Bryan Shufelt

Yep, this evening I saw my very first opera live…  Allow me to explain…
Evan Hein leaves on Sunday, and we wanted to go to the Opera House in L’viv before he left.  This evening appeared to be the only time we could, so we finished up passing out CBC invites in today’s village, headed to our respective apartments to change clothes, and met down at the Opera House in Center.

L'viv's Opera House 2006

Ended up being the first opera written in the Ukrainian language, so it is special to the Ukrainian people.  It was interesting.  Had a lot of the Cossack style outfits and even ended with a Ukrainian wedding!  It was an interesting look into Ukrainian culture.  We might be going back next week for a symphony of types, we’ll have to see .  The Opera House here is one of the best buildings in Europe!

Met a lot of English-speaking people there, too!  We were waiting to go in when I saw a few people taking pictures of themselves and I realize they were speaking in English.  I smiled to myself and thought ‘Tourists!’  Shortly after that, one of them turned to me and started to ask me in Ukrainian to take a picture of their whole group!  I interrupted half-way through and said I spoke English.  I took the pic and then talked with them for a few minutes.  They were from Chicago and Philly.  I thought it was great that I blended in well enough to be spoken to first in Ukrainian .  My group (Nathan, Evan, Daniel, and I) went inside and found our seats (due to a smaller audience,we ended up with better seats then we paid for!  Yesss!)

After the first act was finished, a couple came in speaking ain English and sat right next to us.  It was great!  Found out they were from Alberta, Canada.  I talked more with them, and we exchanged the normal info – How long have you been here, Where have you been, do you speak any Ukrainian, etc.  It was neat running into both groups of English speakers.  The husband even gave us some background on the opera (We thought we were going to be at a different one, so we knew little about the one we were watching).  The lights turned down and the second act started…

During the break between the second and final act, the couple went downstairs to get something while we stayed in our seats (after a day of walking, it was preferred ).  The couple a few steps down also stepped out.  I had heard a little of their conversation and thought something was different about it.  Then, right before the walked by, I heard the girl say something in English (along the lines of ‘Do you want to talk to them?).  Aha!  Another English speaking group!  They walked in front of us (we had to stand as it was like theatre seats…), and the girl said ‘Dyakooyou’ (Ukrainian for ‘Thank You’).  I replied ‘Proshoe’ (Ukrainian for ‘You’re welcome), then under my breath (loud enough to be heard) I said ‘You’re Welcome.’  She turned and smiled like she just got caught.  It was kinda funny.  After both couples returned we all talked for a while.  The first couple was married and were going to Kiev the next night and the last couple ended up being cousins.  The girl was from Boston and the guy lived in Ukraine.  She was taking language lessons for the summer.  She was American and her cousin was Ukrainian.  We all had a nice chat about a variety of topics.  It was funny that I met more native English speakers this evening then the entire previous 6 months combined!

On the way home on the bus, I was standing in the back, when all of a sudden one of the passengers falls out of his seat on the floor.  Turns out the guy was way past drunk.  No one on the bus was even phased though…  Shows how much of a problem alcohol is here…

We’ll be celebrating Independence Day out at the Beals on the 3rd (We should be heading to the mountains on the 4th).  Hope y’all have a great 4th and remember why it’s called Independence Day!

Tomorrow we (Josh, Nathan, Evan, Daniel, and I) are heading to the mountains to hike the tallest mountain in our area – Mt. Porashka (I think this is the way to say it, but I could be wrong).  This is the same mountain that several of us hiked back in ‘06.  We will be hiking up there Thursday and coming back on Friday. Saturday and Sunday we will be going out to pass out invites for the film showing next Sunday, and we will be showing Fireproof in 2 villages on Sunday. Please pray for safety. Also, please pray for the showings on Sunday. Pray that these village’s priests will not be working against us by telling people to not come. For more info on how CMO is going, click here.  You can also watch my Twitter updates on the right side of this page.  Thank you for your pray support!

