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

This was our third trip to the Balkans this year, once at the beginning of the year, then later in June. Both of those trips were with our own staff and team, this third trip was actually to meet with other people interested in starting something in Montenegro.

The YWAM base in Albania hosted this gathering and advertised to other YWAM locations to get people together with a common interest: to work in Montenegro. Lance and I and one other staff represented our base, there was a British man working at a base in Sweden, a Norwegian man working in Norway, another Norwegian man and a Dutch man both living in Albania, and several of the YWAM Albanian staff from various countries such as Canada, Ukraine, Brazil, Norway, Chile and Albania. We were quite a diverse group!

Lance and I really enjoyed this time since our previous trips were just with our own team, this time we got to have a more diverse viewpoint of Montenegro. We spent two days in Albania listening to a pastor serving in Montenegro, then praying for the country, and coming up with a strategy for our next two days which were to be in Montenegro. We decided to pray and ask the Lord where we should go in Montenegro, we felt to go to several cities.

As a group, we traveled to Bar, a city in the south where we talked to the pastor of church, then we went on to Tivat to hear from some German missionaries. We spent the night in Kaminari with a couple from Bosnia who have been working with orphans and in the morning we went to Niksic to visit with a pastor there and ended our time in Podgorica, the capital talking with missionaries and a pastor there. It was a whirlwind tour with lots of conversations and fun memories with new friends.

It was sunny and warm when we left Albania…

We see this time as super important and valuable for us as a YWAM location since we have chosen to target Montenegro for future work. It was encouraging for us to hear from other people to get new ideas we didn’t think of and to have confirmation for some ideas we already thought about. We really believe that this is an important time for us and for Montenegro and that Ukrainians will be great missionaries, particularly to this part of the world, there are many similarities. Both countries have had communist governments, both use a Slavic based language, both are very warm-cultured, both are Orthodox, and both are super relationship-oriented.

We are truly excited for our future in Montenegro!

Lance celebrated his birthday a little over a month ago but I still thought it would be good to post some of the pictures from our birthday adventure.

Shortly before his birthday, we finalized buying a car, hooray!! We got to take it on it’s first real adventure! Lance mapped out a few castles and locations he has been wanting to see and off we went!

Went to a place we have now rated a 5 out 5 according to our rating system, it was awesome! Lots of nooks and crannies to explore, had beautiful scenery, and is a great place for a picnic.

We also stopped at a few other places along the way home but nothing compared to the fortress we saw first!

The next day, the celebration continued with friends from English club. We have been trying to get together for a year to go to a waterfall and castle not far from Ternopil. We finally made it happen! It was such a peaceful place, the waterfall was small since it was the end of  summer but still beautiful and refreshing. We put up our hammock, relaxed, went on a hike together, played badminton and frisbee, ate lots of food, swam, ate more food and finally explored a castle before heading home. We love being able to get together with our friends from English club, they are always ready for a good time together.

Explored nearby abandoned buildings

Yes, he really is that tall.

In July, my grandfather passed away at the age of 97. He was always seen as solid, faithful, hardworking, and witty. His passing was peaceful and with family but no less difficult to process. Lance and I decided that it would be good for me to go home to be with family during this time. My time in the states was only for two and half weeks since Lance stayed in Ukraine.

I was honored to be at my grandpa’s memorial at the National Cemetery where he was given military honors. I enjoyed being able to see family members I hadn’t seen in a long time. I am very glad that I made the short trip home for this time.

I also got to spend some good quality time with my family doing a few hikes together, eating meals together and running errands together. Had a short trip down to Oregon also to see family there. I can never get tired of time spent with family.