The last thing I want to write about is this.  The wounds are fresh.  However, in keeping with the past 7yrs and our blog journey in Ukraine, I need to keep it real and jot things down.

A couple weeks ago we noticed Deb’s laptop was missing.  We eventually came to terms with the fact that it was stolen from our kids school room which leads to our deck.  We have so many neighbor kids wandering about, we figured it was one of them.  However we remember an odd thing around this time, our power went out in our house around 3am.   That’s not entirely strange here, but the fact that we had to manually power the house back up at the breaker is strange, usually the whole town or neighborhood just goes off/on without having to touch the breaker box.

Deb grieved about it, she loved her little macbook air.  Fast forward to this past Sunday morning, I awoke to a house without power.  I was racing to go to Kiev for church, so I didn’t think much about it.  It wasn’t until I saw the breaker box was manually shut off again that my mind began swarming with bad thoughts.   I immediately checked the outside door to the basement, locked, good.   Noah then remarked how he had shut the balcony window the morning because it was too cold – ouch.  Not good.  We have generally been inconsistence with our windows and door lockings – we know better, but who in their right mind would come into our house with all of us actually there?

The first thing I noticed was my wallet.  It was in the same place I left it at night, but completely empty.  We don’t use banks here, and almost always have a lot of cash on hand between Cafe and personal needs daily.  I had just returned from the bank for costly vehicle fixes, and had an unordinary amount of US and HRV on hand, over $700!  It pains me to write that, it’s a lot of money to us, and for the Ukrainian friends more than 2 months wage.   Thankfully all my credit cards, and drivers license were not taken.

Then we noticed our older macbook (a hand me down from our texas business) was missing the power adapter.  This is very strange because the batter doesn’t work in it, and requires the adapter.  Tucker had been using it the night before.  The thief we think had returned for the macbook air power supply, grabbed the wrong cord.

We then noticed today my Canon t3i is gone, it was also in the kitchen area.  The bad and adapter was left, and extra lens.  I loved that camera.  Now I feel Deb’s pain.

For those of you that have had things pinched, you know how this works.  You immediately begin assuming more things were taken, but you have no idea how to actually look for those things – out of sight, out of mind.  It’s not until through the course of every day life you begin to realize the extent of the crime – sometimes it’s not for months.  I have bought so many gas cans.

What really hurts, is the betrayal of your fellow man.  The fact that someone came into your personal property, right into your home where your children lay asleep – and snooped about – something fierce wells up inside that is uncommon.  I’m discouraged by the loss of property, but that’s nothing new here for us – we’ve had 4-5 bikes, phones, scooters, toys, all kinds of small and large things taken in our 7yrs. I was doing the math yesterday and between some bad property deals and items from our property, we’ve lost about $2k per year.   I know other missionaries in other countries where that is chump change compared to their losses.  Only once have we, that we know of, had an intruder – and the previous time it was only a small 12yr old kid.   This could be a kid as well, or a few teenagers, we don’t know – but I feel like someone has crossed a serious line, and I am doing all I can to seek justice and wising up to our home security neglect.

This time I have included the police, and worked through their channels.  A few years ago I wouldn’t have done this, and didn’t when things went missing.   The government is trying to change, there is an improved civic pride (albeit slowly improving), and I figured if anything, we’d get to know better the different police and investigators.  One of them is interested in English nights.  They came to our house, reviewed and took fingerprints (probably most of my kids, but we do have a few solid spots they touched).  I also went to some of our previous ‘contacts’ within the Rz Jr. KGB, some reformed bad teens that have stolen from us in the past, but have become allies.  Their names are protected, they are undercover and work for rewards!

