Love these men!

You may remember we hosted a Pizza night at the start of the school year, specifically for 1st and 2nd year incoming college students.  The following week we started Club 180, a new student club focused on ‘Living for God’, with the prayer of God giving us a nucleus to invest in.

By the grace of God, an immediate core of 15-20 young people started attending each Wednesday night.  I felt the Lord direct me to take 4 weeks to outline the Gospel, not concern myself entertaining, but lifting up Jesus Christ as passionately as I know how.

At the end of the 4 weeks, after dealing with the nature of man (sin!), the grace of God (Jesus!), and faith, we challenged the students to take personal inventory, and express outwardly (or not) their faith and desire to trust in Jesus for eternal life.

All but 2 students took that step – and encouraged us greatly to continue sowing, building on that precious seed of faith.

Jr. English Club meets weekly, led by Sveta. Was chilly this past week so we handed out blankets. Sweet kids!

God has given us the ‘core’ we believed Him for.   Since then we’ve met several more times, teaching on “How to live WITH” God.  We’ve started with prayer, it’s power and simplicity, and in the coming weeks we will move to role of God’s written Word in our journey of faith.  Each week I am continually amazed at how open the students are – their Christian heritage has already embedded within it a basic understanding of Christian truth.  Many know the Lord’s Prayer.  However there is a tremendous amount of mixed paganism and superstition.

Two weeks ago we took a small group bowling – only 2 students had ever tried it before 🙂

Most of the girls are from the local teachers college, and several of them can speak English really well.  The boys are from another technical school.  All but a couple live in nearby villages and return home every weekend.  The past two weeks we’ve started getting some older visitors, friends of friends.  I’m looking forward to this coming Christmas season – so many natural themes to explore and challenge with.

I was cleaning my office at the Cafe last week and stumbled upon a poster we made the year before we found and purchased the Cafe property (5yrs ago).  It took me back to the ‘dream’ of having a functional Cafe and how far away that seemed.   The poster listed several bullet points, reasons why we felt burdened to head into this direction.   Student ministry was a key, seeing a generation raised up and sent out.

We’ve been loving the 2nd time around ‘tent’ in Kiev – We bought 6 very nice winter coats for $60!

For the past 2yrs so many resources spent on becoming a functional, consistent light as a Christian operated business.  I can’t tell you how enjoyable it is to finally get to more of our heart, the 2nd floor of the Cafe has always brought joy to my heart.. ‘seeing’ worship take place, ‘seeing’ young people come to Christ in awakening moments, ‘seeing’ Christianity extend into villages and touch even nations!

Worship night a few weeks ago. We tried it on a Saturday night, not as many came locally, but God was exalted. We were able to pray with Vova just before his surgery, which was a success!  Always cool to have our friends from Kiev come down!

This little 180 core, like any small group of believers, has the potential to reshape culture for Jesus.  Please pray for all these young people in our town.   There are many young hearts hungry for spiritual reality, rightly uninterested in religion for it’s own sake.  Believe with us, pray with us for more of Jesus touching hearts in Ukraine!

We have been hosting Poetry Nights at the Cafe more regularly, and it’s been neat to see other creative folks in the area utilize the Cafe for things like this.  Entire networks of people we would never otherwise get to know pack in the Cafe and express various talents – plus it’s great for business, which can use all the help it can get.  The hryvnia has just slipped to 24:1 – our Coffees are now less than $1 but 2-3x more than what folks can really afford.. the Cafe is a true luxury outing for most families and couples.

A few weeks ago we took our younger kids to a hotel outside Kiev.. we really go for the hot tubs.

This past week the Cafe sponsored ‘Students Day’ for the town.  The winners of a ‘Quest’, a group of 7, won each a free menu item.  They all visited last night, with the town’s rep.  Currently our town is completely without cash.  There’s nothing available in the budget for schools, roads, hospitals.. it’s causing fresh infighting and stress.  Such small ‘donations’ like this are having significant impacts.

At the hotel, you could pay $10 to have fish eat your foot for 20 minutes. Those are not my feet.

This weekend we are hosting a small Thanksgiving meal at our house, and inviting some Ukrainian couples we’ve recently met and want to know more.

Deb and I are considering hosting a 4 week ‘Marriage & Family’ seminar at the Cafe this December.  This is another area we see our family and the Cafe becoming more involved in, particularly as we naturally build on these relationships via the kids school and the business.   I’m still wrestling through the format.. I want things to be so informal.. yet the culture really reacts well to more ‘formal’ stuff.. they are really into ‘seminars’ and things feeling more official.   I would be delighted to never again wear a fancy jacket or tie, but alas we may have to become ‘all things to all men’ 🙂

Clark ready for winter!

We are excited to announce a new Widow Ministry that will be starting Jan 1.  Together with World Challenge, we will be operating a food pantry (storehouse) for the poorest of the poor.  We’re currently connecting with area church reps and organizing a relational based ‘sponsorship’ with Widows in need, and implementing a system.  Please pray for wisdom and for God to lead us to those who would be most blessed, and also the willing hearts that will make themselves available for loving on these folks.

Next week we’ll be informing folks on Facebook and our partner churches of a Spring trip taking place, an ‘Awaken 2’ week.   It’s going to be amazing – we have some friends from Minsk planning to come as well and perhaps you will want to pray about coming too!

