4:07 PM
Hey all! The team and I just came back from an awesome week of evangelism in Vinnitsa, a city that is a few hours from Kyiv. I will tell you more about that as soon as I catch you guys up on the last 4 weeks!
Week 4:
This week we are lecture topics were Crossing Cultures and Creating Culture with God. This was a really practical week. We learned a lot about not judging another culture when first introduced and learning how to analyze our own culture. One main topic about this section was culture shock and the effects it can have on your behavior, and even your health! I was so blown away at some of the effects that I had seen in the last few weeks before this lecture! The last two days were spent on exercising the creativity that God has placed in us to help shape our society. We did some cool craft projects to get our creative juices flowing! :)
Week 5:
Worldviews...what an extensive topic! This week in particular was very challenging, but very thought provoking! We talked a lot about how different cultures and people view the idea of an absolute, including their own life and their purpose (or lack thereof). The team really had to work to understand some of the things we were learning. I think we can all say it was still well work it!
Week 6:
Relationships. One thing that came out of this lecture week was, "Stop being so complicated!", which of course was mainly directed at the girls. ;) This week we not only learned about romantic relationships, but also relationships with each other. In all relationships we should always be motivated to please God in it! With that we learned how a humble person and a prideful person goes about life, and how it effects others.
Week 7:
And now for this past week! (I hope you have not grown too tired of reading. I recommend getting up and doing a few stretches, then sitting back down. Ok now here we go.) The team traveled all the way to Vinnitsa, a small city just a few hours away from Kyiv. We had a hands-on week of ministry and evangelism. We learned about the purpose of evangelism and the motives that Christians should have for evangelizing. The bottom line about this week is that evangelism is communicating in a way to present the gospel so that the Holy Spirit may work through that person so that they put their trust in Him. We took these practical points and went to the streets of Vinnitsa throughout the whole week. At the end the whole team went out to the center of town and preached the gospel or our testimonies to the passing crowd. I am so proud of our team for doing this and am very thankful for YWAM Vinnitsa and the staff that did ministry with us.
Well I will wrap up this update with one funny story from this week. While on a prayer walk in Vinnitsa with one of my team members, we decided to go through an abandoned side yard to go back to the street our house was on. What we did not know was that there were too territorial dogs hiding in bushes ahead of us. We turned the corner and the two dogs lunged at us. Forgetting everything I've learned, I turned and ran. Like a mad woman. Of course my friend followed me, running her fastest also. She yelled, "In the name of Jesus go away!" The crazy dog stopped dead in its tracks. We turned around and caught our breath. The both of us made it back to the house a few minutes late but we learned our lesson: don't go into abandoned yards where there could be mad dogs.
I hope you guys enjoyed reading my update, please continue to pray for me and my team!
Victoria
