As time goes on after Winterfest, I have been blessed to hear from different youth about their impressions of this winter retreat. This is only our second year hosting such an event, and we certainly are learning as we go along. One leader told us that he was confused about how to process Winterfest because he had never seen anything like it before. (Wasn’t sure how to take that one, but we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.)

Another leader told me that as long as Josiah Venture Ukraine keeps hosting such events, they will bring their youth. For many students, this was the first time they have experienced such Christian fellowship in their lives. I remember feeling sad in junior high for kids who didn’t belong to a youth group because they had no opportunity to go on trips and experience community in a completely different light. It is amazing how much of an impact 48 hours away with your youth group can do!

When doing my one-on-one discipleship meetings with my girl leaders after Winterfest (I met with 6 different leaders this week while Ben was in India), a repeated theme was that the girls are believing lies about themselves. At Winterfest Ben taught about how Satan wants to attack our identity so that we will not obey God. Because Satan is the father of lies, he loves to lie about our identity. Based on “Search for Significance” (an awesome, foundational book that all teens and adult small groups should go through; on the same topic “Lies Women Believe and the Truth that Sets Them Free” by Nancy Leigh Demoss is also F-A-N-T-A-S-T-I-C.), Ben’s session on lies was a hit. Praise God for the way He speaks to us. Here is a bit of his talk.

God created you in the image of God. Why don’t you believe it? Why don’t you live with freedom? Here are the 4 common lies Satan uses…(I will humble myself and admit that I fall almost entirely under lie #1)…where do you find yourself believing Satan instead of our Creator?

1. I must perform well to feel good about myself. You might be listening to this lie if you are: fearful of failure, desire to do everything perfectly; inner drive to succeed and to be valued and loved; you are willing to manipulate others to achieve success; you quit from challenging opportunities because you are fearful of failure

2. I must be approved and accepted by certain people in my life to feel good about myself. You might be listening to this lie if you: have a strong fear of rejection; attempt to please people at any cost; are very sensitive to criticism; withdrawal to spend time alone to avoid possible disapproval by others; are fearful of what people say about you

3. Those who fail (including me) are unworthy of love and should be punished. You might be listening to this lie if you: have feelings of guilt about most things you do; have a fear of punishment; try to punish others the way you punish yourself, blame yourself or others for failures; withdrawal from God or others because you don’t feel worthy; do anything to avoid punishment.

 4. I am what I am. I cannot change. (I am hopeless) You may be believing this lie if you: have feelings of shame, hopelessness, inferiority, passivity; isolate yourself or withdraw from others.

2×3 Campaign Recap from Josiah Venture on Vimeo.

We just hosted our second annual Winterfest. Winterfest is the name given to the winter retreats that we would take every year as part of the Blanchard Alliance youth group. We have fond memories of those trips, so when it came time to start planning winter retreats in our own ministry here in Ukraine, the name naturally got re-used.

This Winterfest was amazing because all 7 of the Ukrainian churches that we have been partnering with recently, particularly for English camps, were invited and sent at least a few people on our retreat. A few groups sent 20+. In total we had 91 people who came to have fun, study the Bible, and enjoy getting to know each other better. There were some students who are not followers of Jesus, so they had the chance to hear the message of Christ’s salvation and the hope we have in eternal life. So cool.

The theme of the weekend was identity. We talked a lot about who we are, and we we are called to be when living for Christ. The weekend was divided into 5 basic parts: Friday night, Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon, Saturday night, and Sunday morning. Ben and I each taught a “session”. He kicked us off on Fri. night, speaking on lies that we believe about our personalities. I helped lead a big group game (it is always challenging to plan a game for around 100 people…) late that night, so he was with the kids.

Then, on Sat. morning, I led a session on personality testing and a devotional on how God purposely made us different from one another. It was so fun! Yulia and I had prepared all week for it. Syava and Tomasz led Saturday night and Sunday morning, respectively. There was a big block of free time on Saturday because so many of us are so busy that we never just get down time to do nothing, and to not be distracted by home tasks, since we were about 2 hrs. from L’viv. And Syava shared the Gospel in his talk and had us do a cool prayer activity, both corporately, and then one-on-one.

