Staff / Vision / Statement of Faith

Our Directors

Bruce & Deb Crowe

Bruce and Deborah along with family have been living in Ukraine since 2008. For the past 20 years, they have been involved in social entrepreneurship as well as business start-ups that focus on training and mobilizing the next generation.  They are passionate about creating innovative, creative space for culture-making and personal development.

As Directors of Mir, they oversee all projects and ministries in Eastern Europe, including the missional platform they pioneered called Lighthouse in Ukraine and Romania. They continue to oversee mercy ministries to at-risk families and widows, as well as education and mentorship.

They are both graduates of Christ for the Nations and Fuller Seminary. Bruce has a Master’s in Global Leadership (MaGL) and is working on his doctorate in leadership development, while Deborah is working on her Master’s degree in Chaplaincy (MaCH) and is also a certified spiritual director with Deepen International.

With eight children and four grandchildren, the Crowe’s have recently relocated to the United States and Canada where they serve on the Board of Mir Ministries in a period of transition while ministries in Romania and Ukraine continue under the direction of the Board.

You can learn more about the Crowe family on their blog here.

Jan Brunk

Together with her late husband Dave, the Brunk’s founded Mir Ministries as a conduit of God’s blessing for humanitarian, educational and creative projects in the former Soviet Union.
 
Jan now resides in Colorado Springs, serves as a Board Member and provides prayer encouragement and wisdom for our ongoing ministry together in Slavic culture.

 

Bo Bolding

Bo & Beth Bolding have been lifelong friends, pastors and supporters of the Crowe’s in Ukraine. Bo currently serves as a Board Member with Mir, and assists by providing wisdom and pastoral counsel.

The Boldings first met in YWAM and have always shared a heart for the next generation and have pioneered many ministries and businesses in the East Texas.

Our Team

Lighthouse Romania | Elsa Samoilova

Elsa serves as the manager of Lighthouse Romania. She’s from Vladivostok, Russia and re-located with the Crowes to Cluj-Napoca, Romania at the start of the war. A passion for travel and coffee, Elsa’s dream has been to host culturally relevant, welcoming space for emerging global youth. She is responsible for communications, organization of events and partner relations for our Lighthouse event space in Cluj.

 

Lighthouse Ukraine | Dima & Lena Lisenko

Lena serves as the manager of Lighthouse Ukraine in and is responsible for our property, events, as well as the cafe business and staff. Her husband Dima is currently serving as a medic in the Ukranian army. Prior the war, he was overseeing our Lighthouse music studio, afterschool music programs and property management.

 

Mercy Ministries | Natasha Kurilko

Natasha has been part of the Lighthouse Ukraine team for many years, serving in a variety of roles including administration, management of the Cafe, and more recently, overseeing volunteer teams in Ukraine that serve widows.
 
Living now in Prague since the invasion, Natasha’s family serves remotely, providing space for prayer online, mentoring and counselling for soldier’s wives.

Alejandro & Rozanne Venegas | Lighthouse Romania

Onisim Zarnescu | Lighthouse Romania

Onisim is from Bucharest, Romania and now resides in Cluj where he serves the Roma (Gypsy) community. He is a pioneering soul, instigating new projects and mobilzing believers towards the fringes of culture where the church needs to be more active.

He’s started his own NGO Charity in Romania and partners with Mir with Lighthouse Cluj providing construction, and logistical support through his charity.

Coming Soon! | Lighthouse Romania

International Student Leaders

Coming Soon! | Lighthouse Romania

International Student Leaders

Our Values

 

  • Open, welcoming spaces that honor the value of each individual.
  • Servant leadership patterned in the Cross of Jesus Christ.
  • Pioneering initiatives that inspire culture making.
  • Integrity of self through the lifelong process of spiritual formation.
  • Relatedness toward one another through the lens of the Holy Trinity.
  • Missio Dei: The Father sends, the Spirit empowers, life is in the Son.

Statement of Faith

WE BELIEVE that Jesus Christ is the Word of God for humanity (Logos). The scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the inspired work of God preserving the witness of Jesus for all ages.
 
WE BELIEVE that there is one God, Creator and Lord of the universe; with perfection to no end and existing in eternity in three persons; Father, Son (Jesus) and the Holy Spirit.
 
WE BELIEVE that Jesus Christ, was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, lived a sinless life, died our death on the Cross, rose in the body from the dead and ascended to heaven. We believe He is fully God and fully man. 
 
WE BELIEVE that humanity is created in the likeness of God; that sin has broken the fullness of fellowship with our Creator, and God’s plan is the restoration of the imago Dei in all who believe and trust in Jesus.
 
WE BELIEVE that Jesus suffered and died for all of humanity as a revelation of God’s true divesting and suffering nature (pathos). His resurrection declares once, for all, that Jesus was divine, and can be trusted.
 
WE BELIEVE that the ministry of the Holy Spirit glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ, convicts the world of sin, and makes the individual truly alive. He further indwells, guides, and empowers the believer for a life of ongoing formation and service in Jesus kingdom on earth.
 
WE BELIEVE that Jesus is the head of the universal church; that He will personally and visibly return for His Church, renewing all things under the authority of Jesus, forever.
 

WE BELIEVE in the Great Commandment; that God is love, that we love because He first loved us and His will for every believer is to receive this love, and share it with everyone, including our enemies in the pattern of the cross.