Tag: Staff

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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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Last Week Countdown

We are counting down to School of Biblical Studies Graduation. Our students have studied the whole bible, verse by verse, reading it through 5 times. They’ve been writing observations, interpretations, and applications. In other words: What does the text say? What did it mean to the original reader? What does it mean to me?

It has been quite the journey. A few years ago we did this as students, this year we have been their staff. Each book of the bible has a lecture (to help with historical background) and we have taught some of these. We also read their work every week, grading it and making notes to help them learn and grow. There are also many logistics like housing, meals, tuition, hospitality for guest speakers, prelecturing other staff, going to meetings etc. etc. etc. But it has all been worth it! When we invest our lives into others, they in turn will impact even more people and we will make a bigger difference.

Thank you to all for your support and prayers over this past year. We couldn’t do it without the team that sends us. We don’t get paid by our students, which helps keep the tuition low enough for them to afford it. Thank you for those who really are the ones sponsoring their learning by sending people like us. This morning we had debriefing for the staff (picture on side), and this Thursday the students will graduate. It has been a privilege!