Month: March 2016 (Page 1 of 2)

A few random pics from the Cafe today.  Enjoyed a final day of study in preparation for Russia trip next week.  Freshly amazed at God’s sovereign plan – His Kingdom has come in Christ, and will reign forever.  Enter it by faith.  Live it today.  Seek the Kingdom first if you have any care for eternity!

‘… God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever.’  Daniel 2:44

Alyosha has made these acoustic panel frames – they will hang in our studio and absorb the sound for best recording atmosphere.

What is music to your ears?  I enjoy seeing the Cafe abuzz with activity.   When the team from Texas & Belarus was here, we had two floors packed with activity every day and night.  Since they’ve left, it hasn’t been quite as busy, but we’ve had something cool taking place in the wake of the activity.

Last week, starting on Monday, the ‘drummer boys’ started coming up after school.  Several of the boys from the drum class continued taking lessons with Collins.  Six consecutive afternoons later, there’s now a full band.. well, an aspiring one.  We have a Bass player, Piano, Guitar, and several drummers making quite a racket.

Most of those here are from the Creative Courses, and had never touched their respective instrument 3 weeks ago… now you are getting a picture of what we’re up against! 🙂  Collins and I take turns popping in and giving some basic strategy and lessons – partly for our own sanity as we try and make progress in our respective offices (it is loud!).   Regardless of the sounds they actually make, it is music to my ears.

This was the first afternoon – it has since mushroomed into twice the kids, and many more instruments.

We had 10 students, several new ones show up and just hanging out on the 2nd floor listening to the ‘music’.  These kids thrive on encouragement, and their confidence is noticeably growing.   I literally have to kick them out after 3hrs so our poor customers on the first floor (and staff) get a break.  Pray for these young hearts – many of which have taken steps in the recent weeks to living for God – several came last Wednesday night to Club 180.

Collins is attempting to put together our music studio, making frames and waiting on our acoustic sound proofing material to arrive.  I’d take some pictures but it’s still quite a mess – Collins if you read this, the people want a photo!

Some of the volunteers from Rzhyschiv local churches serving with the Widows program.

The widow ministry continues to make a spiritual impact on our little community.  We are even getting some inquiries from our local Mayor’s office – not necessarily something we want, but the ministry should and is causing questions.  When Christianity gets legs and starts walking, it is completely counter-cultural to the Kingdoms of this world – we want nothing in return, we simply want to express the love of God we’ve already experienced.

We gathered again yesterday for a time of testimony and prayer.  We are believing God this month for even greater awakening to His love and care – God is to be trusted, not just for earthly provision, but the weightier eternal cares of the heart.  By God’s grace Rafael was able to share and pray with one women to receive Christ.  Several others have been prayed for, and hearts are opening up.  What’s really neat as well is that the team is starting to invite others to go with them – a perfect training ground to encourage others in the body of Christ to share their time and love with those in need.

We have been given word that the financial sponsorship for this ministry has been discontinued beyond the funds for this year – this has helped us re-focus our energies on making every package and opportunity count.  If we are faithful with this, I believe the Lord will continue this ministry and provide the needs.  We are now feeding 35 monthly (25 last month).   The packages are about 50% the total monetary value of the average pensioners incoming – it’s no small care package for them.  Ask God to grant us wisdom needed as many interesting situations arise for the team with this sort of ministry..  just like the early church.. disputes arise from the selfishness of some.   Overall however there is a ton of gratitude.

Train station board in Kiev – sort of like flying. I asked one of the girls at youth if the trains had internet – she laughed quite hard.

I’m racing to prepare for a week of teaching at YWAM Vladivostock next week.  I will be taking the train on Sunday from Kiev to Moscow (overnight 12hrs), then a flight from Moscow direct to Far East Russia and the beautiful port city of Vladivostock.   It’s a 9hr flight – so bascially I’m heading about the same distance East as heading back to the US is West.. Incredible how large Russia is!   Please pray for me – I’ll be teaching 16hrs on the Kingdom of God at a DTS there, and two evening gatherings.   It will be a challenge to hit the ground running with the 7hr time difference from here..

Thankful for your prayers, and support.  We are so blessed to see God answering prayers, young hearts moving toward God – and continued opportunities to invest in others – and give of the grace lavished on our hearts.   He is an amazing God – His Kingdom reigns and where He shoes up, incredible things can happen.  I pray God refreshes your soul today, and affirms His great love and awareness of the many details in your life.

