Can’t remember an Easter weekend where I pondered the significance of the Cross so heavily.  I’m not a builder, the guys here don’t let me swing a hammer, but I know what a plumb line is (although I checked dictionary.com to be sure!).  When you survey the wondrous Cross, like Isaac Watts did when he penned that hymn, you get the sense that the further you survey, the further away the bottom actually is.  Like a plumb line that reaches far into an abyss, it keeps going, and going.

The Atonement, to me, is the richest study we can embark on.  It unpacks in so many different ways.  Even the apostle Paul, guided by the Holy Spirit, seemed to pull from all sorts of human reality to try and convey different aspects.  From reconciliation & redemption (commerce terms), to justification and payment (legal), to salvation and forgiveness, each expressions of this divine act we’ve experienced.   In any case, I’m encouraged to know that no matter where I live, what circumstance I find myself in, I’ve been given this gift, and like the nature of the one that gives it, it’s eternal.  Now that’s encouragement!

‘Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God!
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood. ‘

Some spring cleaning, and great helpers, especially the old guy!

Thanks for checking in,

Bruce & Deb

More specifically, they stopped in for lunch and a tour of our offices at Cypress Interactive / EDsuite.  A group of Ukrainian Mayors were in Texas this week for Economic Development training and networking.  Through a friend that works closely with Ukraine relations in Washington, we were able to host the group for lunch this past Wednesday at our office in Kilgore, Texas.

The Mayor of Kilgore and several other public servants joined the party as we fed them lunch and shared what we do at Cypress.  I was able to Skype in via Video Conference, and share about my family, and what we are doing specifically in RZ along with our friends here.  I encouraged them to contact me when they get back to Ukraine to learn more about how we could potentially work in their town as well, under the umbrella of social services, promoting marriage, family and Christian ethics.  I shared about our desired Family Center project, and that if they had any available land they would like to donate for this purpose, I would be help them connect with like minded Christians, churches and businesses in America.  This touches on more of our long term heart in Ukraine/Russia, to simply connect.  It would to start working in other communities after we have a family center established here.  I have this thought in my head about taking a team of individuals that will help to build, setup, and train Christians in other towns to operate similar facilities.  Working side-by-side with the community, not as a sect under a lampstand, but a bright shining light for the gospel, out in the open, normalizing Christianity.

We’ll see how it goes.  One of the mayors said he’d take me to Bookavil, which is a very pricey ski resort in the Carpathian mountains.  That would be sweet, I’m going to follow up with that man!  The guys at work enjoyed the culture experience, and did me proud.  They said a few of them took my business card, so pray that I get some leads, these are serious inroads into entire communities that would otherwise be very difficult.  Pray for the Mayors, what they experienced and saw during this past week it going to have some serious lasting impressions, and they could all be very good ones, used by the Lord over here.

[Andrew explains to the Ukrainian Mayors how he designs and programs websites, right Andrew? 🙂 ]

[ Our Cypress / EDsuite team with the delegates.  Can you tell who is American or Ukrainian?]

So, praise God the internet worked, we met some potential new contacts over here.  Pray God would lead them to contact us, even if it’s just for a lunch meeting, it’s all about relationships.

Bruce

Yesterday marked a truly blessed day.  I say that with sobriety and joy, not being religious folks.  God blessed the day.  We started with our official meeting with the city council, which is made up primarily of businessmen and government workers that control property in and around RZ.  The Mayor had initially invited us, and we received a call in the morning from the second in command here Nadya confirming our appointment to present our ideas before them.

It did not start out well at all!  First of all, the Mayor and Nadya were not even in RZ!!  The group was assembling and looking at us like we did not belong.  The leader of the group actually started yelling at Svetlana, full volume, it was only the beginning!  They yelled at us, “why are you here?  what do you want!” After 15 minutes of confusion, we finally managed to talk to the group, convince them that we were just wanting 10 minutes to share our vision and heart.  They said we could, but would have to wait until the official proceedings were over.

We sat through 90 minutes of shouting, arguing and everything in between.  Have you ever been in the middle of a very tense situation and just wanted to get out of there?  That was my poor translator Svetlana.. her eyes were as big as saucers and the tension was building every minute.   People were coming in to complain about various regulations, land disputes, corruption, and the object was to simply out yell the other guy.  I was not blessed with a loud voice, so my chances at out-winning an argument Ukrainian style are not good.  After the final person had finished their complaint, we were up.

Laptop and projector prepared and running, we stood up and smiled.  I introduced Deb (how can you be mean around her!) began to share about who we were, the foreigner community in RZ, our collective heart for investing into the community through business, community service, and outreach.  It was cool to have their undivided, quiet (miracle) attention for 15 minutes as we shared about our desire for a Family Center downtown, why it would be a great thing, and what we would do in it.  I showed pictures of Bridge 281 in Texas, a similar style cafe we would want to build and it made an impact.  I was about 2-3 slides away from the end and the group started talking to one another.  At first I was a bit frustrated, they were ignoring me!  But then realized they were talking about land, and ways to help us!

