It has been really hot this week! Folks will say, “But you guys are from Texas!” – My reply, “But Texans have AC!” Our cafe and house have been unbearably hot the past few days – the smaller Ukrainian soviet style houses actually do really well in the summer – they are remarkably cool.

This is the guy that sold me the AC units – I’ve learned from past to take names, photos, federal ID’s, whatever I can when buying something in Ukraine.  “I will find you Oleg if this unit doesn’t work.”

Not so with the larger multiple level houses – sauna city. Help is on the way – we have a guy from Kiev coming down tomorrow to install an AC unit in the Cafe kitchen (turns out pizza ovens make things even worse) – and also one in our house. I’ve been contemplating for the first time in our family history getting a pool – or as Abbey says, “poolul’. The river water has been fairly disgusting the past few summers, think lime green. Are missionaries allowed to have pools?

We are looking forward to progressing on our park. We received the finances last weekend, and now trying to figure out the best (and cheapest) way to get it in Ukraine. We have some friends coming to visit in July, and I think we’ll turn them into pack mules – the banks here are setting new limits on incoming foreign currency, and often locally don’t even have money. A number of times this year I’ve walked into the bank and the ladies smile and put up their hands, “No money today, sorry.” Reminder of the very real economic collapse and situation in Ukraine. Zero consumer confidence.

Ok, this was supposed to be a park update. The park is sectioned into two areas, the skatepark and the kids playground. The two will be separated by a small fence, keeping the littles out of the danger zone (hopefully).

I made Arman shake my hand and take this photo – “Your name will be posted on the park, it will say you did the asphalt, you realize this?” He was good with that so here we go.

Today I met with Arman, or at least I call him that. He’s from Armenia and runs a local asphalt company. He’s got tractors, and road equipment and is use to doing larger jobs but has agreed to help us level the property and pour a 11m x 16m foundation and asphalt pad. We spent a solid 1/2hr going over exactly our needs, and his specific steps in ensuring we don’t end up with a disaster of warped asphalt. This is Ukraine, we take nothing for granted – We agreed to the price and he will begin July 5-10th – and it will take a month as we build up and pack down (naturally letting earth settle) before putting in the pad. This, we hope will be the center piece to the skatepark, it’s not huge, but it will be very unique for our town – a smooth, durable surface for several years for skaters and roller blade enthustiasts.

Shane is working on organizing the half-pipe metal frames and assembly of various things to grind and hurt yourself on. He’s not only a skateboard guy himself (anything that looks like surfing), but weekly meets and cares for youth in our area. It will be really cool to see the skatepark come to life and see how God can continue to increase he and Jem’s influence among the students. Pray for Shane and the guys that will pull together the skatepark pieces.

Vova sketching out ideas and showing us on computer things he would like to do. He and Alyosha are both gifted with wood and creative. I told them there will be a bonus to whoever builds the longest lasting stuff.

The playground area has been an evolving component. At first, we were going to just buy a pre-fab playground kit – but after reviewing with some of our builder friends, we all agreed this equipment was not only overpriced (Ukraine has significant duty costs) and has not heart – it’s all cookie cutter stuff. We have agreed to allow Alyosha and Vova each to have 1/2 of the area to build some play ‘zones’ – some things to climb on, hide in, ride – all within a certain budget. I think this will cause some extra ‘heart’ and original creativity, be more special for our town and definitely more unique. It’s also sort of like the cooking or builder reality shows – it’s Alyosha vs Vova! I should video this!

So it looks like the first month, from July 5-31 will be preparing the ground and laying the asphalt. We will then hopefully have the play and skate areas materials in place to install in August and continue towards our Sept 1 open date. That’s the plan! I’m already seeing how quickly the $7k can be spent, and really want to try and keep it close to this – we can always come back next spring and Lord willing enhance various parts of it.

Thanks for checking in on the park! Pray for us, for favor, wisdom and safety.

Bruce

Click this image and it will take you there – click ‘follow’ to follow along.

Any day now we should receive the $7,500 funds from Kickstarter!  A big thank you to the 22 supporters who jumped on board and got behind this fundraising effort.

Together we are going to make something special for our town and Lighthouse Cafe will include the Lighthouse Park!

Our goal is to open the Skatepark and Kids Playground area on Sept 1 – we have a lot of work to do.  We met the other day with our potential building team.  I say potential because I’m giving them a week to really think and consider the commitment to help.  There are vendors we can hire to assemble cookie cutter equipment, but it would be more meaningful I think to do together as citizens of our community – put our own sweat and creativity into the park, more buy-in – plus we could stretch the funding further with a larger area of play.

