Category: Friends

Urgent prayers for Kathryn’s team

I received this email from Matt today, regarding Kathryn’s time in Russia.

Kathryn texted me today. She does not have a computer to send any thing out right now. PLEASE PRAY. I don’t know whats going on. This is what she was saying…
“Keep praying!!! I wish I could tell you more. The caregiver at the orphanage is calling government officials. Many investigations continues tomorrow. KEEP PRAYING SPREAD THE NEWS”
“VBS is canceled tomorrow. We will hide or leave when the government is here. This could affect all Buckner’s work in Russia and directors job of orphanage who let us come”
“also PRAY FOR Svetlana the care giver who is calling the government PRAY FOR HER HEART”
Sunday I had a pulling on my heart to pray for Kathryn, some of it I was scared at the time. I talked (to) Kathryn yesterday and she said they went to a new orphanage that day and were going to spend a week doing VBS. She said one (of) the care givers didn’t want her kids to participate with them.
The last text I got today was “there something very big going on in this place Can’t describe it but there is definitly something stirring in me”
Please pray for my friend Kathryn. God knows whats going on, pray for God’s wisdom and believe in His power that in already in control. Pray for there protection…..

Updates from Kathryn

These were all sent to my old email address, but wanted to be sure I shared them with you all so you can keep my “sister” Kathryn in you prayers as she’s just returned from Uganda and arrived in Russia over the weekend.

I was in an earthquake!! Ok…well, it was actually a small earthquake with very little repercussion. It was definitely a new experience for me and, in a way, it was symbolic of what was happening in the hearts of the people of Rakia and those in
surrounding villages. The people were ready to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ and by the end of our time there, 87 new believers were born into the Kingdom of God. Hallelujah!!!
THANK YOU SO MUCH for your prayers and financial support. We were kept safe, everyone stayed healthy, and most importantly, seeds of the Gospel were planted. I wish I had time to relay all that the Lord was doing while we were there.
juliet.JPGI do want to tell you about one little girl named Juliet and ask for your fervent prayers. Juliet is between seven and nine years old and she is the head of her household. Her mother and father abandoned her and her four siblings.
When we visited her hut, two of her siblings were at school and two had gone to look for food. All they had was four or five golf ball-sized Irish potatoes for five growing children. They shared a two-room mud hut with a thatched roof (that surely leaks when it rains), with no windows, no electricity, no furniture, and dirt floors.
After we provided a few gifts of water, food, a mattress, and other needed items,
Juliet asked us to pray that she would be able to take care of her family. (When I was her age, I prayed for a pony.) Our hearts broke as we knelt by this courageous little girl to offer her needs up to the Lord. I ask that you would join us in continuous prayer for Juliet and her siblings for the Lord to meet their basic needs, and most importantly, for her to know the realness of His love.
It’s easy to look at Juliet’s situation and feel that the Lord has forgotten her and so many others like her. However, we know that He hasn’t. God’s love for her is so great that HE used you and me, all the way from the USA, to bring provisions to Uganda to meet the needs of Juliet and others like her. We were just blessed to be the vessel HE used.
I’ll be sending you another email shortly as we prepare to leave for Russia on Friday. Thank you for your continued prayers. I can feel the difference its making!!

~Katya
“Let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” 1 John 3:18

This was just before she left for Russia on Thursday:

Tomorrow we will be leaving for Russia with plans to visit about 6 different orphanages. Our main focus will be on Vacation Bible School (VBS) and forming relationships with the children so that the Gospel can be shared. Please keep us
in your prayers for

  • safety in travel
  • physical, mental, and emotional strength
  • the Lord’s anointing on everything we do as His servants

I look forward to sending you update emails over the next month until my return on August 4th. You can also read the intern blog on Buckner’s website http://internsatbuckner.blogspot.com.
Thank you so much for your prayers! You are vital to this ministry and our team!
~Kathryn “Katya”
“Let us not love with words or tongue but with action and in truth.” 1 John 3:18

And after arriving in Russia on Sunday she sent this:

Our team of seven fantastic ladies has safely made it to Russia yesterday with all of our luggage. Praise the Lord! This morning we enjoyed a contemporary Russian church service and then a nice Russian lunch of chicken crepes…delicious!
This afternoon we will prepare and pack for a week of vacation bible school at an orphanage called Lopoohinka. The interns last month were the first Buckner group to visit this orphanage. We will stay there for six days, coming back on Saturday.
Please pray the Lord will direct our planning and packing for this orphanage of all ages and that the hearts of the children and caregivers will be open and eager to hear the good news of the Gospel.
I urge you to continue in fervant prayer! They are making a difference! I look forward to updating you on how the Lord is working and moving in the hearts of those at Lopoohinka.
~Katya
“Let us not love with words or tongue but with action and in truth.” 1 John 3:18

Thanks for your prayers, I’ll keep you as updated as I can.

