Updates – Page 8 – Teaching Adventures

2013/11/13

Turkey Pics (Segment 1)

I’ve finally got a few minutes to get some of the pictures from our Turkey Ancient New Testament Sites Tour up.

This first segment covers our travels to Patara, Myra, Smyrna (Izmir), Ephesus and Pergamum.

I chose this picture, not because it is the best of the bunch. It’s actually just an ordinary picture, go see some better ones here or click on pics. I chose this picture for what it represents.

Where you see just a couple blocks of stone and a large pillar once stood one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world! We are talking one of the most prestigious and famous temples known from the time of Alexander the Great (323 BC) through most of the Roman Empire (268 AD).

Here stood the famed Temple of Artemis (if you click there you can read about it on Wikipedia).

The simple lesson I learned? That no great thing, no accomplishment survives forever. Things come and things go but God remains from eternity to eternity. And through Jesus alone are we invited to spend eternity with him. We don’t worship buildings or riches or strength or fame or ideas. They too will fail and fall. Only the Lord is eternal and he alone is worthy of our worship.

2013/11/07

Titus Team in Indonesia

Right now we as Titus Project Europe have 3 bible teaching teams sent out- 2 in Indonesia and 1 in India. Here is a short write up from one of our teams in Indonesia:

THURSDAY morning started with Corrie teaching the step of Interpretation. Her style was asking questions: A journalist is coming by. It was a fun and interactive morning. With a lot of things to do… Stepping over the wall, imagining we were in the time of Paul, Philemon and Onesimus. Close your eyes… You are no longer in Tumaluntung… now you are in the house of Philemon. …

She really made us believe that we were in a different place. Just wonderful.

In the evening we joined in DTS Commissioning night. It was great.. Stella had the opportunity to share a message to send out the DTS teams to Kalimantan, Papua and Minahasa people group of Manado. But before that we as team, together with two other teams, had to come to the front to show the others how we dance for the Lord. .. so instantly we were thrown out of our comfort zone. It was a wonderful evening and of course we ended with a wonderful snacks.

Please pray for our three teams, they are teaching constantly throughout the week, it is a very busy time! BUT they are doing it because they believe that the way we think changes the way we live, and that the best way to transform our minds in through the Word of God!

2013/10/072025/12/21

Sunday Afternoon Fun

Jay was dressed up super cute on Sunday so we had some fun doing a shoot. Cas of course jumped right in too!

2013/09/05

A Turkish Summer

I remember reading as a kid the book ‘Narnia’ and all about the little boy who falls in love with Turkish Delight. Well, now I know why! After eating just one small square you definitely don’t want to stop! I may have over indulged a few too many times.

We had a great summer in Turkey. For those who don’t know, Ben has been leading a 9 month bible school that YWAM runs in many locations all over the world. It is called the ‘School of Biblical Studies.’ Basically what we do is take students through the whole bible studying each one of the 66 books using the inductive method (which is really just good reading habits like considering the authors intent and how the original readers would have understood what was written). The challenge is that because this school is 9 months long we have to figure out a way for our students to stay with us for 9 months. An easy solution was to be in Ukraine for 90 days, 90 more days in Turkey and then back to Ukraine for the final 90 days. That way we can just have our students receive the regular visas and not need to apply for temporary residency. Why Turkey? Because Turkey has some great archeological sites that date back to the time in the New Testament.

And so our website right now is filled with pictures from this summer in Turkey. It was awesome taking our students through the Old Testament. They just finished Malachi last week and this week begin studying the New Testament with Luke and Acts while they travel to these different archeological sites. We’ve both taught a lot of books this summer and enjoyed the routine of Ben usually going to work in the morning (sometimes I, Angela would go if I was teaching) and then at the end of the day Ben would come home, we’d have dinner and then head to the park with the kids (since it was the only time of day that wasn’t too hot – just 30C or so).

It has been an awesome Turkish summer and we are going to miss the Turkish Delight. But now we are in the Netherlands getting ready to run the 4th Titus Project Europe! 8 participants and 3 outreach locations! It is going to be awesome!

