For the past few months, our home church in Budapest has been walking through the book of Philippians, and recently we landed near the end of the letter, in chapter four, verses ten through twenty. It’s a passage about how unique the Philippian church was. They didn’t just send Paul off with well wishes, they partnered with him, specifically through financial giving, again and again.
As we read through it, we couldn’t help but think of our own home church, Kilcona, and how they’ve done exactly that for us since the very beginning. This year marks twenty years for us in overseas missions, and that kind of partnership has been there from day one.
We had the chance to share a little about this at our home church this past Sunday, along with some updates on what we’ve been up to this past year. If you’d like to watch, we’d love for you to take a look at what’s been stirring in our hearts from this passage.
A personal reflection from two people who see the hunger up close — and believe the Word is exactly what this continent needs.
We live here. We walk these streets, sit in these cafés, and have these conversations. And what we feel most days is a mixture of grief and hope that is hard to hold at the same time. Grief, because we can see what has been lost. Hope, because we can also see what is still possible — and we believe with everything in us that the Bible is at the center of it.
That is why we are here. Not as tourists to European Christianity, not as people observing from the outside, but as missionaries called to bring the Word of God to a continent that built so much of its civilization on it — and has quietly walked away from it. Every day we feel the weight of that calling, and every day we are more convinced it is the right one.
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”— Romans 12:2
What we see around us are not just political or economic crises — though those are real enough. What we see is a spiritual crisis. People are searching for a framework to live by and coming up empty. And when the Church goes quiet, that emptiness does not stay. It fills — with consumerism that ties worth to possessions, with an individualism that strips away any sense of duty to one another, with outrage that looks like justice but has no love or real answers in it, with loneliness that gets sold to people as freedom. We see these things every week. They are not abstractions to us.
And that is exactly why teaching the Bible here feels so urgent. When we open the Scriptures with someone and watch something come alive in them — a sense of dignity, of direction, of being known and loved by a God who makes actual moral demands on us — we know this is our role in helping answer the challenge.
In this past year alone I have taught many books/topics: Church history and heresies, Introduction to the Prophets and Amos, Gospel of Matthew, Revelation. Every time I receive lots of feedback: “Are you recording the teachings”, “I wish I could do the SBS”, “I would love to hear more about those books!” BUT I have heard nothing about Numbers. No feedback, no excitement…
Why? Let’s start with the title.
Genesis
Hebrew word which means “in the beginning.” This is simply the first word of the book. The Greek translation bears the title Genesis, “beginning,” which in this case is almost an exact translation of the Hebrew word and is also a good description of the actual contents of the book. English transliterated the word: Genesis.
Exodus
Hebrew words it begins with: “and these are the names.” Or sometimes: “Names.” This Hebrew title, however, gives no idea of the contents of the book. While the book begins by naming the sons of Jacob who went down into Egypt, this is purely introductory. In the Greek translation a descriptive title was substituted, consisting of the Greek word Exodos, which means “going out.” This title is an excellent description of the contents of the book, and is clearly an improvement over the Hebrew designation. English- Transliterated
Leviticus
Hebrew Bible, the title of the third book consists of its first word, “and he called.” This gives practically no idea of its contents. )In the Greek translation the word Leuitikon was substituted, indicating that the book contains directions for the activities of the Levitical priests and their Levitical assistants. English- Transliterated
Numbers: We will skip and come back to it
Deuteronomy
Hebrew is titled by its first two words “and these are the words.” This is very similar to the title of Exodus, “and these are the names,” or of Leviticus, “and he called.” The Greek version has substituted the title Deuteronomion, which means “Second Law.” Moses is repeating the law, so it means 2nd law. Thus, the Greek title aptly describes the contents of the book, and is very appropriate. English- Transliterated, but there are no English speakers that would understand it means second law.
Summary
In three of these four instances, The Greek improves the title, letting us know the contents more clearly. While in the case of Genesis, the two are substantially identical. In all four cases, our English Bibles use a simple transliteration of the Greek word. Surely it would have been better if these titles had been translated into English instead of being merely transliterated from the Greek.