I could barely finish the presentation, God had worked, softened hearts.  Even the main guy who was the loudest of them all was asking ‘how much land would you need’, and, ‘what do you think about the park area’.. we had questions like, “would you make the property nice, maybe a park for kids?”.  Another lady said, “they need to be downtown, that is where the young people are.”  It was amazing guys.  I rejoice in God for the way He showed up.  We came their immediate enemy, but left feeling they were not opposed to us and wanted to get on-board.  The next step is that they are meeting with the mayor and will make some recommendations for possible land purchase that the city owns.

A few reasons this was such a huge deal for us-

– This is a group we will not avoid, they approve/stop all activity downtown.  They now know our hearts, even if we don’t go with a property they suggest, they know our vision and we answered their questions.

– More relationships, we aren’t here ‘just’ to do stuff, but build relationships that will produce fruit for the Kingdom.

– We saw God work for us, I did not avoid the topic of Christianity and our faith. We read scripture to them and they know that as westerners, our faith is an important part of our motivation for this project.  They asked me specifically if I was ‘with’ a religious organization, it was cool to be able to answer honestly, ‘no, I’m a business owner from Texas’.  This is a huge step I believe in normalizing Christianity, we are real people, we want to help spread hope and love to a culture that needs God.

It was a great day.  It ended as great as it started.  We finished at our house with ‘Men’s Night’, we do this every other week and have had a pretty good cross section of guys showing up.  We play ping pong, some games, and someone gives a devotion or we watch a movie.  Last night my basement was PACKED!  We had 25 guys, at least 8 unbelievers, young students and they heard the gospel message.  My father in law Neil shared his testimony, and he had them glued for 30 minutes.  They heard about how he lived a life of no purpose, drugs, loneliness etc.. and how God found Him and saved him.  God is so good, I praise Him for pouring out His love on us, and hope just when we are about to give up.

[Neil sharing with Dan translating to 25 guys in our basement]

Keep praying, God is at work, and we are excited for the next steps downtown, and as He continues to draw young men to Himself!

Bruce & Deb

Pray for us!  We have a couple important events happening this week.

 #1 – Meeting with the Mayor and the City Council tomorrow (Tuesday) at 1:30pm.  I’m presenting the business plan for a new ministry center.  It will be a private business, operating as a cafe, with several offices and a larger room for events.   We don’t want it to be viewed as a specifically ‘religious’ building, but have Christians from the community work and serve in it, as well as host special events during the year that will promote Christian values and the gospel.  I have a powerpoint ready and translated, how we have churches and businesses ready to help donate and make this possible, as well as construction teams joining in on the building of it.  Essentially I want the town officials to see the motivations involved, to give and invest into the future of this community.  These authorities can’t always help you necessarily pro-actively, but they can stop you.. we want them to ‘not stop us’ and have their friendship on our side.  The Mayor has communicated that they have worked on some options for us to consider, I have no idea what they look like or entail, but I pray God opens the doors and guides us through this process.   The fact that I have the opportunity right now to share my/our heart before this group is exciting to me.  I’m nervous, God give me the words and attitude to represent the Kingdom of God, it’s an entirely different worldview that they are accustomed to.

#2 – Wednesday Video Conference with 4 Ukrainian Mayors and some other government officials. They will be at my office in Kilgore, Texas during a week of economic development training.  This group can’t speak english, we’ll be doing everything through a translator.  My business is buying their lunch, and they are touring the industrial park where we are located in Texas.  Pray that we make some friends there too, if we ever work in other communities, relationships like this are key.  One of the Mayors is my age, and been a mayor for over 10yrs of a town south of us.  I want to get to know him and this will be a great start!  Pray for internet to work here, electricity, and all those things we take for granted.  Two days in a row the electricity here has gone off.

#3 – Registration – Svetlana and I have been working through the courts, paying fines and trying to get registered before the end of this month.  We were penalized for not ‘re-registering’ once we left and came back after our last Texas trip.  Our original registration was still good so we didn’t think anything of it, however they have a new electronic monitoring system when they scan your passports now, which calculates how many days you are ‘unregistered’ inside Ukraine.  Once you leave, your registration if canceled.  Anyway, we broke the law, paid fines, and now have a week to get registered properly again, and our vehicle as well.  Pray the famous lady from Kiev Ovir shows grace, according to Svetlana she is extremely anti-foreigner (especially american) and feels we just come in and take jobs (what jobs?) and advantage of the Ukrainian people, live in nice houses etc.. She looks for any and all ways to ‘not’ let you stay legally.  I would love to take her back to Texas and show her our life we left, our friends, church family, house, cars, offices, and then ask her, “really?  we really left all this to come here and take advantage of you?”

On a lighter note – The many faces of Clark Neil Crowe, age 4, click to enlarge.