The kids were so good. This was the first time we’ve taken them to any overnight youth event. New Jersey was a good test on how it would be traveling and doing ministry with the two of them; this was our next round of it. Our sitter we brought to Winterfest last year had to work on Sat., so we were on our own. We took turns being with the kids (in the room for the most part…)

and then I was SO blessed to have both Marissa and Dylan fall asleep in their new double stroller (thanks Dave and Karen) on Saturday night, so I stayed right outside the auditorium and got to feel like I was a part of it. And then I got to pray with different students afterward. It was great.

If you do not receive our missionary update emails and would like to, please let us know. Here is the video that we featured in our latest e-newsletter. Thanks for walking this journey along side us!

We’ve been back to Ukraine for a bit over a month. Of course I was eager to get back to the boys prison in Horodok. I missed them. One caregiver told me that they kept asking when I’d return. I am proud of the way that Andriy, Yulia, and Anya have stepped up. My load is much lighter, but now the hard work is getting to know all the new guys. There are over 20 new boys, so over 35 total. It is a new cycle and God is opening new doors to share the gospel.

So I had a bizarre dream about Horodok (a weird bag lady was living in the attic and told me that she was Adrian’s mom…) and Vova here was in it.

Since summer I have felt led to pray for Vova, for his salvation, for his survival in the 3 years he is sentenced to life in this social rehab center. Honestly, I don’t even know what he did. He was sent there from the furthest away of anyone we know there. His heart is soft and sensitive to the gospel. He was an excellent participant in my camp small group last summer. He is a peace maker. He is showing a bookmark that says “You are special to God.” This 14-yr.-old told me that he chose this one because he really likes the bear cartoon w/ the heart.

When I told him about my dream, and how he had a really long spiked hair cut, he laughed, but then grew serious. He then whispered, “Kristy, what does it mean if I had a dream that I was going to be killed?” I answered “Nothing, but if you are scared, you need to pray for peace that God can give.” Join us in praying for peace for Vova.

Below is a picture of my new friend Rafshan…also known as Andriy. (Rafshan is a character in a ridiculous Russian comedy show called Nasha Russia…) At first I thought he was a clown, but over the weeks I’m quickly seeing another side. He and Artur here were THRILLED to present Anya, from our team, with flowers for her birthday (who bought those I have NO idea…). And when we asked for prayer requests, he asked if he could write his down. I have the card here on my desk – it is a list of names of his family members. He added that the names circled (L’yuda, Julian, and Andriy) are people who are alcoholics and need extra prayer. This is a 13-yr.-old boy who wants to see his family changed. Join us in praying for Andriy and his family.

Ben spent five days away, attending a JV conference on missional church topics. (The missional church concept is a lot of ideas rolled into one, but one way I like to describe it is “taking the idea of the church into your community rather than expecting your community to attend your church” As Alan Hirsch put it, it is incarnational (goes out from) rather than attractional (come to our event).

Ben’s pre-conference homework was to read about the missional church movement in “Total Church” and “Everyday Church”, both by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, partially because Tim Chester, from England’s “The Crowded House” missional church network, was the guest speaker.

A few of Ben’s personal take-aways were:

• Often times we disciple people on Sunday mornings. The result = Sunday morning Christians. If we want followers of Jesus on a daily basis, we need to be discipling in the context of everyday life.
• Everything that we share with non-believers should be good news. Christians get the bad reputation of always preaching hell, fire, and brimstone, but the truth is that salvation in Christ is always good news. Christianity is not a list of rules – it’s not that we can’t participate in the things of this world (getting drunk, cheating, sleeping around, and lying, for example), but rather we have chosen not to because God has a better future for us, and we desire to please Him.
• We are not pointing to a way of life, but to Jesus Christ himself. We are not trying to make people moral but rather to experience the joy that is found only in a relationship with Jesus.

The 3 Ukrainians who attended with Ben and Tomasz were challenged to relate differently to the next generation in regards to discipleship and sharing the Gospel. The teaching on our relationship with the 3 distinct essences of the Trinity was a good foundation. And just as important as good teaching is good fellowship, as the guys roomed together for 3 nights, hung out all conference, and did a 12 hr. car ride home.

We were glad to greet Daddy when he got home and enjoyed the weekend together as a family before we jet out to a winter retreat, a women’s retreat in Austria, and a leadership trip to India, all in the first half of March.

I know I can be brutal. I make a lot of jokes about Ukrainian culture; so much still strikes me as odd, even after five years here. It is a type of culture shock that still manifests itself in me. But on the opposite side, my heart loves this place. How do I know I belong here?

