Well, my home blog page, at least...
In the hopes of making my blog easier (and therefore also SHORTER) for you all to read, I am consolidating all my many blog pages onto my home page "The View From Here".
So from now on, don't look on this page, but rather go to www.caranews.blog.com to catch up on my latest praise and prayer reports, Tree of Life news and my personal ramblings. THANKS! :)
Just FYI...there is something wrong with blog.com's editing program now, so sorry that I can't get this last posting to format like I want...hence it is a little tough to read...sorry! I will fix it as soon as I can. Thanks...
CALVARY CHURCH SENDS A TEAM
Tree of Life (which consists of just ME lately! check out Prayer and Praise for more on that...) just finished hosting a team from Calvary Church in Grants Pass, Oregon. For most of the team it was their first time overseas, doing missions work and for one gal it was even her first time to fly! (Way to go, Caitlin!) :)God showed just how faithful He was in "jointly knitting together all members of the Body of Christ" in that each one had unique gifts that they brought.Caitlin lead us in worship each day, and at different places where we ministered (English camp, church in Borodyanka, and the "Babushka Tea") with a sweet spirit that loves Jesus. David and Ray were great examples of Christian young men that have both strength but gentleness. In a country where alcoholism, domestic violence, etc. is a problem, this is no small witness. All of the team worked hard, played hard, and overall planted a ton of seeds of love, Christian example, and a good witness for the local church.
The team was lead by Greg and Kelly and they were such blessings to me, personally. Kelly loves her Lord and has a humble servant's heart that was willing to do whatever was needed, even if it meant being stretched. Her gentleness really encouraged me. Greg was thorough and greatly prepared the team before they got here with cultural,historical and other information that when I saw it I thought "why do they need me?!?" J Once the project started Greg's solid leadership, yet flexibility in sometimes pretty crazy situations was really a relief to me...for once the buck didn't stop with me! Not only that, he's a great teacher and the kids in the little town of Borodyanka got a level of English teaching and introduction unprecedented there. This is a huge blessing and great reflection on the local church who hosted us.ENGLISH CAMP, “BABUSHKA” TEA, AND MUSEUMS GALORE!As I mentioned, we were in Borodyanka for a 3 day English camp / VBS. Borodyanka is at the edge of the Chernobyl Zone (the restricted zone established after the 1986 nuclear reactor disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant). It is a very small town, but by US standards - based on the facilities it has to offer - we would consider it a village. Around 25 - 35 kids came each day and many of them showed up for Sunday School the day after the camp ended. Pray that they would continue to come and learn of God's love for them!We also helped out with a girl’s Bible study while there in Borodyanka. Again Caitlin played some songs for us and Kelly shared of her experiences in Africa on a previous mission trip. I know the girls at the study were encouraged and glad to meet new friends. Please pray that God would draw these girls to a deeper relationship with Him and give -them strength for the trials they face (long commutes to universities, low paying hard jobs, hard home lives, etc.).
We also helped with the local Kyiv church’s monthly “Babushka Tea”. This is a time when the church I go to here meets with a group of Grandma’s or “Babushkas”. Some attend our fellowship, while some have so many health problems they can’t get out to church anywhere. But once a month we gather and have a little time of worship, teaching, some tea and home baked goodies (the team from Oregon made banana bread! Yum!) Each Babushka gets a care package of non-perishables, too (oil, flour, rice, etc.).
Kelly shared a sweet story of her grandmother’s example of faith. When she would stay with her grandma, no matter how early she got up, Kelly would find her grandma already sitting at the table enjoying a cup of coffee and reading her Bible. It fit in perfectly with the verses that God had already put on my heart to share about how the “older women are to teach the younger…in their example of godly living”. A miscommunication left us without a translator and so God helped me translate for the team and share the short devotional without a hitch in Russian. All the details worked together for a sweet time with these little old ladies. Everyone got some kisses and hugs from them all before we left. (Not as intense as the Babushki in Borodyanka, but a good showing nonetheless.) J Please pray that God would continue to teach and encourage these Babushki in their relationship with Him.
We had some “down-time” swimming in the Dnipro river and playing volleyball with believers and missionaries in the town of Rzhshv outside of Kyiv. The team got some good, but often painful history lessons by visiting the Chernobyl Museum (chronicling the nuclear disaster), the World War II museum with all the atrocities of war and the Nazi concentration camps that took the lives of so many Ukrainians, and various other historical sites around Kyiv. All in all it was a very full and fruitful time! They are welcome back anytime! J
...or I should say "Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks"! But I wanted to stay with the tree theme. :) Speaking of which (tree themes, that is) I can't believe none of my dear, pun-loving friends didn't point out in my last blog how I missed the chance to say "LEAF things alone" (last sentence in first paragraph).