Heading out to the Carpathians tomorrow morning… Been really busy.
To keep up with how CMO is going check out: http://www.euroteamoutreach.org/index.php?p=ereport
Have a great day!

Yes, I know, this is way late…  Sorry about that.  Life has been busy, and now that CMO is up and going, it going even faster.  To keep up with what is going on with CMO this summer, click here.

As I’ve posted before, Daniel Courter arrived about 2 weeks early for CMO.  Since the project hadn’t started yet, he became my assistant at the Ministry Center.  Want to publicly thank him for all the work he helped do, everything from counting literature, wrapping Good & Evils, helping clean out and organize the MC office, checking Good & Evil Full for errors, inserting invites into the rest of the Good & Evil shorts, etc, etc, etc.  Thanks Daniel for all the help!

CMO started on June 1st.  It started off relatively slowly, but has been gathering steam and is now roaring down the tracks now!  Nathan Day arrived in L’viv on the morning of the 3rd, and the following day we headed up to the village of Kashchtovania to had out film invites for last Sunday’s showing.  We took the train for L’viv the Stree, then hoped on a bus to go the rest of the way.  Father Stepan (Kashchovania’s priest) got on the bus shortly after we did, and Josh was able to talk to him for the 2 hour ride to the village.  To read more about that conversation, please click here.  Needless to say, it was a shock and a blessing to met a born again Catholic priest in the Carpathians!  We pray that more of his fellow Catholics will come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

We were in the mountains Thursday and Friday, with Friday being filled with a LOT of hiking!  For several hours we hiked through the Carpathians.  It was a interesting experience hiking in a short-sleeved polo sweating, then during a break in the hiking, putting on my hoodie and rain coat due to the really cold winds.  Crazy  We were able to hand out Good & Evil shorts and invites in 2 villages along the way in which we had not been before.  Then hoped on a train and headed back to Stree, then jumping on bus to finish out the route to L’viv.  Made great time due to that great new road

Saturday, Evan Hein joined us (He came in to L’viv the day before).  Nathan Day, Daniel Courter, and Evan Hein are all settled in the CMO apartment.  It’s between here and the Steele’s apartment.  It’s nice to have the entire team so close together!

Sunday we headed back into the mountains to pass out invites in the villages we will be showing ‘Fireproof’ in next week (There are 2 showings on Sunday 1:30pm and 5pm [5:30am & 9am CDT]).  We were only able to get one village done (ran out of invites), so we planned on heading back up there on Wed.  Show the film in Koshchtovania.  There was a wedding that happened on the same day, so we weren’t expecting a large audience.  We had 11 people when the film started and by the end we had had 13 people at one time or another.  Josh gave a salvation message at the end, then we gave out several tracts, Good & Evil shorts, and CBC starter packs.  Right before we left we had a time of prayer with Father Stepan and encouraged him to remain a light for Christ in his village.  It was a massive blessing to our team to get to know him better, and I hope we were an encouragement to him as well.

Monday was the CMO day off.  I had my language lesson with Veronica in the morning, followed by my first speech therapy session with Dara in a few weeks (She had surgery at the hospital for her back and is now able to do lessons again).  Started working on the never-ending pile of to-do’s, but missed out on the blog update

Tuesday we passed out Good & Evil Invites in 2 villages just outside of L’viv (Dublyany and the one next to it).  It was a warm day, and the sun was out.  Yeah, I got sunburned

Wednesday, we headed back up to the mountains to pass out film invites in the village we missed on Sunday.  Took about 4 hours, but we got invites to almost all of the houses!

Today the CMO team was going to be going out to another village in the L’viv area, but it was raining, and (for village distribution) is difficult to adequately get invites out to all the houses.  We decided to make it our Friday ministry day, with Evan & Daniel worked on relabeling our science tracts and plastic wrapping Good & Evil shorts for mountain distribution, Nathan working on preparing chalk skies for next week’s chalk talks, and Josh meeting with a lawyer about the immigration laws here in Ukraine.  Please continue to keep this in prayer.  It appears that the law is now requiring us to register with the OVIR’s office in L’viv, but we have had difficulties with this in the past.  Josh has another meeting tomorrow with someone from the OVIR’s office.  Please pray that this will be fruitful and that we would be able to find a way to get registered with minimal hastles.

