Hope is such an important thing. It is so hard to live without hope. During times of uncertainty, war, economic struggles, many will feel that there is no hope. We have certainly seen this first hand in Ukraine. I can’t tell you the number of times someone has said something negative about Ukraine. So many want to leave, people have verbally said, “there is no hope here.”

We are saddened by the number of people that are leaving, we’ve lost friends from English club and neighbors. We are saddened by the despair that many feel.

We are happy though to bring hope to people. We had a great opportunity to partner with a local cafe and organize an art exhibit with the theme of hope. We both worked to find artists and bring things together. We had one of our Ternopil staff members submit some photos and we had a YWAM worker from another city in Ukraine submit tattoo art as well as two other local artists.

The final result was great, it was small but was a perfect start to a partnership and future projects with this cafe. Lance shared some thoughts on hope at the opening and a local pastor shared a song on hope.

Here is what Lance said:

~Hope~

To what do you wrap your arms of hope around and hold fast?  This is a crucial question in times like these.  When all around us seems to be unstable and the things that once, in our minds, were unmovable are now shakable. There is a proverb that says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick.” This is very true. When you look around, it is easy to feel your heart and soul grown in despair. Yet even then, Hope dies last.

Hope is a driving force that is imbedded deep in our souls. Who can forget Galadriel in this iconic scene from the books and subsequent films “Lord of the Rings”, “And you, Ring-bearer,’ she said, turning to Frodo. ‘I come to you last who are not last in my thoughts… ‘In this phial… is caught the light of Eärendil’s star, set amid the waters of my fountain. It will shine still brighter when night is about you. May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out.” Galadriel wasn’t just giving light, she was giving hope.

Hope reminds us that good wins over evil.  That there are things worth fighting for in this world.  It reminds us that things we do now do effect the future of our grandchildren.  That is why we must set our highest hopes on something unshakable, unchanging, and everlasting. This world will never look the same from yesterday to today. Hope in the Unchangeable is the only consistent.

So as you look at these depictions of art, we invite you to search high and low, near and far to find your hope. To find the thing that is worth hoping in, the something that in which you will be able to wrap your arms of hope and know, hope never fails.

Lance asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday and I just told him I wanted to go on an adventure. This is just some way for us to relax and be refueled. He did manage to plan a get together for some ladies the day before my birthday but on my birthday we decided to go out and find some castles and old buildings.

Castles and old buildings we did find.

Our first stop was at a castle not too far from us but it really was not as exciting as we had hoped. It was not on a hill, there was no view and the city had grown up around it. It looked strange mixed amongst the normal sites of the city. We gave it a 2 out of 5. (We’ve started rating the castles we go to so we can remember which ones are the good ones.)

Our second stop was an old building that had been abandoned. As much as Lance and I tried to find out what the building used to be we could not find out much. It was obviously a palace at one point and had been used by different groups during different time periods. We could see at least three very distinct attempts at fixing things.

This was our favorite stop, it just had such a unique style and feel to it. It had marks of beauty even though the walls were falling down. You could tell there was so much history that the building held wanting to be told but slowly being forgotten.

Our last stop was another castle that nature was also reclaiming. All that remained was a few walls and tunnels. Even though there was not much there it is still interesting to see the skill that was needed in building stone tunnels. We enjoyed our adventures out and returned home to relax with a cup of tea!

Winter Staff Days has come and gone but we are still working through what God has shown us during our time together.

All Ternopil staff gathered for three days to pray and hear form God concerning the future of the Ternopil YWAM base. We wanted clarity in the future planning, we wanted new ideas, nations to target, and a vision for the future. Of course outside of all this, we wanted to just be together and to have fun as a family.

One of the things we did was study the church in Antioch. We have had several people give a word for the Ternopil YWAM base that they should be like Antioch. Sounds cool, but what does that mean? We really did not know. What I would like to do is to share our Bible study so that you can better understand what we hope to achieve.

 

Timeline

40- Missionaries come to Antioch and preach to Gentiles (Acts 11:20)

42- Barnabas sent from Jerusalem to visit Antioch (Acts 11:22)

43- Barnabas leaves Antioch to look for Saul in Tarsus and brings Saul to teach (Acts 11:25-26) They remain in Antioch for one year.

44- Prophet Agabus visits Antioch (Acts 11:27-28), prophesied a famine in Roman empire.

