Just returned from a beautiful Romanian mountain retreat and thought to post for posterity 🙂 Our friends from the Methodist church in Romania, leaders from various non-profit ministries gathered for their annual retreat and for the second year in a row, Deb and I facilitated the sessions.
We used the framework, “Stages of Faith” to give a bird’s eye view through Saturday on the formation of a self over the years.. from the early awakenings to divinity, to the initial learning stages, into production, then the mid-life characteristics of unlearning-relearning. It’s always a fun, and often challenging process to consider our own unique personhood, made in the image of God… a time to get on the balcony and look upon the dancefloor.
In any case, we’re grateful for friends, and hope we can return Lord willing next fall and continue investing in deeper friendships and learning with these and other friends.
Now, our focus turns to the final stages of our own in Romania.. as we countdown the remaining 3 months until we pack up and return to Canada to come alongside my mom in her health battle, and explore God’s next chapter in this life’s journey.
This week we are, Lord willing, selling the Big House, the guest house we used for a many-a-retreats of our own in Ukraine. It’s bittersweet.. we’re selling it to our friends, missionaries from Australia the Paxa’s. They have been serving at-risk kids and youth with an after school program for several years, and during the war.. the’ve been praying for their own space for many years and we’re all anticipating this house will be a haven for their continued healing and emotional, and spiritual growth. Then, I need to somehow get to Ukraine myself in the next 2 months in order to sign important tax documents that are impossible to do remotely for Lighthouse.
Lighthouse here in Cluj had a neat week, hosting international college students in our free co-working zone. The word is slowly getting out, and we pray they find this space welcoming and part of their own relational and academic rhythms. Pray Elsa and her team that she is trying to assemble so that she’s not the only one managing the space during the week.
Lots of other things happening, from documents for Deb (Canada), to flights just purchased – Deb will fly out January 10th to Bronwyn for her baby arrival, then January 15th the rest of us fly to PA for Kristen’s. We’ll be arriving just as two new grandbabies arrive in the world!
Great news! Deb and I received 5 year Romanian visas! It’s really a last-minute miracle for us and keeps the door open for our family to legally return for short and long term if God doesn’t have any obvious next steps for us. We aren’t sure what is next, and holding all things before the Lord – praying that age-old prayer, the one that pulls all believing hearts back to the throne of mercy in times of uncertainty.. “Not my will, but Yours be done.”
Never have the months peeled off a calendar like these past few years. Being uprooted from the routines of life seems to excite the senses. We become much more aware of things we hadn’t noticed before. I recall first moving to Ukraine from Texas. Having lived in a state that felt like one long summer, at least for a Canadian, time seemed to stand still. It was only after we spent our first full season in Ukraine that I realized just how quickly life was passing by – it was the changing of the seasons, the falling of the leaves.. they were materialized markers waving me an alert as to the brevity of this journey.
Now, having spend the past almost three years in Romania, we can barely keep track of what was when. Deb and I struggle to remember what year, let along what month something happened since leaving Ukraine. September is leaving us, it was a gloriously beautiful month, the weather allowed us to enjoy many BBQ’s on our patio, and leave the windows open after a long hot summer without AC. Tomorrow the temperatures will drop 20 degrees sending a shock wave across our bow, winter is coming, get ready, and life is moving, in case we’ve forgotten.
The Lighthouse Cluj team is assembled. We have Elsa, Alejandro and his family, Kwame and his, along with Onisim the potential of a few seeking friends. We’ve been doing some learning together, discovering values, strength finders and some co-mentoring. I’ve been enjoying helping one of them get enrolled in a trauma course, something they want to invest in for future ministry. Another we’ve been feeding some Fuller learning courses to, an area of their passion is to continue learning more about scripture and a teaching ministry.
Together we will open the space to international students who are arriving for the first week of school which beings, oddly, only the first week of October. We believe the space will be busy, and interactive, and we pray, life-giving. We want to unite believers and welcome visitors of all nationalities and backgrounds. Radical hospitality is one of our core values.
I’ve written, today, a little devotional thought on the beauty of humility. A topic I don’t profess to excel in, but one that I’ve enjoyed reading about this week. You can read is here on our other site – https://sacredformation.com/the-beauty-of-humility/
A little about our family. Deb is now in her final year (4 courses) to complete her Master’s in Chaplaincy degree at Fuller. She’s somehow keeping up. I’m trying to journey alongside her OT course as I regretted not being able to take it during my MAGL. I am finishing up the final semester of year 2 (of 4) of my DGL. I’m now interviewing Slavic leaders, ages 25-40yrs old, that have experienced Western-style leadership over the course of their Christian experience. I’m studying the relationship between leadership styles and the spiritual formation journey to self-discovery. It’s really interesting, I pray I can finish this despite many upcoming, continued transitions.
