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.

Art therapy

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.

2014 marks the first year that we had a women’s Christmas Tea. One of our staff members used to live in Crimea and has hosted teas before so she was able to lead the way in hosting the first in Ternopil. It was a miracle that it all came together and a miracle that we had room for everyone. We originally planned for 30 ladies, but we had space for 48. Guess how many ladies showed up? Yep, 48 exactly!

All the the ladies on staff, cooked a whole bunch of yummy goodies, I can testify that the ladies on staff know how to bake yummy goodies. There is no doubt about that! We had two tables full of delicious and delectable treats and one table full of tea and hot chocolate.

Yummy food!

We had door prizes galore and many people were surprised at the generosity displayed. I led a time of doing a craft together. Everyone got an orange, some cloves and a ribbon. It was easy for people to push the cloves into the orange to create design of some sort. It was a simple air freshener for the home.

We also had several games that involved people getting up and getting to know other ladies. I led a game where two teams had to race to unwrap a gift while wearing over-sized gloves.

Sharing a message of hope.

Two of our staff members spoke during the evening. Both ladies were able to share of God’s love and forgiveness to a crowd of women whom many had not heard of what God has done for them. It was the perfect way to share the Gospel during this season. There was also some live music to entertain the ladies and the evening ended with a Christmas ornament exchange where everyone got to go home with a new ornament for their tree.

Everyone enjoyed the evening, everyone went home with a fun goody bag and a message of hope for the holidays.

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.

Working together to decorate a tree… with toilet paper!

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!

If you have not heard of Jack Hart, you are missing out. He is one of kind and is incredibly talented. He is a great example of someone using their gifts and talents for God. I will just say that Jack was nominated for an Emmy for his work with David Copperfield and also worked on set designs for TV shows such as Super Password, Family Feud, and the Price is Right.

Jack has fun at English club

All that to say, he is a pretty cool guy who is willing to come all the way to Ukraine to teach and share the Gospel message with people. He stayed with us for about two weeks and he had an incredibly busy schedule. I just was not sure how to write up the time he spent with us. So I will just give a quick rundown of the few weeks that Jack was with us.

At the teacher seminar

The first week that Jack was with us, he spent some time doing art therapy with a few families that were staying at the YWAM base from the east. At the end of the week he taught in a teaching seminar for teachers of English. It was a great time for him to share with public school teachers and encourage them in their work.

When we all work together, we can create a beautiful rainbow.

He also helped with a family seminar where families from the community were invited to come together for a learning experience. He spent time with our staff, leading a staff training time. It is always great to have all the staff together to learn and have fun.

In between all the major events that Jack did, he squeezed in time to share in the public schools as well as several different orphanages. No one tired of seeing him do some tricks and “wow”d us with his slight of hand. One of the last things we did together was to have a family night at the base. This is when all the staff come together with their families for just some fellowship and fun. This time we had a Christmas craft night. People made snowflakes, cards, ornaments, and decorated cookies. And of course Jack gave a little show for the kids. Everyone had fun!

Instead of telling you about what we did for a staff training time, I thought it would be more interesting to share what we learned.

Mary Jean Powers came to Ternopil for a week in which three days were set aside for staff training. She also spent time with our leadership team and with just Lance and I. The thoughts I will share with you are from our staff training time.

~We should be active blessers, blessing people should be normal and natural

~Things that God wants to use the most is where Satan attacks the most.

~Distractions take us away from people, hope and what God has for us.

~You need a strategy of how to keep your purpose and blessing.

~You won’t be able to disciple others until you are practicing spiritual disciplines.

~God has called us to be interdependent. Philippians 2:1-13

~Don’t just ask “What time is it?” We should follow the Greek word ‘kairos’ meaning “What is it time for?”

~Exodus 20:8 commands us to remember the Sabbath, and Sabbath is a day of rest.

~The Chinese word for “busy” contains the symbols for “heart” and “kill”

~To serve God is to do what he asks, not necessarily doing good things

~Jesus walked everywhere, he didn’t hurry, he didn’t run. Heaven is not in a hurry.

~Genesis 2:1-3 The first day that Adam was alive, was a day of rest. God gave him a day of rest before he “earned” it!

~If we forget to rest, we can forget who we are, we forget our families, we forget to be curious, to explore, to play, and how to have fun.

~It’s not honorable to exhaust the home of the Holy Spirit

~Honoring the Sabbath is to lay to rest the previous week and not drag it into next week

If you are interested in Mary Jean’s work and ministry, you can check her out at: Get The Word Out!