Finding Cool Places

Besides Ukraine being mighty chilly at the moment (25F during day), this week I was able to locate a couple other very cool places.

Cool place #1 – Tic Tak Music Center.. I don’t get their name, but they sure have some very cool stuff at this large music store downtown Kiev.  I actually had a productive trip to Kiev last week, finding and purchasing a small-mid sized sound system.  We’ll be using it for the Christmas Dinner Event we are hosting December 26th for the City officials here in Rzschichiv.  I believe it will be a real asset this summer as well as we ‘get out’ and ‘reach out’.  I met a nice employee there names Sasha, he spoke enough english for us to put a deal together quickly.  I told him to check the blog out, that he’d see his picture, “hi sasha, thanks, it works great!”.

By the way, I have to start filtering what I write on online, this blog is open to the public which means not only friends and family, but local inquiries are being made to this site, not all are guaranteed friendly.  So, I’ll be writing for the broader audience if you know what I mean, and keeping more personal and ministry details to those on our mailing list.  If you would like to be included on this list, please email me at bruce@liftupyoureyes.org and I’ll make sure you get these updates (probably once every two months).

Cool place #2 – EPOS Printing Center.. I was excited to find (thank you Danny from Khargalyk) a print and design business in Kiev.  They print banners, posters, flyers and even t-shirts.  I felt at home sitting in the lobby watching the employees shuffle about, printing documents.  Probably the first time in 6 months I felt like I was in an environment like our business Cypress Interactive.  We printed the Christmas Event invitations, they are in Ukrainian (thank you Svetlana), and thank you Coy/Jon for designing, you can take a look at them by clicking on this picture.

It’s getting dark around 4pm, making for very short days.  Our electricity goes out 2-3 times per week (our street for some reason), but only for 5min-30 min.  It really makes you reaslize how we manufacture ‘daytime’ in our houses.  We are stumbling around looking for flashlights at 6pm, and the night is young!  We have been trying to go to be earlier.

They don’t salt or plow the roads here, but they do leave a pile of sand along the side of the road every 40 ft or so… So many people walk that I think it’s more for their benefit.. they spread it around.. it doesn’t help your vehicle too much.  Oh, dad, I did get 2 front snow tires… it has made for a smoother ride for sure.  I visited my cool Auto place and they were so much more friendly this time, I even have  discount card now, I’m in the club.

Noah watching Daniel play the guitar.  Noah is an interesting little dude.  Most kids would bang away on a musical instrument without any care of the actual sound, but Noah watches, studies, and when you aren’t watching he carefully picks the strings, listening after each pluck as if to enjoy it.  He’s the same way on the piano.  He loves for me to take his finger and play a simple song with it.  He’ll try a bit himself, then hold his finger back up for more lessons.

That’s it for now, missing everyone this holiday season.  Our business in Texas just had their annual Christmas dinner, I was sad and for the first time since arriving, I genuinely wanted to be back in Texas (not just for the food either!).  We love it here, we are in the middle of God’s will for our family.  I’m thankful that we are not homesick that often, I think the Lord keeps us motivated and full of joy.. we’re probably like a kids needing to be distracted, if you think about things too much I’m sure it would be more difficult… but we are busy weekly hosting guest, probably feeding 12-15 people per week between homegroup and our weekly guests for dinner, pulling people out of the snow and everything else that fills our days.   I think the busyness helps us from getting too emotional about our location this time of year.. but we are thinking of you, and do wish you all a very blessed holiday.

PS, here is a picture of a large room the Khargalyk Christians hope to someday turn into a coffee shop.  They own a former sewing factory, downtown, which they use for church services and have renovated for some housing as well.  We want to start a coffee shop here locally in RZ, but the available building hasn’t presented itself yet…. I’m considering a possible construction trip this summer for the purpose of blessing our friends in Khargalyk accomplish this vision.. they have the spot, the desire, the people to run it… they just need the funds to complete and a week-10 trip of energized US/Canadians could put a serious dent in the remaining work… consider it in prayer!

“Let no man deceive himself.  If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise.” – 1 Cor 3:18

Sincerely,