Noah is doing well, it seems. He is taking piano lessons again with Nata, a Ukrainian professional pianist, they are similar creative souls and we are so grateful for God’s provision as we’ve always felt Noah will flourish if given the opportunity in the musical area. He’s composing, practicing, non-stop it seems. He has these woodwind instruments as well, and sometimes we still hear the guitar, but mostly he’s focused on the piano. Soon he’ll have to decide if he’s going to go all in, do college, be a music major.. we’ll see!
Abigail is the same height as Deb! She’s only 12. She’s growing into a beautiful soul, and a pretty thing too. I will have quite the job warding off the boys. She reads nonstop, and I’m told she is homeschooling though I can never tell what is school and what is drawing, her other passion. She will start a photography course, I think this week.. as will she try out swimming lessons at a local Cluj swim club. I think she would be an amazing competitive swimmer, but that’s just a dad hunch. While we have the options, I want to try and give her opportunity to explore a few things –
Claire is, well, claire. Not only our youngest, but sweetest, and quite emotionally demanding for Deb. Claire loves to talk, she is constantly wanting to engage. She loves to cook, do crafty and often uniquely claire things (she loves tape!). We love her heart, she’s super kind. She still struggles with learning academically, and is behind in probably every category, comparatively, but excels in many unique Claire ways.. We will need to start looking for more help to help her in areas of schooling.
We will be selling the Big House to our friends in Rzyschiv soon. They will use it for their ministry to children in the area who need help. We prayed about this over the past few years, and most recently this summer, not really thinking we’d be able to sell anything before the war officially ends. We’re selling at a very good, reduced price, and grateful for Deb’s parents who have been exceedingly gracious as well to both bless us with help in the sale, and continuing a kingdom mindset to bless others who are serving Jesus by giving them God deals. They have been a good example of holding material things loosely and trusting God for the big picture.
Both our parents are in their 70s now and with that, issues of aging health and family responsibility is becoming more obvious. Has live snuck up on us this quickly? I guess if we’re already grandparents to two sweety kids, and about to add two more in January, the answer to that rhetorical question is.. yes.
We are now prayerfully deciding to move back to Canada in the new year to be with my mom. Her cancer, gratefully, is not advancing, but the diagnosis remains critical and her healthy years ahead are not to be taken for granted. We haven’t yet communicated to our supporters and friends, but we are planning to return in the New Year, with an open-ended season – coming alongside my parents, and we’ll look to find meaningful work, be self-supported and see what God has in store. We’ll leave doors open, of course, but something tells us that our days as full-time ‘in-country’ missionaries are coming to an end. This isn’t because we want this, we are actually REALLY enjoyed the ways in which God is using us in this season, and we really love Cluj! However, we are trying to follow the leading of the Spirit, again. We have been intentionally passing off roles, and responsibilities so that Lighthouse will move ahead without us being here in person. We’ll maintain a mentoring and logistical role in our US Charity. It will be interesting to see how this all shakes out, but we have peace and a calm in our hearts which we hold very dear in this season.
Awaiting the surprising ways of God. Lord, you have been faithful. Lead us, and watch over us in this next chapter, whatever might come. You have been forming us, and filling us with something to contribute, we know we are not finished and somehow your kingdom will offer us more opportunities to contribute to it’s continuous coming.
We are hosting our first project this week, the barista training program for at-risk youth, then we will officially open sometime next month before the university students return on the first of October.
We have also launched our social media channels, so please follow us if you are interested in watching this place grow, mature, and navigate the coming seasons.
In December of 2023, we assumed leadership of the space and the 5-year lease. Since that time, we’ve seen God provide the materials, and people to rally around this new kingdom, missional space.
When I say kingdom, I mean the loving reign of Jesus’ reality, “as it is in heaven.” Sometimes the word kingdom solicits ideas of the kingdoms of this world, ruled by iron fists and domination systems. Jesus said his kingdom was not of this world.. and he spent his time trying to unpack and help his followers grasp the values and virtues of what he called his Father’s kingdom… Only after Jesus divested his earthly life, in sacrificial loving surrender, did his followers then truly begin to grasp just how different Jesus’ world is from this one.
What kind of a king, what kind of a kingdom could this be where the Ultimate becomes intentionally weak by taking on our nature and laying down his life? Surely this is an upside-down way of being in the world we know as dog-eat-dog and each one out for themselves!
