Category: Titus Project Work

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Asia Update

In an earlier post, I mentioned we would like to highlight each of the teams that we sent out in October. The team on the left flew to Hong Kong and spent two months teaching there and in their northern neighbour. Their newsletter is the picture on the left – it’s a picture because the authorities in some countries scan all electronic information but if its a picture then the text is no longer text and basically, “unscannable”. Sylvie, one of the local leaders commented on their teaching, “in 10 years I haven’t seen anyone teach in such a way that ‘these people’ were able to understand!”

Thanks for being a part of sending Sonya, Tonya and Vicka to Asia!

** click the picture to see their update large enough to read the text :)

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Launching Team.710

After 1.5 years in Kyiv we have staffed/led a 9 month SBS (bible school) and led the Titus Project Training Program. These are normally two separate entities that work along side each other. On Monday we will be merging these two ministries into 1 team! It is an exciting time of unity, cooperation, and hopefully greater fruit as we work together. Please pray for us, this team will have 8 full time staff, and our dreams are far greater than what we are capable of! We will begin with 2 weeks of team building; a time of fun, strategizing, learning and dreaming. We’ll let you know how they go!

team.710 “For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.” Ezra 7:10

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Survivor Titus

Well, we are nearly finished with the first 3 weeks of the training program. This is exciting because the theory (classroom) part is over and now we will get out into the real world and teach people.

Some of the special characteristics of this particular program:
– of 9 participants and 9 staff, we represent 9 different countries (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Netherlands, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, Canada) – wow!
– many of us went to see a ballet in Kyiv, perhaps you’ve heard of the Vienna Waltz
– of 15 class days, 7 of them were spent without electricity in the classroom, this also meant no hot water… (thus the title: Titus Survivor)
– this is the first ever Titus Project to run in Kyiv, Ukraine – also, it is the first ever Russian program to run! YAY!

It has been a great training time – as a group we’ve learned the core elements of teaching, had opportunities to practice, been encouraged, critiqued so we improve… let’s go out and do it!

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Be My Valentine

We are leading Titus Project training program right now, first time ever in Ukraine, first time ever in Russian, first time ever with 9 staff for 9 participants, first time … there are a lot of firsts here! One of those firsts for us is co-leading a team with someone.

So we’re really excited to be leading together with Valya (“Valentina”). We will head to Georgia when the 3 weeks of training are finished. Actually, Valya has done much of the work setting up outreach, including scheduling and budgeting. God was very gracious in providing her for our team, because on it we have another family (from Netherlands) like ours (a family with a little boy and girl) and another lady named Luba who only speaks Russian. We may look kinda funny, lots of kids and not so youthie (the “y” in ywam is supposed to stand for youth), but that won’t stop us – or more importantly, it won’t stop God from touching peoples lives! Thanks for being a part of our team Valya!

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It’s Dark Out Here

So we’re starting the training program for Titus this Sunday. We’ve been working really hard, along with our team of 7, to make it an excellent experience for all involved. We’ve been praying together, learning about leading Titus teams, preparing for our participants. Our 3, very full weeks of staff preparation are coming to a close this weekend before we embark on a 3 month adventure of teaching the Bible and serving people from the Mediterranean all the way to the Baltic and across to the Pacific.

One little aspect of that has been preparation for the first (to my knowledge), training program at the YWAM property just outside of Kyiv. It’s been used for many camps and there has been lots of work put in, but this is a very exciting time! We ran into a little snag this week, though, when suddenly to everyone’s chagrin, the power went out, and stayed out. Finally, after 3 long days (long enough for you to die of thirst) it came back on. There will be some mad vacuuming (we wiped windows, but you can’t vacuum without electricity) tomorrow and Friday our participants start arriving. WAHOO! This is what we love to do!

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A little bit krazee!

We graduated our SBS class last week on Friday. On Sunday we flew to the Netherlands where we began a 5 day intensive teacher training seminar with graduates from their own SBS. Well, we’re almost done, but its definitely been a whirlwind.

Although we’ve seen glimpses all week long of our participants teaching abilities, tomorrow is the real test – when they teach Inductive Bible Study through the Epistle to Philemon. Of course there was limited time this week, but we’ve given them as much as we could without overloading them. How will they do, the real test!

We’re really excited for them as they prepare to go out and teach the Bible in many places. Some will stay here in Holland, some will take flight to Indonesia. But no matter where they go, they will be better communicators of God’s incredible Word! What a privilege to serve his kingdom like this – thank you for being part of our team!

