Today in the center of our small town, something felt different.  At first I thought it was just the traffic from one of our regular market days.  Soon realized it was a political protest with flags waving, and a couple dozen walking down the street.  It’s kind of neat how I can spot a foreign presence in our town – the way they dress, the cars they drive.. I felt like a real local looking puzzled at the gathering and witnessing troublemakers.  I felt like Tevye from Fiddler on the Roof, “Get off my land.”

It turned out to be nothing an attempted provocation, Kiev TV station was there videoing what they hoped to be something news worthy.  From what I gathered and was told, the former Presidents ‘Party of Regions’ was given permission by our mayor for some meetings, then another rival party showed up to boycott their presence.   I have no idea if that is accurate, I just know it felt like a couple rival gangs getting ready to ‘dance’.  There were special unit police there to watch over the proceedings.   They don’t give you much comfort though with their automatic rifles.

I talked with the news folks, invited them to the Cafe, and they came.  I wasn’t there at the Cafe when they came unfortunately.   They questioned our Russian language (sprinkled along with Ukrainian) inside the Cafe.  Something I find unfortunate.  A year ago nobody would have thought much of the two public languages, after all they have so-existed peacefully for decades.  Russia has been viewed as the big brother, only recently as an enemy.  It’s sad how these two very similar cultures have been exploited for political gain – and now a very real chasm has emerged.

This week I had a really cool meeting with the Mayor.  It took several days to finally get him to sit with us.  He’s a hyper energetic sort.. A.D.D. if I’ve ever saw it with a Mayor.  It seems to work to his advantage though, as he’s always got a phone in his ear, barking instructions and keeping the town moving.  His biggest passion is ‘football’ or soccer.  He has personally overseen a new soccer field, complete with benches for about 100.  He visits it regularly, it’s his first love and nobody is allowed on it without specific permission.   

Anyway, we talked for 45 minutes, and it would take too long to give you the details, but he’s really been encouraged by the foreign missionary influence over the past few years.   He knew of our “refugee’ hire at the Cafe (Sveta), he knew of families staying with the Gollan’s and Ewings, of various ways Christians in town have cared and helped during this past year.  He knows we want to clean our property and prepare it for a fundraising campaign for a Skatepark Lord willing.  He acknowledged some antagonistic foes within the City government that want to protect Orthodoxy and would like us to leave or at least stay out of view.  However, he admitted almost in a conflicted tone, that “all you guys do is invest into people and this town, but all our Orthodox leaders do is take.”  He said, “You guys need to promote what you are doing more in the paper, write articles etc.”  I thought of the verse, “let another man’s words praise you and not your own”.  After a few minutes of surprising praise towards our local efforts (foreign missionary community, not just us), I felt emboldened to speak candidly about the heart of the Gospel.  I replied, “Mayor, I appreciate those kind words, but the reality is that are are not good people.  None of us are.  We have been forgiven a great debt because of Jesus Christ, that’s what motivates our activity here – Jesus Christ means something very real to us.”  Thankful for Masha, she’s an incredible translator and was able to quickly let me communicate this as we closed our discussion.   It was only a few minutes, but I believe some seeds were planted.

Please pray for our Mayor.  As we are more public and purposeful with sharing God’s love and worshipping with whomever God draws, he’s sure to be caught in the middle with this spiritual tension.  He already is.  May God continue to work on his heart and all those who may be currently in opposition to God’s heart to heal, save and deliver!

Just finished meeting with our friends from Kiev who have parked their two donated tractors on our property.  We fired them up just now and they both came right to life after a long winters nap.  We’re now looking for a farmer mechanic to give them a quick service so they can begin plowing area gardens next week, particularly those who can’t afford it as another way of showing love.  They delivered a new 6 row plow, now sitting in Neil’s garage:) May God oversee this, and in the next few weeks allow us to continue to build bridges and solid testimony in our town, but also area small villages where they are extremely poor and depend wholly on their gardens.  A tractor like this would take weeks of work and complete it within an hour – God doesn’t waste our experiences.. back to farming for us?  🙂 I actually look forward to plowing some if God permits.  Make my farmer dad proud.  They take their gardens very seriously, so I really hope our friends do a good job, straight rows!

Last night a handful of us went to Kiev to celebrate Simeon and Shane’s b-days.  It was a guy thing – Indian food and go-karts.  It was neat to witness and experience the adrenaline and thrill of speed again.  It was Vlad’s first time, and he did incredibly well.  It’s a pity the price is well outside the average Ukrainian’s financial ability – about a day’s wage for 10 minutes!

Tomorrow is a big day for us as we hope to get the houses situated for the team coming in less than two weeks!   We have spent all funds we brought back with us from various donations to get things ready to date both at Cafe 2nd Floor and for the housing setup.  If you’d like to contribute so we can buy dishes, remaining bedding, and fix a water heater in the one house, it would be gladly received – you can click here to contribute any amount from your debit/credit card or paypal account. 

Remember to check out our Awaken Ukraine facebook group page – 40 members and counting!  5 churches committed to pray for the events coming up!  https://www.facebook.com/groups/awaken2015/

Blessings,

Bruce

We believe Ukraine’s greatest need is a spiritual awakening.  The culture slumbers and struggles along without hope for any significant change.  God wants to awaken this nation out of slumber into a greater purpose.   He wants His church to arise and shine a glorious Light.

