Praising God for working in the life of Kolya.  He’s a young college student who has been working with Dan on a house project.  He’s attended a few church events and conferences (Passion etc.) and I actually thought he was already a believer, or close to it as his heart seemed to be very open to God’s will for His life.  This past week Kolya attended Camp 120 and testified that He had surrendered his life to God.

Pray for Kolya, and for all of the young men in our church.  God is working in hearts as several unbelievers continue to attend Tuesday night meetings. The church in Ukraine is in need of young men like Kolya to influence and make a difference in this culture, pray His light will shine to his family and friends.

This week we host Bo & Beth, along with their son Brady.  The kids have been anxiously counting the days.  They love when guests roll in to town.  Clark is our softy, he is quite upset when the guests leave and holds back the tears.  It’s been wicked hot the past 3-4 days.  90’s (even into 100’s).  This weekend we camped out in a few rooms with a mobile AC unit, it kept things bearable but you didn’t want to move.  Thankfully we have a basement, it’s hard to sleep in our sauna upstairs.  Deb and I are amazed at how hot it gets here, we never imagined Ukraine would get so hot, most of our mental preparation for moving was to ‘russia’, and we pictured 2-3 months of spring type weather and 8 months of Siberia.  I think Deb would take Siberia, she loathes the hot weather.  Who knew we’d bring Texas with us!

***Special thanks to those that helped donate toward the boat motor for camp.  From what I hear it worked well and even able to tow kids on a tube.  The camp was on an island, a 30 minute boat ride, over 70 attended this year including Broderic and Bronwyn.

Sincerely,

Bruce & Deb

What a weekend!  I’ll give you the bullet version with some pictures, but first, check out this quick video of how we spent our Saturday night!

– Friends Yura & Lilya from Latvia with their two children visited (driving 16hrs for a 5 day visit).
– Took a group of 15 to Kiev for a Third Millennium day conference, Dr. Richard Pratt (author and seminary professor).
– Got stuck in a severe wind/thunderstorm which knocked down trees/branches.
– Hosted a Children’s Ministry Meeting (mostly for camps) to hear from Norry (from Scotland here visiting Simeon & Asia) and Yuri and their experiences with kids camps.  Norry in particular was great to hear from, he’s volunteered/led in over 200 kids camps, an interesting and very down to earth fellow that encouraged us.
– Played in a concert for the city (our makeshift country western band!).
– Dinner with the City officials and a group of professional choir/singers (about 30 of them, and they sang the entire time at one long table, it was a true cultural experience).
– Electricity went off in our town Sunday night, just in time for the World Cup Final game.  We didn’t care, but our friends did.. so we fired up the generator and had them all over to watch it. Latvian, 2 Scots, Kiwi (New Zealand), Ozzie, and a Canadian American transplant.. watching ‘futbol’ in Ukraine, cheering for Dutch or Spanish teams.

Phew.  Now it’s Monday, and time to get to work!  For some pictures.  Today is the start of Camp 120, where half the church pretends they are from the dark ages, lives on a sandy island for a week without electricity, running water.. Broderic and Bronwyn have gone this year with the Gollan crew.  We would go if it was for a few days, but an entire week… as one missionary said last week, “being in Ukraine already feels like we’re camping.’

This Monday we took advantage of the office (in Texas) being closed, and shut off a bit of the world… we took the family to a nearby village and had a picnic.  We setup a little campfire and went swimming in the Dnepr.  Here are some pictures from our day.  It was as close to being in America celebrating the 4th of July as we could get, we even had hot dogs (still fairly new here).

[tucker and clark eating a wafer]

[nice time, despite Clark’s face]

[Noah double tasking, cookie and hot dog]

This week Yuri (from Ireland via Latvia) is driving to Ukraine to visit us.  It will be interesting to hear how it plays out at the border.  I’ve been wanting to drive ‘out’ of Ukraine and visit some of the neighboring countries (Poland, Bulgaria, Romania).  They sound so ‘remote’ but they are just a day away.. like driving from Texas to Florida.   Anyway, will be nice to see Yuri again, he’s a few yrs younger than I am, their church in Latvia would like to consider getting involved in this part of Ukraine with us in some way.

Better go, bless you all!

Bruce & Deb

Busy, blessed.  A quick note to all my family and friends that are out there, we miss and love you!  Kids are daily running around my office, little Ukrainian girls today were laughing and throwing apples at my window.  They’d come to the door and yell, “brooooooce”… then giggle and run away.   It’s cool to meet new kids every day from the town, they come in waves.  We try to love them, but are strict as well with them.

I’ve been asked to speak at the Rz day next Saturday.  Actually, they want me (and anyone else from texas) to represent our fair state in song (thankfully they didn’t say dance).  I will be working up some sort of country song sample to play for the city, and trying to recruit some vocal talent.. yeee haw!

Property is still in document stage, ask me again in 2 weeks, hopefully it will be completed by then.

Friends from Ireland, via Latvia, are coming to visit us next week.  Their church would like to talk about hosting a children’s camp in the fall (or some sort of outreach).

Deb just found out that her close friends from Texas (Dana and Tracy) are coming July 26th, for a week to visit!  Yeah.. for her.  Bring oreos, doritos, and.. mm.  Steak?

Kids are in full school mode, my wife is cruel, starting their structured semester right in the middle of summer.  It’s been hot, 80-90’s most days.  Beach here is packed full of naked beer bellies and babushka’s in their undies.  We like our little beach.

Deb’s parents are still living in our basement, I think they like it and are getting a little too comfortable.  Actually their house it looking great, probably another month?  Ukraine, that means 3.

Grace and Peace to you all in Christ our Lord, He is a Great God… and happy July 4 all our American friends!

Bruce & Deb