One of the problems I have with celebrating Christmas, or the incarnation to be exact, is that in it’s attempt to memorialize the coming of Jesus, we can fall prey to segmenting the Gospel.

Baby Jesus never meant anything to me growing up.  That was a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.  The more I study the life and ministry of Jesus in scripture, the more impressed I am with my Creator, the more humbled I am to be favored with His love and forgiveness.  This love produces a very real hope – something that helps me see beyond temporary, reaches into eternity and claims, by faith, my life ‘hidden in Christ.’

When we unpack truths in the Gospel, like the virgin birth and story of the long awaited Messiah – it’s richness and delight is a packaged sort of thing.  He came to die for sinners, He suffered on a brutal cross for mankind to witness and forever know the sacrificial character of God.  Embrace the tragedy of a loving God rejected, not just the providence of his birth.  To it together, the humility of the manger, the humility of the Cross.  Why?  Because in the ugliness of sin and destruction are the seeds of real hope.

Some of you may have had a very difficult year.  The longer I live, the more I realize life is truly a series of trials, difficult situations and thankfully, many joys.  It’s a mixed bag.  Nothing in this life will provide the sort of motivations that move us beyond maintenance and survival.   I don’t know about you, but I don’t have any desire to simply survive in 2017.   I want to tap into the sort of spiritual reality that fills and propels me to trust God beyond my abilities, and sees God move through the coming year.

So my prayer as we move ahead into 2017, that we would live each day in the hope and anticipation of Jesus return.   Baby Jesus isn’t going to empower your faith to stand firm and trust Him for tomorrow – The full Gospel will!  He, God, came. He, God, lived among us.  He, God, suffered and died for us.  He, God, rose!  He, God, is coming back soon.  Let’s celebrate and share His love 364 days in 2017, then set aside one to recall together the amazing Christmas story.

Thankful for your love and support, it’s been a really cool year.   This year we, in no particular order:

1. Hosted Minsk/Texas Team for Awaken Week
2. Expanded our Lighthouse Staff
3. Started Lighthouse Studio
4. Created a Skatepark!
5. Several trips to Minsk & Leadership planning
6. Distributed Children’s Bibles to all 1st graders
7. Had our first Summer Interns (local students)
8. Club 180 Youth has seen a number of hearts respond to Jesus
9. Bought 2nd Floor Pellet stove (open daily now for outreach)
10. Rented our first Billboard
11. Hosted class of students for onsite teaching from Minsk.
12. Hosted a city wide VBS (60 kids)
13. Sponsored our first Ukrainian for Bible School.
14. Took a team of students to Worship Marathon in Minsk.
15. Took a team of students to Steiger conference in Kiev.
16. Fed +40 Widows monthly, as well as outreaches, blankets.
17. Started Pizza and finally Gas on!  Fed the town free pizza.
18. Launched our first Lighthouse Website!  (click to visit!)
19. Hosted +10 worship and prayer events this year.

Family Highlights

• Bronwyn went to YWAM Germany, and Africa for DTS
• Broderic Augustine College
• Deb and I went to Greece
• I was able to tour 3 days by car Germany (Wittenberg,Hernhut)
• Broderic visited us for Christmas after being away 1.5yrs!
• Brent had his first stint working on farm for summer Canada.
• I tried to farm chickens, but neighbors dogs ate all but one!
• Deb is still amazing and looks 30.

We anticipate some new things this year.   We still hope to host some teams.  It’s been really cool to see many area churches embrace and get involved at different levels as we do outreach and projects together.   The teams of young people really boost the faith of students we are trying to reach for Jesus, and also encourage the saints locally.

We are believing God will open more doors for the Gospel and our families involvement in Belarus especially this year.  We ask you to pray, and consider supporting the efforts that will come from this.  We want to ultimately see God work, and His Spirit open the hearts of the blind.   We believe He will do this through creative means, through music, and even Coffee.

For His Glory,

Bruce & Deb

I’ve written about Broderic’s incredible and ongoing tale in a previous post – so I won’t be including that here.  We do however thank you for the prayer, the past 4 days have been a trial for him and our family but we rejoice that things are looking up.

Widows Outreach

Our time was a wonderful success, and the team did a great job.  Max made us a video, it’s only 90 seconds and will capture more than I can write.   The most amazing time was the group prayer time.   I saw several dear ladies not only praying with our team, but with tear filled eyes being touched by the Holy Spirit.

Special thanks to Max for the video, Cheryl and Rafael for driving around and picking up the Widows, Lana and Natasha for singing while under the weather and Natasha K for organizing all the packages.   Also, thank you to World Challenge for being our primary sponsor this year, funding monthly care packages and events like this – it’s a huge blessing to many.