So now Numbers:
Numbers
Hebrew Bible, it is not its first word, but its fourth, that is used as a title which means “in the wilderness”This word forms an admirable description of the contents of the book. The Greek translators gave it a descriptive title, which instead of fitting excellently, as in the case of the other four books, is not at all well selected. It is Arithmos. It is a mathematical term.
In English, instead of transliterating the Greek title, we have in this ONE instance translated it. So first a bad choice of the title in Greek, now made worse in English: Numbers. This makes it seem like a dry list of statistics. If a few chapters were taken out, there would be less numbers remaining than in many another book of the Bible.
I was chatting with a friend who said he didn’t like the book of Numbers. After a little discussion we realized he actually meant Chronicles. So again, the title doesn’t help one to remember the content/message of the book.
It is actually sad, because Numbers is one of my favorite books of the Pentateuch and really shows so many important timeless truths!
Theology – What do we learn about God? That He is faithful to his promise to dwell with man. He desires to make his face shine upon mankind. That He is Holy and Perfect, and makes a way where there seems to be no way. That He is just and does what is right. He is merciful and slow to anger.
We see that the death and resurrection of Jesus is absolutely crucial for us to be able to be in God’s presence.
Describes the temptations and the challenges we have as believers as we await the promised land.
Describes the age of tension and helps us see how to finish the Christian life well.
It also shows that rebellion against God’s ways does not lead to the place where God dwells with his people.
This may be the most relevant book in the Torah for us as believers today! Such a great book, it is too bad more believers don’t take the time to study it deeply. If you would like a good commentary to read on this book, I highly recommend L. Michael Morales and his commentary
It is hard to believe that Ben and I ran our first Titus Project in Europe 16 years ago. And yet, we still get to see the fruit of some of the early seasons. Ben and I were invited to teach in the School of Biblical Studies in Sweden. I was teaching Ezra and I got down on my knees and begged the students that when they graduated, to take an extra 3 months and learn how to teach the Bible. There was a girl named Seraina from Switzerland in that classroom and she took the challenge. If you watch this little video we filmed today, you can find out her story of what happened from that time.
The participants we are training now are really excited to go and give what they have learned away in the nations. We will send out 3 teams with 4-5 people on each one. They will each go to two countries: Netherlands/Taiwan, Albania/Italy, and Indonesia/Philippines. They have a few more weeks of training yet, but here are a few photos
We also have time to have fun and go for walks in the forest. And the family is still doing well at home. Playing games, going to school, playing basketball! Tomorrow I go home, but Titus goes on for the next few months.
Thank you for all your prayers and support of our work!
What a great week teaching with my niece Isabel and it has been so much fun having Cassie here too! Thank you to YWAM King’s Lodge for letting us all come, join your Christmas parties, and teach the amazing Gospel of Matthew. Don’t worry, the boys at home are doing great. Look at that pizza that Jay made from scratch!
We were back in Canada and as I was singing some songs to Jesus, this idea popped in my head. How could I introduce people at home to the people we minister to? We always try a variety of methods to communicate, but this would be something a little bit different. Instead of long video updates, I would interview people that I teach with just a couple of questions. Keep the videos under 2-3 minutes, and let those who send us meet those we work with. So this was my first attempt. I still need to buy a tripod (my phone is balanced on a table) to hopefully get the angle and quality a little better, but still, this is start.
Enjoy! Ps. If you like this and would like to see more of them, you can subscribe to the playlist on youtube, or subscribe to this blog (on the right) and I will be posting them here. :)
There were many of you who gave to a love offering at our home church just before we left. That offering gave us the ability to:
restock our pantry
provide our landlord with the 2 months of the rent deposit that he needed
pay for the visa and registration documents we need to stay here in Budapest
be able to re-register our car to be able to use it here in Hungary
These were significant starting expenses that are not included in our monthly budget and we are grateful to each person who gave!
YWAM Kyiv incredibly continues to disciple and train young people in a nation that is regularly bombed almost daily.