Sunday we will be showing ‘Fireproof’ in Volosyanka at 1:30pm (5:30 am CDT) and in Yalynkuvatehat 5pm (9 am CDT).  Please pray that we will not be hindered in our showings by the priests, and that those who come will have open hearts for the Gospel.

Next week, we will also be working with a VBS here in L’viv.

Thank y’all for your prayers!  Sorry if this post is a little scattered.  It’s late, and I am falling asleep as I write this  God bless

We have a film showing of ‘Fireproof’ today in Koshchovania at 6pm (10am CDT). Please pray for a good turn out and open hearts to the Gospel. Watch my tweets for more info. Heading out in a few minutes! God bless

We’re heading to the mountains in a few minutes. I forgot/ran out of time yesterday to post, so sorry… To keep up with how our trip is going check out my twitter updates on the right hand column of this page or on Twitter itself (I can update that in the mountains visa SMS). Thanks for the prayers, God bless!

I received this in my inbox the other day from Family Research Council and though I would share it with you. 

Where Poppies Blow

Until about 40 years ago, Memorial Day was observed–not celebrated–on May 30 every year. Eager Cub Scouts would work their way through the crowds at small town parades selling bright red artificial poppies. In reviewing stands, graying veterans would salute or place their hands over their hearts as high school bands marched by. Often a young girl would be called upon to read the World War I era poem “In Flanders Fields” that describes the poppies blowing row upon row among the graves of fallen warriors of the Great War. 

You can gain a real appreciation of Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery. There, soldiers of the Third Army, the ceremonial “Old Guard” will place little American flags on thousands of well-tended graves. Visitors will be told the story of Arlington, how Col. Robert E. Lee paced the floors of the Custis-Lee mansion back in 1861, praying and pondering. He had to decide whether to serve in the U.S. Army to which he had dedicated his life or to leave the Union with his beloved Virginia. The terrible Civil War that followed for four long and bitter years helped to fill thousands of graves at Arlington, once Lee’s beautiful hilltop home. 

When the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was dedicated in 1921 at Arlington, President Wilson spoke as a Bible was included among the objects placed in the cornerstone of this sacred space. Today, 24 hours a day, Tomb guards march their appointed rounds, honoring those who have fallen to defend our freedoms. The bumper sticker dates from our own time, but the sentiment it expresses goes all the way back: “America–land of the free because of the brave.” 

Americans have always loved their country. We love our country still. And we have a special reverence for those who gave what Lincoln called “the last full measure of devotion.” Even today, with casualties in the War on Terror mercifully coming down, there are still flag-draped caskets returning regularly to Dover Air Force Base. There are fresh graves being filled daily at Arlington–and across America. So great is the call of America that even foreigners feel its pull. The Marquis de Lafayette–a brave hero of our Revolution–took home to France enough American soil to bury his earthly remains. In recent years, Memorial Day has become the occasion for sales at the mall, cookouts, rock concerts, and days at the beach. Our fallen heroes died for this America too. They knew that a certain lightheartedness, of ever-youthful exuberance, is a part of what it means to pursue happiness. It is for all of this, the paths of laudable pursuit, the fruits of honest toil, that America stands. May we always be worthy of those who died to give this America to us.

All I can add is: Remember and be thankful!  God bless America!

We recently found out about changes made to the immigration laws for Ukraine. We are trying to get clarification on what it means. Please pray that we will find out how these new laws affect us, and that our ministry here will not be hindered. I will keep y’all posted on what we find out.

