Bryan Shufelt

Schools, cinemas, and public gatherings closed for 3 weeks!  Students, now free from classes for these 3 weeks now flock back to their home villages.  More and more people use masks, scarves, hats, whatever they have has masks!  Inter-region travel restricted for non-urgent travel!  Swine Flu has broken out in Western Ukraine! And yet, God is still on His Throne, and He is still in control!  Psalm 118:6 “The LORD is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me?” (Think that includes diseases, too!)

Today, I was invited by Jessie and Teresa Beal to go to Metro (kinda like Sam’s or Costco) with them.  I was excited, because Metro has some of the things that other store don’t.  I met them in Center, by Shevchenko’s statue.  As I was waiting, I noticed some strange things.  A few people were walking around with surgical masks on.  A few others were covering their faces with their scarves.  I really didn’t think anything about it, till I remember reading a tweet or FB comment about 30 some possible swine flu deaths in Western Ukraine.  I smiled to myself, and thought nothing of it.  Caution is good for some, I guess.  Spent the rest of the time staring at the beautiful American flag hanging in front of the Grand Hotel.  When we got to Metro, almost all of the employees were wearing face masks!  Oh well, caution for them is good too, I guess…  Got a bunch of goodies (salsa, tortilla chips, Heinz spaghetti sauce, special spices, etc.), checked out, and headed home.  Since it is Friday, I only had about 15 minutes before I had to head out to go my language lessons.  Got the groceries put away, grabbed my lesson books, and headed out the door.  Saw more and more masks…

My first lesson was with my Ukrainian teacher, Veronica.  We try to talk in Ukrainian and only fill in the gaps with English (so I can fully understand the conversation).  Of course, the topic of today kept going back to the ‘outbreak’ of the swine flu.  Since Veronica is also a college teacher, she was filling me in on what was happening with the schools.  This entire time, not even a bit scared of the dreaded ‘swine flu!’  In fact, as I was walking up the street to Veronica’s building, I was laughing to myself about all the cracks I could make in this post  We finished our lesson, then I headed over to my speech therapist, Dara.  She speaks no English, and as I speak Ukrainian much better then I understand it orally (neither is that good), or conversation is sometimes limited.  Dara is a grandmotherly type Ukrainian who is always trying to make sure I bundle up when it’s cold outside  Anyway, we get through our session, and we talk a little about the ‘outbreak,’ but not that much.  She makes sure I use my scarf to cover my nose and mouth when I leave her house  Get on the bus, and notice how empty it is outside.  Yes, it’s cold out side (high 30′s F), but not much colder then normal.  On the way back to my apartment, I see people using turtlenecks, hats, scarves, and a few masks to cover their faces.  All I do is make sure I breathe through my nose (mostly ’cause the cold area is not doing great things to the back of my throat).  Again, I’m slightly surprised at how unaffected I am.  I know I am where God wants me, and I know that nothing can happen to me without His approval, and nothing will happen to me that He will not turn out for His good (and mine in the end ).  I’ll stop rambling about the day now

So, now, due to the current crisis, I want to present a short devotional.  Thanks to David Grice and Alex Keeler (and who ever else posted it on FB) for the idea a few months ago.  The title of the devotional will be:  ’Swine Flu!’
Er…  Meant to say ‘Swine Flew!’  Sorry, it would have been better with audio
In the beginning of Mark 5, we read a story many of us are familiar with about Jesus casting legion out of a man into a ton of pigs.  Go ahead and read verses 1-20.  There are so many things we can learn from this story.  One thing that I always see is how much smarter then humans swine can be.  What happens when these 2,000 swine are possessed by demons?  That’s right!  Those swine flu er… flew into the sea! (Had to get that in there )  Seriously now, as soon as those pigs saw what was coming their way, they ran!  Even though it cost them their lives, they ran!  What do we do when faced with similar situations of temptation?  We run, but too often we run the wrong way!  And some times temptation doesn’t even have time to find us, because we are looking for it!  We should never take pleasure in the things Christ died for!  ”Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” James 4:7  We can always be victorious if we rely on Christ and follow Him!  ”Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.” James 4:8  So the next time you hear about the ‘Swine Flu,’ stop and check yourself.  Are you being smarter then the pigs?