Maybe overtime you have become so habituated to this thought that it doesn’t bring the same shock as it once did, but take some time to localize it to your own nation. Imagine you had a group of young people in your church that you had living in homes and coming together for classes everyday in discipleship, and at the same time, bombs, drones or missiles were being shot at your downtown, the nearby cities etc. What kind of strength and resilience would you need to keep your focus on the importance of God’s kingdom in the midst of it all? What kind of prayer support?
Well, at YWAM Kyiv, we have people from different nations, cultures, and backgrounds just starting this September—united in their desire to know God more deeply and make Him known.
We are so excited to see them walk together over the next months, and watch all that He will do in and through their lives. Please pray for them. Our family may not be physically in Kyiv at this time, but Ben and I still serve on the leadership team and our hearts are still deeply invested in this ministry.
Please pray for us and Ukraine over these next few weeks. We will be going to Ukraine October 23-27 for our YWAM Kyiv staff retreat and Leadership Team planning days.
Locally here in Budapest, Ben continues to serve at ICSB (International Christian School of Budapest). One of the best parts of his work is that he has relationships with almost every student from grade 3-8 because they all come through his classroom. If you add to that coaching Junior Varsity Volleyball, now that group includes Highschool boys.
All of these daily encounters are a part of impacting young people with God’s love. About 40% of the students are local Hungarians who are not usually from faith filled families, and the others are from countries as varied as Korea, China, Finland, Brazil, America, Canada, Bulgaria, etc. The influence that Ben has is extremely diverse and we would really appreciate your prayers!
Angela enjoys serving with YWAM Budapest as well as other international YWAM ministries. This past month has included a fun time of teaching the YWAM Budapest staff. It can be difficult, once a person starts working in full time ministry, to find time to allow yourself to grow, and to receive input. The YWAM leader here in Budapest recognized this and asked if I, along with two others, would be willing to take some time to teach on Tuesdays to the staff.
We have had a great time teaching so far! We have done one week of teaching the book of Titus (using the inductive method in a seminar format), one week on 3 great reasons to believe in God (apologetics), and these next few weeks will be on church history and heresies in the first 500 years.
We had a great visit from Uncle Charlie and Auntie Kathy (Ben’s mom’s sister). They were able to be in one of my sessions with the YWAM staff here and we asked her to tell us about her experience:
”While we were recently visiting Budapest, we were privileged to attend Angela’s teaching on the book of Titus. Her ability to connect with those attending the workshop was wonderful to watch. During her teaching, Angela never looked at notes; her knowledge of the book of Titus was obviously second nature to her. She involved the attendees utilizing the inductive Bible study method, with three key stages: observation, interpretation, and application. We personally learned so much from Angela’s teaching and plan to utilize this approach in our own future Bible Studies.”
We were SO glad to have them here!!
We’ll end this with a little update about the kids.
Cassie is enjoying her senior year! She is able to come home everyday for lunch, which is so nice for Angela to have her company! She is also in the middle of applying to many colleges – please pray for the right one to offer the best scholarships!
Jay is just loving being back in school and has really enjoyed the volleyball season so far. There are many weekend tournaments to come so pray for safety and health for his body.
Kai is at the top of the middle school (grade 8) so that is always fun. He is in the middle school musical called Seussical, and is right into the swing of things!
In a couple of weeks the kids will all have school retreats and then a fall break (which is when we will be going to Ukraine), so you can also pray for the fall retreat as that is a time when the kids really get a chance to get to know their friends in a deeper way, there is a speaker, and there are lots of games etc. Pray for each one of our kids to have a great time, and more importantly, for all of the kids in the school to meet Jesus in a personal way.
Titus Project is an international ministry (check out our website http://www.titusproject.com to see all of the locations) and in order to strengthen the different locations and their training, those of us who have been serving in the ministry a long time (including the founder) created a new international team this past year. There are just four of us on the team, and we gathered together in Taiwan last week to film different training video resources. This trip happened to fall right on Cassie’s 16th birthday, and since she was born there and we found cheap tickets, we decided it was a good time for her to see the land of her birth. Cassie and I (Angela) had a crazy experience trying to get there (including getting an emergency passport at the last moment in Vienna) but once we arrived it was a great time of making memories, showing Cassie the hospital where she was born, and of course filming many hours of videos. Amy and Michael (founders of Titus and our hosts) were so wonderful. Sonya Yakovenko and I are the other two members of the team, so we were busy with recording videos. Cassie was our amazing ‘audience.’ Amy and Michael also have 4 adult children and they joined in on the fun of being our live studio audience.