We believe God is leading us to host a unique event that starts in a few weeks called, “Awaken 2015”.   It will be a series of creative workshops for students in the area, designed to engage gifts and talents while providing opportunities to reveal the Creator.   We’ll also be hosting 5 nights a week open prayer and worship as we host a team from YWAM and involve as many churches in the area that would like to participate.

We believe God wants to awaken His people to His power and spiritual resources at our disposal.  He wants to awaken the hurting to the Healer, the blind to the Path of Life, the hungry to the Bread of Life.

God encouraged Zerubbabel in the book of Zechariah 4:6.  An angel appeared to the governor, who was responsible for what seemed to be an impossible task – to rebuild the temple.  There was nothing to suggest that such a task would be remotely successful.  The people were apathetic, discouraged.  They lacked funds, they had political obstacles, disunity and many enemies prepared to thwart any attempt to rebuild the temple.   

The angel conveys the message, and it’s a game changer, “Not my might, not by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord”.   

In a moment God takes ownership of the work.  What would be impossible through human effort alone, God would do.   The angel gives a strange but glorious vision to the people.  The vision is of a golden lampstand.  Over it hovered a bowl filled with oil to supply the lamps.  The oil wasn’t just any oil, it was being supplied by two olive vines.  God’s provision, His power would sustain the lamps was the point.  The temple would be, and was rebuilt by God’s spiritual power, not mere human strength.

The gospel, the great news of God’s grace through Jesus Christ is the Light to the Nations.  The gospels work on the earth (the oil) was never intended to be an effort void of the same spiritual power that Zerubbabel witnessed.  While we can ‘do’ many good things as a people, without the Spirit of God in our lives filling, leading, directing, the fruit will not last. 

It’s God that awakens us to His reality, draws us into His presence and restores us into relationship.   It’s God that empowers meaningful spiritual activity that impacts hearts, cities and nations.   It’s God that wants to pour out His Spirit in our lives, continually!

Not by might, nor power, by HIs Spirit must be our evangelistic focus.  God’s not interested in outward reformation, but inward revolution.

We’ve entered a season of prayer personally, and with others God has drawn together.  We are believing in prayer that God will change things.  I love the verse, “For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure,” Phil 2:13.  God gives us desires to aim our life’s focus and energy into.  We believe the next few months in Ukraine, for our family and many others, will be to press into God, into His presence, be refreshed, filled and empowered for His work.   

Would you consider praying along with us?  Maybe you too need a fresh infilling of God’s Spirit.  Daily we are to remain filled, with His Spirit, His Word, His Will.. and the list goes on.   Our Father God is waiting, the path has been prepared for all to enter His gates, directly to His throne – He has performed the work, it is finished!

Let’s run into His presence and receive all that He wants to supply!

Spring is in the air, so it’s time for an update!

This week we’ve been clearing the back of the Cafe property.  We carried away two full dump trucks of garbage ranging from an old outhouse, to old wood, glass, metal and everything in between that had been buried in the back among many trees and weeds.

Our plans will be to rent a bulldozer (after approval from Mayor) to flatten it all out in preparation for a new fundraising campaign – Lighthouse Skatepark!

Kids are off school this week.  Made some soccer posts from old scrap metal (thanks Alyosha!) and now hunting for net.

Needing to get a few more beds and bedding for group, then meet with our team to discuss food schedule – our family size will double for 2 months!

Since returning back to Ukraine I’ve felt inspired to start visiting area churches more.   To think Kingdom first and build bridges.   So far it’s been really encouraging.  God is working in several churches, and I hope to connect with more before the team comes to see how we can encourage one another.   Language has limited us in the past to fellowship primarily with missionaries, and that has to change!  Please pray that our language would progress – it’s a daily challenge.

This past Sunday we visited the Kiev church and surprisingly they had a guest speaker, from Texas!  We all enjoyed that:)

We’re almost ready to promote and send out materials to the various schools for the creative workshops and evenings of worship/prayer.  We’ve entitled it “Awaken” and will share more about this next week so you can pray with us.

Our prayer is that our efforts at the Lighthouse would fan the flame of passion for Christ among all believers in our region, as well as engage a lot of people that are not interested in attending traditional services.

Bruce & Deb

With spring in the air, I’m excited to get working outdoors at the Lighthouse property. We’d like to level out our backyard, clean it up and prepare it for a small kids park with a half-pipe!  I’m beginning to put this together for a Kickstarter project to raise awareness and funds – but first thought a nice pretty flat area would help folks catch the vision.  Step 1 – find a bulldozer.

In search for a Bulldozer – Close, just need a blade at the front!

It takes a long time to find stuff in Ukraine.  Whether it’s a small piece to a broken dishwasher, or a part for your car, you need determination, patience, connections, and a lot of time!  This isn’t something to be explained really, it must be experienced.

Not so close – this is a typical Ukrainian tractor, used for smaller fields and gardens.

I’ve come to embrace the hunt.  I think it happened somewhere around year 2 of the Cafe project.  There are so many things you simply can’t get here, particularly for business so you learn to live with active lists and a watchful eye everywhere you go.

Alyosha and Dima asking around. Everyone was really nice and helpful – just no bulldozers:)

We found there were 4 in our town, however 2 were broken, one overwhelmingly stuck in mud, and the other busy for at least 2 weeks but we’d be responsible for finding a truck to deliver it and way to unload it.

We’ll keep you posted.  We’re now looking in the next town over.   I also need to speak with the Mayor about this as the moment a tractor enters our property I’m sure the rumor mill will start swirling in our small town!

Bruce