Category: Bruce Posts (Page 85 of 211)

Skatepark News!

We are excited to announce the 11×16 asphalt pad is finally complete.  It took about a month of ground prep and a lot of manual labor, but we have the smoothest blacktop around!

Next step is building a perimeter fence.  We are already over budget (surprise) so we are attempting to this on our own.

We need to be able to keep stray animals out of the play area – and if you’ve visited our town, you know there are various packs roaming about.   We also need to be able to keep human critters in so the parents can relax and enjoy their ice cream or coffee!

Vova is about 70% finished building a large wooden lighthouse which kids can climb and slide down – will be interesting to see!

Shane is ordering frame and cover for the half-pipe and we’ll be assembling ourselves in Rz.   We want to leave a large portion of the pad open for roller-blade and future growth.

We don’t have budget for sod/grass, but I’m moving forward with the hope we can lay down a large area in the kids zone so the park can be used right away.  Still hoping for a Sept opening, hope against hope!

Summer Interns Update!

We’ve been really happy with the three girls the Lord has allowed us to invest in.  They have spent many mornings with us in study of God’s word, prayer and worship.  With very little backdrop of the bible, we’ve walked through the Gospel of John, and taking steps back into Israels history – the covenant God made with Abraham, the exodus and Passover memorial, through the prophets echoing of the restoration of God’s Kingdom to come.   By the time we get to the end of John, and the Crucifixion we see a glimpse of the beauty of God’s plan, His redemption and Kingdom begun on earth through a new redeemed people from every nation and tongue – His Church!

It was especially cool to have groups and visitors from all over flow through the ‘Big House’ this summer.  This kind of exposure for young hearts is immeasurable and it was neat to work as a team with various believers in the area, and the team from Minsk.  The Kingdom of God is vast, and this summer the interns got to taste some of the mission heart of our Global God.

As I type this, they are en route as a team of 6 to the beautiful mountains in western Ukraine.  Through a generous sponsor, we were able to help pay for a retreat where they will spend 4 days enjoying God’s creation, praying, and filling up with vision Lord willing for their coming new year.  God blessed us with two young men from Minsk team who stayed back and are helping to lead this team with Natasha who has been serving with us this summer.    Pray they have an amazing and SAFE time!

The camp was great, everyone served well and many young lives were loved.  Here’s a quick picture of it!

Family Update!

We are really enjoying the two youngest girls Abbey and Claire.  They are playing together more and being so silly.

Brent is coming back in 9 days from his working/play stint in Canada.  Yesterday he went to Canada’s wonderland, a huge six flags type park for the first time.

Broderic is about to start his first intense college course at Augustine College in Ottawa.  He’s feeling a lot of pressure, working on the farm and for our development company on the side.  Life is full out for him I think now.  We sure do miss him.

Bronwyn is considering some last minute college options herself.  Please pray for her this week as we together seek His best for our eldest daughter.  We would hate to lose her this fall, she’s an amazing help and influence for the young students here – but we want to see her maximize this year for the Lord and her own character building.

Tucker is a solid dude, he has a close friend Igor who comes from Kiev on the weekends.  They are like two peas in a pod.  He’s still loving computers and anything soccer, and his little dog.

Clark and Noah are roaming about the village daily.  Noah rarely has much more than shorts on – he’s fun and creative, silly and obnoxious to his siblings.  Clark is becoming quite an athlete and competes with his older brothers in just about anything.   I wish we had more athletic options for him here – we actually looked the other day at sending him to a sports boarding school in Barcelona, Spain.  It would cost $40k Euro – we all had a laugh at that one.

Deb and I are anticipating some changes in the near future.  We have opened up our hearts to the Lord in working more in Minsk for longer stretches. We have connected on some deeper levels with the ministry there and bonded with their leaders.  We’re starting to court a Pioneering ministry in the US that has 100’s of like minded ministries that range from businesses to charities, to schools to cafe’s – ministry partners and support for those that seek to impact culture outside of traditional local church structures.  It has been so refreshing to realize we are not alone in our particular calling to plant things outside of the church, for the growth and expansion of it.