Wow, I wrote way too much!  Haven’t gotten to our family.  Everyone is healthy, Deb is amazing and we’re enjoying doing more dreaming/planning together.   Our trip to Minsk was a fresh reminder of God’s Spirit working in this part of the world.. we’re not alone, and there are many fresh dreamers out there believing God for above and beyond what we can ask or think!

As the ministry grows and God entrusts us with more, we do ask you to pray for us – our marriage, our kids. We’ve experienced specific seasons of attack.  We rely on prayers, we rely on financial support as well.  We are now entering the costly winter months – heating homes (now 2), and a business will require God’s help.  If you’d like to contribute and help us this coming year, or specifically through the winter, we’d love the help!   We currently have only 3 monthly supporters outside our home church, and those funds go directly to the Lighthouse Cafe and all we do thru it.  Even $25/mo is a huge blessing to minimize our expenses.

You can click here to donate securely online.  If you would like to send a check, please send to our home church in Texas:

Crossroads Community Church
c/o Ukraine Missions
1400 East Loop 281
Longview, Texas
75605
Phone: 903.234.2694

Stay tuned, and thank you for reading 🙂  We are sad we won’t get to see many of you this Christmas season like the previous 2yrs.  Things are bound to get crazy for everyone now with the mass commercialism.   Keep it simple folks, love, give, and pray now for 2016.. for vision, and God’s leading.

Bruce & Deb

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
-Romans 12:21

Waking up to the terrible Paris terrorist killings.  My immediate reaction, like most, is anger, then grief.  My immediate reaction is anger towards Islam, which to me is the symbiotic root of these evils.  I’m tired of this present day misnomer that we shouldn’t have prejudice, particularly when such prejudices are informed by historical evidence.

My mind then drifts towards the millions of displaced Syrians, which are bound to have scores of radicals among them – now infiltrating the entire of Western Europe.

I think of my kids, I want to protect them – the future generation is inheriting a very complex and fragile world order.

Eventually however, my heart gravitates away from the fleshly evils of revenge and considers the nature of evil itself.  My Christian worldview pulls up its sleeves and soon conquers the mass media’s secular worldview.  I remember that evil is everywhere, God’s enemy from the beginning of time.  Then, I more accurately perceive the larger battle of our day.

Sin is not confined to the evil things we do. It is the evil within us, the evil which we are.  –Karl Barth

Mankind has fallen.  This is the root of all evil.  You never hear that anymore, especially not in prime time media.   Isn’t it refreshing to hear though?  It’s truth.  It’s not ‘us’ against ‘them’.  It’s all of us, against God.  We’ve rejected His ways, we are living in a broken, hurting, wicked world that is still under the sway of the evil one.

This enemy called evil takes many shapes, but none of us are innocent of it.  It seems to breath it’s poison in degrees.  When it shows up in all it’s glory, we wince and cry out for justice.  Rarely do we give it much notice unless it’s overtly displayed like in Paris last night.

What is the goal of evil?  I’d suggest it’s to eradicate God.  If not entirely, it seeks to make God’s followers a truly ignorant people.  His existence a relic of ancient religions, like Islam.  I’m convinced evil’s most pressing agenda if not to discredit God altogether, is to create extreme ignorant prejudice against false characterizations OF God.

Evil seeks to transform God’s character from the sacrificing, humble and perfectly good God to something completely different.  He does this in the church through legalism and false doctrines.  Evil is certainly doing it’s best to malign the true God within Islam.

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.    Isa 5:20

The battle for believers in Jesus Christ, is to focus on knowing God, and making Him known.  Known for who He really is.  We look to Jesus, who was God in the flesh.  Jesus doesn’t hurt innocent people, he binds up their wounds.   God doesn’t hate, He is love incarnate.

The real God is just, and His justice is marching towards us, but at the moment extending incredible mercy to us with breath left on earth.  Our purpose as believers?  “Let your Kingdom come now, as it is in heaven.”  We are to be ambassadors of Christ while we are roaming around this broken world.

The churches in Western Europe have an incredible opportunity to influence and awaken the corrupted roots of Islam – God has allowed millions of from this false religion to literally show up at their doorstep – No short term mission trips needed.  If only the church was a radiant bride, as radical in its love as the deceived are in their hate.  Lord make it so.

Most of what we will hear over the coming days, weeks, and perhaps years will be centered around the growing contempt and divide surrounding the ‘civilized’ world from the ‘barbarians’ from the Islamic world.   It will be centered around protection of the innocent, safety, order – there will be increased prejudice, and much of it deserved.  However, how do you deal with evil when nobody is innocent?  Mankind can’t control it, or cure it.

Ultimately only Jesus, and His crucified life can absorb the peril of personal evil – and it’s this weapon that we must launch upon our world.  Jesus is God’s response to Evil – it’s how He, and now we overcome it.   I’m not a pacifist, but I can’t help but grieve over the future loss of life because revenge or hatred becomes our motivation.

May the church rise up and shine in these days – His redeemed people are, more than ever, His hope to all Nations.

Grieving for those murdered in the name of hatred, bigotry and false religion.

Join us this Saturday evening at 6:30pm on 2nd floor of Lighthouse Cafe.  Everyone welcome.

We will stream it live (from this site) for anyone desiring to join with us remotely.