BRU NEWS…AUGUST 2024
We are having a busy summer so far! Here are some areas that have had our focus this season:
Advance Updates
In May, we hosted the Advance Team in Tacoma for a couple of days of meetings. The team tries to meet in person twice per year to review ministry and make plans for the future. We look forward to expanding this ministry further.
One of our Advance partnerships is in Myanmar, a country that has been ravaged by civil war over the last few years since a military Coup in 2021. Myanmar is a country with over 150 different people groups, many opposed to the ruling military junta currently in power. War has caused many to flea their villages and some churches are meeting in the woods and jungle areas of the country. We are praising God for the opportunity to partner with churches in the country to send 28 missionary church planters to these dangerous places. We have opportunity to partner to send 6 more church planters. The monthly cost to send a church planter in this country is about $400 – our part will be $200. If you would like to sponsor all or part of a church planter, you can do so here. (biblicalminiistries.org/project/advance_ministry). Be
sure to mention “Myanmar” in your description.
Other BMW Updates
A major project that Kevin has been involved in is the preparation for the annual financial statement audit at BMW. This has required quite a bit of detailed work as there were many areas that needed to be brought into order so that the audit could begin. Kevin made a trip to Atlanta in June for this purpose. In July, Kevin traveled to South Carolina to attend the BMW board meetings and Candidate training, which was also a great opportunity to connect with colleagues on many other ministry initiatives. In June Kevin & Yulia attended the IFCA annual conference
in Arkansas. This provided opportunities to connect with many ministry friends, to participate as a member of IFCA at the convention and to represent BMW. Kevin participated in a BMW workshop on a panel with the theme of “Ministry Transitions.”
Other Ministry Updates
We continue to serve at Central Bible Church, where Kevin has been officially voted in as the part-time Senior Pastor. While we remain in full-time ministry with BMW, we are also grateful to invest significant time leading the ministry at Central where the congregation has grown from around 30 people to 50+ over the last two years. We hosted our second VBS in July and were very pleased with the turnout of volunteers from the church and the opportunity to teach the gospel to kids in word and in deed.
Last week we hosted 11 underprivileged Japanese students at Central and provided a morning ESL and some other activities for these students and the foundation from Japan that brought them to the USA.
Church renovation continues and we will soon have recarpeted lower and main floors, as well as new paint on both floors.
Kids Updates
Our kids finished a good school year, all three getting excellent grades and making good progress through the year. They’ve been busy this summer with many activities with friends and family. We especially enjoyed a trip to the Oregon
Coast with our whole family in early July. Daniel, Valerie and Philip will be entering the 8th, 5th and 3rd grade this Fall.
Prayer Requests
• Pray for wisdom as we look to expand our partnerships with Advance into new regions of the world. Praise God for
a key Indian advisor who will help us greatly in SE Asia.
• Pray for more support for Advance so that we can fund new partnerships and wisdom in efforts to raise support.
• Pray for a smooth audit at BMW and for several financial transitions that Kevin is helping with.
• Pray for Yulia as she oversee international students at Sound Christian. This involves finding host homes, working
directly with the students and with the agencies that bring the students. She needs both stamina and wisdom!
• Pray for our kids as they start a new school year. For good learning and also for good relationships with friends and
teachers. Especially pray that they will continue to grow in their relationship with Christ.
Thanks for praying for us and our Ministry! We love what we are doing!
~Kevin and Yulia