We’ve had a GREAT week for the Correspondence Bible Course this week!  We had 29 letters in the PO box on Monday (that was from last week as well, though), 8 on Monday, and 9 today!  We have at least 5 new people that are being added to the course this week, with at least 2 Good and Evil Full Request coming in as well! (I haven’t gone through today’s mail, so the numbers aren’t fully accurate, yet.  They could still go up! )  And with the swine flu break out, more people will be staying home, and that means we’ll have a lot more  lessons coming in for the next few weeks! (There’s blessings in everything!)  I know this will be slightly old news, but it’s exciting nonetheless!  We got a note back from one of our students a few months ago, that told as that because of the Bible teaching and the questions we ask in the Bible course, he accepted Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Saviour!  AMEN!!!  That’s awesome!!  Please keep this aspect of our ministry in your prayers.  We will never fully know the impact of these lessons, till we’re in the Promised Land!  We’ve experienced several technical difficulties lately with the lessons themselves (misprints and the like) and with lesson development (future lessons), so I ask that you spend a little extra time in prayer about this the next time you are on your knees!  As Paul says, We are laborers together!  God bless!

Today has been a good day.  The sun was out, temp got up to 62 degrees, and it looked like autumn.  It was nice to be outside for the time I was.  I have two lessons on M, W, & F, with the Monday lessons starting earlier at 3:30pm instead of 5pm.  Daylight Savings ended here in Ukraine Sunday, so we are on normal time  Maybe that helped to make the day nice as well  It was really nice to be out in Fall weather.  We had a few day of that 2 weeks ago before the snow fell  Anyway, I enjoyed it while it lasted.

We had 29 envelopes in the PO box today!  26 are lessons that have been returned, and 3 are letters.  I’ve got some work layed out for me tomorrow!  I hadn’t checked it in a week, so that is 7 days worth of mail, but that’s still a lot!  I was really glad when I saw all of them, PTL!

Things have been going pretty well over here.  With the approach of Dec 22, the daylight hours are getting shorter; the cloud coverage doesn’t help much either.  Without the sun, L’viv looks a lot like one color: grey.  Boring and depressing  The harvest times are coming to an end and people are getting ready for what some are saying is going to be a pretty hard winter.  Funny things is, when I get back to TX in Dec, I think I’ll be so used to really cold temperatures, I wonder how I’ll adjust to the TX cold temps

Thank you for reading all of these ramblings.  Sometimes it’s good to just type away without have to think to hard.  As you can tell, I’m not into deep thought right now  Have a great day!

Forecast on my Mac for L’viv says that next week will be a lot of rain with snow intermingling towards the middle of the week.  Then it drops below freezing.  My hope is that the heaters are turned on before it gets really cold. (Here in L’viv the heat in all the apartments is not controlled by the individual, the entire building gets the same volume.  I’m thinking the people in charge of the building decide when to turn them on…)  There was a sign on the door downstairs that stated all remonts (remodeling, construction, etc) had to be finished by the beginning of October because they were going to start prepping the pipes for heating.  We’ll see…

The ministry is slowing down here.  As we get farther away from CMO, the request for Good & Evils are slowing down (the great news is that we have reached a few people in different villages/cities that keep sending us addresses of friends and relatives that want G/E, which is awesome!).  The correspondence course is still going, growing slowly, and keeping us busy with answering questions that have come in.  English Club is going pretty well.  We are averaging around 6-7 Ukrainians each Tuesday night.  The Bible Study part has been postponed till January when Nathan and Katelin get back to Ukraine (we don’t have an interpreter, and neither Jessie nor I are fluent enough to teach without one).  CBC Development is back up and running.  We had a software problem earlier due to incompatibility issues on Josh’s snow leoparded Mac .  Thankfully those problems have now been resolved, and we will have new lessons coming out soon.

I purchased my ticket back to the States this week.  I will be flying back to the States on Dec. 12.  I was able to get my flights through Luftansa (Praise God it wasn’t LOT ), so I’ll have a short layover in Germany.  Never been there, so that’s one more country I can add to my been in list

Well, that’s all for now.  I have Good & Evil requests calling my name  God bless!

Just a quick update to let y’all know what’s going on here…
We recently added our 400th student to our Chronological Bible Course! It was really exciting for me! Since I got here in January, over 80 people have been enrolled in the course! Please keep these students in prayer, that as they study the Bible, God would speak to their hearts. Also, please keep in prayer the lesson development for CBC.
This evening, we had 7 Ukrainians at English Club. At the end, some started talking about our CBC, and it ended up with everyone taking a starter packet home with them! The group tonight was all newer people, so we are looking forward to the responses we’ll get back.
It’s getting late, so off to bed I go (Thankfully, I just killed that irritating mosquito! ) Have a great day, y’all!

I’ve only got a few minutes before I need to head out to church, but I wanted to share a quick update and a thought that has been running through my mind….