The more I investigate myself, the more information I’m finding out about crime in our town and others close by.  The inspectors who came last night, were on their 5th crime scene of the day!  They said crime has increased at least double from the same time as last year.  I wrote about this last year, as a real concern as people legitimately go hungry, struggle to survive – I don’t give excuse to what these guys do, but many people are desperate, and that desperations is increasing – it will increase here in Ukraine until the economy gets some legs, the warring with Russia is resolved to a greater degree – I think this winter is going to be the most difficult winter for a majority of ‘regular’ Ukrainians in a long, long time.  I think this is part of the political plan, to bring a nation to it’s knees, to concessions that have been long established – when people turn on each other, when the strong are forced to rule the week for their own protection – insurrection, riots, instability.

Anyway, enough pondering.  Deb returns tomorrow, we are so excited to see them all back.  We will be dumping our two oldest on an island for a week with 100 other believers as the annual Camp 120 resumes.  We’re hoping to be able to do something fun with the rest of the crew.  After a couple weeks minus Deb, I’m ready to take her on our own island, some deserted remote place – as long as it has AC.

Bruce

Random little ‘fair’ shows up in center – $1 for 10 minutes.

The count is on.  Deb returns in t-minus 4 days!  I’ve had some fun on facebook posting some random (and oft’ exaggerated) observations over the past week.  It has been a tiring week, but rewarding as well.  Nothing quite like being without your soul mate and logistics partner for more than a few days to awaken the gratitude towards your spouse.

I was thinking today if something happened to Deb, I would immediately begin hunting for a wife.  I’d have to keep my motivations a tad conspicuous out of the gate with the poor new prospect.  This mental taxation is quite interesting to go through solo.  I’d need a spouse fairly quickly to absorb at least a portion of the zillion questions and ridiculous issues that arise as a stay at home dad.  I have a new respect for my wife’s patience – all you mom’s out there that ‘don’t work’, these kids are making you like Jesus – rejoice.

This week we had our 3rd English night.  It was mostly geared toward young people as we played The Incredibles and highlighted keywords to look for (with prizes).  We had about 15 or so.  My new friend Alex came again with his girlfriends daughter and we spent the entire time over coffee getting to know one another – he spoke and practiced his english, I dusting off my Russian which hasn’t been used too much lately.   It seems like God is surrounding me with more english speaking Ukranians, and in some pretty neat circumstances.   I’ve met several new locals that were raised in our town but work during the week in Kiev – school teachers, business owners, even a web project manager – so many unique stories and bridges being built – I’m very encouraged by this.   If they are at the Cafe, I’m able to take them upstairs and share a bit more of our work and testimony – it’s always interesting gauging their reactions, you can tell pretty quickly if they think we are from mars or if God is already at work in their own hearts at some level.

I’m planning to connect again with Alex this next week and visit his club – as well as take him a little road trip to visit some friends I think he will really enjoy.   Alex is a very sharp guy, he reads Richard Dawkins and considers himself an agnostic.  He might be the first Ukrainian I’ve talked with that was a Dawkins fan.  We briefly touched on philosophy and religion, and he admits this is a topic he would enjoy engaging in.  He’s a degreed nuclear engineer, with a very interesting background – pray for him, and for our conversations to produce fruit.  It’s a been a while since I’ve entered the intellectual waters of debate – and I believe the Lord has connected us, using the vehicle of mutual language learning.

Poetry Night

This morning I had a neat time over coffee with Natasha – she’s a very creative, artsy/rebel (think Ukrainian Cindy Lauper for those over 35) type that hosted the poetry night a few weeks ago that was a big success.  I immediately felt drawn to pray for her, and asked Sveta to organize a time to chat more (needed translation help).

Without disclosing too much online, as many of our new friends now read our blog, I would ask that you also pray for Natasha – she is hosting a town-wide ‘creative’ event on July 25th and The Lighthouse is going to support her with some prizes/help.  They are going to possibly use our cafe for parts of the all day event which will include crafts, photography/treasure hunt, and concerts into the evening.  We’ve agreed to put together a band and perform at the event.   Anyway, Natasha is an edgy, fringe type personality that reminds me of the kind of people that the traditional church might shy away from and she would never want any part of anyway.   I was able to share with her the love of God over her life, something that today might seem miles away from a reality to her – but we know and believe is here today.  She is an influencer with many social networks, and some really neat gifts – let’s pray for her!

