Category: Bruce Posts (Page 86 of 211)

Our crew finishing bible study and getting ready to eat!  Brent the cameraman.

As the summer heat wave begins (again) in Ukraine, it marks the start of something cool for our ministry.  When we began last fall to meet with students and share weekly about the love of God, we had no idea if any would come.   They did!  We then wondered if any would continue through the course of the year.  They did! We then started to believe God for summer Interns – students that made up the core of our youth, that would be willing to study more intensely (daily) the truths of the Gospel, and serve together with us at Lighthouse Ukraine.

Well, we are so thankful for 3 young ladies that have been more like daughters to Deb and I this year.  They came to Minsk with us a few months ago and God continues to work in their lives.  This morning was our first morning, the days sort of look like this (remember we are also learning on the fly over here);

1. Breakfast 8:30
2. Worship & Prayer 9:00am
3. Study (Gospel of John) 10-11am
4. Devotional (We have many guests we are excited to use for this coming in next few weeks)
5. Lunch (prepared by interns)
6. Afternoon preparation for Kids project in August, and Widows Outreach Event

They also will be reading some devotionals working shifts in the afternoons/evenings to earn some spending money.

I was hoping for some of our area boys that came all year to Club 180, but all of them returned home for the summer to work and live quite far away.  We are super thankful for the parents of the girls, whom we’ve had the pleasure of meeting, who gave permission

Please pray for Natasha, Sveta, and Olya.  They are living during the week at ‘the big house’, Deb’s parents house down the road from us – it’s a perfect spot for groups and friends coming in and out this summer.

Bronwyn and Deb will both be involved, but we are super thankful to God for sending us Natasha from Minsk for the next 2 months.  She is here specifically to love the girls, and invest into their spiritual lives.  She is the ‘dorm mom’ down at the house, and helping us to organize a team coming in August from Minsk to work with kids in our area.  More details coming soon!

It’s a double blessing for our family because we not only enjoy more partnering with our friends (school and church) in Minsk, but Russian is being heard daily now by our ears too!

I can’t comment too much on this (because the Police STILL haven’t come after 3 days!), but we have caught on camera the person who tried to break-in to our house 3 nights ago.  Our security system worked great, alerted me out of my sleep and I actually ended up chasing him through the forest a while before I realized I was 40, or 41 can’t remember.  Anyway, so discouraging as we know who it is.   We’ve lost so much this past year – the emotional stress has outweighed the material losses.

Our studio completed its first week with Dima on staff.  He’s made so much progress, and is so clean!!  He’s already recording (his wife for practice) and I believe in the next few weeks we’ll be ready to host some others.  We’re both incredibly excited to see Ukrainians come and record, inspiring more original writing and also opening up a new avenue for connecting with students this fall.   We need more equipment if you want to contribute towards that – in the $2,000 range to really be set for charging for services and attempting to make it sustain.

The park is coming along nicely.  I should say the ‘land’ is coming along, the half house is down – took about 4 dump trucks to haul it off.  I’m really pleased with how the land has opened up – it’s going to be a really nice area for the pad and kids play area.  Negotiating hard with our Armenian friend and trying to stay on budget – he is daily offering ‘suggestions’ and it’s getting tiring – BUT I could not have made such progress without him and his country of native workers at his disposal.

Lastly, most of you have heard about, hopefully, the law signed by Putin this past week severely limited religious liberty in Russia.  It was already quite strict and difficult to get permits and ‘expand’ publicly the Kingdom of God in Russia – much like it is in Belarus.  However, the new laws turn back the clock.  A couple points in the new law:

• Illegal to invite anyone to religious events (non-orthodox).
• Illegal to read/study bible, worship or pray with others in your home.
• Illegal to be in country doing ANY religious activity as a foreigner without specific permission from government (which is unattainable if non-orthodox).
• Illegal to teach your children (I have read variations of this in several places) or ‘proselytize’ them towards anything non-orthodox.
• Will make it even easier for government to stifle public protests of any kind.