And just one other "house-keeping" note...in my last blog I said that Tree of Life was "primarily a non-profit publishing venture". To clarify - we are COMPLETELY a non-profit venture PRIMARILY focused on publishing.
Ok...I know it's tough reading things from a "word obsessive" person like me...but imagine what its like in my brain! Scary! :)
Anyway...back to more serious matters. :)
A NEW LEAF...
I am a firm believer that if something is truly of God, it benefits all involved. In that case, in missions, if a project or ministry or whatever is really of God, then everyone involved grows, is stretched, etc.
I battle with pride as much as the next (maybe more?), but I hope that if I ever get the idea that I am in Ukraine to "help these poor Ukrainians" that I would quickly leave. I am here because I believe that God, in His infinite wisdom called me here. The same reason, hopefully, why you are where you are, doing what you do with the people in your lives.
All that having said, I OFTEN feel like God brought me to Ukraine more to shave off my rough edges than for anything I can offer Ukrainians. People have said "God works in you, before He works through you". I'm not positive about that. There have been many times when God has worked through me before or as He was working in me.
But "enough about me" already! :) The point is, we are doing a conference soon. Meaning we were invited by an organization to do a bookstore for them at their conference (see the prayer request about this on our prayer request page. Click on the sidebar link to the right here, or go to www.prayerandpraise.blog.com )
I have been doing conferences for about 4 of the 7 years I have been in Ukraine. Often I gathered all the books, got them ready and sold them basically by myself. I don't say that to brag, just to give you the background of the "new trick" God is teaching this old dog. :)
Over the last year God has given me some great new employees and guess what? They are TOTALLY gifted in the areas where I am not! Imagine that. :) (see a Praise Report note on that from Oct. 5th)
So here we are, doing our second conference together (notes on that in the previous post here) and it is taking SO LONG to get everything ready! A few times I have started to get so impatient inside because I think..."I used to do this all myself in half the time! Why is it taking so long now with 3 people doing it?!?!"
BUT THEN...I have to remind myself that while I got the books there to sell it was nothing like things are now. I gathered the books, and I picked out good ones. But where did I get them from? And what did I pay for them? And how much was I charging now? (I had all that info, it just would take me a bit to gather it all). Now I realize these are not the things someone should be saying publicly when they are in the position as a supported missionary. But its the truth! I was trying to do too much and I was doing things "not in my giftings" (as a friend would say).
Now we have excellent records of everything. We can know quickly what our boundaries are in discounting (I always want to offer the books as cheap as possible. My staff teases me that the one thing we are being really succesful in is the "non-profit" part of things! ha!). We know exactly where our money is being used: what we bought, what we sold, what we gave away.
In point: IT IS ALL TAKING LONGER BECAUSE GOD IS TEACHING ME A NEW WAY AND THE RESULT WILL BE BETTER.
Ok, duh. Probably all of you got that point ages ago, either in your own lives or while wading through this too long posting! :) And I've had to have this lesson before. But this time I really sense a deep digging-down-and-planting-a-root-type of instruction from God.
I have been so used to most of my life just diving in, getting it done and being glad with "good enough" results. But God loves us too much. He wants more for us. In every area of our lives.
I started to make a quick, cheap predictable application of this, but I won't insult you all like that. I don't know why things take longer. Sometimes saying that its because God wants to teach us a new way, wants a better result...sometimes the ache of waiting just won't be salved by an answer like that.
I have dear friends that waited 8 years for their little (BIG now!) bundle of joy. I am not about to try and put words in God's mouth and say why she had to cry many tears and wait many years for God's answer on that. She can comment here on my blog spot if she wants to :) but that's her story to tell.
All I do know is that right now, this lesson through my wonderfully organized left-brain employees is encouraging me. Waiting doesn't mean I'm stupid and just can't get it. Waiting doesn't mean I'm bad and don't deserve it. Waiting doesn't mean others around me involved in the process are going too slow or messing up somehow. Waiting means what it means in every life such as God has ordained and only God and (sometimes) that person can say the reason.
But for me, right now, I'm encouraged through this S-L-O-W process of getting ready for this conference that waiting for me means: GOD IS TEACHING ME A NEW WAY BECAUSE HE LOVES ME AND WANTS A BETTER RESULT IN THE LONG RUN FOR ME!