We are also progressing on some things for this fall, which I will share more about later – but appreciate you to be in prayer about with/for us!

Things you can pray for :

– Finances.  The Cafe only has 2 or 3 regular supporters monthly.   We are doing really well considering all things here in Ukraine – but continue to function at a loss each month that takes a large bite into our personal support (which we truly need to keep fed).  We either need some more personal support monthly, or some specifically donated support for the Cafe – in the area of $500/mo to help us stay in the black.  It was $700/mo at the start of the year, so we’re thankful it’s heading in the right direction!   We’re grateful to the YWAM team who left us a generous donation that will help for the next few months, but heading into this fall we appreciate prayer and consideration as we keep biting off more ministry opportunities, hiring more staff, and growing by faith.   We are sponsoring and planning events and retreats this fall, things that we currently don’t have funding for – if you can’t give, you can pray for our faith and for more supporters.

You can give online using our secure Paypal link (all major credit cards accepted): http://www.liftupyoureyes.com/?page_id=877 – if you would like to give by check and like a tax receipt please contact us privately for instructions.

– Broderic.  He is heading into his final ‘season’ of homeschooling and feeling the pressure for the ‘next thing’.  For those of you that know Broderic, you can appreciate his kind, humble personality and I’m so thankful for his genuine love for God and pursuit.   He is the first of the Crowe kids to begin the adventure out into this world and both he and his parents are new at this.  Pray for God’s best to be revealed this year for him.

– Ministry team.  Entering into this year we believed God was putting pieces together towards the formation of a more specific ministry team (beyond just the Cafe staff which was our focus last fall/winter).  God has worked wonders in Sveta’s life and she continues to deepen in her love for Christ, and we have put more ministry/discipleship type opportunities before her.  We are also encouraged to see more believers from various churches hanging out, coming to different events, and desiring to be more active/mobile in their faith.  We are also praying with some others from outside of Ukraine who believe God may be sending them to serve with us in the near future.   All of this to say, our desire to see a discipleship ministry, or school that would impact local to the nations is evolving, and we are humbled and excited  – I would add nervous.   Please pray for faith and vision in our hearts to remain focused on the right things, wisdom and all those good things.  I’ve begun asking a couple respected pastors and churches that we feel God has put into our lives (beyond our sending church) to partner with us in prayer and for counsel/oversight. None of this happens without a spiritual battle, and at times I feel overwhelmed (abnormally so).  If we stay in our comfort zones, we rarely need others.  When we step out in faith, our limitations, weaknesses, and all other insecurities become both exploited (by the enemy) or discouraging personally.  We need your prayers, not just to stay ‘informed’, we NEED your prayers to advance Jesus Christ to the nations, and stay this course!   Pray for God to send us laborers to share this burden with us.

PS-we are invited again to Far East Russian in January to teach at a YWAM DTS.  We are busy getting permanent residence for Claire/Broderic and Bronwyn so we could potentially all travel.  If we went, we’d like to take some of our team, but this would be a huge step and even more costs.  It would be a huge dream come to true for us to lead a team to Russia, whether it’s this January or later – I feel this is God’s heart to mobilize and empower all believers, not just us westerners, to take Christ to the nations.

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us..” Eph 3:20

Thanks for checking in, and I pray God’s grace amazes you in a fresh way today!

Bruce & Deborah

One of the sweeter things about living here – our neighbor down the street is a beekeeper.

With the team leaving last week, we’ve enjoyed some much needed downtime and evenings together as a family.  We watched several movies, including Field of Dreams – it’s fun introducing movies to my kids that spark discussion or debate.   Isn’t it interesting how watching the same movie many years later can be a completely different experience?  I found so many Christian themes in that silly movie this time – from the antagonistic forces when you step out in faith, to the providential arrangements (behind the scenes) workings, to regret and reconciliation.   My kids, not unlike my first reaction 20yrs ago, found it plain weird.

