What an incredible night!  Final count, 1280 (mostly youth) showed up to worship Christ in the center of Minsk this past weekend.  Only 860 were allowed in, max seating capacity in the Philharmonic.

The evening started with Collins and Angela opening up with an acoustic set.  Beautiful to hear the voices echo in this historic place.  Then, Sergei and Taras (500km runner) shared for a few minutes, welcoming everyone and reading the Prodigal Son parable from the book of Luke – in commemoration of the 500yr anniversary of the Belorussian Bible.  These were incredible moments.

Yan and the XDH crew led the main time.  It’s hard to put into words.  Even the short video (from my iphone, more coming from better camera soon), doesn’t do justice to the sense of awe, unity, and faith encouragement that took place.

I got messages from Ukraine over the next 24hrs how LIT literally ‘lit up’ social media in Russian speaking world.  So cool to scroll through and see the many photos and comments from this generation – they are thirsty for God’s reality.  Many commented on how amazing this could be done in the center of their city.

My favorite comment was from the ‘grandmothers’ that work at the Philharmonic – they were greatly impressed with the audience of young people, and said how polite and respectful everyone was.  An important testimony.

You can look at more pictures and coming video over at www.litworship.com if you’d like.  Our prayer is that God would open up doors in Russia next, we’re praying about St. Petersburg as a location for Lit Russia.  We don’t have the resources for this yet, contact us if you’d like to help see more worship in more places – Let’s do this!

The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.   Psalm 18:2

Life is a storm of difficulty. At times, the stressful seasons seem to be unending.  It comes at us in waves, and often pounding, grinding.  Life reveals our humanity, our weakness.

We’re tiny ships in an endless ocean. Weathered with time, events, even tragedy. We wear this journey within the depths of our soul, hidden from the masses.  The constant movement is tiring, we long for rest.

What does it mean, “The Lord is my rock, my fortress, my refuge?”  Does He not offer harbor, rest, safety?  The storms and unending pounding waves cannot stand against Him.  He is strong, protective, a stable place.

Through Christ there’s a gate, a clear path into this harbor for our souls.

You know what is so amazing about grace?  Entrance to this place of calm and true soul rest does not require spiritual strength.  It doesn’t require some level of character development or special 3 step stress relief program.  It’s just the opposite of human effort – it’s surrender.  Embrace your need for this harbor, raise the white flag and fall on Jesus Christ!

God’s Word teaches us that contrition, humility, brokenness, these are the preconditions for harbor access.  The healthy need not a physician. Those sailing along just fine in their own power will never know the healing and restorative power of Christ.  True weakness is ignoring the damage and stress you are taking on.

When we head back out into the storms of life, He wants us to be full of His Spirit, His presence filling, His joy our strength.

I’m thankful that I can come to a God who knows, who cares, and who is more than willing to unload the cargo in my heart.

He is my hidden port City, my supplies are free of charge, I can come anytime and find rest.

I don’t like not having time to blog.  You’ll have to trust there is a lot going on keeping me from it!  🙂  Here are some photo updates from the past couple of weeks.  I’m not able to share much specifically, but please do be praying for the upcoming worship event!

Brent turned 16.. he’s at the gym next to the campus almost daily. Making new friends as well which is great.

Claire turned 3yrs old. What a joy, she was very excited to blow out the candles.

We have begun connecting with university students and doing some cultural and language activities.

We are required to do some cultural ‘tours’ as part of our visa. It’s interesting, and also sad the amount of tragedy and events in their history.

Excited for Vova and Nadya, they were married last week! They are both serving with us at Lighthouse with the youth.

Incredible building, atmosphere and acoustics. The Minsk Philharmonic.

I love all the statues and art around the City. This is outside a Catholic Church.

Clark hurt his foot, he was days hopping around, thankfully it was not broken – but we got an afternoon in our first hospital here… um.

Cool news:
– I’m off to pick up Bo for a visit this week.
– International Russian night was a huge hit, over 60 turned out.
– We’re enjoying seeing some creative things begin, and relationships with YFM students deepen.

Prayer Requests:
– Upcoming worship event.  Still some needs there.
– My US business, for wisdom as we’re considering some big decisions.
– For continued safety and health.
– For Lighthouse Cafe and staff – we need some wisdom there too with some things.

Thanks for checking in!

For more specific updates, email us your address 🙂
Bruce & Deb

First week of YFM – orientation and began course on Character & Nature of God.

Our two oldest, Broderic and Bronwyn. Kind of strange having them in class, but very thankful for their unique personalities and desire for God.

We’ve all settled into our new homes, apartments, dorms.  We’re scattered around the city a bit, but it’s all working out well.  It’s a beautiful area, very organized road system – each morning I’m amazed at the amount of traffic that moves along in a quite timely fashion.  It’s quite different than the chaos I’m used to.

We’re enjoying the Russian language and feel this is a tremendous opportunity to expand our learning.

We are keeping this blog very generic for the next 3 months, just with some photos and more cultural things that we’re learning.  If you are interested in our business and ministry in Belarus, we have an email newsletter that we’d love for you to receive.  Simply contact me if you don’t already get it.

Bruce & Deb