We also met with our Widows Ministry team on Sunday.  One widow hand knit a Ukrainian style design on cloth for me as an act of gratitude.  The widows mite.   We’re continuing to serve 35 at the moment with visitation and food packages.  We have decided to host a lunch in July for the Widows we are serving – allowing us an opportunity to bless with the message of Jesus and get to know them all more.   It will be the 3rd week of July, pray for it with us!

Earlier this week we had the opportunity to serve with Hope for Orphans, our friend Zhenya (tractors at my house) has a team of 6-7 that travel around doing kids camps across Ukraine.  This was just a day camp for a really neat group of kids across the river from us in a town called Rogoziv.  The school there has a Christian young woman (Alyona) who teaches Christian ethics.   She really loves the kids and is being used by the Lord in a significant way.  It was neat to meet her and see what God is doing in our area.

Some photos from the day!

Bruce & Deborah

Noah turned 9yrs old this week.  It was 5yrs ago that he fell out of the van onto the highway, fracturing his skull and instantaneously turning our world upside down for the next 3 weeks.

We remember it each birthday and give thanks for his life.

He’s bears the brunt of the older sibling pecking order, takes it in stride, and has a very soft heart.  He loves to play the piano, rocks on the cajon, and has really good pitch vocally – he’ll be the only male in our family that can sing decently.  He lives in other worlds, playing for hours with miniature action figures and tireless expressions and sound effects.

We call him Neil, after his Grandpa – he thrives around crowds of people and action, usually becoming something of a clown and/or central figure.

Abigail has completed her first year of Kindergarten.  She has mixed reviews 🙂  The structure has been good for her, and the language learning starting to take.  We never thought we’d send our baby girl to school so early, but she is a people person and it was that, or buy her a muzzle – she talks the hind leg of a donkey.

Our kids just got back from the Kelly’s camp north of Kiev at Pinebranch.   For the past 4yrs, the Kelly’s have been serving refugees from the War to the East – as well as focusing on fostering/high risk children.

They are now starting to host again the Ex-pat camp that our kids have loved in seasons past.  The camp has been a great place to connect with other ministries and families as well – one of the coolest ways our family has expanded friendships in Ukraine has been through our kids – who would have thought?

This advert for summer camp has Bronwyn in it from several years ago.. can you spot her!? If you are from Ukraine and want to send your teen child, it’s next week and still room!

I’ve been battling a ruthless chest-cold since returning last week from Minsk.  A few days without a voice is always an interesting time.. phone rings and I can’t answer it.. or if I do, the poor person thinks Chewbacca answered.

One of the most frustrating things about being sick, which we all can attest to – is having plans or hopes for the day(s) and seeing them just fall flat.  It’s not the end of the world, but I get pretty discouraged when days pile upon themselves without any progress.. I know you are supposed to just rest and recover, but does anyone else go stir crazy after a few hours of laying and doing nothing?

We just bought some chicks.  We eat so many eggs and have the yard / building for it – so I figured we’d give it a go.  I’m betting they last 3 weeks… so many critters roaming about for a good snack.. and we’re not known for being the most responsible farming family in the neighborhood.  Alas, we will try, it’s day 3 and they are all accounted for.   Something tells me a few blogs from now, there will be an obituary.. but let’s stay optimistic for now!

Have some neat meetings this week with some Ukrainian brothers.  God is working in many lives, it’s a joy to listen and encourage a life of faith.   Kolya is opening up this week his new Hair Salon and soon to be Used Clothes store.  Inside this combo store/salon we will have a small Lighthouse Cafe area, selling coffee, snacks and official ‘pizza delivery’ location right by the largest technical college which is a good 15 minute walk from our main Cafe.   The thief stole our coffee machine money which has set us back from opening it just yet.   Pray for this, it’s a potentially cool ministry angle and place of employment for some students this summer – and for Kolya, he’s really put his heart into this, his first business venture.

Hoping to host a worship evening soon, and also plan to provide a Widows Ministry update next week after we meet, share stories and pray.

Thanks for checking in –

Bruce & Deb

We went by size.. I think if Broderic were here I would be 2nd.  Oops missing Clair.

We had a great time in Minsk!   We’re loving what God is doing there, and was neat to get to know more of the city with the whole crew this time.  We also deepened our friendship with several of the leaders at the school and church.   The first part of our trip consisted of attending the Worship Marathon with our Ukrainian team.

Here’s a little clip of Yan leading an evening – he’s one gifted dude, along with his drummer brother Vikente, and artist sister Liza.  Love this song, “Your love, in death and life, to me Jesus.  Your love lives in me, my Lord, always.”

