We gathered leaders from our seven partner churches in Ukraine in our annual spring leadership training. Over the years we have morphed from this training being entirely about

English camp prep to now, where camp is the topic of one seminar, but the rest is about training leaders with the priorities of Jesus Christ in developing future leaders who will preach Christ and multiple His kingdom. It is a privilege to be a part of a team that gets to do this as our job! It is a privilege to see many of these young people, who made a decision to follow Jesus at a summer camp, that are now leading their youth groups and making space for new believers to grow and develop for God’s glory. This past year has been particularly blessed, as we have a Ukrainian (Syava!) as part of our teaching circuit.

The theme of our conference was C7 leadership, which are leaders who follow Jesus’ mandate to the disciples “follow Me and I will make fishers of men”. We used Sonlife training material to study the spectrum of C1 –> C7 leaders. This process starts with someone who is on a journey to learn about Jesus and then repents and changes their life to dedicate it to Him.

Then this believer moves through different avenues of service in the Body of Christ, the church, where a mature leader is reflecting Christ’s priorities of caring for the spiritual growth of believers, sharing about Christ and praying for people who are not yet following him, and doing discipleship in such a way that Christ followers will also go out and multiply this discipleship process. The creators of this material have noticed that most actively involved Christians get stuck at C4, which is Christians only serving people inside the church, not having a heart for the lost. Everyone runs the risk of plateauing at this point, which is why Josiah Venture created SHIFT 1|9 material to help increase evangelism efforts across youth groups. It is amazing.

This was my first Mother’s Day with two little ones! I am crazy about these two with the blue eyes, actually three, because without Benny, I could not be the mom I’m trying to be. Each one of them got me a rose, so that Mother’s Day can last all week long. But on the actual Sunday, we attended church as a family, played all day together, even took naps!, and then went on a 2-hr. walk around bedtime and got smoothies. Marissa held my hand while I walked beside her stroller. It was a perfect day, and I didn’t have to clean a thing!

The funniest part of the day was textbook. We were on Skype with my mom, dad, and sister, when Marissa was running back and forth with her baby dolls and stroller, just showing off for Grandma a bit, when suddenly it got quiet for too long. I bring the laptop with me into Marissa’s room, to find her hiding her face, giggling hysterically, holding one of my lipsticks, slathering it on her face. She’s had a thing for my cosmetic bag since she was 9 mo. old, and when I let her play with lipsticks, they are either pretend, or they are clear chap sticks, or in worse case scenario (just to keep her quiet), she’ll have a real lipstick, but it will be turned down enough so that she couldn’t get it on her face. Well, she sneaked into Mommy’s purse and found a lipstick that was not childproof. The best was when I showed her her reflection in the mirror. No, that is NOT chocolate.

Are they having fun or what?! These 2 are on the same page for silliness. 100%. Which is why it is a miracle if we can get even a mediocre family pic. Marissa has her finger in her mouth, which is better than in her nose or clinging to a jar of apricots, which were the other 10 options… but Dylan’s expression is priceless.

The spring is going by so fast that I cannot keep up! They look the same to me as last month, but I know that Dylan is changing A LOT, almost rolling over and sitting up without falling. And Marissa is babbling a lot, starting to tell me words (mee-maw?) that I do not understand. I have to think, “is this English, Ukrainian, or baby talk? All I know is that the kids love being outside, love their sitters, love their parents, love church, and love their toys. We are blessed to be able to take a moment and capture these two as they grow.

Marissa has been into play dough this week. And she makes an animal noise every time she gets her diaper changed, depending on if the diaper has a picture of a monkey, cat, dog, duck, or rabbit. For rabbit she sniffs. It is hilarious. She got a laptop for Easter, which she refuses to share with Dylan, so often it is placed on the top bunk until she can play nicely. Usually she likes to do what Dylan is doing (drooling, laying on her belly, etc.).

Her first words in the morning are “Mama! Bow! Diaper! Mo (milk)! Juice! She tussles her hair when she wants to take a shower. She took her first shower alone this week. I think I was 8 when I took my first shower alone…

“Tato, idem!” means “Dad, let’s go!” She says it a lot!

This is her look when she sees an animal at the park.

This has become an annual missionary friends and kids brunch at our house ~ Shannon w/ Jesse and Jeremiah, “adult” Marissa with Leo, Marissa and I, Miriam w/ Kristina and Hannah.

Wow, this post is old. We’ve been in over our heads with various issues, so our blog is a bit out of sorts. In an effort to catch up, this post was started back in January, when I wanted to welcome our friends David and Shannon back from the US, where they had their baby, Jeremiah, also one month younger than Dylan. We try and get together often with them because they are super flexible, Marissa and Jesse play well together, (and because Shannon and I chat for hours about nothing and everything all at the same time).

Then I planned in February to welcome our teammates, Tomasz and Miriam, back to Ukraine with their kids Hannah and new little Kristina (one month younger than Dylan). They had the baby in Krakow, Poland, and also chose to stay out of Ukraine for 90 days in order to make it easier for our long-term registration process.

