“They say Aslan is on the move — perhaps already landed” – Beaver
I speak a lot about movement, especially these past two years. I feel a part of some engulfing plot. Unsure of my actual role, I’m overwhelmingly thankful to be involved at any level in the epic drama of redemption. What an invitation we all receive!
God. Dynamic, powerful, engaging, real. Not Religion, not morality, not rules. Love breaking out, breaking the mold, reaching, offending. Uncomplicated yet mysterious love. We love, because we embrace by faith, the fierce love displayed in Jesus Christ.
Religion attempts to ‘hold the fort’. The Gospel breaks into new territory. As hearts are awakened by the love of God, through the people of God, faith emerges and busts through religion and unbelief. We see this in ministry of Christ on earth, we see this in the history of Christianity –
The Gospel is always on the move because God is always at work.
We who embrace the Gospel as reality are part of a movement. It’s not something that starts and stops, but it’s been triumphing forward since Pentecost – and will continue into Eternity.
I’ve had this vision in my heart of an old spaceship. We’re all tinkering away on it, and suddenly something we do triggers a light. It excites us to keep at it. Then, by ‘co-incidence’ we meet others who are working on the same ship. We see their progress, ideas, enthusiasm. We realize what we’re fiddling away at it part of something greater. It has a designer, and He’s up to something. If we keep plugging away, maybe, just maybe, this thing is going to fly.
This movement looks more like a revolution than it does something predictable and comfortable. It says, ‘Get up! Join in!’, it impulses us forward, out of the boat, onto water. The revolution urges us to trust Him in fresh ways, and excites us to see a harvest. We ‘see’ the harvest, we ‘lift up our eyes’ and what we see in the Spirit is a feeling, – the heart of our missional, moving God.
It doesn’t matter if you are living in Texas, Canada, Ukraine or Belarus. You can be a truck driver, teacher, or unemployed searching for work. The movement of God is heard more loudly in hardship as hearts awaken to the needs of the soul. It thrives where the Cross is elevated and understood to be the most glorious event in history, love of God incarnate and believed. It swooshes past us all in our busyness, in our stress and gadgetry. It’s like a rushing river inviting us in, but we need to see it.
‘for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.’ Phil 2:13
Pray for our Belarus Visa applications. It’s quite a process, costly and nothing is guaranteed.
Deb and I are being asked, by the Lord, to step into new territory. We’re saying “Yes” to directing and providing vision for a new Missions Course in Minsk, to partnering with like minded ministries across the Russian speaking world. We’re seeing God connect, provide in ways we’ve never experienced. It’s accelerating so quickly, I don’t know quite how to explain it.
How about a few bullet points, to communicate where our focus lies for this next season!
- God is raising up a new generation of missional youth among the un-churched. The rejected, outcast, hopeless, the forgotten – God is awakening and restoring. He’s doing it through love, and ‘nets’ like Lighthouse model, and ministries like Steiger.org. We’re seeing this emerge across the Russian speaking world and believe God is going to use us (and you!) to cast more nets for this harvest. Help us plant more Cafes! (coming soon).
- This generation coming to Christ (15-20yrs old) need a new form of discipleship training than we’ve supposed in the past.Less academic, more hands on and focused on the heart. They need to know the Jesus in the Gospel, not simply understand truth. We need to create something affordable to those who are incredibly poor, but who have a calling on their life. We are beginning this new course in the fall (more soon!), it will be 13 weeks of lecture/relationship/mission training, then 13 weeks outreach in a place of service.
- We need to pioneer and partner with ministries (like Lighthouse) to create places of culturally engaging places of ministry. God is wanting to sow these hearts right back into Russian/Ukrainian speaking culture, not back into churches who inadvertently incubate them from it. We need more Cafes, we need the West to ‘see’ the joy and responsibility of fueling this effort.
- We are submitting visas next week for Belarus to be there in the fall. We felt for 6 months the need to be there in the fall, before any of this new missions program or any of the new MIR director role came to light. Below is a video showing what we currently offer, a “Year for God’, which has been a good vehicle the curriculum will be changing in preparation for what God has in store. We’re working on a new video now.
https://www.facebook.com/biblecollegeby/videos/502094646648345/
So please pray for us. We have greater responsibility for more than just Lighthouse staff and leaders, but now a larger team in Minsk to work with. We have a ton of legal/property/tax issues to work through in Minsk as well, pray they don’t bog us down. I can’t blog publicly about a lot, so you have to trust me that we need your prayer and support. Don’t forget us if we disappear!
There is an amazing missional, young church and several other ministries that will benefit from a renewed focus on the Bible College and training this next generation. In fact, all of the ministries there benefit from the legal umbrella the school provides, so it’s critical that we have His help, and partners.
We wouldn’t be even moving ahead with this school and missions focus if one of you hadn’t emailed and offered some significant investment. Without the funds supplied last minute (and un-requested), everything could have closed up, and instead, is now moving full steam ahead into something new God has for us. It seems when God provides, it usually opens up more areas to trust Him for, not less.
We are seeing more and more, the calling on our lives (and vision for why we believe God sent us here) coming into fruition. We’re connectors, encouragers, instigators. It’s scary, but exciting. It’s more than I can personally manage, but that’s good. We are leaning on people more, trusting that God gifts and calls those new leaders we can serve and see them reach their own calling. We are seeing how God equips (Eph 4) when our passion is to equip others for meaningful service in His work. Our own personal reserves for financing ‘our’ mission are finished, invested, and now need Jesus to supply for His mission.
We’re planning to be in the US / Canada starting in May, and will be releasing a schedule shortly for the places and weekends we’ll be hosting some events. These events are for prayer, connecting and allowing God to arm us with the resources we need to take ground for the Kingdom in the former Soviet Union. He is the one moving, we just need to keep up!
This the event we sponsored, hosted by Steiger Ukraine – packed house of mostly unchurched gathering to hear well known musicians who live for Christ. It impacted our students.
Thank you for your prayer, for reading this far, for your continued support. So many needs here at Lighthouse, so many opportunities and lives being touched. Last week, one of our students led the spiritual time, sharing her testimony and brought a few to tears. The reality of God working is inspiring, more lives need to be touched, trained, and sent out.
Our crew, check out the Lighthouse Ukraine logo, over by Bronwyn’s hand! Was cool to see it in Kiev 🙂
We have a team of 9 arriving today for a few days, orphan care ministry that is passing through and needing housing. Our boys are the janitorial team for the guest house (Deb’s parents). Then, Saturday a team of 19 arrive from Steiger for a leadership retreat. On the 29/30th of May, we are hosting a huge concert and will have +20 musicians, stage crew, all sorts of stuff there, the Cafe will explode I think.
Come on. This little girl rules my world. That head band has embedded earphone.. she loves rockin’ it out.. .with shades.
We’re believing God for 400 students to attend and fill our Culture House, going to blog about that and some needs next.. saying ‘yes’ to things doesn’t always mean we have the funds.. but it’s a huge opportunity to cast a very large net in our town and towards reaching, training and eventually sending Jesus heart into this culture.
Wow, way too much typing, thanks for your love and support. I pray the love of God, and the joy He brings strengthens your heart today.
Sincerely,
Bruce & Deb