On the Saturday of the event, around 300-500 young people flowed in and out of the main auditorium during the 12hrs.  I was really impressed with the level of talent the church at large in Minsk.

The student leaders are all into these Meme type photos – this quote was taken from a message I shared to the youth on our recent burglaries. The quote says, “Install a security system on your heart.” It looks like I am going to steal your purse.

After the team returned to Ukraine, our family rented a cottage on the outskirts of the City and enjoyed the city for a few days.  Minsk is an incredibly clean and beautiful City.   The City itself is well laid out, and traffic laws are strictly obeyed – it’s such a contrast to the jungle free for all of Kiev (although I have to admit I’ve grown fond of the jungle!).  Our kids had a blast wake-boarding and enjoying their little zoo.

Each evening we were involved in Worship Nights, and a couple of them were quite memorable as God touched and spoke to many hearts.  There’s something so attractive when believers gather, not out of duty or tradition, but hunger for His presence.  It doesn’t matter if there are 5 or 500 – if believers gather sincerely, God shows up and it’s so refreshing to experience, especially among youth.   It’s a pity that most Sunday gatherings tend to grow into stale, uneventful ‘meetings’ – God doesn’t like to be predictable, but seemingly allows us to confine him to our expectations when there is little faith for more.

5 nights of worship and prayer – love it!

One evening, was not unlike a specific evening in Ukraine where the room was ushered into a chorus of prayer and worship that was very acute, forceful, ‘other worldly’.  The music faded into the background and the folks gathered, mostly 20 somethings, began to intercede for their nation, their world.  What’s unique from my other experiences in the west, is that none of it was engineered by a preacher or even motivated by the worship leaders – it rose up, it culminated – God’s people taking His heart, touching heaven.  You had to be there.

View from the loop that encircles the entire City of Minsk.. I love the the City is so spread out, grass everywhere even downtown.

I believe God deposited some seeds that night in many students hearts, seeds of His heart for His mission.   This generation in the FSU (former Soviet Union) is no longer going to be targeted as a mission field only – but a Missional Community that God is raising up, a Kingdom force for years to come.   It’s a paradigm shift for me personally –

I’ve always believed God was calling us to help bring the Gospel TO a people group.

Yet, there is a Gospel Movement underfoot that flips this on its head – God has a people that is already starting to take the Gospel TO the nations.  Our mission is to help fan this flame.

In the coming months we’d love it if you prayed for our families role, particularly as it relates to level of involvement in Minsk.   A piece of our heart is there, and we are excited to see how God weaves together our world in our small community of Rzhyschiv, Ukraine with something larger in a big city.  I think there could be some serious synergy and impact for the Kingdom coming.

Loved this photo from morning of Wake-boarding – perfect weather!

We’ve unfortunately returned with some sickness among the troops, coughing and sneezing abounding but thankful to be home safely.   Clark and Noah are now at kids camp with our friends up in Ivankiv.    Thank you to a special someone out there that cleaned our house while we were gone!!  They can break in anytime they want 🙂

Time to meet with our Cafe workers, get a read on how the week went and make some adjustments for June.  We had a record pizza day while we were away, the last day of school… over 20 pizzas in one day is a lot for us!

Some bullet point areas of prayer!  Sorry for so many, but we haven’t blogged in a while!

• It looks like our Kickstarter won’t reach the 100% mark, but we made it to 50% with 2 days left.  We need wisdom to know if to re-launch with a smaller goal and do less, or just leave it for now.  It’s been a neat experience and I’ve learned a lot.
• This summer.  We will be receiving a couple of short term missionaries to serve with us, as well as starting our internship program.  Prayer for wisdom and for the 2-3 students that are very interested in committing.
• August Team from Minsk coming to serve in children’s outreach.  Meeting with some area leaders to consolidate efforts hopefully.
• We’re also receiving guests/friends from Texas, NY, and possibly family from Canada… so much for slow summers!
• Brent is leaving for Canada this week Lord willing, to work on the farm.
• Broderic is applying to Augustine College in Ottawa, Canada for Fall Semester.  It’s a one year intensive apologetic course.
• Bronwyn is considering fall Bible School in Minsk!
• Who else can we send out…. any takers, we got more 🙂
• Studio: hoping to see it evolve to next step and we have one person in mind to help with that, but need prayer, wisdom and finances.
• Continued prayer for Widows ministry – feeding now 40 and I’m looking to see Natasha continue to grow in leading this.  They do such a great job!
• This week we hope to get another used coffee machine for the 2nd location near the school.  It’s hard to find reliable stuff here (and people that sell honestly).

Blessings,

Bruce & Deb

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