Deb, Bronwyn and Claire left this morning for Colorado.  Deb’s sister is getting married next week and I’ll be holding down the fort for the next 12 days.

Abbey is a delight. Inquisitive, kind, but can also handle her own with the boys.

Last night we hosted our 2nd English Night.  We’re getting some neat families and couples come out, it’s really encouraging.   Last week we had about 15 come out, this week several new folks came out, probably around 20-25 total which is approaching our limit upstairs – especially when we break for a round of Dance Revolution on the big screen 🙂

One new visitor Alexei, whom I met for the first time last night, owns the local ‘nightclub’ over by our theater.  His english is fairly strong, but he wants to improve it – he brought his young daughter Bogdona with him who also is quite sharp.    Alex seems like a nice guy and I hope to connect with him for coffee soon.

I’m about to head to the various computer shops in town in hopes of catching a thief.  Deb’s laptop went missing last week and we’re now fairly convinced some kids may have taken it.  About the same time it went missing, Deb found some kids on our deck (not allowed back there), and our school room door opened.  We’ve looked everywhere, but now think someone snitched it.  I’m pretty sure anyone trying to use it will need the help of a technical person.  Other than all but one of our kids bike, and the two scooters from last year, we’ve had a fairly quite year in the thievery department.   Pretty amazing considering the dozens of kids wandering in and around our house every day.

Finally convinced Alyosha to hang our new large banner – it was a very windy day making it more of a challenge that we’d thought.

Today the KBAC (pronounced KVAC) equipment arrived at the Cafe.   It should be installed by tomorrow.  It operates like a beer tap, connects to a Keg and cools on the fly.  KBAC is a wheat germ drink, that tastes similar to Beer, but is non-alcoholic and a favorite of most Ukrainians – especially in the summer.   I’m promising myself its the last ‘extra’ thing we do before Pizza – who would have thought we would have become a full fledged Dairy Queen and Starbucks and STILL not have gas.

Speaking of Gas, I’ve begun researching selling our Pizza Oven.   Even if we do get gas one day (week to week right now, a new guy from another town is dragging feet on approval), the actual costs to run the oven could be impossible to sustain.  We’re not sure until we try, but I think we need to look at electric ovens.  They are about $1000 for a good used one that can cook 4 small pizzas at a time.  I probably should have switched months ago, but we spent so much time and energy on this gas route I have been stubborn to see it finally work.   If we don’t have gas and pizza by August (students return), we will look to electric and pray God provides for that.

Visiting my friend who owns a photography shop, with a fabric business on the side – I want one of these cutters.

I’m already thinking about this fall and winter season.  I think many people are.  It’s going to be the first real test of the Ukrainian economy and social stability with new doubled gas prices and more ‘independence’ from Russia.  Russia is betting, I think, on Ukrainians to cave and for chaos mid winter when nobody can pay their bills, and homes are freezing.   Those home who haven’t switched to fully wood will be hit hard.  We are needing to get our Cafe switched to a wood burning furnace as well, and I would love to convert our house too.   These are the things domestically at least that occupy my mind recently.

My last thought of this blog, is that of the brevity of life.  I’ve always enjoyed, even as a young teen, to stroll through cemeteries (during the day!).  It’s a healthy wakeup call to my too often lazy mind and soul.  I’m reminded each time of the gift of life, the buried dreams and ambitions.  I haven’t strolled through the Ukrainian cemeteries too often, but this past week I did and was hit once again with the reality that not only did those who’ve passed have dreams and hopes, but God Himself did as well over their lives.   You could even say Christ came to make the dream of God possible – He desires none to perish but ALL to come into relationship with Him.

When Christ came, He died and rose from the grave.  I have to remind myself that or my strolls can become really depressing.  The reality of His resurrection should wake us up from slumber – that this life will fade, like the flowers of the field, but we’ll continue on living.  What I’m strolling around is just dust becoming dust.

