You don’t realize the size of Russia until you fly across it for 8hrs.  Nestled on the Sea of Japan, Vladivostock’s landscape is quite unique, and very beautiful.  Large mountains loom in the distance, and the sea is sprinkled with islands.  The city itself is less than 200yrs old, so it has a very distinct ‘newer’ feel over other historic Russian Cities.   Japanese and Korean tourists make up 90% of the visitors.

As a Navy Port, there’s some cool WWII museums, like this submarine.

The people were very friendly, and hospitable in and around the City.  Much like Rostov, english speaking foreigners are fairly rare, and folks are eager to practice their many years of English studies, no matter how much Russian you attempt to throw at them.

A week in Far East Russia flew by.  Simeon and I taught on the Nature and Character of God to a small group of DTS (Discipleship Training School) students with Youth With a Mission.  In addition to the full time students, another group of part time students have classes twice weekly.  They love God, hungry to learn, and belong to praying churches.  One church, while we were there, hosted a 24hr prayer evening at the top of a local mountain.  Most of the students were ages 19-25yrs old, but a few older believers mixed in there.  There was even a Canadian (hi Spencer!).

Full time DTS group, it was a lot of fun guys – thanks for inviting us!

How do you grow in your relationship with God?   This was a key theme in our teaching time.   We learn about God through intellectual and experiential knowledge, both of which are God-Designed methods of revealing Himself to us.  Without knowledge we really can’t grow in a meaningful relationship.  So we looked at the primary ways God has elected to reveal Himself to us:

1) Creation

2) Scripture

3) The person of Jesus Christ

We spent most of our time looking Jesus in scripture, God in the flesh.  I feel like we believers underestimate the comprehensive ‘revelation of God’ Jesus was intended to be.  We struggle at times grasping that Jesus was actually ‘in the beginning’, as the Word, and through Him all things were created.  It blows our mind that Jesus was the fullness of God in human flesh, He was the exact representation of God’s nature.

God wants to reveal Himself, His nature and character to us, He wants us to know what He likes, doesn’t like, what He values and finds offensive – the clearest view of God is in Christ – Jesus is the communication of God.  

Although Jesus was sent from the Father for the sins of the world, the Father also was pleased to reveal Himself through the Son.   If you aren’t sure what God is like – look to Jesus.  Jesus hates outward, hypocritical religion – therefor God hates it too.  Jesus hung out with sinners, prostitutes and tax collectors – God is seeking a relationship with everyone who will humble themselves and turn to Him.  Jesus really loves faith, and distinctly rejects self righteousness – God gives grace to the humble, but rejects the proud.

Want to know the Creator of the Universe?  It’s not Zeus.  It’s Jesus Christ.  Fully God, fully man – I really like Jesus, He is an amazing attractive figure, because God is an amazing and attractive God.   Jesus offered up His innocent life for us on the Cross – as an atoning sacrifice for OUR sin – this is what Love is, this is what our God is like.

A group of us went to a soccer game at their 10k seat stadium. Our taxi driver Pavel, a 21yr old student came with us.

It was physically exhausting, yet a spiritually refreshing week.  Taught 10 times in 5 days.  God stirred once again the desire to provide a similar equipping/discipleship ministry in our area.   My faith was encouraged to see our friends David and Masha invest in an apartment which hosts the full time students and the program.  They stepped out in faith, without any students and are beginning to see fruit already – encouraging believers from several churches in the areas to be missional minded, grow in their relationship with Christ and become even more effective witnesses in their world.   In a couple months they will be leading a team to Cambodia as part of the school’s teaching + mission focus.

The political tensions seem a distant land away in far East Russia.  Life is normal for the Russian people, families are out strolling with kids, it feels very much like a vacation city.  I asked about the sanctions, but nobody seemed to find them very noticeable aside from Barry the British Cafe owner who said cheese and some other products are either no longer available or more costly as they are imported from India/China.  The gas stations are also feeling it, as some have a very limited and random supply of gas.  The ruble is at a 20yr low against the dollar – you get the feeling that the government as done a decent job propping up the economy through the past few months, but things are starting to crack.

Would you pray with us this month?  We are asking for wisdom in a few key areas and want to hear from God:

This was a Christian run Cafe – they serve Pizza as well and have a youth center that sparked several ideas. Their Latte’s are over $4 US – Take that Dema! He is worried our $1.40 Lattes are too expensive.

Prayer #1 – Discipleship Ministry: That God would guide the timing and grant the wisdom to start assembling the various pieces for this.  We will do this on the 2nd level of the Cafe.  Also for workers, teachers, curriculum – I have a general vision in my heart for this, but want to be sensitive to the leading of the Spirit here at the start.