Thank you to everyone who came to hear about our year of transition from a war zone to Budapest. If you couldn’t be there, we hope you will take some time to watch the video below. You can even speed it up and listen while you are doing dishes 🙂 That is our favorite way to enjoy a podcast.
We don’t often write about our involvement with YWAM Budapest because of the strong focus we have right now on YWAM Kyiv and also the Bible teaching we are doing around Europe. However, we do want to highlight the work happening here in this beautiful city.
YWAM Budapest is a team of staff from many backgrounds, and they are involved in a lot of different types of work. Steve and his wife Barbara are the base leaders and have been here working for 30 years! They have seen tremendous changes over the years here in central Europe and have raised their children all here at the same school our kids are attending (International Christian School of Budapest). They are really wonderful people that love the Lord and love Hungary. The rest of the staff are very diverse, from Serbia, Macedonia, Poland, America, Canada and Germany and of course Hungary (I’m probably missing some).
Some of the good work they do here: They own and run a fantastic cafe called Selah that employs Hungarians and others and functions as a meeting space for churches, organizations and just every day people. Every Tuesday is what they call the ‘Sandwich run’ where they make sandwiches and bring them around the city to the homeless people. This ministry has been going on for over 10 years and Rosie who leads it knows almost every person living on the streets by name. Of course, there is the DTS that runs here, there are art workshops and there is much more work that the staff do, but that is just a little picture of YWAM Budapest.
They have really welcomed Ben and I to be a part of the community here while we are living in Budapest, and while we don’t have much time to contribute to all of the work they do, they are quick to let us be a part of whatever we can be, and for that we are grateful!
Yes, with the children in school now (they grow up fast!) it makes sense for our furlough year to correspond to the school year. We will be back at the end of June and stay until the summer of 2019.
2) What does it mean to have a furlough year?
Because our work here in Ukraine is around the clock, it is good for us to have seasons in Canada. We get away from our day-to-day responsibilities in order to rest, rejuvinate, get more equipping, and share with our supporters what they have been a part of! It makes us more effect, and healthy for the work we do here in Kyiv.
3) How do you feel about coming home for the year?
We are excited. These past four years (since our last furlough) in Ukraine have been really great . We have seen so much fruit. We have also been a part of the leadership team here at YWAM Kyiv, which has meant additional responsibilities beyond leading our own Bible teaching ministry team. This has been a blessing, but it has also left us ready for a season away from leadership.
4) Right now you live by others donating to your work on a monthly basis. Does that continue during your year at home?
Yes we will continue to rely on our supporters and friends who believe in the work we are doing.
5) So what will you do for a year?
We will still be carrying some of the responsibilities of our work, even in Canada (the internet is an amazing thing)! After a summer of camping, and having our children spend lots of time with their family, we will see what God leads us to. There will be lots of different areas that we will be pursuing for the year: education, retreat, prayer, serving and teaching. However, the main goal will be to pray and seek the Lord what he would have us do during the next 4 years in Ukraine after our year of furlough. And of course, share with all of our friends and family the things that God has done since we moved here in 2010. Hopefully we will get a chance to visit friends and family that are outside of Manitoba as well.
6) So does the Bible school (SBS) stop when you come home?
No! Thankfully we have a great team here in Kyiv. Thelma Selvan is leading the SBS this year on her own (after co-leading with Ben last year), and she has an amazing team of people helping her. It runs from March-December. Next year in March she will lead it again! But please pray for her and the staff team- for many areas, but specifically finances. Most of our staff who are faithfully leading and teaching in the SBS live on less than $100 dollars a month (and their rent is half that amount). But they continue to trust God to provide for their needs because they believe in what they are doing. If you would like to expand the people you support in missions, please contact us and we can help you give to these workers who have proven faithful and trustworthy! As they say, not all of us can go, but all of us can send!
7) What about your Bible teacher training and sending ministry (Titus Project)?