2013/08/04

X SBS Audio Lectures

Aug 27 – Angela, Joshua

OT Oral Test Example, Nehemiah, Malachi A, Malachi B

Aug 20 – Derrick, Saana

Haggai, Zechariah A, Zechariah B, Zechariah C

Aug 13 – Angela, Vicka

Ezra A, Esther, Ezra B

Aug 10 – Students Chronicles Sermons

Thelma, Pete, Maria, Sasha, Yulia, Paul

Aug 7 – Ben D

Chronicles A, Chronicles B

Aug 5 – Sandrine F

Obadiah

July 30 – Joshua W

Daniel A, Daniel B, Daniel C

July 23 – Angela D

Ezekiel A, Ezekiel B, Ezekiel C, Ezekiel D

July 16 – Tim H

Jeremiah A, Jeremiah B, Jeremiah C and Julia

July 12 – Ben D

Zephaniah

July 10 – Saana K

Habakkuk

July 8 – Vicka N

Nahum

July 1 – Sandrine F

Isaiah A, Isaiah B, Isaiah C

July 1 – Josh W

BRI

2013/08/02

The Right Kind of Happiness

This is a super interesting article from the Economist blog concerning what kind of happiness brings health. The premise of the experiment was what kind of pleasure brings health, is it basically selfish pleasure or selfless (giving to others) pleasure. Past experiements show that both bring roughly equal happiness to a person. And we know happiness generally affects ones health. So do both types of happiness generate the same health benefits?

Here is a simple quote,

“Dr Fredrickson, an expert on positive emotions, has long known that happiness benefits health and leads to longer lives. Similarly, she knows that both hedonic [for self] and eudaimonic [for others] pleasures generate feelings that people describe as “happiness”. A simple syllogism, therefore, suggests happiness does indeed bring health and longevity. But, because of the overlap between the happiness-generating properties of both hedonic and eudaimonic pleasures, she had until she conducted this study found it impossible to determine whether both are able improve physical health and longevity, or whether only one of them can.”

Psychosomatic medicine_ The right kind of happy _ The Economist

2013/07/12

Time Life The Lost Civilizations

Website Management:

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2013/07/03

Love Kiev! Thank you!

The team named themselves ‘Love Kiev.’ While at home churches around Winnipeg participated in a city wide event called ‘Love Winnipeg’ where they do practical acts of kindness for people all over the city, Kilcona Park Alliance Church (our home church) sent a team to us in Kiev to do a very practical act of kindness- Renovations!

We have a large building that actually used to be a restaurant boat. With very little insulation, in the winter time everyone inside had to run space heaters and even then were still cold. You can imagine how cold and uncomfortable everyone was, plus the electricity bills were super high! In just 10 short working days the team managed to insulate the entire lower level (pulled off siding, built framing, put in new insulation, vapour barrier, OSB and then finished with new siding. We ran an small AC unit in one of the rooms and with the new insulation it stayed nice and cool (in the past even two AC units running wouldn’t cool the room).

If that wasn’t enough the team decided that they would pull up the floor in our large student lounge and put down new laminate, plus change a very ugly tree pole into a nicely framed in pole. Plus new furniture and moldings, and lights! Of course as a mission we don’t have an abundance of money, but everything was bought and paid for by the team’s prior fundraising efforts!!

Thank you everyone for coming!!! You are all AMAZING! And thank you to everyone who sent little gifts for our family and for our mission- what a huge blessing that we can’t even express a proper thank you for!

2013/07/03

The good ‘ol chicken pox

It is never fun when your kids are sick because you know it is going to be ‘cranky city!’ But thankfully Cassie already had the vaccine and Jay and Kai seem to be dealing with the pox easily (beside the waking up at night thing!) And so we are enjoying our first week in Turkey mostly home bound.

Life in Turkey will definitely be different. We don’t have a car and we live on the outskirts of a small beach town. We set up a little schedule of school, colouring, swimming, snacks, meals etc. It helps to keep the day moving, but even I feel like I am always thinking “it is only 3:30pm, I thought it was at least 5:00pm!” With no internet at home and no way to really get around besides walking our life will be MUCH slower.

Pray for all of us to find things to do in these next few months when the colouring books are all filled up.

2013/05/09

Before we were missionaries!

Before we were missionaries we had a life-changing experience in South Africa. A nation, no, half a continent who had heard and believed in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their guilt but had not heard that Jesus also wanted to show them how to live a whole new way of life.

We were reading a book called the Shackled Continent while we explored that incredible country. The author was describing some of the social problems in Sub-Saharan Africa and one of them was that people were stealing telephone and electricity lines. It sounded too crazy to be true! But as we drove around we noticed that at random locations whole stretches of cable would be missing from the poles. This broke our heart – shouldn’t people who believe in Jesus know better? Shouldn’t we do something to help them live differently? Shouldn’t we teach them not to steal?!

Well, God used that experience to lead us into cross-cultural ministry, but our friends, DeWet and Marysol, who moved there and started Titus Project, the ministry we also work with, had that exact thing happen to them last week! It still happens! Most sadly, the thefts happen not in the downtowns of major cities where the powerful might feel it and do something about it, but in the poorest neighbourhoods, where small business and ministries have no ability to deal with it. Read our friends post and pray for them as they fight for the poor in South Africa!