Please pray about:

• Natasha from Minsk, she is praying about returning and serving with us for a longer period.
• Collins and the studio.  We have stepped out and budgeted $500 which we’d love to have help with.  A brother at Crossroads donated over $1k worth of equipment which will get us started – we’re trying to do the most minimal as a phase I, but still create something functional for recording for the area – it will be as unique as the actual Cafe for our area and attract all sorts of folks.  More later!
• Summer Interns – please pray for this.  We have a core of youth that we believe could really grow in their relationship with God if we spent more time in the Word, and in practical outreach.  This is completely new for us, but we’re excited about it – pray for discernment who to choose, and for provision.
• The Cafe – by the grace of God we continue to pay our bills every month.   We have an amazing team that works hard and tries to be as frugal as possible.  Thanks to 3-4 monthly supporters we only personally spend about $400/mo now (used to be $700) to keep it operational, using our personal support.  Costs should decrease with the warmer weather as utility costs decrease and business hopefully increases.. however the economy is TERRIBLE, the worst it’s been – it is so difficult in Ukraine right now – this sort of business should not operate in a smaller town in Ukraine, it’s a wonder, and I know the town realizes this (especially visitors from Kiev that can’t believe it)- and we thank God for the provision, but do need to keep asking for support if the Lord puts this on your heart – any amount, keep the Lighthouse shining with us.  We aren’t a local church, we have no regular income, yet we are serving in many of the same capacities (and many unique ways) with the same expenses – we have staff, building expenses, ministries through the week.. all without any sort of income like most churches get with an offering.  We’ll continue to invest as we have the money from personal support as well, but it would be so cool to see it either break even, or see some additional monthly support come in.   I have no doubt this Cafe will do fine if the economy picks up, but that still could be years away.  You can’t lose 300% of your national currency value and rebound without massive changes.  In the meantime, the Cafe’s influence and opportunity continues to rise in value in terms of Kingdom impact – as long as we can keep moving forward.   If you aren’t giving regularly to anything specific, consider this field for investing in. We have +300 customers per week, dozens of regular customers, and an increasing student population making the 2nd floor ‘home’.  90% of our interactions are with non-churched.

Blessings,

Bruce & Deb

Thank you (you know who you are!) for the gracious donation of a Fender acoustic guitar and case for the 2nd Floor at Lighthouse Cafe!  We will be using it regularly for times of worship, and also student lessons.

The teams have left.  It’s been a wild past few weeks preparing, praying and finally completing a week of intense activity.  As the days unfold, I believe God will reveal more of the eternal impact of the past week – in the meantime I wanted to share some of the gratitude that fills both Deb and I’s heart.

God Surprises!

Every evening was unique. That wasn’t the surprise.  Thursday evening was the most worshipful experience (in a corporate gathering) I’ve encountered in the past 10yrs.  It went well beyond songs, sounds and atmosphere.  God spoke to many hearts that night, at the same time, with a particular theme.  We only found this out afterwards the next day.  The Lord gave me a picture of light dispelling darkness that touched me deeply – His Kingdom rule moving into homes, and those homes contagiously impacting homes next to them with the Light of Jesus Christ.   It spread very quickly, not all homes were lit – but those that were fanned out like a flame across the landscape.  There was a great sense of royalty in our gathering – I don’t know how else to explain it, the King surprised many hearts.

Another surprise was Friday night.  We had a strong number of male students, first time Cafe visitors mostly from the drum lessons.  Vikente and Tim did an amazing job teaching the basics of drumming, however something even greater took place during the 3 days of classes.  The boys saw something in the teachers, they came Friday night I believe by the drawing of the Lord in them.  Even though we had concerts on the first floor where most of the students and Cafe guests remained, these guys came up for worship.  We’ve had visitors before, it’s always a bit awkward to sing praises with folks looking on and wondering ‘what in the world am I experiencing?’.   However, the spirit of God surprised us Friday night by moving on in particular, one students heart.  The gospel was shared very briefly and we continued to sing – this young man bowed in prayer, and began confessing Christ as Lord.   No altar call, no manipulation of emotion, simply God overwhelming a heart ready for faith.  Please pray for the students that experienced Friday night, including this young man as we connect this week and encourage the steps taken.

Our concerts on the main floor became quite evangelistic.  Collins led the way with some of his own songs – and we were able to utilize a lot of talent both locally and from our team.  The atmosphere at times became really interesting – as choruses and testimonies were shared naturally through the evening.  Many seeds sown, and many photos all over facebook and VK with new students posing and customers commenting on the experience.  I hadn’t planned downstairs to be as genuinely worshipful – but there were times when God surprised us through the week with something special as His grace, love and hope were on display.

Global God

We’re grateful for body of Christ around the world – He’s redeemed folks from every tribe, tongue and race.  The Local Church needs to be exposed to this reality regularly – and this week some area believers were impacted and faith strengthened.  It’s an honor, particularly of the western church (because we have more money) to ambassador the reality of God’s work in other nations.  Even the Minsk team, which is only a 1/2 day drive away, affirmed the faith of the local believers that “God is alive and working in the earth!”.  I believe one day soon the Lord will afford Ukrainian believers the same honor in other nations.