The US government responded yesterday with this:

http://www.uscirf.gov/news-room/press-releases/russia-uscirf-condemns-enactment-anti-terrorism-laws

Enjoyed some Kayaking yesterday with Tom and his kids – and Vlad with his son Matthew joined – it’s been a rough season for their family – was nice to see father & son happy.

The ‘motivation’ is anti-terrorism, or so it would seem.  However the claws of this law reach far into the nations integration of any western human right freedoms, including the expression of faith.  Bear in mind, the Orthodox church has never had a Luther type reformation.  The power structure is strong, used for political control – it’s not an evangelistic, love motivated religion.  It’s a relic of historical precepts, as a whole filled with corruption and deceit.  We know God has sons and daughters inside the system, and we pray for the Orthodox church to come alive with the freedom in the Gospel.  If it doesn’t, this leaves the work of the Kingdom exclusively to the under ground church – spies and neighbors reporting the slightest grievance to the new law will send countless to prison, many religious organizations fined, and almost certainly foreign missionaries branded law-breakers and expelled (possibly for life).

While ‘the church’ at large reacts with an emoji of sadness “praying for the church in Russia”, for Deb and I, this is the staging of some very real challenges for our family and the Kingdom of God at large.  It’s a battle, spiritually there are all kinds of forces and territories in play for the hearts of men.   What we see with our physical eyes with printed law is but a reverberation of the greater invisible reality.

We feel called to the Russian speaking population, in and outside of Russia.  We’re currently looking into some long term Belorussian visa permits for longer stays in Minsk on projects.  We will seek God’s wisdom, and grace to move ahead with various invitations to go and encourage/teach from friends inside the motherland.  It adds new intensity to prayer, and trusting God.  We know a growing number of friends and missionaries in Russia, and we realize in Ukraine we are enjoying an incredible measure of freedom.  It’s time to seize that freedom for seeking God and proclaiming him openly – as quickly as those freedoms came only a few short years ago, they can disappear in the night.   We need only to look to Russia.

For those of you in the west, enjoying the fruits of those who’ve marched ahead with boldness in the face of great personal risk and suffering – pray with us for God’s Kingdom to foil the attempts of men.  Salvation is a free gift to humanity, unrestrained by those afraid of it’s power.

Thank you for your support!

Bruce & Deborah

Article in Christianity Today on Russian proposed new laws to potentially restrict Gospel expansion.  The past 10yrs have witnessed increased control and laws that attempt to restrict church growth (non-orthodox).   These new potential laws are historical, every believer should read.

Click Here to Read!

Time to rise up generation and live for God!  Potential laws like this one will only expedite a revolution, an awakening for Jesus across the land.  The beauty of the Gospel is embodied when facing opposition, history proclaims it for our comfort.  His great cost to redeem us on display through a people of love, willing to suffer if necessary for the One who paid it all.

Pray for Russia and the family of God spread across this vast nation – the church needs our prayers.

The following is an article printed on July 22, 2016 by our friend James Draper at the Kilgore News-Herald. We appreciate you keeping all the good folks in East Texas updated on our life and ministry over here!

Larrisa was married yesterday.  We’ve known her since we moved to Ukraine.  She’s the sweetest, kindest young lady who is now the bride of Abe, a young man from Oregon who had been dating her from afar the past year.   Tomorrow Larrisa begins her new life in America – what culture shock lies ahead for her!

Ukrainian weddings are such an oddity to us.  With the fall of the Soviet Union, the ceremonies have become a diverse (ecclectic perhaps a better word) mix of tradition and western import.  One thing is for sure, they are long.  The average wedding lasts no less than 10hrs.

Hats off to Cheryl who labored tirelessly putting together most of the wedding decor and planning.  It’s not a job anyone would want, especially where most things need to be designed from scratch.