Lastly, I wanted to recognize how encouraging it was that James Grout and Tim Maruyama from Blanchard Alliance Church in Wheaton came to visit us in L’viv and Edik and crew in Ternopil in March. They caught up with their Ukrainian friends in L’viv and then headed to Ternopil to serve the Philadelphia church. Tim actually stayed for 2+ weeks and hung out in Lutsk with our Ukrainian intern, Xrystya.

Highlights of my time at the Josiah Venture Women’s Retreat this year included having no real theme. For the first time in my life, I attended a “prayer and worship” retreat for 4 days. No note taking. No Powerpoint. Simply hours alone with the Lord, praying, being in the Word of God, and hanging out with dear friends, like Audrey and Susan above. The other major highlight was location.

After my travel saga through Munich and the Alps (see previous post), I finally arrived here:

This is the front view. But on the ascent and when you look out over the hill -

Seriously – a view of heaven on earth. Don’t mind my theology, but this is what I picture a modern version (whatever that means) of heaven to look like.

Imagine falling asleep in the train in Munich, which looked like this (yes, this is a shout out to downtown Aldi and all Aldi lovers, esp. my family) and imagine waking up to this:

No joke, this happened to me in March on my way to the Josiah Venture women’s conference. Unfortunately in order to get to southern Austria from L’viv, Ukraine, it requires either a 30 hr. train ride with way too many stops, an expensive airline ticket, or some creativity. I ended up taking a low-cost carrier to Romania, then flying to Munich, which is still a 5-6 hr. train ride to Mittlestaat-See, which is past Salzburg, Austria, in the direction of Lublijana, Slovenia. Because of difficult train schedules, I had to stay overnight by myself in Munich and even miss the last day of the conference in order to make it home in time for Ben to leave for India. The travel was insane, but the time alone in Munich brought me back to my Lockheed Martin travel days, and it felt good to refresh my “traveling alone” skills (which were up-to-par, except for the toiletries that I had to throw out in Timisoara…)

Here are some pics to show that Munich is not just about Aldi or Starbucks or Subway (all of which I indulged in, entirely guilt-free).

Much thanks to my wonderful husband, who watched the kids for 5 days so that I could attend this conference. I never want to take it for granted that you are an incredible dad.

Although this is now a month belated, I am learning to give myself grace because April was such that it is a miracle that their monthly pictures were even taken! Yulia was a big help this month as well. Even she was wiped out in April! Nothing like resting in a Poang.

This was definitely the month that Dylan turned the corner for more interaction. His love for toys, blankets, and his feet has increased greatly. He talks to himself a lot. He doesn’t really cry but rather yells for his bottles. He usually wants to be with people and often gets upset if we are not near face-level. He’s sitting up far better than he is rolling. Our dr. in Poland said that he is 95th percentile in all measurements…no shock at the way this boy eats. He is an absolute joy, and it shows on his countenance.

It is getting harder and harder to count how old Marissa is…20 months doesn’t really have any milestones, per se. But boy is it fun to watch her read, talk, and communicate. She is all girl, with her purses, her lipsticks and her phones. This month we played with Jesse a bunch (another missionary kid her age). She has been very well-behaved in church and in public places, which basically means no melt-downs. She’s obsessed with juice and is always trying to sneak in requests for milk, which she only gets 2x each day. With the weather getting nice, she often asks to go outside by pointing to her coat and saying “hat”. She’s a true European child, happy in a winter hat in 75 degree weather… Lastly, she is into learning letters, hence the foam ones all over the house.

Due to the fun of insurance, tax, vehicle, and long-term registration troubles, in addition to the 9 summer interns and 8 English camps we are preparing for, plus managing a “new” JV Ukraine team, which includes helping Syava get fully up-to-speed and fully funded as our newest full-time JV missionary…let’s just say that taking Systematic Theology, Part 3 (Ecclesiology and Eschatology) just didn’t seem realistic. The more we prayed about it, the more problematic our administrative woes became; we did the right thing and will take it as an independent study later this summer, after the tornado of summer ministry has blown through.

But learning never ceases. Josiah Venture is so great about having its council members read 2-4 books each year relevant to our work with youth in Eastern Europe. Though I am not on council, I love jumping on this bandwagon. Here are 5 books that we’ve been reading this season.

This book made me sad. It is about the secret life of teenagers. It could be written about any high school in America, or probably about almost anywhere in the Western world. The next generation is different. They inwardly crave adult relationships but their unprecedented sense of abandonment by most all adults in their lives, along with a moral relativism that allows areas like cheating, sexual activity, lying, depression and an overloaded schedule to be the norm. I honestly did not want to believe most of what Chap Clark wrote, but his credibility and ability to story-tell quickly reminded me of the importance of our roles as youth leaders and as trusted adults in the lives of those younger.