When I explained how I had been so used to doing things at Tree of Life (doing too much and all by myself) one of my sweet employees, Anya, said to me "Well, ok, you've lived that way, now it's time for something new". :) I thought she was joking she said it so matter of a fact. I was waiting for the "ha-ha-ha". But she was dead serious.
So, dear friends...whomever this is for..."You've lived this way, now maybe it's time for something new". :)
"Do not grow weary in doing good. Don't get discouraged and give up, for we will reap a harvest of blessing at the appropriate time".
Galations 6:9 (KJV + NLT= New Cara-phrased Version)
As you may or may not know, Tree of Life is primarily a non-profit publishing venture. We are involved in other activities as well, but books are our main focus. (I thought about being creative and saying "blood that flows through our veins" then thought that blood doesn't flow through a tree...then thought that all this thinking was leading me to an uncomfortable close pairing with the word "sap". :) I thought it was best to leave things alone.) :)
ANYWAY... To find out what books Tree of Life has published so far, see our "sidebar" (the right column on this page...scroll down to see all the books). You'll also see there some of the upcoming projects we would like to tackle. Not all of our titles (currently published and on the wish list) are there yet, but I will be adding them regularly.
We can only slowly publish needed titles because of all the various costs involved. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO HELP SUPPORT THESE PUBLISHING PROJECTS contact us at treeoflifeukraine@gmail.com.
In case you weren't aware, here's a short list of all the different things that have to be paid for in order to publish a book:
So there ya' have it. :) "Publishing Made Easy". Watch this page for regular updates on our publishing projects, both book and music.
Well, this is still going to be short, sorry...but just a quick update of what Tree of Life is up to these days...
CONFERENCE
We recently traveled to Dnipropetrovsk (Southern Ukraine) to do a "bookstore" for the Calvary Chapel there. They had a small "family" conference (meaning just their little growing church family) and the pastor encouraged us not to bring a lot of books because the people aren't wealthy and there wouldn't be a lot of them. We were SHOCKED how many books, music, etc. everyone went home with! People were HUNGRY for resources!
Against the advice of my staff I had brought a lot of reference and study materials, just to show the folks what was available. They ate them up! We marked everything as low as we could - not even breaking even on our costs for train tickets, etc. for my crew - but it was totally worth every kopek! (Ukrainian "pennies"). :) It was so great to see people so excited about books and things to encourage and strengthen their walk with God. It's these kind of events that remind me why I am doing what I am doing.
The conference was great, too, and I really was refreshed by the great teaching by Pastor Mike Pratt and his guest speaker Robin Turner from Calvary Chapel's Bible School in Austria. We have another conference coming up in a few weeks so please keep that in prayer and look for more news about that here and on our Prayer Request page soon!
NEW BOOKS
"Married and How to Stay that Way" by Steve Carr (just one of the great men that I'm blessed to call "my pastor". I have a running list.) from Calvary Chapel Arroyo Grande, CA will soon be available in Russian! Although this is not the first book that Tree of Life has published (we have done three others that I will give some info about in a future post), it is the first one that has been fully OURS (and not just a cooperative effort with someone else). Meaning, it has been one big steep learning curve! Ha! :)
It has taken longer than we hoped, but as I said, it has taught us a lot and I know that every project after this will be easier. We coordinated everything from the translation, editing, a new cover design, and now we are about to start the printing process. (We are still tweaking the cover art. Pray for wisdom for us on this! Thanks!).
Steve himself will be coming to Kyiv in March to do seminars with his book. He will be coming with his wife Susie and a team from the church there in CA. I am really excited about this. Please keep this in prayer and we'll keep you posted here as the details develop.
I am also really excited about this book being available here in Ukraine. It will be, as far as I know, one of (if not the only) Christian "bridge" books on marriage. What do I mean by "bridge" books? I mean a book that can bridge the denominational differences and because of it's solid biblical base, be used by all believers. Right now almost all marriage books swing one extreme or the other. If you know this book, or are just excited about the idea of getting good balanced biblical materials into the hands of pastors, leaders and counselors...maybe God would have you support this project? God has met all the costs so far, but there are more to go and after that other projects! :) If you would like to help with these things, drop me a line and I'll give you more info.
UKRAINIAN MUSIC AROUND THE WORLD!
Recently a friend from our church here in Kyiv returned from a few months in the US. He had been at Gordon-Conwell Seminary in Boston where a mutual friend of ours Alosha ("Shaker" to those in the know.) is studying.