It is extremely difficult to live and move inside Belarus and Russia right now for any religious purposes.  We have the opportunity to be invited by a Belarusan entity for an extended period, and become a board member of it – we are walking through this process now.  Also we have been invited to Russia again this fall to teach at YWAM – with the new laws in place, this is a matter of legitimate prayer and we appreciate your support in that.

Studio Update!

Anya and Elena from Minsk, amazing singers and very creative talents.

We haven’t spoken too much about this, but we’re in our 2nd month here at Lighthouse Studio and have begun recording!  Tomorrow we have a young lady, a songwriter coming to record an hour worship ‘session’ which we’ll video as well.  Dima has been amazing, learning the in and outs of studio recording on the fly, but also brings many years of playing, singing and technical know how to the table.

A few weeks ago we met some studio guys from the war torn area of Donetsk, where their studio was actually destroyed. They were excited to hear of our new work, and as brothers in Christ look forward to seeing how we can partner.   Our heart is to simply see Jesus take these rooms and equipment and be glorified.   More on this soon!

Dima who is managing the Lighthouse Studio!

We are preparing for the students return this September, and also more guests coming!  Andrei and his family from Minsk, as well as Josh from Crossroads in Texas will be joining and serving with us for a season.   God continues to encourage us with Russian speaking friends in and around our home, in little Rz, Ukraine – and I believe our Russian as been improving along the way because of it,  thanks be to God!

Thanks for checking in – Bruce & Deborah

Vadim is a gifted, and funny young man from Belarus who is helping lead.

This past spring some of the Minsk team that visited asked if we’d be interested in hosting a summer team.  Kid’s camps (basically VBS style) are are still very popular in the FSU (Former Soviet Union).

Thank you to those that helped financially support this camp – we were able to provide shade for the kids, and we need it!

This is the first week long camp we’ve help coordinate.  We have a team of +20 young people serving as leaders, mixed in from various churches and backgrounds – all with a heart to love kids and invest precious seeds of God’s love.   Our family has helped sponsor most major purchases, with the help of some close friends who have joined us investing in this (thank you!).

It is unfortunately incredibly hot out of the gate.  33 today (91F) and very little shade in our downtown venue.  Tomorrow looks to be possibly cloudy and chance of rain, that would be wonderful!   We had 45 kids today, and tomorrow looks to add to that number.  We did very little advertising outside of a few posters and social media.  The inflatable bouncy slide (thank you Hope for Orphans for lending!) is a huge advertisement in itself.

https://youtu.be/rx5_nlqdyiI

Morning worship at our house – we have had such amazing times together with various teams over the past 2yrs.  Times of refreshing, vision, and everything else that comes when His presence is the focus of gathering.

Bronwyn being goofy with her close friend Marie- whom she’s known since we moved here 8yrs ago! Marie has been here the past month, but leaves tomorrow back for Australia.  We miss her humor and joy.  She was an excellent friend and role model for Bronwyn in the early years.

We’re unsure what the week holds for the evenings.  We have some ideas, but nothing hammered in stone.  I really want the group to pray, listen and take steps of faith.  Too often things are ‘progamized’ I think well ahead of time, and while plans are good – sometimes we need practice listening and obeying together.  We may show a movie at night (drive in style!), play flag football, who knows!  The main thing is that we maximize our availability for the Lord and connect with whoever He sends us while we have such a great venue in the center.   During prayer, I had the words, “basecamp” come to mind – so we are going to plan to be in the center each evening and available for God to use us in whichever way He leads.

Pray for us please this week!  We have guys sleeping in the tent watching over our stuff as security.  During the night at 3am several drunk fellows came and began hassling the young guys, including Tucker.  It turned out OK, but we believe there is increased spiritual activity around us – we know the enemy would love to destroy and discourage.   Please go the Lord for us right now and ask Him to fight, and push back the darkness over this culture, and the families that have no hope.  Many precious kids this week are hearing and repeating with their mouths the love of God over them – pray it sinks deep and faith takes root!