44- Antioch church sends Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem with offering to help with famine (Acts 11:29-30)

45- Paul and Barnabas return to Antioch with John Mark (Acts 12:25)

46- Paul and Barnabas sent out on 1^st journey (Acts 13:2-3)

47- Peter comes to Antioch (Galatians 2:11, 12)

47- Confusion comes from Judaizers (say believers must be circumcised)

48- Paul returns to Antioch (Acts 14:26-28) and opposes Peter (Galatians 2:14)

48- Jerusalem council held (Acts 15 & Galatians 2:1-10)

??- Judas & Silas go to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas (Acts 15:22)

49- Paul teaches in Antioch (Acts 15:35)

49- Paul leaves for 2^nd journey

52- Paul returns to Antioch (Acts 18:23)

53- Paul leaves for 3^rd journey

270- First Bible School is founded

Main themes

#1 Learning– Acts 11:25-26, 42-43AD

~Barnabas brings Paul to Antioch to teach and they remain there teaching for one year.

-Spent time teaching and studying God’s Word

#2 Concern for others– Acts 11:29-30, 44AD

~A famine is prophesied and the Antioch church takes an offering to send to the church in Jerusalem

-They were not inwardly focused

-They did something for people outside of their bounds

#3 Discipleship– Acts 12:25 & 15:22, 45 & 48 AD

~Paul & Barnabas return from giving the Antioch gift in Jerusalem and bring John Mark with them. Later brought Judas and Silas with them.

-Bring people into what you are doing

-Recruit, train, mentor

#4a Send– Acts 13:1-4, 46AD

~Antioch church commissions Paul & Barnabas on their first missionary journey.

-They sent some of their best teachers

-They didn’t worry about what would happen without their best teachers.

4b Diversity

-The body of believers varied in nationality, economy and religious background

Barnabas- from Cyprus

Niger- from Africa

Lucius- from Africa

Mamaen- Roman nobleman

Saul- Pharisee

4c Time for Holy Spirit

-Believers were praying and fasting together

-They heard the Spirit speak and they obeyed

#5 Accountability– Acts 14:26-28 & 15:35, 48 & 52 AD

~Returning from their missionary journey to the place that they were sent from

-Shared a report after their journey

-Spent time with the church after their return

#6 Interdependence– Acts 11:22, 29, 15:30

-Churches worked together

-Shared resources and helped each other

Our base has joined forces with the other YWAM bases in Ukraine to help relief efforts in the east. Our base has been at the forefront of the work by hosting families from the east as well as sending supplies and people to help and encourage those there.

We have hosted a number of families to come for a respite at our base. These families are not looking for a new home in the west, but are wanting to remain in the east to help others left behind with out any way to leave. They continue to help others, encourage people, and give aid where aid is needed. We felt it was important to be able to give them a break and fill them up as they have been pouring out to others.

Most recently, we prepared 100 gift bags to give to soldiers. We wanted to send some Christmas cheer to those away from families and loved ones. Each bag was filled with chocolates, candy, a flashlight, a pair of socks, a card, razors, gum, and coffee. Some of our staff went to the east to deliver the gifts and to also give extra warm clothes, Bibles, books, sausages, nuts, oranges and homemade goods. They also brought a coffee maker and plan on making fresh coffee for the men.

The relief work that we have been organizing and participating in was featured on the main YWAM website, you can read about the last trip HERE. If you would like to help financially with the work, you can click HERE and choose Ukraine relief from the drop down menu.

Our base celebrated Christmas together on December 26th. In Ukraine, Christmas is on January 7th so we celebrate early so that everyone can be with their families on the holiday.

Since Lance and I love games and just having fun in general, we have tried to incorporate games in our family nights at the base. Of course there is always a feast and we always feast first.

After the feasting has finished, we games can commence. Lance led the different games of writing captions for Christmas comics, contest for decorating a mini Christmas tree and a Christmas ornament relay. Everyone participated, kids and adults alike.

After our game extravaganza, the kids had a little Christmas pagent to put on for us. Everyone enjoyed seeing the kids perform, who doesn’t like seeing kids dressed up as sheep?

The evening ended with our own Christmas exchange, we drew names the week before and everyone was prepared to give a gift to their special someone. Of course in order to open the gift you had to guess who gave it to you. We were thankful for the time together and the past year, we are all looking forward to the upcoming year!