sept 08, and Jan 09, possibly a few people this July as well. We want to sponsor a meal at the summer camp this year held here locally, it will be about $500 to feed about 150 people (on an island). Jon and Ruth are directing the camp this year and he thought that would be a blessing (everyone brings their own food). If you would like to help with this, use the donate link (takes any debit/credit card) or if you are a Crossroads member, give that way.

“Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men” Col 3:23

Imagine trying to make a sandwhich, only every ingredient from the loaf of bread, to the butter, mayo and meat are packaged in something entirely different from what you are accustomed to. We’re in survival mode this week. We’ve moved out of the Gollans where we were fed every meal, and are now staying at Gaven’s, who lives about 3 km away (we are now metric, sorry Americans!). Here’s a picture of his house, they’ve done a nice job of fixing it up, it reminds me of an old school house. His well is very deep and attracts the neighbors. If you have water around here, it’s a public right to take from it. The kids ran in the house a few hours ago exclaiming, “a lady is stealing Mr. Gaven’s water!”. Gaven is a wonderful brother who’s from Australia as well, he works daily out at the strawberry farm, a business/outreach venture some of the local Christians are trying to get off the ground. It’s nice to be on our own a bit more, we were spoiled this past week (thank you pris!), but it’s time we were pressed to figure things out.

I thought it would be interesting for you to see some of the food items, thank goodness for pictures on some of the labels! Although you can’t always go by pictures. I thought I found chocolate milk (oh the thought!) in the dairy section of a small grocery store… only to have my hopes dashed by Daniel, it was a flavored creamer of some sort he promised was disgusting. I’ve been trying out my limited Russian and successfully ordered a vanilla ice cream, though my request was ‘anything chocolate’. So with Russian letters covering the labels, and pictures you can trust only sometimes, the first few months will be an adventure in cooking and eating. The milk is in these odd shaped bags, juice is in these oversized juice-box type containers. We already miss the ‘family-size’ products.. portions are so small. I guess if you have one, or at the most two children, these sizes are proportional.

We’ll be here for a week, then off to Kiev where we’ll be renting an apartment for up to 2 months until our house is finished. Deb and I feel very blessed as we have seen the Lord answer prayer with immediate solutions for renting, and folks like Gavin allow our family the run of their house. While our heads spin in logistical confusion at the different way of life in a small Ukrainian community, we feel the prayer and love from our friends, and the Lord’s enabling as a result.

Here’s a picture of Sundays fellowship, about 20 came. Some new visitors are coming, not sure their spiritual state. Most of the believers here are in their 20’s. Deb and I pray that the Lord will use us to reach more middle age families, bringing some balance to the ‘youth group’ feel. We had three nights in a row this week of fellowship with the church, each lasting from 5pm – 11pm. It has been mostly group discussion, led by Daniel. I’ve been jumping in with scripture and thoughts as well, these people are fairly reserved and when they do share, the proverbial ‘rabbit trail’ is a challenge like in most group dynamics. As we build more relationships with the few Christians here in Rz, we are reminded how immoral a culture can get without the Lord. Many girls have been abused, continuous stories of alcoholism in the home. Theft is also a big thing the church deals with, just this week Jon and Ruth who bought a fixer upper house down from ours and plan to move here this summer and serve, had their house broken in to and about $1000 worth of valuables stolen. If you leave things out in the yard, it will disappear and if someone comes to the door, it’s common to be asked for something (water, food), then while you are gathering it, they steal from you and leave before you come back. As much as we enjoy the weather and Christian fellowship, it doesn’t take long before you remember we’re in the middle of a spiritual battle.

Daniel and I have begun discussing some of the churches leadership structure, core values/mission and important things of this nature which will help shape the many outreach and short term trips that will be coming up. Already we have 3 possible 2009 trips on the table from the US, and the sister city arrangement with Kilgore, Tx to keep us busy. We’re going to try and meet with the Mayor this week and discuss some more things with him concerning building space, along with the sister city topic. Please pray for wisdom, and for favor as we seek to be pro-active and step out in faith for many of these things. There is a desire in some of the people here to start a Coffee shop, but also there seems to be a real need for a food joint of some kind, a Pizza Cafe seems to be something that people respond to conceptually… and I’ve talked a bit with Bo about this as a possible first project downtown. It would be a great project for groups to come help get off the ground, both with construction needs, management training, and maybe some interns to come and serve in the summers. This type of project would be an asset to the community, while providing an atmosphere (that isn’t a bar) for young adults and families to gather. Lord willing we’ll be working up a business plan and budget to present to the City, there is a ton of red tape standing between this concept and reality, but God is a big God right?

Lastly, please pray for Dema, he’s a wonderful brother in Kiev that serves with Andrei and the Association of Missionary churches. I’ve felt a kindred spirit with Dema and have appreciated his heart, though we’ve always needed an interpreter. He was diagnosed with stomach cancer this week and it’s too far along for any surgery. They have two children I believe, and are greatly used by the Lord. Join with their church and family for God to heal him.

“Many plans are in a man’s heart, But the counsel of the LORD will stand.” Prov 19:21