The Correspondence Bible Course is almost up to 400 students!  I anticipate that we will hit that mark this week or next.  I’m really looking forward to that mark

I watched ‘Saving Private Ryan’ recently, and there was a line that is running through my head.  (BTW, this is not a recommendation to watch it, just an observation)  On the bridge while Tom Hanks is dying, he tells Matt Damon (Private Ryan), after giving his life (and several of his men’s lives) to protect him, Hanks whispers, “Earn this.”  Taking a spiritual application, I am SO glad that we do not have to earn salvation.  Jesus didn’t say from the cross, “Earn this.”  He said, “Father, forgive them,” and “It is FINISHED!”  Now going down a different trail, we should be living our lives remembering that One has died for us.  We should be, in one sense, living our lives to ‘earn this,’ meaning that we should be living our lives, remembering that Someone died so that we might live.  We should be living in honor of Him and His sacrifice.

That’s all I have time for, have a great day worshipping the LORD!

Wow, time flies!  Sorry about this folks, I meant to d o this earlier, but it never got finished!  Well, hope you have fun reading my little book

Monday, July 27th, 2009, found me sitting in the L’viv airport terminal waiting to board my flight back to the USA through Warsaw and Chicago.  While there, I met up with 3 other Americans who were returning to their various home towns in the States after attending different classes held in L’viv over the summer by a Greek Catholic School.  It was a pleasure talking with them and speaking in my own native language!  I ended up having the same flight schedule as 2 of them all the way to Chicago!  We talked about our impressions of Ukraine, some of the cultural differences we’d experienced, what we had been doing in L’viv, etc.  Traveling alone is a real bummer, so it was great having company!  Got to Chicago and was pleased to be back in America!  I had been out of the country for over 6 months!  Breezed through customs and the great staff guy at the American Airlines ticket counter was extremely pleasant and let me use his phone to call Mom to confirm with her I was going catch my flight to DFW and it was running on time (last time I missed it).  I was pleasantly surprised with O’Hare!  It was much easier to find my way around then the last time (2006) I went through there.  Ended up being a little late getting into DFW, but because of the heavy rain, Mom was late, too.  Mom and Kyle ended up arriving just before my luggage came (Side note: my brother actually walked by me at the airport, because he didn’t recognize me Though in his defense, he hadn’t seen me wearing glasses and I had a lot of hair ).  I was extremely glad to be home and to get some sleep!  32 hours day are long!

Tuesday – Thursday was filled with celebrating Mom’s birthday, catching up with some friends, and attending an Impressions Choir rehearsal.  That was awesome!  I sat in the back row with Byron Lane and his brother, Nathan.  Bro. Craig was lenient with us and allowed some cutting up  Reliving Reflections’ memories

Early Friday morning, Mom and I packed up the minivan and headed to CO.  It was ridiculously early in the morning, thankfully Mom was good with driving for a while, so I crawled into the back seat and slept for a few hours  We arrived in Windsor, CO with enough time to check Mom into her hotel and get me on the campus to register for Eric Ludy’s Set Apart Life discipleship conference.  It was an incredible weekend!

At Loodle's coffee shop...

The theme of the weekend was: ‘The Cave of Adullam – Joining the Ranks of the Hunted and Despised.’  I was reminded of so many principles of the Christian life and I learned so much!  To sum it all up, I recognized that what I have accepted as ‘Christianity’ is a mediocre, boring, un-useful waste of time.  There is so much more to Christianity then all the religious stuff we do!  There is a relationship with God that make the indwelled Christian a world-changer.  The first century church had something that we do not have today!  I want to go back to a relationship with Christ that is so on fire, that it could be honestly said of me that I helped ‘turn the world upside down’  I have rejected mediocrity and am pushing toward the mark!  I want to be a true Christian!  I left that weekend conference with a lot to think about and a lot to change.  I am on a new path

The conference ended Sunday morning.  Mom and I headed back to FW.  There was enough time for me to get home, switch suitcases, catch an hour or so of sleep, and head out to Austin with Dad.  He dropped me off on his way to South Texas for the week.  I arrived at the hotel a few hours early, was able to connect to the net and catch up on email, facebook, and the like  A couple hours later, Patriot Academy started.  To sum it up in one word – WOW!

If you don’t know what Patriot Academy is, check out http://www.patriotacademy.com/  It’s an amazing 5 day political training program with a Biblical worldview.  Needless to say, it was awesome!!!!

Me on the actual Texas State Senate floor! This was my desk for 2 days

Me on the actual Texas State House Floor. This was my desk for 5 days

Patriot Academy 2009!

I spent the week with 80 other incredible young people, learning the system of legislation; working our bills through our committees, working calendars to try to get our bills on the Floor, laying them out on the Floor, debating, working the Floor for votes, and finally voting yea or nay!  Plus sprinkle in there tons of teaching, forums, debates, etc, and you have one jam packed spectacular week!  It was awesome getting to know young people from all over the country and seeing the hope we have in our great nation, as this next generation steps forward to restore our Godly heritage.  I can’t say it enough, it was an awesome, spectacular, incredible, stupendous, (well, you get the idea ) week!  I was the committee chair of one of the committees (I thought it was interesting that ours was named the John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg Committee.  This was the Minister during the Revolutionary War that preached the sermon on a time for everything including war then after ward stepped out of his minister’s robe in a colonel’s outfit.  The next day he was leading 300 men out of town to join the war effort.), and I was awarded the Rookie of the Year award .  It was a great week!