Though we are eternal beings, the lives we live here truly matter.  Christ wants them to count for His glory, His fame, His Kingdom.  He wants them to shout to a broken world that there is a Healer.  It doesn’t matter if you are living in the US, Africa or Antarctica – your physical life matters, and your physical life will come to an end – perhaps even soon.  We know this, but we push this to the back of our minds – I don’t think we should.

Ecclesiates, in the 11th Chapter, the preacher says, “Rejoice young man, during your childhood, and let your heart be pleasant during the days of your manhood. And follow the impulses of your heart and the desires of your eyes. Yet know that God will bring you to judgment for all these things.”

I think the point of the encouragement is to ‘go for it’, yet in your ‘going for it’ remember that we are not independent creatures – we are connected to our Creator, and He will bring our lives lived on earth into account.   That’s not a worrisome thought if we are embracing Jesus Christ as God and receive by faith the gift of salvation.

I want to live for that day more effectively.  Eventually someone will be walking past my tombstone, and it will be too late to ‘go for it’ – I have now, I have no guarantee of tomorrow, if it comes – it’s a gift.

Our local cemetery – the faces embossed on the tombstone bring home the reality of this gift called ‘life’.

A few weeks ago I posted how we’d love to get an ice machine for the Cafe.  It’s rare to find ice served with anything in the former Soviet Union.   We Americans, we love ice.  We care not about the volume of liquid in our drinks, only that hot drinks are hot, and cold drinks icy cold.

Now that’s a banner! Now to figure how to connect it to the side of our building.

Ukrainians however feel ripped off if their cup isn’t filled to the brim with the beverage they’ve ordered.  We’re so used to ‘free refills’ in the west that we give no thought to jam packing our cup with ice.

Ukrainians also have some interesting beliefs when it comes to cold liquids.  If a drink is too cold, many still believe it can make you sick.  If you are already sick, a cold drink must be heated up to at least room temperature.  I remember our neighbor boy Svyatik when he first started hanging out at our house would pour a glass of juice from the fridge, then stick it in the microwave for :30 seconds because, “I don’t want to get sick.”

Alyosha holding up the first cube at the Cafe. A wondrous site! Might be the only ice in town.

Not all Ukrainians believe this, but many do.  Mom’s especially will ask us to heat up their juice for their kids.  We’re paying electricity to keep drinks cold in the fridge, then we’re paying electricity to heat them back up.. buries head.

Things are changing though.  I think the Internet is ushering in not just new thoughts (science, medicine, history), but new products and variety of things for folks to try.  It gets really hot here in Central Ukraine, especially in the July-August months.  People get hot, no matter where you were born!   More people are ‘drinking’ cold things.   They’ve always loved ice cream (anytime of the year).   The same mom will give her kid ice cream without concern.. but not cold juice..

We now have an ice machine and it’s hooked up and working at the Lighthouse Cafe!  A family member saw our post and generously donated it.  Thank you, maybe your cups always be filled with ice!  So now, we’re embarking on Iced Tea, Lemonade, and Iced Coffee.   We’ve also started serving freshly squeezed juices.. can you tell we need pizza?

We made some signs out front with pictures.  Ice isn’t going to save the world, but it’s going to help keep them cool in the summer and hopefully help us increase sales so we can pay our bills.

The more unique and fun we make the Cafe, the more word is spreading.  Just today we had some backpackers come through town and they stopped in.  Oleg here in the picture was amazed that such a place existed in the middle of a small town, in the middle of his country.  He’s a blogger, and wanted to take our picture.   He spoke english pretty well, and he wanted to know why we didn’t serve beer – he admitted alcohol was used by the ‘powers’ above to keep a generation in a stupor – but he also saw our dilemma – ‘you have to sell beer to make money in this country’.   He’s correct there.. we’re not making money like the bars may be – but we’re building many relationships and investing in our town’s future.  I told him, “It’s not all about money is it?”  He immediately reached for my hand and shook it with vigor.