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The Art of Effective Questions


What kinds of questions are you asking?

Here is the short list on different question types and what they yield:

Analytical Questions
These examine causes and not just symptoms.
Why has this problem happened?
Why did it do that?

Clarifying Questions
These result in further descriptions and explanations.
Are you saying that … ?
Could you explain more about the situation?

Fresh Questions
These challenge basic assumptions.
Must it be that way?
Has this ever been tried?

Questions that Create Connections
These give a systems perspective.
What might be the consequences of these actions?

Explorative Questions
These open up new avenues and insights and lead to new explorations.
Have you thought of … ?
Would … have anything to help with that?

Probing Questions
These cause the person to go into more depth.
Why is this happening?
What did the situation trigger in you?

Reflective Questions
These encourage more elaboration.
Can you help me understand what is going on in you?
What did you mean when you said that?

Affective Questions
These invite people to share feelings about an issue.
How did you feel about your presentation?
What was your initial reaction?

Open Questions
These give a high degree of freedom in how to respond.
What kind of things do you enjoy doing?
What comes easily to you?

Closed Questions
These can be answered with yes, no or a number.
How many people will be affected?
Do you agree with this decision?

Leading Questions
These encourage or force the person to respond in a way intended by the questioner.
Don’t you think that you should have … ?
You thought I wouldn’t notice, didn’t you?

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Final Stages

We are in the final stages of leading the School of Biblical Studies here in Kyiv. We have just over a month left and it is exciting to watch the students as they make it through the prophetic books in the Old Testament. 4 out of the 8 students will be taking part in Titus Project this fall. This is exciting because now we can help them to take all this bible knowledge they have and use it to help others grow closer to God.

Personally, we have been waking up tired every day. Each day looms ahead with a multitude of things on the to-do list, and the feeling like there isn’t enough time. To be honest, we have taken on too much and we have been in survival mode for the last little while. We are really looking forward to a break this summer in Canada.

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Vicka

We like to introduce you to different people we meet, since that helps you understand our life a little more.

Today I want to introduce Vicka. Vicka is a student in our bible school. She is Ukrainian and has a passion to teach God’s word. She will do Titus Project this fall to get stronger in her teaching skills and to bring Bible teaching to a country that really needs discipleship.

Here is her testimony:

Being born in a family with Orthodox beliefs, I was baptized almost after birth and given a cross to wear at all times as a symbol of Christianity. The existence of God is a fact that I have always known.God was, He is, and He always will be.

But a lot of times, what is visible on the outside is not reflected inside.

Yes I knew ABOUT God, but I didn’t know Him.

Time was passing and life was bringing more struggles as I grew up. The Soviet Union collapsed and had a great influence on every person and every family. I hardly saw my parents at home as they were trying to earn some money to make ends meet. I was growing up “on the street” and at the age of 12 I almost commited a suicide. I was so disappointed in life and all it had to offer, that I said: “ God I’m not going to believe in You anymore!” A year passed, and I experienced God’s grace pour out on me. After attending a Christian camp I experienced something I never knew, some One I’ve only heard about. God found me at the age of 13, and I was saved. I made a decision to ask God to come into my heart and change my life, and then was baptized, after truly believing. Since then I had a strong desire and motivation to help out kids at these Christian camps to find out who God is and who they are in Him.

Lately God’s been teaching me how to build up my faithfulness, teaching me how to trust in Him with patience and what humbleness is before Him. He showed me my heart and revealed that being faithful starts from the inside. I knew that, but sometimes my priorities were not set straight, letting other things take 1st place in my heart. I thank God for always being faithful, guiding me in His footsteps so that I may have a good example to follow.

God is my Lord, my Father and my Friend.
He is my beloved and i belong to Him...

Just as a side note, Vicka is planning on moving into long term missions after this bible school and will need monthly supporters so if you are interested in being a part of her team just let us know and we will get you connected.

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The Island

A few posts ago, “9 of Them”, we mentioned we’d like to feature some of their stories. Here is the first one.

One of the students in Sweden is from Ukraine, Dima. We met him and his wife, Zhenya, while we were still there running Titus. They’re really an incredible couple, intelligent, passionate believers, from atheist background.