Sonya Yakovenko leads Titus Project now here in Kyiv, and she does an amazing job! Every January she takes new graduates from our Bible school (and other SBS’s around the world) and trains them to be great Bible teachers! We have a growing reputation of being a great place to get trained and sent. She will also take over leading our Bible teaching team while we are gone. Please pray for her as she is also a part of our YWAM Kyiv leadership team so she has many responsibilities.
8) So when do you actually arrive back in Winnipeg?
We will be arriving June 20, with our three kids and our dog ‘Midnight.’ We will be living back in our little home on Melbourne. You can call us at 204-977-2950.
Every year we report on what we have done in the past year and what is coming up to our home church and our supporters. We thought some of our friends and family might be interested in reading it as well, so here it is :) Let us know if you have any questions.
We looked back and thanked God for all He has done (that is the feature picture, if you zoom in you can read all of the papers). We looked forward as well. But most of all we just listened. We took time to listen to God and to each other and it was a GREAT day! Of course there are still many things to think about and plan fort, and we wish we could have more time together, but we are thankful for the day we had! And Ben and I are thankful for this great team that we can spend time with and work with every day! See more pictures from the day here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/badoerksen/
Ben and I don’t work alone. We are part of a large missions team of about 45 people here in Kyiv Ukraine called YWAM. And in that big group of 45, about 10 of us are a part of the Bible teaching circle. So our main role is to help people understand how to study the word of God for themselves, and we train up new Bible teachers too. I thought since we work with so many wonderful people I would put up a picture of our Bible teaching team. I’m so glad we have such great people we work with! Here is a picture of the whole big community as well :)
Great question! Ben is still leading our 9 Month Bible School. Right now the students are in the quarter that looks at each prophet. Ben taught last week how to understand the different types of oracles in the major and minor prophets. He led the students through their study of Amos and Joel.
Ang has a variety of things on her plate. First and foremost she is full time mom this summer, with a great schedule of things to do for the kids every day is an adventure. On top of that, she is hosting the different teams that come here in the summer to help with camps for orphans and refugees. She just helped coordinate a team that is currently in the East part of Ukraine serving with medical expertise there.
We definitely appreciate your prayers, summer is hot and full of lots of details. We are also in charge of coordinating the new staff that are joining YWAM Kyiv this summer! 4 new people have come to serve here full time! Exciting!
Usually we take our annual report submission to our church and make it public for anyone to read. I realized this morning we hadn’t done that yet.
So if you are interested in reading a summary of our work last year here is the pdf. It isn’t very long, should take about 3 minutes to read. Plus it has some nice pictures!
More importantly it shares the work we do, which really is done by everyone who participates in sending us in some way, whether financially, prayerfully, or simply emotionally (“You guys can do it!”).
An incredible trip – wonderful hosts who really invited us in to minister, a hungry audience for our seminars who were passionate for God, and time for depth and growth as a team. First a short story and some comments and then if you’re interested, lots of details.
During our study skill teaching times we include lots of simple practical application ideas. One day one man shared that his neighbor had recently parked in his spot and he was quite tempted to be angry. But instead, he practiced what he had been learning and went and talked to his neighbor and told him he could have the spot. Seems small but the people we were teaching had such a heart to grow and live it out!
Though they have had the Bible for a long time, they tend to read it more like a newspaper – interesting but sort of out of touch with their own life. Some of the comments they shared with our hosts:
– “We don’t get Bible Studies like this in Mizoram, we need more of this kind of teaching where we can discover truth on our own.” Monica
– “Studying the Bible this way has broaden my understanding. After the seminar of Jonah I was so inspired that next day I told everyone I met about it.” Dr A
– I always heard about having a mind of Christ but only on the seminar of Philippians did I actually understand what does it practically mean. No one every preached it this way. No one before explained what it means.” Tete-a
Culture
Its been a few years since I’ve been somewhere so remote but it was such a great experience! I’ve seen and experienced many things in my life and so I was actually surprised by some of the things that I learned this time. One particular aspect was my own culture shock. They lived like normal people do everywhere but they still have a tribal outlook on life. Its quite stereotypical but when I think tribal I think of huts, spears and subsistence living. But they weren’t that at all. Yet the way they conduct meetings, relate to each other and live is tribal in outlook. They don’t do much in the way of greetings like “hey, how’s it going” because they see each other so much and they won’t do much in the way of good bye’s either. And meetings of any formality always start with a long preamble of important people who say something before starting, something like honoring the elders and leaders in the group. I saw this in church on Sunday, at a cd/video release party at the hotel we stayed at, and even in our teaching sessions. As tribal people, they share very willingly, so during the day we would walk into homes and invite ourselves over for tea and a snack. But the thing was, it wasn’t inviting ourselves over – it was normal, expected, informal. There wasn’t much of a hello, even when we didn’t know the people.