She was quite proud of her art. We are more like grandparents now and just laugh with her.

In other news, Claire has become quite the talker these past few weeks.  She rambles quite extensively, making very little sense but if you engage her pretty eyes, and pretend you understand, she sparkles with excitement.  Deb and I love this little girl.  She is definitely developing at a slower pace than normal, and shows many signs of dwarfism.  We are currently sending off measurements and various check-up info to a doctor friend for more direction on next steps.  She is healthy, smart, but quite short and dis proportioned.

Yesterday we sadly said goodbye to one of our most loyal student workers, Nazar.  Nazar, who lived with Simeon and Asia, is off to Lviv for IT College.  A wonderful opportunity provided by some US sponsors.  Nazar has been such a blessing, and we’ll miss him.  He’s an orphaned young man who has proven that if you provide security, love and ‘home’ at an early age, you can beat the statistics.

We hosted a concert on the Patio this past weekend.  It was so cool to see so many neighbors packed and listening to various homegrown talents – the Minsk team were able to perform a couple songs, as well we Bronwyn who continues to grow her creative skills with some songwriting.

Thanks for checking in!  Remember to pray and battle where it counts!

Bruce & Deborah

Today we hosted +30 widows at the Cafe for an ice cream party.  These special ladies (and one man) are part of our feeding program which involves leaders from the local churches here who sponsor, visit, pray with, and take them each a food package monthly.  It was the first time we brought them all together.

We had several folks sing, some elderly believers share their faith, and provide them with a special gift at the end.  Here’s some photos!

Rafael (from Cuba living in our town) and Natasha have been a big part of our Widows program – Rafael is our official driver 🙂

Cafe was packed perfectly, not a seat to spare!

The gift was a package consisting of some special soaps, a craft the interns had made (a wooden cross necklace) and a large letter New Testament in Ukrainian.  At the end I was able to share about the gift of Christ – and we turned to Matt 28 and Jesus last words to the disciples “and I will be with you until the end of the age”.

I teased the ladies to not peak inside the packages until it was time – they were all smiles.

It was a special time!  I overheard several conversations relating to ‘who we all were’, that we weren’t “Orthodox” but that “there is only one God”.. Da, Da, one lady affirmed.  They have been raised since childhood to be extremely wary of anyone speaking spiritual truths, especially from the Bible if they aren’t a Priest.

One widower among the crew – lucky fella!

I didn’t preach per say, but with my most special gift sitting on my lap (Claire), talked with them about the nature of a gift, what makes it so special – that it’s a piece of someone’s heart to you, and it’s free!  It was interactive and I believe many, including our entire team were encouraged by the time together.  Our staff and interns served excellently as well, such perfect opportunity to practically disciple young people to serve as well.

During the singing the ladies wouldn’t eat their Ice Cream and Brownie because it would be rude!

Many asked when the next meeting would be – it was a lot of work, but we need to pray about continuing with some regularity.  The fact that it’s a cafe, and that we are simply extending God’s love and affirming it, seems to be a perfect vehicle to help them fully trust in Christ together.  There were several “amens” and sincere thanks as we drove them all home – which took 90 minutes each time to collect and return them just from our small town!

Tomorrow we receive friends from Minsk, a family with 3 older kids (11-15) that have become dear friends over the past year and administrate the Bible School there.   Then, Thursday we receive a team of 7-8 from Minsk to join our Rz team of volunteers and leaders from local churches to host a Kids VBS type camp in the center of town August 1-5.  We are expecting up to 100 kids, and have been graciously given a huge blow up slide for 3 days from Zhenya’s team, and have a pretty cool schedule each morning including singing, games, crafts and food!

Thank you Vova from Pentecostal church, you did an incredible job designing the poster!