Prayer #2 – Baby #8, Winter, and the Cafe:  Seems like multiple things here, but really the concern is regarding this winter’s ability to heat and care for the family.  By having a baby in less than a month, we’re sort of stuck here until December at least, which is probably when things will really get cold.  If we have gas to heat, all will be well I think – however if we don’t, we’ll need to make other plans for living and also close the Cafe.    This would also obviously put on hold any sort of discipleship ministry.

Prayer #3 – Ukraine: While the fighting has lessened in the past 2 weeks, the situation is still very unstable.  We are praying for our brother Alyosha and his family.  We are also planning to bless the families in our town who have a loved one in the battle (more to come on this).  So much instability bringing open doors to care and share.  Pray with us for peace and government officials to arrange for the best scenarios for people to stay warm this winter.

A short clip below of the crazy youth on our last night, a birthday party for Elza – this is the youth center.

Looking forward to this week!  I have so many ideas for the Cafe after visiting several in Russia, taking many photos and talking to one owner in particular.  It looks like we were pretty slow at the Lighthouse Cafe this past week, which is fine while I’m gone – but we need to continue evolving and improving if we’re going to become sustainable.

Thanks for checking in!

Bruce & Deb

Simeon and I have arrived safely and enjoying fellowship with some new friends.  We hit the ground running with 2 sessions after only 45 minutes of sleep.  It’s very strange being  8hrs ahead of the family, and 16hrs ahead of Texas.   They start the mornings with exercises – gotta run.

Our starting crew. Dema, Sveta (from Mariupul), and the ‘interns’.  We are still needing gas to operate Pizza oven, but our Alyosha is in the army now (front lines).  In meantime our town is being introduced to Cappuccinos and home baked brownies.

It’s difficult to put into words the past week.  After 2yrs of documents and hurdles, we finally opened the Cafe to the public!

After so much waiting, I was admittedly nervous to open the doors.  It’s like planning a long journey.. you can plan in your mind, pack in advance, but then the day arrives and panic sets in, there’s still more to do!  I’ve had to quickly make schedules, train on cookie baking, shopping and cleaning routines..  amazing how God can use our old part time jobs years down the road – thank you Olive Garden!

I didn’t want to take any photos this week of new guests – but we have several students settling in with the free Wi-Fi.. we ned more power!

This first week I decided to play it safe – no advertising, just a couple balloons on our deck and a chalkboard out front.  We saw a slow, but steady trickle that accumulated to over 100 customers our first week, selling 140 products!

Our guys are getting very good at chocolate chip cookies – you’d think they were American 🙂

It’s been very interesting to see when we are busy, and not.  I thought we’d be the busiest in the morning, but it’s the afternoon crowd that likes to come inside, sit and make themselves at home so far.  Hardly anyone, once coming inside, decides to take it ‘to go’.

Not on the menu yet, this was made today by Shane with some onsite training.

We have probably a 60% student demographic so far.  Another large group is women, 25-40 range.  I hadn’t thought of this, but there isn’t anything for women really in our town.  The bars are dark and dirty for the most part.  However several groups of women that looked like on break from work have gathered for a Latte and experience the Lighthouse Cafe.

Our customers have been very gracious.  Although some come in, look at our limited options, check us out and leave, 75% of them are keen to try out this new experience.  They love the atmosphere, and we already have 3-4 repeat loyal customers.  There are a couple sets of students that have come 5 days in a row.. making it their own.  A few of them are bringing laptops and staying for hours, but most are there for 20 minutes then leave.

We have so much more to learn, and it seems daily we are tweaking things from our drink portions, prices and shape of cookies.

Shane teaching the guys how to make Apple Pie – next on the list if we can pull it off!

Thankfully, God has put together for us a great little starting team.  At first it was just Dema and myself, but then we realized we needed to open more fully, and needed help.  A group of refugees from the Mariupul area fled to our town and are staying with Simeon down the street.   Anyway, one of the young girls staying with her Mom at Simeon’s is now working with us.  She is a very creative and talented young lady, reminding me of my daughter in many ways – just a bit older.

Broderic and Bronwyn are starting to work now part time a few times a week.  I told them it was part of their school so I don’t have to pay them – we’re currently in negotiations about that!

