DTS 2011 is now on outreach!

Latest News is listed first.

Monday, 23rd January 2012

ARMENIAN TEAM by Yulya S.

For the last two weeks this January, our team has been continuing to serve in a nursing home, a Mother Teresa orphanage, as well as doing evangelism and ministry in the street and at a garbage dump.

We enjoy praying together as a team, and edify one another through the Word of God, sharing what God has taught us, both personally and the team as a whole.

A week ago we were with Kings Kids [a YWAM ministry for youth and children].  God put on our hearts to teach on the topic of ‘Dreams’.  It was great to see the Holy Spirit’s leading to bless this time.  The team shared testimonies and led games.  Two of our students taught together, which was unusual, but the result was good team work.

Street Evangelism is going well! Armenians are a people who are highly communicative.  We did evangelism in two ways.  In the first we would show a drama on the street in Yerevan [the capital city of Armenia], and as people looked on with curiosity, some of our team members would go up to them and share with people about Christ, using the drama we had shown as a starting point- we would also give out postcards to bless people.  The second way in which we shared was when we split into teams of two and invited people to answer questionnaires (surveys) – this led to many conversations about the gospel. 

Many people gave us their contact details and wanted to meet up again.  We are planning to meet up again with each person who wanted to by the end of our outreach.

The team also serves at a garbage dump, where men and women work to collect plastic from the garbage.  This is how they earn their livelihood – because they cannot get work in the city.   The people earning their money in this way all live together in a village near this landfill site, and we have had the opportunity to visit them every week.  All these people are very open to friendship and prayer, and we believe that in this poor village there will be lots of fruit.

In the nursing home we got to know some more elderly people.  We go there to share the gospel, pray with the people there and bless and encourage where we can.  We believe God is working in the lives of these elderly people and bringing healing to their hearts.

Over the weekend, some Armenian YWAMers took us to a very beautiful place – the city of Gurnee, which is 1470 years old!  There we saw an ancient church and a pagan temple – the beauty of ancient architecture and the natural mountain scenery was simply breathtaking!

Thank you for your prayerful support and please continue to pray for our team.  May God use us to do His will in Armenia.

Thursday, 12th January 2012

CRIMEAN TEAM 

The team enjoyed New Year celebrations with fireworks in the village they have been staying in.  Ukrainian Christmas is on 7th January and the team offered a Christmas programme to the residents of the village.  Believers from a nearby city came to run the children’s programme and give out gifts, while our team led the programme for adults.  Around 100 adults and children turned out to take part in the programme and enjoyed the skit and testimonies our team shared.

The team has now moved on to a second location.  They are now in a village called Orlyne, also on the Crimean peninsula, where we have sent 3 teams over the last few years.  Last year a company of Royal Rangers was founded there and the Christian community is growing.

This was an update from Johanna G. by phone.

Wednesday, 21st December 2011

CRIMEAN TEAM by Rebeka G.

Greetings from Solnechno Gorskoya!

We’ve been here for two weeks already, and we are experiencing God’s faithfulness and love every day! Our dependency on our Father has been challenged since the day we arrived. The only church in the village burned down just days before we arrived, and we are truly pioneering our own ministry here.

The first week was difficult because we didn’t really know where to go or what to do, but it provided us with an amazing opportunity to ask and trust God every day, and to be blessed with the ideas and opportunities He provided for us. This included meeting and praying for our neighbors, serving them in various ways.

It also included meeting with a dance teacher, a karate teacher and the children in their classes. We had the opportunity to introduce ourselves and play games with them. We even got to see a little bit of karate! Several of the kids are living in the same apartment as us, so we get to see them often and build relationships with their parents as well.

The second week things started to get really busy. We have had so many opportunities to serve the village. We have been teaching English lessons to children from the karate and dance classes Monday through Thursday. We did yard work for the village in the beginning of the week and by the end of the week the whole village was talking about it! We had the opportunity to bring gifts to our neighbors and even share some of our testimonies with them.

We also did some street evangelism here and in Alushta, the nearest city to us, where we got to ask people about God and preach the gospel. We invited one elderly neighbor over one night for Bible reading and dinner. She has poor eye sight so we read to her and that night she repented in our living room! Grandmas from around the village are bringing us various gifts like fruits, milk, and honey. We are all really starting to feel like we’ve found our place in this village.

There are exciting things on the horizon for us! It is amazing to see how God is changing hearts and lives even when we came here with nothing. He really is faithful to do the impossible!

Please continue praying that our team would be healthy and full of strength, and please pray for the ministries that we have started and are planning to start! Please pray for the people here, that they would surrender their lives to Jesus!