We’ll be posting an update hopefully next week – We are thankful for the Mayor of Rz, the interim Mayor (our old one was voted away unexpectedly last month), has visited our Cafe and we were able to get permission for the use of the center stage for the Kids Camp – and also able to show her our Studio and other ministries we are engaged in locally.

This Friday we are joining with Khargalyk church family as they host a 24hr Worship Marathon.  Bronwyn will be leading a portion, and several from our staff/interns going to some/all of it.  I don’t think I can do 24hrs, that’s some serious commitment that requires no other commitments.  It speaks however to the hunger and passion that is growing, these are Ukrainians that are leading it, their idea, and this is what it’s all about – indigenous faith taking root, God is the God of impossibles, we can and should look to Him to change our hearts, our cities and even the nations!  We are excited to try something new, we will be streaming Lord willing from Periscope App, and linking to our Awaken page!  Not only this, our friends in Texas, Dave and Dana Huber are going to open their home Friday evening for worship as well, and we’ll simultaneously be worshipping JEsus together and posting our streams on the same page!

24 Worship Event, led by our very own Lighthouse Studio staff Dima and their church in Khargalyk.

So, if you are in Ukraine, from 6pm Friday to 6pm Saturday, you can watch online and join in!  Tell your friends!  If you want to open your home, or even your youth group for Worship, you can stream to the Awaken page too!  For Americans, the 24hr period starts 10am CST Friday, and ends Saturday 10am CST.

Skatepark is stalling a bit, we have a problem with our asphalt pad being too high, and causing some concern that our fence wall needs to act more like a retaining STRONG wall to keep the pad from shifting or cracking.. we think we’re back on track, but it’s cost us another $500 unfortunately that we didn’t want to spend.  The playground equipment is coming along in Vova’s garage, but soon need to transport it to our property and start working on the surface of the yard.. I’d love grass, but I’ve had very little luck here with grass.. It might have to be a combination of small stones, and grass area.. we’ll see!  The park that is being built on the fly, it’s the only way here in Ukraine so we smile and go with it!

On a difficult note, we have some dear friends that just found out the wife has a later stage cancer.  In all of our rejoicing for what God is doing, we pause and remember how fragile life is – and have begun bearing this in prayer.  Our theology seems to come out rather quickly in times of urgency – does God heal?  Does he answer prayer?  Are we scared to step out and trust Him sometimes for fear of our theology being rocked?  Do we play it safe when we simply ascribe to “Whatever happens is God’s will?” – I believe God still does miracles, we are witnessing this with one of our interns specifically as God awakens a heart, breathes life and old things become new.  It’s the greatest miracle on this side of eternity, if he can resurrect the dead in spirit, surely He can restore a young mothers health.  Please join with us in believing for ‘above and beyond’ type results, that He would heal and restore.

In family news – Brent is in Canada for 3 more weeks with Broderic, who is about to start this fall an intense apologetic course in Ottawa, Canada.  I built my first chicken coupe, Deb and short hair (and I love it!) and our pizza is still selling strongly – we have gone from $700 per month losses, to $200-300 losses since getting gas at the Cafe – that’s a huge answer to prayer and allows us to tackle more projects locally.

Speaking of projects – the Kids camp is being sponsored by Lighthouse, which means our family as we’re still not profitable as a business…  we haven’t as of yet asked for any help.  The total budget for the week, which includes feeding the kids (70-100) and staff of 20, is around $800.  This also includes renting a tent for the week  ($400).    If you have it on your heart to contribute something towards this, it would be gratefully received:)  You can support our efforts on this site by clicking on the Donate link above or here.

Thanks for checking in, sorry this is once again so long – we need to post shorter updates, but it seems to take weeks to sit down and write.  We need the spirit of God, we need prayers sent this way, it’s a battle, we are not without an enemy that seeks to destroy even the littlest seeds sown for the Kingdom.   I pray victory and the grace of God to win in your life and struggles this day as well.  Be encouraged, you are loved by the King!

Bruce & Deb