Club 180 Christmas Party

This year we did something a little different.  We brought the students to our house for a Skate party on our backyard rink.   Deb and Natasha (Minsk) cooked a Mexican feast which was a first for most of the students.  God was having an extra special day when He thought up Cilantro.

We are sowing seeds with some of the students about being part of our Summer Intern program.  Last year we had 3 young ladies, this coming summer we are believing God for 6-8 new believers to dive into God’s Word daily and in practical outreach.

The coolest thing is happening each afternoon now with some of our musical students.  They are wanting to talk about Jesus more than learning their instrument.   They are preferring to drink tea and wrestle through what it means to enter a more meaningful journey with Christ.  God is at work!  There is NOTHING more rewarding and faith/worship inducing for us than when we see a spiritual hunger emerge.

Pray for Anya, Denis, Vlad, Dima and all that are regularly gathering to practice and look to God’s Word for purpose.

Children’s Bible & Pizza Outreach

Several of you have given and helped us to buy 120 illustrated Children’s Bibles in Ukranian.  They were supposed to be here last week, however they were accidentally shipped to another town that sort of sounds like Rzhyshiv!  Crossroads youth in Texas just raised $100 towards a couple Pizza Parties that we’ll be hosting in addition to the Bible gifts.  Christmas is actually Jan 7 here, so we’ll be organizing this soon.

Minsk, Belarus Update

A few weeks ago I posted a video update and request for prayer.  Thank you for watching, commenting and praying.  We are planning to travel this Jan 14-17, both Deb and I, to Seattle to meet with the founding family as well as the director from Minsk, Piotr.  Discussions have progressed and we’re considering a deeper role with the US Charity they run, called MIR (“Peace” in Russian).   Ultimately our desire as a family is to make ourselves available to His work and plan in Belarus.  We ask you to pray with us and these meetings!

2017 Concept & Vision

Over the past 6 months, God has been preparing us for something.  I’ve never been so anticipatory of a new year, as this one.   I remember in July starting to have the thoughts,  ‘next year is going to be really cool.’  I wasn’t planning anything specifically, other than a focus on ‘more worship, in more places’ and a general feeling that Minsk was to be a focus.

The following print piece is a vision I’d like to share with you, it’s something not yet public, well, I guess it sort of is now.  It’s a vision to engage local churches in the west primarily, to spread the financial resources God has blessed them with in the fertile ground in our part of the world – through planting more Coffee Shops.   Take a look!

It’s interesting how an opportunity or something out of ‘left field’ can lead you to really take inventory of your own trajectory, motivations, passion.   As we’ve considered some of these newer opportunities, we’ve realized that we truly love what we are doing.

We believe the Lighthouse Cafe model, and it’s various developing offshoots is an accurate reflection of how we need to position, and reach this generation.

God seems to be connecting us to those that think the same way, have even already started similar works in different countries.

The question started forming in my heart, “What if God provided the people and resources to expedite the vision in your heart?  How would you move forward, what would it look like and how could more people get excited about it?”

This question has led to the forming of a simple, albeit daunting vision;  To plant 8 more Lighthouse Cafes in the Russian speaking world in the next 5 yrs.

These print pieces are not official or finished.  They are the forming answer to the above question.   I envision a network of beachheads in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, which essentially do the same thing as we’ve done in our community, namely :

1. Build relationships & trust
2. Provide job and ministry opportunities
3. Unite the church for action
4. Make disciples & impact culture (particularly youth).

I’m hesitant to make even these print pieces public, but I want my kids to see the process of faith. Faith never sees the entire picture, it takes risks based on experience, knowledge, but it’s about hope.  Faith can come across as foolish to some, and can incite judgment from others.  Faith ultimately needs to take steps, physically or metaphorically.   This is a step for me, to say, “Lord, I’m willing to lead in this direction, if you are with us.”

I’ve said it a hundred times, God loves faith, Jesus was always moved by it.  To step out and trust His power and nature, is to move His heart in powerful ways.  God wants to be known and has already revealed Himself perfectly in Jesus – this is the center of my motivation in this vision:

Everything God has revealed about Himself perfectly in Jesus, must be known to our generation.  If we align our hearts to this mission, whatever forms it might take (eg Coffee Shops, local Churches, Mercy Ministries), God will provide the resources.

What I enjoy about this vision, is that we can’t, in our own abilities or wisdom do this without divine resources.   The people, the connections, the finances, the favor, would be monumental.  If God is moving among the youth of the former Soviet Union, which I believe He, then He is wanting to prepare the nets.

This coming year we will need to see God connect us to the engine room of prayer, and financial support among His people.  Thank you for your continued support – consider telling your church, your friends, and those with a passion to reach a culture for Christ to join.  Consider planting a new Cafe!