I now need to get packing, I leave Sunday for week.  Please pray for Deb, the doctors thinks she may go early, but what do doctors know eh?  She has 5 weeks left, when I get back, her parents arrive a few days later, then we will be really close to baby #8.   Also pray for the Cafe please, a bit nervous just getting going into a rhythm and having to leave, the timing is a bit crazy, but I believe God opens doors for reason, and I’m blessed to go and deposit a bit of my heart and hopefully some encouraging teaching from scripture to some students in Eastern Russia.

We have two donated, new tractors in our backyard for the winter. They will be used at the new property of Hope for Orphans, 10 minutes down the road. Amazing how God blesses folks that step out in faith.

Folks are very concerned about this winter, and the ability to keep a house warm.  Ukraine is warning residents of the winter months, to find other sources of heat than gas.  We still haven’t received our load of wood which was ordered 6 weeks ago.  The prices are escalating quickly, if you can get it.  Even if we receive it, it’s not enough to keep our house truly warm, and they are saying electricity may also be limited – the real bargaining chip I think our neighbors to the East have been waiting for to keep Ukraine in their sphere of influence.

The kids school will be shutting down for at least 2 months in the winter because they know they won’t be able to heat it –  having a baby in the middle of this limits our options of escape, our baby won’t be able to travel without a passport which takes a while – first have to declare US citizen birth abroad.. anyway, not your problem.   We will do our best but also making alternative plans if things are too difficult for our family.   Our hearts are here, but if we can’t stay warm we’ll have to make that a priority.

Thanks for checking in, we’ll post some pictures of our Cafe/guests more in the future.. didn’t want to make anyone uncomfortable out of the gate running around with a camera.   We’ll do that later once we know them 🙂

Bruce & Deb

The boys thought I was strange to ask them to pose backwards, but parents will understand.  I love patting those precious heads.

September 1st marks the ‘opening bell’ across Ukraine.  An hour (at least) long service filled with the same songs, poems, suits and dresses.  This year however, a somber emotion filled the air as parents gathered to remember the fallen soldiers from our town – not from WWII, but only weeks ago.

Natasha Yevtoshenko has been an amazing help shopping for deals on shoes in Kiev and sizing the kids up.

Last week we were able via a donation from Texas, provide shoes for the kids at Kuzmenci.  Thank you to all that gave this summer towards the fire/restoration of property.  The kids are back, and have actually a much nicer/cleaner place to live than before the fire.

This little ray of sunshine makes us laugh everyday. The smarts she possesses compared to our boys at the same age.. well, it’s a bit embarrassing gents.

On Friday of last week, we received some amazing news.  The Health Inspector for the region surprised us by visiting our Mayor’s office with our official approval document.  This means we are totally legal now and can finally open!   We celebrated by opening for a few hours, and selling our ceremonious first cup of coffee – the winner.. Alyosha.  Fitting, as he was with us when we bought the property +3yrs ago, and was instrumental in the major renovations.  I gladly took his $1.50, along with this historic photo!

Tucker overhead the voice of the notorious math teacher (only male teacher in school), thus the face.

More to come on the Cafe later.  Please pray for us as we prepare for Vladivostock, Russia in less than 2 weeks.  I go to the consulate tomorrow to pick up my visa.  Many refugees have flooded the region from the Mariupol region – the situation is escalating, and many homes are crowded with additional family, friends and contacts from the war torn areas.  This is a logistical nightmare for families fleeing and receiving, schools, hospitals, and everything in between.

Deb is only 6 weeks shy (or less) from baby delivery #8.  We are looking at a crazy month ahead with travel, family visiting, the Cafe now open, more big changes in our Texas business, and an escalating war to the south – not to mention the looming winter ahead with concern of gas/heat politics.   Life comes at us in waves doesn’t it?  Enjoy the lulls, they are a gift.  When my kids complain of being ‘bored’, I tell them how lucky they are, they leave puzzled, but they’ll get it.

Mid-Flight, sorry so many Abbey pics, she just reminds me why we all miss being kids.

This is Ruslan. He’s a great kid who has been abandoned by his parents. He is very polite and thankful. He’s sporting the new suit purchased by our supporters.

It’s times like this we take refuge in our great God.  We hide in Him because He is our strength.  We push forward in prayer because the real enemy is already defeated.  We remember our King sits securely on His Throne, and all who trust in Him should not be afraid.

Opening Class, several broke down into tears (teachers) as the had a moment of silence for the fallen recently in battle.

Thank you for praying, caring and the little notes you do send.  We miss you guy out there!

If you sit, the kids will come. They long for physical affection – language all by itself.

We join with many across Ukraine and the world for peaceful resolution before more lives needlessly taken.

We’ll be in touch soon with more updates on the Cafe and ways you can continue to partner with us.

Bruce & Deb