Months ago I blogged about this b/c Ben was reading this; I just finished it tonight. Using social media (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, email, blog, texting) for social change. I do all but tweet, but I am realizing that we do them as a means to an end, rather than to really influence the world around us. I have seen first hand the power of prayer through Facebook, the power of support raising through newsletters; the power of “feeling like you are just next door” through videos. It is not silly to pray and ask God for insight into social media fluency, and how we can be the best stewards to the tools that He has given us.

Disclaimer: YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK! I chose it from an optional reading list for Fuller Seminary and started reading from the place of “skeptically interested”. Taking only 2 days to finish it, I ended by writing this note in the front cover: “Dear Lord, thank you for such a beautiful, wise, Biblical, and peaceful book! There was no denominational fighting or criticism. There was nothing overly mystical, charismatic, or doubtful. It simply calls us to believe in and participate in divine healing, both physical and spiritual, because you modeled it, and because we don’t have to be enslaved. Thank you for this perspective on healing; may I use it for your glory. Amen.”

“Jesus’ teaching on the proper response to suffering under persecution is ambiguous. On one occasion he said flee if persecuted (Mt 10:23). On another occasion he said actively submit to it (Mt 5:39). But no such ambiguity can be found in Jesus’ teaching regarding sickness. Sickness is never viewed by him as anything but bad, and he never dealt with sickness in any way but to heal it” (p.29).

“My goddaughter is deaf. It has never occurred to me that her condition is God’s will or that I should stop praying that he heal her” (p.39). In reading this, I made a list of family and the physical and mental illness that could be observed, and how they need healing. “Every healing ministry I am familiar with depends largely on prayer…beginning in the book of Acts, we find prayer to be the church’s general method of healing” (p.121). Until I go to my grave, I am committed to praying for full physical and spiritual restoration for my loved ones. And it was not long ago that I was able to cross the first name off my list, by the goodness of God the Father and Jesus, the Great Physician.

I read “Loving the Little Years”, appropriately while Ben was in India. Dylan turns 6 months tomorrow, and I am still shocked by the reality that when I am 1-on-2, or even when we are 2-on-2, I need to be really careful to keep my “productivity bar” set really, really low in terms of my personal tasks that I desire to complete, because THEY WILL NOT GET DONE! I can barely unload the dishwasher, let alone keep this blog up-to-date between the hours of 7am (if I am lucky, and they aren’t having an early day…) and 7pm when they go to bed. Some of the  hardest parts of being a mom for me have been (this will sound petty, but I do not care. It’s real life.) not being able to go out to eat or out at night whenever I wish and resisting the urge to wash the kitchen floor every single night because of milk, formula, juice and many other things that are disgusting and leave stains, slime, and crumbs. But the truth is that I wouldn’t trade it for the world. Dylan and Marissa are fantastic. I need to be careful not to go overboard with others because I am just crazy about them! I am learning to love the little years.

I chose this book from another Fuller Seminary assignment that required us to get a better contextual perspective on a theological topic. I chose to read about the way that other cultures perceive Jesus Christ. My favorite intercultural perspective has been that of the liberationists. “Christology in the Context of Poverty and Oppression in Latin America.” “God is present in the midst of suffering.” “Boff and Sobrino proclaim Jesus Christ as the liberator” (p.51). “The distinctive feature of liberation theology : the rediscovery of the presence of Christ in the poor…the kenosis of Jesus Christ, his presence in suffering, offers the poor, contrary to the facts of the conditions in which they live, a restitution of their dignity before God. Through this, christology performs the function of providing identity. In the promise that Jesus is whith them, the poor regain their self-respect” (p. 54). The section on Jesus in the Minjung “ordinary people” of Korea was also fascinating.

These are the New Life Girls and Guys SHIFT 1/9 small groups, led by Syava and Yulia. This is an intense 10-wk evangelism study about how to share the good news about Jesus to anyone anywhere. If we truly believe that Christ is the only Savior, and that life chosen to be lived without Christ will lead to eternal judgment, shouldn’t we be shouting this truth from the rooftops? So why do we not? In Mark 8, Jesus said, “if anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.” Therefore, Josiah Venture has created some great new material to encourage Christians to always be on mission to build relationships and share about the hope we have in Jesus.

Our youth are just getting back from an evangelism trip to Ternopil, a city 3 hrs. away. Just like how Jesus sent 70 of his disciples and other devout followers out, 2×2, on a trip to prepare the way for Jesus’ work, our youth went out to do something similar. Praise God and continue to pray for boldness, even in spite of fear or in the face of opposition, especially as our JV Ukraine team has just started this Shift 1/9 Bible study as well.

This is Mart, from Josiah Venture Estonia. He is one of the boldest, most passionate evangelists we know. Estonia is being changed because of guys like this. Enjoy a little bit of his story.

Mart Saar, Estonia from Josiah Venture on Vimeo.

Ever wonder what other missionaries in Josiah Venture are up to? Here is insight into ministry in the country of Slovenia.

Matt Mormance, Slovenia from Josiah Venture on Vimeo.