Giving Thanks In Ukraine

Well, ‘real’ turkeys straight from the farm aren’t very tasty leading me to believe that Americans have genetically modified this usually tasty bird… or perhaps what we cooked and ate last night was not a turkey at all… it’s possible.  We were however thankful for the friends we gathered with from around the area for a time of fellowship.  It’s been a blast hosting groups and eating meals in our new home.  A special thanks to Dan and Pris who offered up their home to be sacrificed to all the kids… making it a quiet and enjoyable evening at the Crowes!

Hey look.. our first Ukranian news article!  The webcast last week made the front page of Rzshichiv’s paper.  There’s 4 pages in the paper, so we took up 25% :).

We had snow here for a few days, and the kids were in heaven.  They sled down the street all day with their friends only stopping a few times to ‘unfrostbite”.   

I’ve had a wonderful time (sarcasm) dealing with the Kiev police trying to register my vehicle with Ukraine plates.  Been several times, each time they remember another document I need in order to proceed.  For now, I’m going to simply drive across into Belarus every two months until I can find a more permanent visa situation.. we only have 6 months left on our visas, can’t imagine going through all of this annually, thinking about trying to get a 5yr business visa and dumping the religious visa approach, it seems to only work for the big denominations and even they often use cultural visas instead.

Today Deb, Daniel and I looked a few places to possibly rent for an outreach.  Here is Deb looking all wintere’d up… this building didn’t have any heat so we passed on it but found a good option down the street.  We are going to host a Christmas Dinner for city officials.  We are going to aim for 50, which is about maximum capacity. We are planning to get the church involved in serving/pulling it off.  It will be a free dinner, and we will buy decorations, make it very pretty and festive.  The details have yet to be fleshed out but the heart of this is two-fold, A) to promote Christmas and the gospel and B) to appreciate our Mayor, and those in positions of authority.  I believe this will be a big step forward in building more relationships in the town.  Crossroads, our home church in Longview is going to be helping us fund the event financially, would you join with us in prayer that it would be a blessing and have an impact? It will be either the last week of Dec or first week of Jan… Orthodox Christmas is Jan 7.

So many other things to write about, what the Lord is teaching us, convicting of, so little time.  I blew my tire on the way home from Kiev at 9pm.. in the middle of a tiny town… ran into a curb that tore a hole the size of a baseball in my tire… somebody please ask Chris Gordy if that is covered under warranty and to ship me a new one:).  It wrapped up a horrible day of Kiev traffic and many other things that made me want to quit… thankfully God created days, they end… and start again afresh!

Kids are healthy, Deb is a bit under the weather.  Cassie is moving into Masha’s tonight.  You can visit Cassie’s blog to learn more, but it’s a big step for her and I think will be a wonderful experience for her to live ‘with’ a local and truly understand the lifestyle…. they do not have indoor plumbing… yeah… send some prayer that way:).  Cassie will continue to help us through the week with the kids school and around the house, but have more private ‘on your own’ time which will be great for her. 

Thankful for eternal life, that this one doesn’t last forever… in the meantime, let’s get some stuff done (make a good t-shirt?) 🙂

“but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ”  1 Cor 15:57

Sincerely,