  Wednesday morning, Jessie, Josh, Abby, Edgar, Daniel, and I headed out to the Skole region up in the Carpathian Mountains.  (This is the same area that we went to in 2006 and part of 2007)  Once we were able to get out of L’viv (and it’s traffic), we had an awesome surprise!  The roads which they had been working on in ‘06 and ‘07 were completed!  They were awesome!  It was almost like driving on an American highway (no potholes )!  We made really good time on them and soon we turned of onto some mountain roads, and the jostling began  

  Our first stop was in a village we were in in 2006.  This village was the only place so far that a priest has come to one of our film showings (From some of the answers he has given us, we think he might be saved).  We found him Wednesday afternoon and had a great talk with him.  He remembered Josh from 2006, so that was great!  After a small amount of discussion about the movie (we will be showing Fireproof in this region), he said he would support us and even announce it in his church!  He then compared Jessie’s van with the Apostle Paul’s sandals  With the priest’s blessing we went to the village head and we were able to set up 3 film showings in the 3 different villages the head was over!  One of them will be shown the first week of June, then the other 2 will be back-to-back showings the second week of June.  Praise the LORD, 3 showing set up in the first stop!  It was a great way to start the trip!  (BTW, we generally avoid the village priests, in our experience, they do way more to harm us then to help us, but there are a few exceptions)

  The next village we went to we had no problems setting up the film showing, so we have a village scheduled for the 3rd week of June.  One of Josh’s secret weapons on this trip was…

Good Morning, Abby!

Children are such a great ice-breaker, esp. here in Ukraine.  The building the Steele’s live in has a guard, and one of them is a grouchy looking old man, the only time I see him smile is when Abby is there  So, Abby went with Josh to talk to the village heads, and we didn’t seem to have to many troubles

Our next village though, we hit a snag.  We hunted up the village head (he was at home), and after talking with him for a short time, he called the priest.  He talked to him for a minute then handed the phone to Josh.  Josh spoke with him for maybe a minute, then was told by the priest, essentially, that he didn’t want us there.  The village head bowed to the priest’s demands, so we had our first rejection.  We will probably try to go to that village later in the summer and do a literature blitz there, but there won’t be a film showing.

After this, we headed to the next village (actually headed back, we had stopped there on the way to the previous village, but the head was out).  He wasn’t there again, so we found out where his house was and started heading in that direction.  On the way, we met the village priest.  As Josh and Jessie started talking to him, the rest of us were praying.  In the mountains, there is distrust between the priest and any missionary.  The beginning part of the conversation was akward, but it became more relaxed as the priest realized we weren’t a sect, and we realized he wasn’t going to campaign against us.  We found out that he had already been showing Fireproof in the village and was continuing to do so.  Josh exchanged contact info with him (we might try to show Light of the World  there in the future).  We were also able to give the priest (Oleg is his name) a Good and Evil, so that was great!

We found a great camping spot, though it took a little bit for the van to make it out there (we took Jessie’s van instead of the train on this trip).  It was right next to a creek/river, it was beautiful!  Here’s some pix:

Josh - 'This is how a tent that doesn't leak like a sieve works!' Bryan - 'Ahhhh...'

Forget the ramen, Josh learned a great recipe that's a lot better from his climbing buddies. Good thing that we were there to cook it, though. Josh had to get help cooking noodles. Don't worry, we'll teach him by the end of the summer

Jessie - 'No, Josh, you put the noodles in AFTER the water starts boiling!' Josh - 'Ohhh...'

Jessie's van along with 3 REI tents and 1 Cabela's... We should get a referral rate from REI We all stayed dry that night!

Jessie did the devotional in the morning.  It was on the Proverb of the day.  Had a good discussion, then pulled out and headed to the next village.

  In the next village (Tuklia), we hit some snags as we were trying to get approval for the film showing.  Apparently, we’ll have to get permission from a center in Skole or Stree to be able to show there.  Josh got all the contact info needed, and we’ll be working on jumping through the hoops soon…

The next village head we went to see was over 2 villages, and we were able to get both village scheduled for back-to-back showings on the 4th week of June.  It was interesting for me to be back in that village, cause that is the place I learned in 2006 how valuable a good tent is (I woke up with a pond in my tent in ‘06).

We went to one last village and found out the village head was out of town, and the others in there didn’t want to say we could without his permission, so we got the contact info for him, and we will be calling him once he comes back.

