Mission 2008 DTS Constanta

We’re about halfway through outreach now, having been in Sarajevo one month and with one more month yet to go. Our team has been busy helping local missionaries and Christian organizations with different groups, clubs, and meetings. We’ve been working a lot in relational ministries lately, spending time visiting, talking and getting to know people here in cafes, discussion groups, and wherever else. The whole team is involved in a children’s English club; planning lessons, preparing, and teaching. We’ve also helped teach an English/life morals class for orphans at an SOS children’s center here in Sarajevo partly run by another group of ywamers, and plan to do more with them. We continue to invest in the ministries we continue to be a part of, and are looking at more opportunities for the final month of outreach.

Our team is entering our third week in Sarajevo now. We’re getting used to the city, getting to know some of the people, becoming more involved in some of the ministries, and developing a taste for ridiculously sweet Turkish espressos (not really, but I’m trying). We have some new opportunities coming up that we hope to start up or be a part of, working with local missionaries and organizations. One local christian organization we hope to work more with is Svaki student, or ‘Every student’, the Bosnian equivalent to campus crusade(Alege Viata if you like). This is a group of young Americans dedicated to spreading the gospel to Bosnian students. Our team joined them this last Thursday going to the different campuses in Sarajevo meeting and talking with local college students, one of which we invited for coffee later in the week, and hope to continue to get to know.

The whole team has also been working on lesson plans and other preparations for an English kids club, which will start this Saturday. In the near future we hope to start working with a group of ywam’ers at an orphanage in Sarajevo, and help start up more activities at Nova Nada (the community center) such as guitar/piano lessons, a Saturday night community night, and a Q&A lunch discussion group on Sundays. In addition to all the activities and ministries we are involved with in Sarajevo, we continue to enjoy the warmth and hospitality of all the people we meet here and continue to look for opportunities to share and discuss the goodness of God.

Testimony from Leah:

While talking with some of the students I realized that many of them are very wounded, from the affects of the war that was here in the 90’s and also from broken families and all kinds of painful situations. One of the young guys we talked to said that he didn’t believe in God because he had just experienced too many terrible things, as he pointed out the many scares on his face and head. How could a God allow all of that to happen? There is such a big need here for people to experience the healing power of God in their lives. Not just for their physical lives but for their hearts. They have experienced so much pain and suffering, and this, along with all the different religious influences of the region have painted a very different picture of God than the one we know. My prayer is that the believers here and our team as well, would have the opportunity to paint new pictures for those we meet of God’s true character- through our lives, through our words and through our love.

I shared a little bit with two guys about how God longs to heal us, to touch us in the places where we are hurting and to set us free from the things that we do just to cover up the pain we feel. Their response was, “Sounds like a nice commercial for Mc Donald’s”-too good to be true I guess. But it is true and it is the Good News that we need to keep on sharing. Please keep praying with us for healing for this nation and for this Good News to be spread to each and every heart…

It’s been about two weeks now since our team left Constanta. One week’s been spent in Budapest; team building with Nick and Marion, and this last week has been spent settling into Sarajevo. We had a full week in Budapest, running around the city with our week long transit passes between class and dinner. Now we’ve settled into a much more relaxed pace as we ease into our outreach phase in Sarajevo. Our two main contacts, Tom and Christie, are unfortunately out of the country now, as Tom recently underwent a surgery for his wrist in Germany. Up to this point, we aren’t very involved in many steady ministries, but we’ve spent a good week getting to know the city and some of the people involved with the community center. Tom and Christie plan to be back in Sarajevo by February 1st, at which point we hope to become more active in more ministries such as a children’s English club, guitar lessons, sports ministries, and on Thursday we will join Campus Crusade in reaching out to college students.

In less than a week we will be setting off for two months of outreach in the beautiful country of Bosnia! But for this week we are enjoying some very important teaching on team building that will prepare us for this great adventure. The YWAM base here in Budapest is hosting us and Nic and Marion Barella are our teachers. We are so blessed to be in this gorgeous city and to have this time to come together in unity as a team, getting ready for all that the Lord has for us in Bosnia!

The Outreach is 8-10 weeks long. You will have the chance to apply what you have learned. You will be serving alongside long- term missionaries in another country (a church or other mission base) through: evangelism, practical work, teaching and praying. We intercede for the people and places we are visiting seek God’s guidance for ministry and we spread the good news as He leads us.

For the outreach phase of the Discipleship Training School (DTS) we focus on the following locations:
The Balkan countries around Romania: Serbia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Turkey.

The outreach phase gives you an opportunity to grow spiritually through the many challenges that you will face. It also gives you a foretaste of what missionary life is all about and often impacts you even more than the lecture phase does.

Jesus desires disciples who will follow Him and take Him at His word.

A DTS will challenge you and give you ore boldness and trust in God and His Word and Power. You can try what you have learned on the mission field.