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"! :)