Ears to Hear!

I love beautiful sounds.  There’s something about the human voice joining in passionate anthem.  Add the creativity of musical instruments and the emotional places we experience are difficult to explain.  Music is simply powerful.  God created both the ability to create sound and the ability to hear it!  I am thankful that we can receive truth audibly.  I’m also thankful for the joys of feeling truth in the context of worship music – it’s a powerful instrument that breaks down walls and impacts the soul.

We have started to make a recording studio on the 2nd floor!  More details soon, but a huge thanks to Peter Blosser from our home church in Texas – he not only served to help set things up with Collins, but bought and donated a lot of stuff… humbled and excited to see this progress!   We do currently need to purchase (as our next step) sound absorption for the walls and some other technical sound proofing things – it will cost $500 if anyone out there would like to contribute and keep this moving!    Collins will be working over the next few weeks getting things setup and functional – so cool he’s hear to progress things and has a passion for this.

Tinted Windows

Lastly, this week reminded me in fresh ways that we currently see God, but through ‘a glass dimly’ (1 Cor 13:12).  One day, we’ll bust through that reflection and enter eternity where everything will be in HD living color.  Until then, God hasn’t left us in the dark.  When we pray, hang out with friends we love, or think upon the treasures of the Gospel, we see reflections ‘beyond’ the glass.   We are sojourners, in a cold broken world, who are coming upon a house.  We see smoke coming out of the chimney, we hear some muffled music, laughter, and see some opaque shapes moving inside the rooms.  We know there is life there, we know it’s warm, and we’re meant to go inside.  We can’t wait, our hearts leap for thought of finally arriving ‘home’.  God could have left us in the dark, with a road map and pat on the back.  He’s given us His Holy Spirit, who encourages us to keep walking, and fills us with hope in believing – I’m thankful for that tinted window and real tastes and ‘evidence of things hoped for’ here and now!   (if you need some encouragement, please download the song ‘through the glass’ by Justin Jarvis on iTunes, grab a pillow, lay on the floor, turn out the lights, and give it a listen).

Friends & Partners

We had a lot of help this week.  From Shane and Jem both cooking some meals, translating and serving in classes, to Jon Valentine from NYC who became an important Taxi driver for us, to a surprise guest of Collin’s (Dennis) who loved on several kids including the ones Friday night that came upstairs (and translated for me, the guy has Ukrainian parents!).  We also had a friend from Kiev come down, Perez from Nigeria and help translate.  Natasha made some great Borsch and Kolya helped organize some important things for the team like our evening dinners.

I am so proud of our Lighthouse Cafe team.  We had the busiest week EVER for the Cafe with our team and another team in town.  The Cafe was tested beyond it’s previous limits and served incredibly.  Alyosha, Natasha, Sveta (Lana), and three student helpers were amazing Yana, Sasha and Nazar.   You guys rocked!  God did many things in their hearts too as they witnessed evenings of Christian concerts and flurry of activity around them.

I am a husband to an amazing woman.  Somehow our kids remained fed and clothed this past week.  Deb was able to come to every evening.  I love her relaxed spirit, and ability to make others around her comfortable.   Kids, love your mama.

For those of you that have known us, it may seem surprising that we now encourage short term ‘mission trips’.  We’ve struggled for many years (well before moving to Ukraine!) to know how to really utilize incoming foreigners and even questioned their validity in the disciple making mandate.   We now see, at least from our own context, the powerful Kingdom punch expressed in Kingdom integration – focused on relationship building, love and prayer.   God uses unique people to reach unique people.  I love being surprised by testimonies of God using folks in all sorts of unique ways during the week!

The gospel is to be embodied in all of our cultural shapes and sizes.  True humility (not judging others), with the love of God is our weapon.  Everyone can love, everyone can care.   It’s the universal language – meeting the universal need.   When believers gather from different cultures and background, with the common purpose to care – it’s much less important ‘what’ is done.  We are thankful that we can both love with our incoming teams AND provide legitimate opportunities in particular for students.  I believe the Kingdom was encouraged, and God’s work advanced this week in the hearts of His saints, and those hearts preparing to receive His grace.

As the days unfold, we’re believing God to lead us to the hearts that have been most touched and follow up with opportunities for fellowship and growing in God.  I’ve already been in touch with a few, and been in prayer with some folks over the seeds sown.  Pray with us!

We’re anticipating a video from the Texas team sometime in the near future.  We’ll post it for archives.

Thank you for your support and prayer – now to look at tickets for Vladivostok in two weeks!

Bruce & Deb