Found some Chinese Food during our trip last week – with our friends David & Masha.
Just before dinner tonight we watched a low flying army helicopter, completed with side missiles pass over our house. It was surreal, and loud! We continue on however in our small town, pushing forward to complete and open this Lighthouse Cafe! What an opportunity to be an established, public place of influence for God – especially with the instability of the present situation, many are open, searching and need to know the Prince of Peace.
Fire Department comes again tomorrow to review the alarm system contract. It’s quite an ordeal, and going to cost around $4,000 to install the system, and become legal. We believe we will be the only business in our town that has gone about this legally, and won’t have to pay special ‘gifts’ for eternity to avoid fines from the government.
We have begun working in the Cafe garage which is directly behind the main building, renovating a side room into a pantry. We’re laying down tile now, and then will have to purchase a fridge and a freezer. This is where we will make the dough! We’re hoping this will be all we need to do to pass health inspection (which we haven’t had yet, that’s the final step).
Oleg and Alyosha working on the pantry room in our Cafe garage.
Spring has arrived, gardens in full work mode, and many people chopping up wood in preparation for Putin’s looming 50-70% residential gas spike. Everyone here relies on gas to heat their homes, it will be an interesting winter. I think we need to also prepare and convert our heating from gas to electric. We may even need to do this for the Cafe after we see how much it will cost to stay open!
Tucker learning how to ski.. indoors! Ukraine is a country of extremes.. many without indoor plumbing but they have some very advanced stuff too. Some of the malls they have here are pretty cool!
I am beginning to ask some friends and churches about a possible August trip over to help us build a half-pipe (for skateboards) on the Cafe property. I’ve had this vision in my head of scores of young kids, teens all gathered outside on benches, and being able to build relationships. My own kids have gotten into skateboarding, and it’s catching on – a brand new thing here in Ukraine – especially in our small town. Our boys skate down to the center where there is a very small smooth patch and they get all kinds of astonished looks – they may as well be on hover-boards!
Was great to take my oldest Broderic with us to Russia. He’ll be 17 in May, and going to work in Canada again this summer with his Papa on the farm. I thought the retro bus carpeted ceiling matched his retro earphones.
Pray for this possible trip and ministry. We’re close to opening the Cafe, but I’m looking past the functionality of that and believing God could do even more with this property – in the end we want to lift up Jesus Christ and see souls come to hope in His name.
Thank you as well for prayer this week for Deb and the baby. We visit this Wednesday and possibly will find out the sex. We are also very conscious of the remaining ‘concerns’ the doctors noticed at the last ultra sound, so we’re cautious but hopeful that the baby is developing normally.
Thanks for dropping in!
Bruce & Deb