Victory Day

[Noah stole my drink, Clark is pretending to be the Karate Kid]

This weekend Ukraine will celebrate “Victory Day” across the nation.  Special events in Kiev will commemorate their victory 60 years ago against the forces of Nazi Germany.

We are also celebrating, on a much, much smaller scale.. the completion of our house.. the basement is complete!!  Yesterday I spent the afternoon gathering remaining materials to finish out the guest bedroom and bathroom…  Alyosha has been working hard for the past two months tiling, putting up sheet rock, painting, plumbing.  Here’s a few pictures for you, as you can see the garage is now a guest bedroom, and the bathroom and kitchenette area is really cool.  Not only can we host guests, we can let them have some privacy as well.  The kitchen is also used on Wednesday nights for HomeGroup, and food/tea/coffee is shuttled through the little drive through window which was a natural hole in the foundation walls that we decided to creatively use.. it is Clark’s favorite place to hide as well.

We’re excited to be able to host friends, family, and guests passing through our hotel-less community.  Starting at just $59.99 per night, you even get a free continental breakfast.. locally continental that is, a piece of cheese, bread, and a strong black coffee, but you have to make that yourself.   There’s no pool, but we do have plenty of exercising opportunities (if you like to pull weeds).  The Crowe hotel will also stock wild animals for your entertainment, 6 roam around daily.  You will want to catch one of the many feeding times on the upper level, at Deb’s Cafe, which is open 24hrs a day.  We are a green hotel, earth friendly, and appreciate you joining us by taking :30 second showers, we’re not quite sure how our well is going to hold up with increased traffic.. our neighbors are already low or out.. and it’s only spring!

Actually, this weekend our new friends Simeon and Asha are moving in with us!  Our first guests, they win should win something.  They are staying with us for 4-5 weeks while their place of rent is being completed.  They moved here 2 months ago, newly married (a year i think?), he’s from Scotland, she’s from Poland, and they desire to work with children.  How cool is that?  On our one year anniversary next week, we will be hosting a family in need.. the memory of being without a place of our own in a strange new land is fresh in our memory.  Thank you God for all that you’ve done this past year.. and continue to do for us!

[ Broderic helping this week as we compile all extra materials ]

Couple updates-

– Church Unity – the pastors from the area churches have agreed to meet ONCE PER MONTH, on a SUNDAY MORNING for worship and build unity.  This is amazing!  25% of our gatherings now will be with all the believers from this town.  That’s 100-120 believers gathering with one voice.  We have rented (for the year) the City’s new but unfinished civic building, which seats several hundred, and host our first meeting there together on May 24th.  Dan and I are leading the logistics on this, and really appreciate you praying for these monthly meetings.  This is the start of some exciting things in Rzhyschiv.

– July 2-9 the official dates for the group of Texans coming over to our town.  We met with the Mayor and his staff this week, and they are excited about it.  We are going to join with them for a day of festival/cultural stuff (which will already be going on.. we think… they keep changing their dates).. and we are hosting a Business Seminar on July 7th at a local resort for business owners and directors (managers).  We have had a very warm reception to the concept of educating/training within the local economy and this is a great way to build bridges relationally, and naturally.  We have also been in contact with some Kiev contacts that work with the Ukrainian and US government on economic development/training, and have expressed interest in joining us, perhaps sharing/speaking at this event.

– HomeGroup has been going well.  It’s nice to study and talk with our friends on eternal topics.  I feel edified after each meeting, we chew through a lot of scripture and everyone is participating.  We ar starting to move our focus toward evangelism and this May 20th we’ll be meeting at Jacobs for an evangelistic time, sharing the gospel and we’re inviting our friends/co=workers to it.  Please pray for this would you?

– Men: we need more men! Pray for this coming May 30th, we’re going to host a Paintball event here in RZ for the purpose of gathering men together to share about God.  There are only a small handful of Ukrainian men serving God in this town.  Most of the guys here are missionaries actually.   They like paintball, but it’s out of price range for 90% of them, even though it’s 40% less than in America to do it.  We are going to sponsor the event, and cover about 70% of the cost, making it truly affordable for guests we invite.  I think we’ll get a big crowd, we are printing invitations and plan to break in the middle and have a MAN talk about God.   I’m going to undergo some serious xbox 360 training before the event.

Miss our friends, family and church in Longview – remember to pray and lift up this town and all that God is calling us to do together.

Bruce & Deb