Dima was doing some painting there and playing a disk by our local group Kroki. (Many of you have that disk. It's "the red one with the girls" that you can't understand rather than the other ones you can't understand.) :) An American walked by and said that he knew that music. Dima told him that was unlikely since it was a group from his home church in Kyiv, Ukraine. The guy insisted and came back with the business card from the person that gave him the disk. It was mine! ha! :) He said I had given it to him in Budapest, Hungary. I have NO IDEA who that was, when it was or anything. I have gone to Hungary over the years at various times for conferences or to renew my Ukrainian visa (you have to leave the country to do that), but I couldn't remember that for the life of me. Funny, huh?
But I suppose it's not really that odd because I almost always travel with disks or cassettes of the music that Tree of Life helps support (more about all of those groups soon!). God has given me the most unusual opportunities to give them away. Too bad I don't have time right now to tell the whole story about sitting in Linnae's in SLO, sipping tea and listening to the local-folk-de-jour-artist, when she started describing her next song. She said it was a "Jewish-Lesbian-Russian-Love song", and that "unless you speak Russian you won't understand it all". Coincidence? :) I did understand it all, and this girl is a very nice and talented but sad gal. I gave her a cassette and she was stoked. Her grandmother was from Odessa, Ukraine. But there's not enough time to tell of that story. :) Suffice to say, I shouldn't be surprised that a disk ended up in Boston at Gordon-Conwell. :)
BUT, speaking of Kroki...they will be coming out with a new album soon. They are a very amazing folk trio. They write and play all original songs and sing in Ukrainian. There are not so many Christian Ukrainian language groups and so their music is in great demand, particularly in Western Ukraine where it is more predominantly Ukrainian speaking. This is another project that we would greatly welcome your support towards. I really want to see young Ukrainian Christian artists who have talent and a great love for God like these gals do - to see them supported and their art encouraged. Pray about it! Thanks! :)
Ok...I gotta hit it...More soon...HAHAH! I just re-read that I said this would be short! Ha! Well, to quote that great philosopher "Anne of Green Gables"..."if you only knew all the things I WANTED to say, but DIDN'T"! :)
Ok...I'm becoming a Blogger. :) I really think this is going to help with communication. But, it's after 2:00 am right now and I've got to hit the hay, so this is it for now and I promise to have more tomorrow!
Foreign to Familiar: A Guide to Understanding Hot - And Cold - Climate Cultures by Sarah A. Lanier
This book is available translated into Russian through Tree of Life Publishers. This project was completed in cooperation with and funded by Father's Care ministry. Write us at treeoflifeukraine@gmail.com to order. This is a GREAT book for anyone that lives, works or ministers in a cross-cultural environment. Understanding just basic general points about another culture will greatly improve communication and interaction.
Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers
***HELP US TRANSLATE THIS BOOK INTO RUSSIAN! READ ON FOR INFO HOW TO HELP...*** A re-telling of the Biblical story of the prophet Hosea and his wife Gomer set against the backdrop of the California Gold Rush. God's love, forgiveness, hope and healing in some of life's most painful situations (child abuse, rape, infedility, etc.)is the heart of this story. Rivers addresses these complicated issues with with compassion and wisdom. If you have read this book you know the powerful potential to touch people's lives. If you would like to know how you can help make this book available in Ukraine, contact me at treeoflifeukraine@gmail.com.
The Passion of Jesus Christ : Fifty Reasons Why He Came to Die by John Piper
This book is available translated into Russian through Tree of Life Publishers. This project was completed in cooperation with and funded by InLumine of Chernigov, Ukraine. Write us at treeoflifeukraine@gmail.com to order. This is one of my favorite kind of "bridge" books. It bridges all denominational lines with it's simple yet thoughtful, Biblically-based examination of the death of Jesus. Offering "50 Reasons Why He Had to Die", this is a great book for anyone who wants to truly consider THE most important event not only of all history, but of their own lives, as well.
Married and How to Stay That Way by Steve Carr
"***AVAILABLE SOON IN RUSSIAN!FIND OUT HOW TO HELP...*** Tree of Life is happy to soon offer yet another great "bridge" book. Written by one of the many wonderful teachers that I'm priviliged to call "my pastor", this is an invaluable tool to anyone who counsels married couples. Actually, it's great for anyone who is married, was married, would like to be married, or knows anyone who is married. :) You get the point. A thorough Biblical blue-print for dealing avoiding and dealing with some of the most common challenges in marriage. Steve is a veteran marriage counselor and his desire to honor and serve God by helping to strengthen and heal marriages is evident on every page. Please contact us at treeoflifeukraine@gmail.com if you would like to know how you can help support this latest publishing project.