Jonathan sets out the napkins


Jonathan sets out the napkins
Originally uploaded by Jonathan D. Blundell.

We just wrapped up our first monthly “dinner club” at Casa de Blundell. We had a great time 13 adults and one baby Gracelyn. Our last guests left just before 11 p.m. and we enjoyed some great Mexican food made by all. Aaron and I also partook in some good imported Mexican beer before it was all said and done.
Tonights menu:
Cheese poppers and bacon wrapped jalape̱os РShane and Sarah
Chips, queso and guacamole – Richard and Amber
Beef enchiladas – Blundells
Chicken enchiladas – Josh and Shalyn
Beef fajitas and guacamole – Smiley and Shari
(amazing) Apple cinnamon wraps with vanilla ice cream – Aaron and Keri
We were surprised we were able to get 13 people seated in our humble abode, but we did it and then played a game of Boxers or Briefs afterwards.
We also took two of our old digital cameras and set them out for everyone to snap random photos as they saw fit. One of them has a busted LCD screen on it – so it made for some fun interesting pics. You can see them all on my Flickr account.
A great time had by all I do believe. We’re ready to start planning our next monthly dinner club meeting for next month. Check your e-mail you might be invited. Spaces are limited – we’ll start drawing names from the hat again soon.

The desire for community

I’m still amazed at how often I hear about the desire people have for community – yet so often we’re “too busy” to take time to build relationships, or we’ve “been burned too many times” to take a risk on another relationship.
Even folks who love freelancing and working on their own still desire to build community in their own away-from-work environments.
“The idea for me is forming deep connections with the people who are there,” Brad Neuberg said in a recent video he and other co-workers made. Co-working is a movement to create a community of cafe-like collaboration spaces for developers, writers and independents. “I go to bars and I see lots of people standing around and no one talks to each other and I don’t know why. Yet I go to a house party with lots of people standing around but they’re talking because there’s a shared context… How do you get that magic of a shared identity?”

These programmers have found a way to build community around open source software and technology. As a church we have the common identity of Christ and His salvation yet sometimes you can feel the loneliest at church or around other Christians. How do we build that bridge and knock down those walls?

Some tips from the co-workers for building community and community spaces:

  • Start talking about it
  • Be open with your process
  • Be very sharing
  • The more you give the more you’ll get
  • Be willing and patient in your pursuant of community

Olly (Mrs. Thomas) reflects on Rob Bell

Thomas’ wife Olly is back blogging again and she reflects on hearing Rob Bell over the weekend. (I don’t think she has permalinks turned on so the link doesn’t appear to be working but it’s one of her latest posts).

Rob spoke about how wonderful it would be if the world tried to find a third way of dealing with situations such as these. Jesus was the best at finding third ways. Diffusing situations where people where desperately trying to irritate Him…where people were trying to accuse Him of breaking some sort of law…. God’s law!….where people tried to bring Jesus down…..He found a third way…He found a way of diffusing it all without allowing people to humiliate Him or drag Him down or worst of all allow people to say that He wasn’t who He claimed to be…The Son of God…the Messiah! Yet He did it with such class! He didn’t just walk away from the situation and just give up, but yet neither did He retaliate in the same manner as what was done to Him…..He found a third way, and in doing so, didn’t lose face. He put his point across with such great authority and with such clarity that the disgruntled people were left at times speechless and with the ball well and truly being out of their court.
I really feel that for most people, finding a third way in which to react to a situation, especially one that comes unexpected and fast, is incredibly hard! We usually react quickly in one out of the two ways…and I desperately need to find a way of letting this third way of reacting come naturally to me. When I look back over my life and even at this very moment in my life I feel that I allow or have allowed people to put me down which is really in essence trying to humiliate me. It may be that they are unaware of what they are doing, yet it hurts. How do I deal with it. Well in my past I have usually “sucked it up” and as I don’t like confrontation and animosity particularly much, I usually just smile and pretend I don’t mind, and then go home upset about it…knowing full well that if I allowed myself to respond in the other way it would only be to my own shame the next day when I remember back to how I let it rip!

Good stuff – drop by and give Olly a visit and enjoy the rest of her thoughts on Bell.