And we are off with them! Yep, outreach involves leaving your place of training and going to a new location. This year, our outreach was in Ukraine, Montenegro and Albania.

The students did a lot of work between these three countries. Montenegro and Albania were new outreach locations for us and therefore we did not know what to expect.

Home sweet home

In Montenegro, we were divided between two locations, some of us stayed in trailers, some of us in a church office, and some of us in a home. It got a bit chaotic sometimes for us to get together but we did! We were also in Montenegro for three holidays! Christmas on the 25th, New Year, and Orthodox Christmas. We did a lot of celebrating!

Our ministry was more spontaneous and fluid than we had hoped. We discovered that the holiday time is not the best time to come to Montenegro. It made it difficult to have events or meet with people. Our group was great at building relationships with locals and sharing the Gospel message with those they met on the street though and we did see a level of trust and understanding from those that we talked to.

Merry Christmas!

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas again!

Kids club

Singing Ukrainian songs in church

Evangelism on the streets

Preparing tracts to give away

Albania held different activities for us. We were able to partner with the local Youth With A Mission to do some evangelism on the beach, prepare an English and craft lesson for a local public school, help with some practical needs, and share in a church. We have some gifted artists so they were able to show off their skills at church and in painting a prayer room for the YWAM base in Albania. We were able to serve the YWAM base by doing some practical work for them. They have just entered into a lease with an old hotel and there is lots of work to be done. We came at the right time to bless!

Sharing our talents and testimony

Craft time at a local school!

Landscaping at the YWAM base

Evangelism on the beach

Making vareniki for Ukrainian culture night

Painting a prayer room

The whole team in Durres, Albania

Every year, we plan to have a Discipleship Training School in the fall. It began this last year September 14th with 9 students from Ukraine and England. I will give you a pictorial review of our time.

The Team!

School always starts with lectures and some classroom training. Normally, we don’t have our practicum until after we have finished the 12 week lecture time but this year we decided to do a small 2 week mini outreach in the middle. We went to nearby town of Chortkiv and did all sorts of activities. Here are some pictures form that time.

Making free cotton candy for the public

Giving out Bibles and praying for people

Puppet show for kids

Painting and sharing testimony in church

After our outreach in Chortkiv, it was back to lectures. Students had a variety of teachers who spoke on a variety of topics. Here is a glimpse of what that time looked like:

Lance teaching on Hearing the Voice of God

Joint lecture with Calvary Chapel students

Busy writing

Where in the world is…?

Overview of the Bible

Biblical timeline

Besides lectures, we did have some fun activities and special events.

Loren Cunningham comes to Kyiv!

Dinner out

Ladies Tea

Praying for the city

Cleaning up the local Jewish cemetery

It was a long and tiring 3 months but everyone did it and we succeeded in learning lots. Students grew together as a team, grew closer to God, and the people they served.

It’s pronounced Y-awe-sh, for the record.

After teaching in Cahul, Moldova, we went to Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, to apply for our Ukrainian visas. We stayed in the capital over the weekend with friends and after we received our visas (praise the Lord!!) we headed out to Iasi, Romania.

Looking out over the city

This was a quick trip. We were only there for a day and a half but it was still enjoyable. Lance has a friend who is staff with the YWAM base in Iasi. This friend has put us in contact with the girls who will be leading the DTS in Iasi. She asked Lance if he would be willing to come for a visit to explain and give some insight into leading/staffing a DTS. Since Iasi was only a few hours away from Chisinau, we couldn’t say no.

Enjoying mamaliga together

We only had one full day of DTS training but it was fun and enjoyable. They were so hospitable and we loved being able to visit a new base and hear of what God is doing there. We wish we could have had more time there, we will just have to come back another time!

Cahul is a city in southern Moldova. It’s actually a few hours away from the Romanian border. Lance and I both love going to Moldova since we both have dear friends there.

Lance teaching

This time we went for the purpose of leading a DTS staff training with YWAM Cahul. They will be starting their DTS mid June and asked us if we would lead their staff training time. It is a joy and pleasure to help them in any way we can. There are 5 staff members at this base in Moldova, which is also the only base in Moldova.

Our friends teaching

Group photo!

We started Monday morning and started out right, with worship of course. We shared the teaching time with some friends of ours from another YWAM base in Ukraine. They have been involved in DTS for many years and have great bits of wisdom to share. It was fun to be able to team teach. We shared on how our beliefs and values will effect how we act, communication, how many hours of lecture should be in a DTS and how the outreach should look as well as other topics. We had time to fellowship and play games together in the evenings. We are blessed to be able to pour into another country and equip them to be effective in what they are doing.

Last meal together

Lance also had the opportunity to share in a church!

Want to know what I look like in the classroom? Here is a tiny clip of me… pretty much I’m doing nothing but nodding my head and listening to students explain their answers to my activity.

I had no idea I was being recorded, the person just happened to catch me at a time when I was not talking. I am thankful to be able to give you a small glimpse into the classroom though.
I taught on relationships and the importance of working in a team and with different people. This was part of a bigger teaching that was all about that destiny that God has for each person.

You can check out more of the curriculum that was used at the website here.