Hi everyone!
This is my week one of outreach in my DTS!
Outreach is the part of DTS where we get to apply everything we’ve learned over the last three months in our lecture phase!
Guess what? We made it to Ukraine! After a seven hour layover in Denver and a thirteen hour flight following, we landed in Kyiv, and what a place to be!
The night before the first two teams headed out (us and Thailand) it felt like Christmas. I was so excited and as my excitement rose, my nervousness rose with it. Traveling is something I haven’t done much of. In fact, I could number on one hand the states I’d been to before YWAM.
There have been a LOT of firsts for me since being in YWAM. Some, more silly, like my first time going through a revolving door or riding on a train-and some big! I had never been on an airplane. As an eighteen year old, who has not traveled, been on an airplane, or really experienced the world, I was quite nervous! Once I got on our first plane in Kalispell, Montana, I was like a little kid. Excited and trying to talk to everyone and hoping for the best! So much was going on. There was a lady next to me snoring, Kylie Houser was out like a light behind me, and meanwhile I’m bouncing around in my seat laughing and sweating nervously wondering what I’d see (if I could lean over the snoring woman without waking her up) and all of this was happening before the plane even took off.
We were still on the ground and this much had happened-imagine what it’d be like in the air!! ;)
After flying from Montana, we spent seven hours in the Denver airport then proceeded with a eleven hour flight to Munich, Germany, and from there to Kyiv, Ukraine! We were picked up at the airport and brought to the base here in Kyiv.
The first week here was kind of rough, I’m not going to lie, but at the same time, I’m never going to forget this week. I struggled with Jet leg, my brain was in constant foggy mode, and me and some of the people on our team were getting over sickness. BUT We were emmersed in the culture, we started exploring, metting new people, learning phrases, and forming relationships-all of which have been so amazing.
We have also been given many different ministry opportunities since we’ve been here. Every other day I switch on and off between preschool and evangelism. In preschool, we get to play with the kids and teach them bits of English, and when we evangelize we go to the metro (also a first) to Maidan, to the stores and pray over EVERYTHING! On the days when we don’t get to talk with people, we pray. We pray before, during, and after. Something God is really teaching us, is that prayer does a LOT OF GOOD!
We also are part of an English club with people who are learning English. You guessed it! Most of them are there for that reason also, but the leaders introduce Christ through their vocabulary. They taught what freedom is and synonyms with it. And our conclusion was freedom in Christ. They use the Bible and scriptures to teach them how to read and it it such a beautiful thing. We were also able to go through the gospel and tell the whole story to these people who were there to simply learn English.
My favorite is “Support Ukraine” a ministry that supports refugees and their families in Kyiv. They live in an old hotel owned by a man who allows them to be there. This hotel is much different than our hotels, however. This one has lights and walls, but no heat and no one there for upkeep. We get to partner with a man named Dima who goes and plays with, teaches, shows love to the kids of the refugee families.
Earlier in the week I was able to give a lesson about Jesus’s love for them and also when a father loves His Child, He will do all he can to take care of them. I also partnered with Kylie H and we sang John 3:16 with hand motions and they loved it!
This has been my week and a half so far and I am in love with the culture here. God gave me a picture of a man standing on a giant rock. He had Ukrainian flag in his grip and he thrust it into the rock. This represents the Christ followers in Ukraine and the Nation being grounded in the Rock, Jesus Christ. What abeautiful image it is, and even more amazing that My team and me get to be part of bring Ukraine to Jesus with servantship and prayer.
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