We follow a king who pours his power out upon the believing heart, awakening, and even resurrecting us from the darkness of blind death. We follow a Shepherd who lays down his life for the good of the wandering and wayward sheep. We serve a God that is found most truly in the perfect Life of the Son.
So, when we launch Lighthouse, a missional creative platform in smack in the center of our city in Cluj-Napoca, Romania’s second largest and youngest city… we are embarking on embodying this historical kingdom of love embodied in people of Jesus known as his church.. we are to be community focused on divesting our power and resources, creating opportunity for the culture to experience the welcoming invitation of the Savior of the world to discover who they REALLY are, as they discover who God in Jesus REALLY is.
Jesus kingdom, after all, will know no end – so let’s keep growing into it now!
We are kingdom ambassadors, as we follow Jesus’ example and experience His love toward us.
This week, our first project, investing in the lives of 10 young adults, ages 15-21yrs, from Ukraine and Romania. God provided Justin and his team from Filtered Hope to provide 6 full days of training in the art of Coffee and self-discovery. Many of the youth come from difficult situations, and our team is coming alongside them in an effort to empower them with practical skills for their future, and spiritual truths that we hope will germinate as seeds in their souls.
Thank you everyone that has given to the project! We are now sort of open, and testing out the space. We have many practical decisions to make, from our schedule, which partners will use the space on which days and nights. God is providing us with friends and like-minded believers who are also excited to have this ‘3rd space’ – a neutral, welcoming place to connect with neighbors, co-workers, and cultivate deeper relationships.
We are looking forward to how this place will impact culture, and change lives in Jesus name…. and for his growing Kingdom.
For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God – Romans 8:14
According to Thomas Merton1 (1915-1968), humanity’s purpose in life is to discover meaning and live according to it. We’re each wrestling with the dissonance between what our lives project, and what our inner longings tell us are true.
“The first responsibility of a person of faith is to make their faith really a part of their life, not by rationalizing it but by living it” (1978, XIV). This living into our faith, materializing it in the world, is a participatory experience within God’s own Trinitarian Personhood. The Father, Son, and Spirit united perfectly in holy, divesting love, have created us for fellowship. In this way, says Merton, “We do not exist for ourselves alone”… and by understanding this reality, we can love ourselves and others properly.
Love, as a grand theme, is the key to resolving our inner conflicts. To experience God’s inner realities of perfect acceptance and affirmation invites us into God’s reality, a reality that supersedes the present. “Infinite sharing is the law of god’s inner life,” he says. But he challenges our concepts of love by insisting that the giving of God’s kind of love, is where true liberty and humanity’s contentment are found.
“Happiness that is sought for ourselves alone can never be found: for a happiness that is diminished by being shared is not big enough to make us happy…. true happiness is found in unselfish love, a love which increases as it’s shared.“
In sharing in God’s love, we ultimately satisfy our deepest longings. Many of us love for the results of love, the effects of love that reverberate back to us. This, according to Merton, is a kind of “hidden moral tyranny” and an ultimately self-centered act. This sort of charity for the sake of the giver is far from God’s love. It may look like we’ve performed a loving act, and even be characterized as a loving person, but if we are seeking the effects of the love we’ve given rather than simply expressing the beauty of love from which we have been loved, according to Merton, we’ve failed to participate in God’s inner life.
“In disinterested activity, we best fulfill our capacities to act and be.”
To be disinterested is to have no alternative motives for loving rather than the beautiful expression of love itself. This is the love that God has experienced from all of eternity within His own Personhood and conveyed on Calvary two millennia ago.
God’s love is intended to awaken the recipient’s capacity to think and be. Sometimes people don’t receive God’s love, and therefore can’t truly receive ours. If the reaction toward God’s love isn’t met with an open reception to God’s love, that doesn’t mean the love was a waste, but that the reciprocating nature of God’s inner loving life has been stopped short of its intended purpose.
We love because God has first loved us in Christ, through the Spirit. As we experience this eternal, enduring, and present reality, we, by faith move out into the world of our neighbor and enter the suffering love of God. A love that is often rejected, but doesn’t give up. A love that knocks on the dormant, cold heart of humanity and smiles with an invitation to gather ’round the warm hearth of fellowship. If accepted, if received, the invited are forever changed and begin sharing in the love of God, through the Spirit.
In this way, love is perfected, and the world is healed, one heart, one soul at a time. We are filled with God’s Spirit to participate in God’s love and inner Life.