The funeral is not a serious one.  We’ve lost 3 chicks.  We have 5 remaining from our original 8.  All things considered, it’s going pretty well 3 weeks in with cats and predators on the lookout.  Claire loves to visit the turtles and chicks each morning scatter the seed.  It’s enjoyable for me too, I feel like a little farmer is trying to come out.

We just said goodbye to our friends Steve and Joe Harder and their 2 little boys.  They are with Youth for Christ down in Zaphorishny (closer to the war).  This is their second visit passing through – it’s cool to have a place for visitors to stay and hopefully benefit from some sincere fellowship.  It’s been encouraging to get to know their hearts, their faith and desire for God to breakout among this next generation.   They also feel a bit like us, charting new territory for the Kingdom, not always understood.

Tonight we host a worship evening at the Cafe – our friends from Khargalyk will lead the times of prayer and worship.  We have AC installed on 2nd floor (one smaller unit) and hoping it puts a dent in the suffocating heat from the past week – it’s been hot and very humid.   About 100 people are wadding currently in our river – I’ve talked to a beer tent owner about delivering pizza to the beach dwellers who seldom make it to the center during hot summer days.   It would be great for the Cafe to tap into the Kiev cottage folk driving down for the weekends.

Pizza is going really well!  We just added the larger size – it’s immediately selling to the tourists.  About 50% of our business right now, since the students have left, are the tourists.  Our residents still struggle with the prices – even though a pizza only costs $3-6.  We’ve had quite a few folks ask about Beer – one lady was quite upset with our staff because “How in the world am I supposed to eat my pizza without Beer?” – she was livid.

Slowly, we’re seeing some cultural shifts in our little town.  When we first arrived, there were only bars – we were scoffed at for thinking a non-alcoholic place would be embraced by the community.  Last week a new Cafe opened in our town – it serves ice cream and coffee!  Down the street, there’s another small cafe that serves specialty coffees now.  Further down towards the gas station there’s a Pizza / Sushi spot.    In the center of town the once bar only spot has developed into a restaurant that is slowly building up regular clientele.  In the past, there wasn’t enough customers just wanting to eat do have things ready on the menu – so it was mostly a place to drink and occasionally get some borsch or some prepared meal.  It’s really cool to think that we’ve helped expedite I think, some of the changing cultural shifts in town.  If folks steal our idea for a family friendly cafe or even just promote coffee culture over drunkenness, it’s a win for the Kingdom.

We met with our staff to discuss our new ‘competition’.  We talked about how this is great for the town – it keeps us honest and sharp.  Our staff is now wanting to make smoothies (or smoozies as they say in Ukrainian), and expand our menu.  Probably only 10% of our guests currently think we’re strange for not offering alcohol – but the other 90% both accept it now and embrace it, parents don’t mind their kids coming and hanging out, ladies and people of all ages feel safe and enjoy the benefits of a alcohol free zone.   For us, it’s not about being anti-drinking, it’s about supporting a culture that doesn’t need it to survive and can face reality head on.  Ukraine is a difficult, extremely depressing place when you consider all the challenges ahead – yet a sober people willing to face these realities of sin, corruption and despair can find Jesus.  With Jesus, real hope and a real future.

So here’s to a changing community (raising my latte), embracing some new ideas – pray for us that more steps can be taken for the Kingdom – larger Kingdom footprint established for the next generation to expand upon.   It’s not about Coffee, it’s about Christ.  It’s not about Pizza, it’s about casting a vision for eternal life in and around our neighbors, friends, fellow believers and skeptics.

The Kingdom of God is like a seed.  The Gospel is growing, changing, evolving, moving all around believers that are sowing themselves and the hope that is in them – I love being a part of the most powerful movement in human history.  It’s conspicuous, it’s sown in blood, sweat and tears.  It surprises the hopeless, shuns the religious, defies the doubter.   The Kingdom and it’s Gospel message is the Roman triumphal procession.  The victor is Christ, the conquered you and I, the weapon love.

Blessings,

Bruce & Deb