I am sitting at my desk, surrounded by newspaper articles from L’viv’s “High Castle” daily gazette. People often ask us what we do for language lessons, after being here for over 5 yrs. Ben prepares sermons; I read the newspaper. It is a great way to connect with what is happening in the city that we love. It is a higher level language/vocab than daily conversation or church lexicon. And most of all, I am shocked by the amount of happenings and people that we are familiar with in this city. I belong here!

This is Yura Petrick. The last picture of I have of him is from June 13, 2011. He was sent to the Horodok Boys Prison for a year because his mom couldn’t take care of him. Eventually, an orphan/ boarding school about 2 hrs. from L’viv offered to take him, so he went. Once our youth were doing a service project at the school and even saw him! That is what we are praying for! That God would connect us to these boys after they serve their term in Horodok. But you can imagine my surprise when I was reading the L’viv newspaper to find a praiseworthy article about this boarding school…and to read that Yura Petrick was interviewed in the article! He claims to be doing well. It is incredible to open the paper and read about our dear boys…or the girl who is over 90% blind who is a phenomenal artist but lives in one of the handicapped children’s homes outside of L’viv. Yep, we know her, too. I pray that God keeps touching our hearts and showing us how much we do belong here.

I love living in a different land. Literally EVERY day holds surprises.

For example, last year at a year-end close out sale, I bought some winter boots. I liked them, made sure that the sole wasn’t slick (critical on icy cobblestone), paid (cash, of course; there are few vendors that take credit cards), and left. 9 months later, I am wearing the boots. I was sitting on our couch one day, and noticed something ultra-shiny on my boots. I was so confused. I was in such a rush that I didn’t realize that I bought boots with a glittery gypsy lady silhouette on them.

Or here is photo proof that you can buy school projects/reports, change the name, and make them your own…in a little shop right near school property.

But this one is my favorite…in an effort to show his commitment to stopping corruption, my favorite candidate from the 2010 Ukraine presidential elections posted his traffic ticket on Facebook as proof that he doesn’t pay bribes and abides by the law. I love it!

Our first Valentine’s Day together was in 1999. We made each other cds. It was all the rage, since tapes were out. We even decorated the cases and cds themselves. Great memories.

Fast forward to today. I’m playing the role of stay-at-home mom while Ben is in Czech at an “Advance” Josiah Venture conference for church planters. Though we are not church planters per se, there are two pastors (Ruslan, Edik) in our UA ministry who have reproduced new churches over the past few years. We are eager to get them this training; Syava, Ben, and Tomasz went along for more training in this arena, as well as for fellowship. We pray that these men will form bonds in Christ, in life, and in ministry, and that God will use us all to change Ukraine.

We actually celebrated Valentines Day on the 15th, since our 2 sitters are either recently married or in a serious relationship. (We went for dinner, coffee, and to the movies – pickings were slim, so we saw Jack and Jill in Ukrainian, which helped build our passing gas vocab…)

We forgot to take a pic of ourselves; instead there is one of the kids w/ my roses. The other pictures in this post are from our 9th wedding anniversary on 1/4/12. We spent the day downtown Chicago, had a great dinner where the weirdest thing happened (a drunk dad and his 30-something yr. old daughter offered to pay for our meal b/c they could tell we were newlyweds…needless to say, they left the restaurant and we still had to pay our bill), and went up to the top of the John Hancock bldg. Awesome views, by the way. Worth it!

Congratulations to Lena and Andriy, who officially got engaged on Valentine’s Day! It was a shock for some, simply because Christian Ukrainian youth seem to keep relationships to themselves and do things a bit different here, but once the official announcement is made in front of the church, which was today, it’s a big deal!

Pray for us as we lead them through 14 lessons of “Before You Say I Do” premarital counseling. Yulia and I worked on the translation last spring, and it is officially complete! So exciting to be used in this way!

Pray for our youth group! We really need some jr. high and high school kids! Pray for our involvement in School 51, where Ben used to teach English and from where Syava graduated. So many of our existing youth are in their 20s and getting ready to get married in the somewhat near future! It will be interesting to see how many “Before You Say I Do” sessions we’ll do in 2012! Of course, we don’t want to awaken love before it is necessary, but you never know! Engagements in Ukraine are typically very short and to the point…