Tag: Titus

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Teaching Oral Communicators

When was the last time that you took down the binder or journal from a conference, retreat or series of messages and read through them. I almost never do. Who actually has time for that? I certainly don’t. Of course, note-taking does help with the initial remembering and even processing of information, but except for rare instances become dust-covered relics.

Many people prefer to learn information through stories. Not just for the entertainment value but because they actually understand the message, the idea, better. One of the topics we cover in our three-weeks of intense teacher training is teaching oral communicators, that is, people who prefer to learn information in a format that is concrete and example filled, rather than theoretical and impersonal.

This is actually a great skill to learn for any teacher or leader because we all naturally learn better this way, though most educated people have been trained to learn through note-taking and theoretical discussions. So, whether teaching uneducated Christians in Central Asia (those countries just west of China and north of the Middle East) or college graduates in Germany, using methods that are practical for oral communicators becomes a critical tool in the teachers toolkit. Or binder, as long as one doesn’t just leave it on the shelf.

* The picture is of Manas, the hero from an epic poem that is 20x longer than Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey combined. He is basically the national hero of Kyrgyzstan.

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Central Europe or Bust!

One of our teams headed to central Europe, to Hungary for the first month and then on to Latvia. They had some really cool opportunities, from teaching Revelation to entering a post-soviet prison teaching inmates how to read and study their Bible. Listen to Silvi share about some of her experience:

When I looked at their sincere eyes, smiles, and eagerness to participate I forgot that we were in a high security prison, sitting among murderers, rapists and thieves. We had been checked with a metal detector, our bags had been searched, the soda we brought smelled for alcohol, and our Bible’s leafed through for money. Even though the heavy doors were closed with a startling clang and if I ever wanted to go to the washroom I need to be escorted there by a guard – yet as we began to teach it was as if the window no longer had bars. The door was no longer locked. We were one family captured in the world of ‘Bible Overview’ or the story of Jonah.

When you ask people in your home groups to read the book of Acts maybe one or two will last it out past chapter five. We asked these guys to read the book of Acts in two days time and it was done and they had their list of questions for us! These young men of whom most had flunked out of their high school, and some of them very poor readers, were our most attentive audience!

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Ukraine / Russia Article

One of the teams that we sent out stayed for one month in Ukraine and then moved on to the mid-west of Russia. Here is a quote from one of the interns, James from Germany:

“From the training time on God began to show me that teaching the bible and even teaching in general is not really about me as the teacher, it is all about honouring God and serving the people in my audience. As a teacher I can be so focused on myself and overly concerned with my performance and what people think of me, but I’ve come to realize that what really matters is what the audience “walks away with”. Throughout outreach I was able to put this revelation into practice and learn how to better make God’s word applicable to people of different backgrounds.

One of our main goals was to equip Ukrainian and Russian believers to study God’s word for themselves using inductive principles. We guided them through small books such as Philemon and Jonah and were amazed to see and hear what they “got out of it”. God gave us many opportunities to strengthen his body, the church, and encourage believers to dig deeper into the bible.
I think it is just amazing how God speaks to his people. Our audiences were encouraged by the truths they discovered and how these principles could be applied in their own lives. That is really what it is all about. We study and teach God’s word in order to be transformed, becoming more like him and giving him glory!”

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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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The Rest of God

It depends how you read it. The title could imply ‘the stuff about God you have missed’ but actually it is a book about rest. Our Pastor from Canada sent it to us and it arrived appropriately the day before we left on vacation.

We got in the car early the day after we graduated our Titus Project students and drove all the way to Budapest. It only took about 14 hours (including a 2 hour border line up).  The next day we got up early and drive to Croatia where Ben and Josh (our good friend) taught a week on ‘God’s Father Heart’ to a DTS. But officially on Saturday we started our vacation. We drove down the coast of Croatia and have stayed in two cute little villa apartments. Tomorrow we will leave for Italy and then after a few days there back to Budapest. 5 squished in our little car (us + Josh) makes it a great road trip, lots of memories, screaming children, food everywhere! FUN!

But in all of this travelling by car I (Angela) have had a chance to read a lot from this book and am being inspired to really practice the art of rest, not ‘shutting down’ or ‘crashing’ or even ‘amusement’ but real, soul-reviving, spirit-saturating rest. Thanks Bruce for taking the time to send the book!

 

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A Month of Joys and Challenges

We have been in Georgia this past month with a team of bible teachers. We had very little internet access so that is why we haven’t updated this blog in a long time. Please forgive us. The picture to the left is a team dinner we had to celebrate Harald and Marjo’s 10th anniversary.

Joys: Our team included our co-leader Valya, Luba and a family (Harald, Marjo and their two kids Micah (5) and Grace (3). Our kids had lots of fun with their kids. Teaching in two different churches every week meant much more of an impact than a short seminar. The Georgia Ywam team was hospitable and fun. A park close by that our kids loved to play at. Lots of prayer, coffee (and tea), helping with teaching, and lots of sleep at night.

Challenges: Difficult to set up lots of teaching opportunities because it was the first time we had been there. We lived in a small apartment with 6 adults, 4 young children and a 75 year old Grandma who wanted us to keep her apartment perfect (good luck with 4 kids!). No hot water for half of the month. Very little internet. The challenge of raising kids in that kind of environment. Plus to top it off, Angela was very tired (due to the pregnancy) for most of the month.

Thank you for praying for us. Our team has gone on to Armenia and we have come home to Kyiv to get ready to welcome the 4 teams back for debriefing. We have big plans for this month, please see our post in a few days from now for some prayer requests.