Our little 'secret weapon' trying on my glasses

After that we started our trek back to L’viv.  Stopped at a really nice truck stop (of sorts) and had a great lunch.  We had a great series of discussions on the way back in the van.  Made great time with those awesome roads, and we were back in L’viv Thursday afternoon.  Then came the

tent drying routine

Overall, we were able to set up 6 villages with film showings for the 4 weeks in June, we have contact info for 2 more possible showings to schedule in July, and only got shut down (completely) once.  It was a good trip!

Today, I have my language lesson this evening, and we have/will be sending out 10 more Good & Evil fulls.

That’s all from here, for now!  God bless!

So, I’m still getting things back to the way they were, so please excuse the construction dust
(BTW, like the new header color scheme?) 

Pix break  
Sunday, all of us (expect the Beal’s) met after church at the Steele’s apartment.  (Alexandria was getting over being sick, so we didn’t want her to catch something else…)  We had lunch and then our game(s) of Catan.  It was a good time of fellowship and refreshment and, of course, food  Afterward, Daniel, Josh, and I pulled out our computers to use the wifi, and to get a few things done (including fixing this blog).  Here’s the pic:

Working on the laptops...

So, here comes the windows joke, if this will offend you, please skip this paragraph and go to the next.  There now, since all of the weird people are gone jk…  Here is the title Josh has for it on Twitter – ‘Of Macs and Men’  My thinking was – “An Apple a day keeps the Vista away!”  Both Daniel and I are Mac converts primarily because of that sorry piece of trash called Vista  Ok, now I’m going back to the normal account of the week.  :-P

Daniel Courter arrived Friday night for CMO.

Daniel Courter

He arrived about 2 weeks before the project started, so he’s been helping me at the Ministry Center (also known as my apartment, at least to me ) prepare for CMO.  We’ve been able to get a lot done since he’s arrived!  The room that holds all of the ETO materials (tracts, lessons, Good & Evils, literature, etc) looks really great!  I would put up before/after shots, put, alas, I didn’t take a before!  Anyway, Daniel will be living in my apartment until CMO starts on the 1st, which is also when the CMO apartment we are renting becomes available.  It’s been an encouragement to me having Daniel here.  I have been able to translate for him a little (mostly at the store and in greetings), so I can see my language studies have been helping!

Speaking of language studies, I had a really good lesson on Monday!  Last Friday, though, was on the complete opposite end of the spectrum.  I was soooo ready for the weekend after that!  We really had to wrestle through the concepts of telling time; though I had the main ideas down, the words just weren’t coming.  Then, towards the end, my brain placed itself on lock-down, so that didn’t help things either  But, they tell me that is normal…  Like I am ever any thing near normal!  lol  Thankfully, Monday was a really good lesson, so I am not dreading my next lesson

Tonight is English club/Audio Bible Study.  It starts in 3 hours…  We would appreciate your prayers for this ministry.  Tonight, Josh is teaching out of Romans.  He will be picking up in Romans 3:21.  Josh posted some about what he’s been teaching, to read it, click here.

Tomorrow morning, Jessie, Josh, Daniel, Edgar (a Ukrainian friend), and I will be heading into the mountains to do a scouting trip.  We will be collecting contact information from the village heads where we plan to show a film, and tentatively setting a date to do so…  We will be returning Thursday night.  Please pray for safety, productivity, favor with the village heads, and no interference from the village priests.

I added a twitter feed on the right hand column.  I will be able to update this while in the mountains via SMS.  So, if you don’t have a twitter account, you can check here to see what going on in 140 character or less!

Lastly, I found out today that a friend of mine, Joshua Muse is heading to Sudan for 2 months this summer to work with a pastor there sharing the Gospel.  There is a window of opportunity to share the Gospel there that might close next year with another civil war outbreak.  Please pray for his protection, boldness to share the Gospel, and for God to help him learn the 2 languages spoken there.  God bless you Joshua!

Joshua Muse

Keep your lights burning for the LORD!  There’s a big world of darkness out there!  It only takes a spark…

God bless!