Teaching
The teaching situation was terrific. With our first audience we had a whole week with the same group, two full days and four evenings so we could really spend some time with them. We covered a number of books, taught Inductive Bible Study method and an Overview of the Bible. The whole province we were in is basically all Christian. Everything shuts down on Sunday (not even corner stores are open) and nearly everyone goes to church. But church is a shallow thing for most people, a ritual largely devoid of meaning and disconnected from their daily lives. A younger generation is growing up that probably won’t carry on most of the traditions as well. Amazingly, God has preserved them from Hinduism to the west and the Buddhism to the east and north. They are surrounded but God has a special plan for them and is preparing a revival of hearts there that he will send to the nations! What a privilege it was to go and encourage them, teach them some Bible study skills, and spur them on in their walk with God.
Our Team
As our team has had some shifts in people this last year, we really wanted to spend some time growing and teaching together. Well this was a terrific time. My favorite part of the trip was a personal sharing time where we all really opened up about our lives. And watching each other teach we really got to see each others gifts and unique personalities shine and to see how we can do better together. But it wasn’t all deep, we did a few fun things together too like hiking in the mountains, seeing some ancient Indian caves with carvings. The other really fun thing was eating together. We ate so many meals in different environments, home cooking, street food, a fancy dinner from our hosts and plenty of authentic food. Daniel likes it pretty spicy, Esther will eat with her hands like a local, Nadia will undoubtedly order something that doesn’t come out right, Sonya and Thelma love the veg and Sasha is ready for a nice bowl of soup.And me, I really enjoyed the variety. I was quite worried that the spicy would hurt me but my stomach was strong enough – thanks for all your prayers!
Yes, thank you for your prayers and encouragement! We can control for efficiency but it is largely the Lord who makes us effective and that comes through obedience and prayer!
Whenever someone asks Ben or I to come and teach, whether it be in a DTS, or on an SBS we always pray and ask God if this is the right decision for our family. Especially because we live on support, so every trip we take is using finances that others have blessed us with.
Well this trip was no different. A past SBS graduate who is now leading a DTS in Wales asked me (Angela) if I could come teach a week on holiness to the students. After praying about it Ben and I both felt that it was to be me and Cassie! Her first trip with one of her parents to teach. We had a great time! I wanted to share what one of the students wrote to me, not because it is about me, but to say thank you to those who send us overseas.
Angela is very passionate in teaching holiness. What she brings in teaching is what she is also pursuing in living out so I was encouraged to listen all the more carefully. She is very creative in making her teaching interactive, and the thought and effort she put in to that made me feel loved and special. We are so grateful that she and Cassie were able to come.
Thank you to the many that pray and send us! We would be unable to do this work without all of you!!!
Please pray for them. Our family may not be physically in Kyiv at this time, but Ben and I still serve on the leadership team and our hearts are still deeply invested in this ministry.
heard about having a mind of Christ but only on the seminar of Philippians did I actually understand what does it practically mean. No one every preached it this way. No one before explained what it means.” Tete-a
A younger generation is growing up that probably won’t carry on most of the traditions as well. Amazingly, God has preserved them from Hinduism to the west and the Buddhism to the east and north. They are surrounded but God has a special plan for them and is preparing a revival of hearts there that he will send to the nations! What a privilege it was to go and encourage them, teach them some Bible study skills, and spur them on in their walk with God.
Teaching Adventures 