I attended my home church that following Sunday.  It was great to see several friends there!  Spent the remaining few days in the States catching up with more friends, attending Reflections Concert Choir’s first practice, and spending the Wed. evening service sharing what has been going on in Ukraine at Fairpark.  Thursday morning came far to quickly and I was back at DFW, waiting to board my plane to JFK, Warsaw, then L’viv.

There was a problem with the plane, so it ended up sitting on the tarmac for an hour and a half before leaving for JFK…  I only had a 2 hour lay-over there :-S  We arrived in JFK, and I had a hard time finding the LOT airlines, so I could get me ticket for the next leg of my flight (Side note: JFK is not a well organized airport.  Nothing is clearly marked.  I plan on avoiding it if I can in the future…).  Long story short, I missed my flight.  I was given the option of catching the next one the following day (making me arrive in L’viv on Sat), or taking a bus over to Newark and leaving later that night (arriving in L’viv on Friday though 4 hours later then originally planned).  I elected to go to Newark.  I rode a public bus from JFK to NYC (Grand Central), then transferred over to a bus that continued on to Newark.  It was a very long day up to that point with little food and less then a liter of water (airline restrictions).  When I finally got to Newark, I was able to buy some water inside the airport terminal.  Let’s just say, it wasn’t the best day of my life .  Thankfully nothing else went wrong for the rest of my flights and I arrived in L’viv Friday evening.

Upon arriving, I discovered that despite what I was told in Newark, my checked luggage was not waiting for me.  Thankfully, I was able to arrange for Josh to come help me at the baggage claim.  It was kinda funny, because the lady could not find my luggage anywhere in the computer!  They had no idea where it was!  She was very apologetic, and it didn’t bother me because I had everything I needed at my apartment.  They were delivered the next day, with only slight amounts of additional damage to the suitcases (I don’t think they will be making several more trips internationally ).  I did have a surprising amount of trouble with Jet Lag upon arrival in L’viv, but it eventually wore off

Now on to what’s been going on here .  There were 34 requests for Good & Evils waiting for me to fill (this was only from 3 weks worth of accumulation! PTL!).  Those were sent out last week.  We have 380 students in our CBC course, and we are woring on printing the next several lessons (14 & 15 are in translation).  I was looking the other day and Lesson 13 (the last one we have printed) is our 3 highest ranked lesson people are on!  That is great news!  :-)

The Steeles left L’viv for America last week.  They arrived safely with all but 1 piece of luggage .  It came a day later.  Nathan Day left on Sunday night and he is now safely back in CO with all of his luggage.  He gets married in 2 months, then he and Katelin will be returning to L’viv in January.  I’ve moved into the Steeles apartment for the time being, so I’m enjoying the space!  Denise’s parents are in town (they were given tickets to visit for their 50 anniversary).  Jessie’s cough is still hanging on, but he’s definitely looking better (if that is possible ).  The Beal’s recently finished the trim in their house (Nathan & I helped).  This was a huge blessing to them!

Ok, I think I talked about everything.  If you’ve read this far congratulations!  :-)  There are a few things I would ask for prayer on:
1.  God’s direction for my life.  I am needing to now which field(s) to pursue and there are several paths that have opened up to me, but they don’t all go in the same direction…
2.  Language lessons.  Progress is a good thing, esp. since I have found I stink at languages
3.  The ministry going on here (and in the States) would continue to be fruitful.
4.  Health.  Being sick is bad, very, very bad

God bless, and have a great month!  I should be updating a little more frequently now that I’m working up a routine

In about an hour I’ll be heading to the airport to catch my flight back to Ukraine.  Thank you for your prayers.  I’ll tweet once I land

God bless

I’ve been super busy since I got back to the States. I’ve had an awesome 2 weeks so far, and I look forward to my last few days here. I will be speaking at Fairpark Baptist Church on Wednesday (6000 Crowley Rd, Fort Worth TX) at 7pm in the auditorium. I’ll be giving a report of how the work in Ukraine is going. All are welcome! Hope to see you there!

Please pray for Jessie Beal.  He has come down with some type of bacterial infection.  Please pray for complete and quick recovery.

Just wanted to let y’all know that I arrived in America safely, with all my luggage, and only 15 minutes behind schedule
Good night.

Leaving shortly to head to the airport and fly back to Fort Worth. Please pray that the flight will go smoothly and that it will stay on time. Also, please remember me. Today is the longest day of the year for me It’ll last 32 hours
Have a great day, and I’ll see some of y’all soon!