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!

Two funny moments come to my mind from our TESOL time.

Moment #1

This is just an embarrassing moment for me, but it still makes me laugh. Let me introduce you to Doug. This is our TESOL instructor, the same one who taught me back in 2010. He’s a one-of-a-kind teacher.

Doesn’t he look like the kind of guy who deserves a noogie? If you knew him, you would agree. He likes to crack jokes and tease so he really does deserve a noogie.

Well he was being his usual self, teasing me for something or other, doesn’t matter. I’ll just tell you here that I was not in my right mind, I had just returned from a crazy bus ride that lasted all night and I was still reeling from the lack of sleep.

Doug made some smart remark and I simply responded with “Oh I just want to give you a noogie!” At least that’s what I said in my head. What actually came out was not noogie, but wedgie. Two very different things let me tell you. We had a good laugh about that one for quite a while.

Moment #2

Now that I have described Doug a bit you might also sympathize with what happened one day in class. Doug was teaching along, doin his thang. My fellow ruffians, Allison and Joanne, and I had had enough of his jackaboo antics and thought ‘we’ll teach him!’ We stormed the classroom and took over! Mutiny happened in Ternopil!

Yep, this really did happen. We tied him up, duct taped his bearded face, shoved him to the back of the class and took over the classroom. We taught for the rest of the day while he had to just sit there and listen.

The only referendum I have to make to this story is that it was actually Doug’s idea. Yeah, he wanted some fun way to change gears in the teaching and to introduce Allison, Joanne, and I to teaching the class. We taught on what it was like to use English in missions. He talked us into the mutiny idea, but we sure enjoyed doing it though!

TESOL has invaded Ternopil!!

It was a quick attack. They came, learned, and left. It was a whirlwind tour, some of us barely made it, most survived though.

They can be a scary bunch, just look at them.

Heebie jeebies all over. Intimidation is their game.

They come from all walks of life, from age ranges of 17 to 56, from Russia to New Zealand, from the USA to Ukraine. Throw in Canada for good measure and you got a crazy bunch of eager learners ready to tackle any bit of information!

They took on the English language with no fear! Sentence inversion you say? No problem! Gerunds? Piece of cake! Subjunctive adverbs? Don’t make me laugh! By the third week this ruthless bunch was begging for more.

Not only did they wrestle English into submission, they had time for working with English in a missions setting. You think English is tough enough for you? Try understanding how to use it in ministry overseas! We fed this class all they could handle on understanding cultures in the classroom, when to charge for a class and when not to, how and when to use evangelism in the classroom, working with limited resources, working with other organizations, having a multi-leveled class… I won’t overwhelm you with all the topics, you weren’t part of this English eating class.

At the end of three weeks we fed them English from a distance, with a stick. Don’t let their sweet smiles fool you, they were ravenous!

A connection is made (or reconnection, depending on view).

A teaching opportunity.

A sudden invitation.

A bumpy bus ride.

Arrive at a home in the Карпа́ты or Carpathians.

Teaching with Lance

I had the great opportunity to teach in the Carpathians along with three others, Andri, Allison and Lance. We were asked to staff a retreat time for the staff of the Ternopil Missions Institute. This was their first staff retreat and the first time they had someone come to do any teaching.

Building team

We had fun partaking in team building games, relaxing together, teaching, praying, and some sightseeing. We taught on topics such as team, relationships, unity, confrontation, and healthy boundaries. We did a lot of debriefing which is basically taking a step back and reflecting on what has happened both good and bad in the past years. This team of people had never been able to have someone help guide them through this process. Allison and I helped them create a timeline and go through all the fun and happy memories to the sad and tearful memories.

Seeing a castle

Not always easy to get a picture while I’m teaching, but here is one while I was closing up our time of creating a timeline. The hanging green, blue, and purple chickens in the background were used to create a mobile to demonstrate how taking away one piece will completely alter the mobile. Each piece needs each other to balance and it will take time to adjust when one piece is taken away. The same applies to a team or family when one member leaves. Transition takes time and will cause some imbalance at first.