I can’t tell you how cool and satisfying it is to meet all sorts of folks downtown – politicians, ministry leaders going to other villages, my kids teachers, and everyone in between.  The vision to be a ‘Light’, or point “to the Light’ in Christ is evolving into something special.  We’re using facebook more among the Ukrainians – word is spreading a bit about our events and network of friends online.

This coming week we are hosting an English Night.  It’s purposefully geared towards some families, friends downtown we’ve met and continue to form friendships with as a family.  We wanted to do something ‘as a family’ that would be meaningful – and centered around something fun.  It’s not going to be a school or even involve much technical teaching, more conversational, watching some movies, playing games in English.   Pray God sends us folks we can encourage, and be encouraged by.  We’re going to try this for the summer months and see where it takes us.

This week our family, and the Cafe was featured in our small town’s gazette.  What’s interesting, is that the Mayors office manages this paper – what goes in, what is highlighted is either paid (by outsiders, like political things) or something approved or ‘encouraged’ by the city.  It’s not quite ‘free press’, but it’s come a long way.   Several months ago the Mayor encouraged us to ‘promote’ more of what we are doing – He said it would be helpful for more folks in areas of influence to understand what many of the foreigners do here.

Several missionaries from our town and region make a positive impact through kids camps, marriage classes, refugee assistance and generally being light as the body of Christ.  I thought of the scripture, “Let another man’s words praise you, and not your own”.. as the Mayor encouraged us to ‘toot our own horn.’  I let it be, and thanked him for his encouragement.  Then last week, our friend at the paper came and she asked to do an interview for an article… a full page dedicated (the paper only has 4 pages) to the things we’ve been able to do this spring and the general heart of our family to sow seeds of hope – hope being found in God alone.   I am going to try to get someone to translate it and will post it for friends and family.  I had a friend verbally translate but honestly in Ukrainian I can only understand maybe 10%.. but it sounded like a good article 🙂

Prayer Needs:

– Claire’s hospital/health documents for residency have been completed but now we wait for Kiev to return them back.  This completion could take 2 weeks to 2 months.. we have no idea.  Please pray they are completed expeditiously and correctly – we want to try to get Russian visas this summer but everything hinges on our baby girls documents at this point.

– Will be sharing this Sunday to some youth leaders in Kiev.  Pray God gives me His heart specifically for this team and deposit something encouraging.

– We have one week left with the YWAM team.  Our family is looking forward after 2 busy months to getting re-established with some new patterns now that kids are out of school.  We still have some events this week though, including one more ‘all night worship’ night this Sunday night.

– Please pray for this fall.  We have several things in play, including continuing to pray/muse over the start of a discipleship school.  We have some possible starting students, and some people interested in joining us, as well as ministry partners that need some more exploring.  It’s a huge thing for me personally, the commitment, the timing – It’s been on my heart for years, the formation of a leadership development/training school or course.  Expedited discipleship, particularly towards mobilization and evangelism.

We really appreciate prayer for wisdom, for relationships, for the finances and all that would go into embarking on this trajectory.  It’s not a matter of ‘if’ for me anymore, just when and how.  I’m seeing more of the how, and it’s exciting – but the when needs some confirmation.   Lord give us faith and continued favor!   We need your prayers!!  It seems crazy but we feel we need to get our family mobile, but also the timing is near to start something more structured here – maybe it’s a matter of preparing our family to take teams for outreach as part of the school – in any case, we pray and thankful for the Holy Spirit’s guidance.

– Lastly, if you’d like to support us financially, do it!   We have pressing needs.  If you’d like to email me separately I would be happy to share more in detail.

May God remind you to pray and think of us, and Ukraine/Russia each time you fill that cup with ice.  May God refresh us all with His presence too.

Blessings,

Bruce & Deb