2013/04/11

Planning for next year

Isn’t it amazing how every year comes and goes! Life moves so fast.

Sunday night we are having a planning meeting with our team for 2014, so please pray for us. We are going to decide when to have Titus Project, SBS and some other important events.

As we plan and decide those things we also are beginning to plan and think about our 6 months at home in Canada in 2014. We have friends and family spread out all over the country so we will probably spend half of our time in Winnipeg and half of our time travelling in other parts of Canada. We are looking forward to that a lot!

2013/04/07

Another Memory Maker

A week ago we all started getting feverish. Hello winter flu! Thankfully no throwing up, but lots of coughing, noses running and of course grumpy attitudes. It didn’t help that we didn’t go anywhere not wanting to infect the masses. Well, by Saturday we couldn’t handle it any more. We needed some fun! So we had a special waffle brunch with smoothies, followed by toy Story 2 and peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. A little later we all went outside, built a fire, captured some worms, and ate hotdogs. A fun family day (we all just had to ignore the hacking that Mom and Dad were doing, I’d call it coughing, but that would be misleading). Spring please come soon!

2013/03/13

Sandrine’s Titus Project Experience

What I liked the most about my Titus was the partnership and service of the local church.
In Magnitogorsk in Russia, we were able to work with one church for 3 weeks – teaching kids as well as grandmas, teaching during camps, bible seminars, youth groups,
house groups and Sunday service. This church was so active!

I was blessed by the hunger of the people. As soon as we arrived, they started sharing their expectation of our time together. And they took everything they could from us,
they were so eager to learn. It was such a privilege to see theface of many people being filled with the truth. I loved seeing people discovering that they can understand the Bible on their own and study it themselves. I loved having people coming up to us, asking if they can teach what they’ve learnt to others as they’d been so blessed and impacted by those teachings. I loved praying for people at the end of the sessions as they wanted to be free by the truth. It was great seeing people encouraging each other through the teaching they had just received. I remember a woman encouraging a sister about God’s character 2 days after
the seminar. They were applying the teachings in their lives and letting it bring life in them. Truly the Bible is an extraordinary book that keeps transforming lives among different nations, cultures, ages and time period and it is a privilege to be part of the process of seeing people’s lives transformed and changed by the Word.
Sandrine Freymond, 24 years old, Switzerland

(Sandrine has recently joined us on staff with YWAM Kyiv)

2013/03/09

Seraina’s Titus Project Experience

Situation 1: A small group of Kazakh Babushkas (Grandmothers) is looking curiously at me and the colorful visuals I put on the wall. All are ready with a pen in their hand.

Situation 2: Around 40 Kazakh men hang in their chairs, some are smiling in anticipation, some are just observing those strange foreigners. Apparently it is a group mixed with pastors and exprisoners who became believers while in prison. Some are out for a long time, some just for a few weeks.
Situation 3: A group of “normal” Russian churchgoers chat while I get my notes and PowerPoint ready.

What do I do in any of these situations? I take a deep breath and greet them with my broken Russian. In my heart I pray for God to give me words and help them to understand.

It is a joy to see them nodding, almost like a light was turned on in their mind and they understand things about God‘s heart they have not before, tears running down their faces. Others look at me seriously and I can‘t figure out what they think about my teaching.

During the last 2 months of teaching I learned SO MUCH! We taught various audiences, as you can tell, which was a big challenge but also awesome chance to learn how to teach people according to their needs and ways of understanding. I‘m convinced that God was at work helping the people to understand the Bible for themselves.
The main point I learned was not trusting in the way I teach or my appearance but in what I teach: the Bible, God‘s
powerful word! I taught following the slogan ‘I will do my best and God will do the rest’. Looking back, I see how God helped me personally to grasp more of who he is and I can whole heartedly say that I am very glad that I did the Titus Project.

Seraina Monsch, 25 years old, Switzerland

2013/03/02

Bibles for Orphans

jesus-story-book-bible Our church at home in Canada asked us if we knew of a good project that the kids could raise money for. We know that when kids discover God’s love for them and His rescue plan for the world they are filled with a sense of worth and purpose.

Recently Ben’s parents bought Cassie and Jay the ‘Jesus Storybook Bible.’ It is a bible with awesome illustrations, and actually fun-to-read bible stories, each one taking poetic license to show the way that Jesus is the fulfilment of God’s rescue plan even from the beginning of the world.

And so, the end result- Bibles for Orphans! It is an organization here in Ukraine that gets bibles into the hands of orphans. Currently they are raising money to get this bible translated into Ukrainian and distributed to orphans throughout this nation. Each bible will be $3. Click here for more information on this fundraiser: www.biblesfororphans.com

Our kids made a video for the children at our home church in Canada. Their goal is to raise $300 for 100 bibles. Each kid is giving of their own money- pretty cool eh? Click on our video link to see the cute video our kids made.

