Youth With A Mission has many different ministries and branches, one such branch is education of the Bible. There is a 9 month long Bible course that takes an in depth look at the Bible and then after that course, students have an option to do a practicum somewhere teaching the Bible. This past fall/winter we had two such teams come to teach!

As we have said before, we love hosting different teams and individuals for various reasons. It was fun to have a team that had a focus for their ministry. We set up some places for them to teach. This was in different churches, one in another city, we had one for English club and one for the staff.

There was a wide variety of places to teach as well as topics. The most requested topic was an overview of the Bible, but the team also taught on Ephesians. This was an important one for us as staff since we felt that the book of Ephesians was something we needed to study together. It was good to spend time as a staff to study together, we enjoyed gathering together once a week for something special.

We will be happy to host another Bible-teaching team anytime!

Two years ago we hosted a women’s Christmas tea as an event to spread the message of hope. (Go HERE to read about it.) We pulled off another beautiful and fun tea once more in December.

All of our base staff came together to invite, decorate, cook, and clean for this event. Staff hosted a table and then invited people to their table. Each table was unique and beautiful, Megan went with a literary theme. The food was also especially tasty and there was plenty of it!

Yummy food! Lance was a great server.

We had games, crafts, music and several speakers to share a testimony or special word. The women that came heard a clear message of what Christmas is all about and were able to receive encouragement from others around them.

What a lovely table!

We had a team from Holland with us so they were a big help in serving and cleaning. They also put on a small kids program for our staff kids, they still talk about it! We are so happy to be able to invite people from the community to hear of Jesus and his love for us. Plus, who doesn’t enjoy a good tea party?!

Exchanging ornaments game

Over the past year and a half, you may have heard us mention things about Montenegro and use the term “target nation.” Target nation means what you think it means, a nation that we target for ministry and outreach.

In January of 2015, we had a staff retreat at the base where we gathered all staff and kids to pray for a nation to focus on. We ended up with a big long list of countries; it felt like half the world could be a target nation! At that point we slowly kept narrowing our list down. We felt it should be in Europe, we wanted it to be a country that needed help in ministry and growing the church body, and it needed to be accessible and open to ministry. We eventually got our monstrous list down to 4 countries: Albania, Slovenia, Poland and Montenegro.

This past year, we thought we would take our DTS students on outreach to Montenegro and Albania as a way to “spy out the land.” We were able to make contacts and talk to the believers there and see first hand what was going on in the country. It was very beneficial for us to be there for an extended time.

Since not all our staff were with us when we first went to Montenegro, we wanted to take other staff to also experience and meet the believers there. We recently went back with one other family from our staff. Together we were able to pray and talk together what it would be like if Montenegro was our target nation. When we chose a nation, it was to be for all staff and for a long-term commitment. This would not just be a Megan and Lance decision.

So the time has come, we have prayed and talked with our staff and prayed some more, we felt that we should adopt Montenegro as our target nation.

‘And now what’, you may ask. Well our goal is to come along side the existing churches and believers to encourage them and assist them in building the ministries there. Our goal would be in 3-5 years to have a YWAM base planted in Montenegro. There may be other things that come out of this partnership but we are excited for the future and look forward to what God has in store for this beautiful nation!

Every year we take time as a staff to stop what we are doing and just have fun together. Youth With A Mission values working in teams, we are not just a group of people who happen to work in the same building. We want to have a sense of family and to nurture this we need fun times together.

Last year was the first time we stayed at the base, we decided to do the same thing again this year. The retreat started on Monday evening with dinner and devotions. We had different staff lead devotion time each day, we can always learn from each other.

Senya leading devotions

Lance took some time to share the different goals we came up with during our Leadership year planning meetings that were in March. We came up with some 1 year goals, 5 year goals and 10 year goals. It was important that the goals be shared and that everyone understood where we want the base to go.

Lance sharing on goals

We also planned a little scavenger hunt that took teams ALL over the building. We strategically made sure that no two clues were on the same floor at a time so everyone got their workout! And because that wasn’t challenging enough, all teams had to be linked together.

Traffic jam in the stairwell

We made use of Lance’s corn-hole game he made for Marriage Week and had a corn-hole tournament in the evening. We drew names for the competitors, there was a kids bracket and an adult bracket, first to 11 won. It was really close for some pairs but there has to be a winner!

Let the games begin!

Our winners just happen to be father, daughter. Conspiracy?

Wednesday, after devotions, we had some hangout time and after lunch we had an outing to see some castle ruins. Just some time to get out of the city and be in nature. It was good to get some fresh air! Wednesday ended with pizza and a movie in the evening.

Taking in God’s creation together

Thursday we just had devotions and clean up before we ate lunch and parted. It was a great time where everyone got to spend more informal time together and have good conversations over food. Looking forward to seeing what next year will bring!

All together

We are just missing four kids in this picture.

Right after we returned from Turkey, we jumped into preparing for Marriage Week in Ternopil. This is a huge multi-church, city-wide event based on an international organization. Its purpose is to encourage marriages in their commitment and to value families. In a time where divorce is common, we believe it is necessary to celebrate and help families stay together.

getting it all ready

Example English version

To achieve this, there were different events throughout the whole week. Special speakers, movies such as Fireproof and War Room were shown in a local theater. Lance and I helped with game tables in the center where families could come and play together. There were also stations were families could get their photo taken. There was a lantern lighting ceremony near the lake.

Special speaker in the square

The family that plays together, stays together!

For the final event we had a parade down the center of the city that ended in a park where we had a Family Festival. There were tons of free games for kids, trampolines, cotton candy, a floor ball court, face-painting, and drawing stations. Lance made a corn-hole type game while I manned the prize table. We had little tables set up with questions where couples could come and just sit and talk while they sipped on a refreshing drink. The Family Festival ended in the evening with a concert. It was a great day for families!

Start of the parade

Lance helping with corn-hole and me giving out the prizes.

You catch a glimpse of Lance and I at 1:20, 1:48, and at 4:28. I’m wearing a coral cardigan and Lance is wearing a hat and red plaid shirt.