Bruce & Deb

This past week has been a difficult one.   I find myself hesitant to be real, maybe it’s the nature of social media and the silent pressure to paint only rosy pictures.   Deb and I have both simultaneously sick, which doesn’t haven’t often thankfully.    The timing of the sickness co-inciding with our Widows outreach, Youth Christmas Party (at our house), and Broderic’s arrival.

The night before Broderic left Canada to visit us over Christmas break, he noticed his chin was red, and beginning to form a boil.  He messaged me just before he departed, telling me about it – we figured it wasn’t a big deal, and to proceed to travel the +20hrs by train and plain to Ukraine.

It was so cool to see my son after a full year, his first on his own at College.   Yet, the moment we greeted the anticipated joy turned to stress.  His chin had literally ballooned to at least 3x the normal size.  My ‘dad’ mode kicked in and we started considering options, which are both many and different than the west.   In America or Canada, you can simply go to emergency and get some council, recommended course of action. Here in Ukraine, not so simple.  First you need to decide if you want to pay for private vs public. The public hospital system is incredibly antiquated, unhygienic, and honestly scary (though to most Ukrainians, it’s the only affordable option).

I took him immediately to one of the largest private hospitals.  They were unhelpful, simply telling me I’d need to make an appointment, and asking me what type of doctor I need.  We decided, which I regret doing now, to take him to our home (90 min away from Kiev), get him some painkillers and use doctor Google.

During the two days in Rzhyschiv, it got worse.  We called and booked an appointment back in Kiev.   We hosted our Widows outreach, which was really a wonderful time and many dear ladies touched, and prayed with.  The next night we also hosted a Club 180 Skating party at our house.   Both events, Deb and I feeling terrible physically and emotionally conscious of our poor son’s plight.

Yesterday, Deb went into Kiev with Broderic and our appointment turned into a waste of time. They said they couldn’t help him, and actually sent them to a dentist. A dentist!   His chin at this point was not only 3x the normal size, but darkened and incredibly infected.   The antibiotics we purchased locally were kicking in but he needed immediate surgery to remove dead tissue and the spread to other parts of his sinus and face.

Thanks to our dear friend Andrei Murzin, who also was our hero during Noah’s fractured skull ordeal, we lined up another appointment across town at another private hospital.  Upon seeing Broderic, the doctor quickly took him into his office and after local anesthetic, cut him open and removed part of his chin!   I know this is disgusting, and I’m sorry if this grosses you out, but my blog is for posterity and raw history, not just the spiritual victories.  They wanted to keep him for a few days, but being 2hrs from our house, they allowed us to gather needed supplies and care for him at our house.

He’s now feeling much better today.  I’m dressing his wounds regularly, and he’s chalked full of antibiotics and potions.  The greatest joy of my week came this morning when I heard him laugh with his brothers.   It’s been 4 days since I picked him up at the airport, but today was the first time we’ve ‘seen’ Broderic – he’s been in pain and greatly discouraged as have we.

The next few days are important to keep the operated area clean.   He’s going to need some constructive surgery when this is over, but if that’s all, we will be extremely thankful.  It was spreading fast and could have been much worse had we waited even one more day.  The hole is literally the size of quarter and quite deep.  However, I’m already seeing improvement as the swelling goes down.

Thanking Jesus for mercy, for a doctor that cut to the chase and for the hope that in a week or so, he could take off bandages and move to normal.    Thank you as well for your prayers.  Every parent knows that feeling of helplessness, whether it’s a fever in a newborn or a broken bone – I can’t believe that after a full year of not seeing Broderic, he gets this infection the very day he returns to us.   We think the combination of no sleep during exam week, not eating well, and plenty of stress caused his immune system to go haywire with a common boil.

Whatever the reason, we are glad he’s here, and we can enjoy some peace ahead!

Bruce & Deb

This Christmas, we would like to gift every child grades 1-3 in our town with the gorgeously illustrated Jesus Storybook Bible.

Our friends at InLumine have professionally translated them into Ukrainian and making them available at cost ($3 ea).

Our goal is to purchase 120 Bibles.

They come in boxes of 8 | $25 per Box.

So the total we need to raise is just under $400, including shipping.   We will need to raise this before Dec 18th to have in time for distribution at the schools as we are planning other outreaches (Pizza Parties!) that will coincide.

Would you or your family consider donating a box of 8 for $25?

Click Here to Donate!

(will redirect you to our Lighthouse Ukraine site – choose ‘general support’) 

We’ll let you all know online if we reach the goal.

A few years ago, we donated a few boxes to children at Clark and Noah’s school.  The teacher’s reaction was really amazing. They not only gladly received the Bibles, but the very next day several of the teacher’s made them part of their curriculum.

Thank you for sowing with us into the future of Ukraine and His Kingdom!

“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, And light unto my path.” Psalm 119:105