Tuesday, 20th December 2011

ARMENIAN TEAM by Dima V.

The whole team is doing really good… The ministries are also doing well. This Monday we just went out for street evangelism. Also this week we are going out to a Catholic orphanage for disabled kids, we will visit a retirement/nursing home and will go out to a garbage dump to build relationships with the beggars there.

Monday, 12th December 2011

ARMENIAN TEAM by Yulya S.

Our outreach to Armenia began with two flights: Riga,Latvia-Tiblisi, Georgia and Georgia- Yerevan, Armenia.  At the Armenian border, everyone got through and the Americans on our team got their visas.  God looked after us through all our travelling- we didn’t lose anything.

A man named Vagan met us at the airport and drove us to Yerevan, the capital of Armenia.  Driving up high in the mountrains, we were able to catch a glimpse of Mt. Ararat.  We were given a three-room flat in the centre of the city which we cleaned as a team before moving in.  Us girls live in 1 room sharing one bed (we have been promised another bed soon!).  The guys live in the other two rooms.  We also have a small refrigerator, hot water, a fireplace, and next week we will even be connected to wi-fi internet!  We will be even more comfortable!

We prayed as a team asking God how He wants to use us here.  The YWAM Armenia Centre here does mercy ministry outreach to the Mother Theresa orphanage.  We will be serving young children with serious illnesses and diseases.  We will also be serving in a nursing home.  We believe that God will use us here according to His perfect will.

This first week has allowed us to learn more about the Armenian culture.  We had lectures in which we learnt a lot more about this country.  Armenia is a Middle Eastern nation and its culture is close to that of Iranians, Georgians and the Kurdish people, with a warm, dry climate and culture.  The people here are very hospitable and have a very interesting history.

Some important people which influenced the history of Armenia were: Tigran the Great, who ruled the country when it was an empire.  There was also Gregory the Illuminator, who grew up in a Christian Roman Empire, abandoned paganism and for that was thrown into a pit of snakes and scorpions.  God told one woman to bring him food every day and he spent much time praying for the king of Armenia who repented and was baptised by Gregory the Illuminator in the year A.D. 301 and Christianity became Armenia’s official state religion. 

Then we heard about Mesrop Mashtots, the monk to whom God revealed the Armenian alphabet in a vision in the year A.D. 405.  Following this the Bible was translated into the Armenian language.  We also heard about Vartan Nymakunyan who famously declared: “Our enemies think that they can make us change our faith like clothes, but now they understand that it [our faith] is our skin.”

Christians have often been persecuted in this country.  Mongols, Turks, Iranians and Armenians have all been among those killed for their faith in the last 1600 years.  This is why only 3 million out of 10 million Armenians actually live in Armenia.  The remaining Armenian people live in Ukraine, Russia, the USA, Turkey and other nations. 

This Sunday we went to a local church where we showed a drama, taught, gave our testimonies and prayed for the needs of the people.  We also spent time fellowshipping with local believers.  Visiting the church was a big blessing for us and we look forward to what God is going to do in the next week.

We are grateful for your prayer support- please continue praying for us!!!

 

CRIMEAN TEAM Friday, 9th December 2011

Having arrived in Crimea, the team’s host unfortunately had to pull out at short notice.  The team quickly found new housing, however, and prayed about what to do next.  The village in which they are serving does not seem to have any believers so they are doing real pioneer work.  They spent today fasting and praying on how to reach this village for the Lord.

They have already found one woman of peace.  She is the owner of a local club which hosts youth events three times a week and has warmly welcomed the team to organise programmes for the youth which come to her club.  Please pray for more and more people to open to the team and the message that they have to share.

The team lives a five-minute jog from the sea in a three-room apartment with an outside toilet and shower.  The weather is warm enough to go swimming in the sea, however, and they have electric heaters for the colder evenings.

Team leader, Oksana Ruskevych summed it up for us: “Pioneering is cool, a challenge, but we’re up for it!”

ARMENIAN TEAM Friday, 9th December 2011

After a 6 hour bus-ride to Kyiv, a flight to Georgia and another bus-ride to Armenia, the team has now safely arrived at their outreach location and is looking forward to what God is going to do!

CRIMEAN TEAM Thursday, 8th December 2011

The outreach team to Crimea has now arrived at their outreach location after travelling more than 24 hours.  They are living in pioneering conditions but now have heating!  Please pray for 3 of the girls who are not feeling 100%.  They said that there is no internet available where they are staying but will give weekly updates by phone!

Disclaimer: These updates contain the views of their respective authors and do not necessarily represent those of YWAM Lutsk Ukraine or YWAM International.