An excerpt from the intro to the bible:

“Now, some people think the Bible is a book of rules, telling you what you should and shouldn’t do. The Bible certainly does have some rules in it. They show you how life works best. But the Bible isn’t mainly about you and what you should be doing. It’s about God and what he has done.

Other people think the Bible is a book of heroes, showing you people you should copy. The Bible does have some heroes in it, but (as you’ll soon find out) most of the people in the Bible aren’t heroes at all. They make some big mistakes (sometimes on purpose), they get afraid and run away. At times, they’re downright mean.

No, the Bible isn’t a book of rules, or a book of heroes. The Bible is most of all a Story. It’s an adventure story about a young Hero who comes from a far country to win back his lost treasure. It’s a love story about a brave Prince who leaves his palace, his throne-everything-to rescues the ones he loves. It’s like the most wonderful of fairy tales that has come true in real life!

You see, the best thing about this Story is-it’s true.

There are lots of stories in the Bible, but all the stories are telling on Big Story. The Story of how God loves his children and comes to rescue them.

It takes the whole Bible to tell this Story. And at the center of the Story, there is a baby. Every story in the Bible whispers his name. He is like the missing piece in the puzzle-the piece that makes all the other pieces fit together, and suddenly you can see a beautiful picture.”

2013/02/07

Parenting

Darlene Cunningham

On our most recent road trip we listened to an excellent teaching on being married and raising a family in ministry. The teaching is by Darlene Cunningham, co-founder of YWAM. This teaching was particularly encouraging because it is challenging raising kids, never mind when that is within a small community. Darlene gives some really wise principles within a strong godly heart!

Listen here!

2013/01/15

Great Questions

Recently we taught in a Discipleship Training School, a 6 month program that equips young believers to know God and then make him known – because he is a beautiful, wonderful God worthy of everyone’s worship. We were teaching about the Bible because it is God’s story and shows his wonderful plan for our redemption! We usually put out a little question box, where students can write any questions they have and so I thought I’d share some of the questions the students had for us. Most of them are well thought out and challenging, but it gives us a chance to help them see who God really is! So here they are:

How can we call God love and use when he sends people to hell. I understand that people “choose hell by rejecting Jesus”‘ but it seems like you are screwed if you are born to a muslim or a hindu family.

I get that there is lots of evidence for the accuracy of the new testament, but how do we know that its true? If I discovered a really old copy of the resurrection story I would assume it was fiction or something.

How do we reconcile the big difference between how the Holy Spirit acts in the New Testament and how he acts in our lives? The fact that its so different makes me think that the Holy Spirit just isn’t around or maybe he changed or maybe something else entirely.

How can I be sure the BIble is God’s Word?

What are the apocrypha?

If you’re wondering about one of these questions, or you have one yourself, don’t hesitate to write us and ask! We love helping and encouraging people to know what God is really like! Send us an Email here.

2012/11/24

Bible Jokes

Just for some fun:

A resident of one of the European countries – an atheist – became lost during a trip to Africa. After a while he came upon a tribe of savages.
Suddenly, he sees that the leader reads the Bible. Going up to the leader, the European said to him:
– Bible reading? This book is out of fashion – no one reads it anymore.
– A white man, it is your good fortune that a couple of weeks ago we visited a missionary, and that I am now reading the Bible, and otherwise you would have long been roasted on a fire.

Житель одной европейской страны – атеист – заблудился во время путешествия по Африке. Через некоторое время он набрел на племя дикарей.
Вдруг он видит, что вождь читает Библию. Подойдя к вождю, европеец ему говорит:
– Библию читаешь? Эта книга уже вышла из моды – ее уже давно никто не читает.
– Белый человек, это твое счастье, что пару недель назад к нам приезжал миссионер, и что я сейчас читаю Библию, а то бы ты давно уже жарился на костре.

http://uucyc.ru/humor/%D0%91%D0%B8%D0%B1%D0%BB%D0%B8%D1%8F

2012/11/23

SBS

It was a wild ride, reading and studying every verse in all 66 books of the Bible. Maybe it seemed challenging at the beginning. And maybe there were days when I just couldn’t do any more. But I walked away with a firm grasp of understanding of the whole Bible!

What does the Bible really say? Who really is Jesus? What is God’s will for my life? Is God really a Father? I hear so many questions about the Bible. I had so many questions about the Bible. Most of them are answered now. Of course I also have many new ones. Will any of them get answered this coming year? I certainly expect so. I will discover more about God and more about how I can be the best ambassador for him.

* The picture shows the students and staff of the YWAM Kyiv School of Biblical Studies 2007-2008.