So what are they doing with YWM in Sweden? They are part of bringing Jesus to people who don’t know who he is. Anyway, we got started talking about the Orthodox church while we were there. Why? Well, the Orthodox church is the major Christian presence in Ukraine and the post-Soviet world. And I’ve been on a major learning curve since we arrived. We’ll do some posts in the future, talking about the Orthodox church. And we watched this very interesting movie with Dima and Zhenya, called The Island in English (you can see its facebook page here). During the Soviet years, the Russian Orthodox church dwindled because of the soviet states radical atheistic marxism seen in repression of religion. Listen to some of these stats:
– In 1917-1939, over 50,000 Orthodox priests vanished, 1000 churches & 60 seminaries were closed
– by 1933, of 600 churches in Moscow only 100 remained open
– by 1941, 98% of all Orthodox churches in Russia were closed
(“Eastern Orthodox Christianity”, Daniel Clendenin, p44).
Wow!
Anyway, the story of the Island takes place during WWII. The main character becomes a priest after having committed a grave sin. It’s an interesting story and we will bring it home with us in summer, if you’re interested, let us know and we’d love to watch it with you. It will give you some understanding of what it means to live here.

As Clendenin very appropriately states … “where this all will lead remains to be seen”.

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Goodbye Venezia!

It’s been almost 3 weeks… where have we been? Let me tell you.

While we were in Sweden (one month ago), we were informed that we would be moving out of the classroom we’ve been in – we just didn’t know where. The move has been in the works since around Christmas, but in the middle of April all the pieces converged. So the last two weeks have been full of moving. Did you know I hate moving? Anyway, we only knew where we were moving to a couple days before we hauled everything over.

As well, since we just started a new semester, we’ve been doing lots of the planning for the whole 3 months. Coordinating hospitality for guest speakers, a special seminar before starting to study the prophets, important staff meetings, etc.

Anyway, the city cancelled YWM’s docking contract, along with many other boats on the riverfront, so we actually have to move the boat. But where? Well, it has been for sale for a little while, but no takers, especially now that we can’t stay docked where we were. So what will happen? Who knows. But one thing is for sure. The place isn’t as important as the work we do and so though it takes lots of time and energy, we will persevere. Ever feel like you’re battling on every side? We do to sometimes. Perseverance isn’t easy, but it sure is important!

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Restenas

The last two weeks have been full of activity (we just posted some new pictures). We travelled to Sweden to teach in the School of Biblical Studies (SBS) there. That is where we were for nearly 3 months last year for Titus Project. It was really kind of them to invite us back to teach and reconnect with friends.

And both of those we did. Before leaving, we were schedule for 4 days teaching in the SBS, as well as preaching at the community meeting (like a service). Then, Angela did a seminar on fundraising for some of the new missionary staff. And out of the blue, Ben was asked to teach on the Church in a different program, the School of Strategic Missions (SOSM). Needless to say, we spent a lot of time in preparation.

But thats not all. We have some really wonderful friends from last summer. And many of them hosted us for meals and reconnecting. We were able to share with them about how we’re doing, get encouraged and prayed for.

But it doesn’t end there. We also got to spend time one-on-one with nearly every student in the SBS. Many of them wanted advice, to chat about their situations, talk about SBS and Titus Project. One couple is from Ukraine and we talked lots about Ukraine and the Orthodox Church.

So it was an excellent trip. We enjoyed wonderful fellowship, times of teaching and many opportunities to encourage people personally. Thank you for making this possible! Jesus’ reign goes forward, one heart at a time.

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Hosting a Team of Teachers

We just finished hosting a team of Bible teachers from Taiwan. It was great, we got to see a couple of our friends and they brought some Bubble Tea too – Bubble Tea is probably one of our favourite drinks of all time (at least for Ben)!

Anyway, not only did we have a great time with them, but they also got to do some great work. They taught in rehab centres, within the YWAM community here as well as a bunch of churches in the area – they even spent a whole week in a little village to the south of Kyiv. We got to hear them a few times, and they we’re great to listen to, challenging, passionate and creative! It’s no wonder we love Titus Project, we get to work with the best! :)

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9 of Them

We will teach all 9 of them this week. 9 people who have been spending the last 6 months studying the bible verse by verse. 9 people who have fallen more and more in love with God. 9 people who are from 8 different countries. 9 people who are not just learning for themselves but desire to impact this world. Rogvi, Daniel, YeonSoo, Dima, Ester, Paivi, Sarah, Rasa,and Tamra. Like a small drop of water can have a huge ripple effect, so too will these 9 people make ripples in the lives of thousands of others. We are thrilled to be here in Sweden, get to know them, and teach them the books of 1 & 2 Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah. We’ll feature a few of their stories over the next two weeks.