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Titus Project South AfricaMany of you know that our first plan was to go and pioneer Titus Project in South Africa! The great news is that our wonderful friends Marysol and Dewet pioneered it before we could get there and they have done a tremendous job! They have an amazing website www.blomerus.org so feel free to check it out! Anyways, they made this great video after the last Titus Project outreach in Capetown, in one of the very same areas that Cherie Campbell wants to work in the future (for those who know her). Watch the video and let your heart be stirred for the need for teaching and training all over the world, from Asia, to Africa, to Europe!
On a different note, some of you may know that there was a forest fire on the mountain very near the YWAM base where Ben is right now. Thankfully it is all under control, I posted a few pictures so you could see how close it was.
On the Road AgainOn the road, once again. Ben will be heading to Montana to staff the training time there. He leaves on Sep 16 and returns just in time for his cousin Brent's wedding on Oct 9. Actually, this will be their first time working with Titus Project at a base other than in Taiwan. We have 21 students, 17 of which will be heading to foreign countries to teach the Bible for 2 months. WOW!
Please pray today that the staff will lead well, that the student teachers will be mature and serve God faithfully with the gifts given to them. Also, please pray specifically for the leader, Kerry, who carries all the weight of responsibility!
Have a great day! Missionaries-In-Residence"So...um... what are you guys going to be actually doing while you are home?"
It's a common question and a good one! What exactly will we be doing?
Because officially we are missionaries that are sent out by Kilcona, and because we really have a heart for this, we will be investing time into raising the awareness of world missions and issues in our church. We are still brainstorming what that will look like, but for now it includes: working with the Global Impact Team, visiting different life groups and sharing about our work and the needs around the world, teaching Adult Sunday school classes, and of course praying with Pastor Bruce and others.
Ben will be going to Montana for three weeks to work with Titus Project there. It will be a great opportunity to see Titus Project run in a different location to get a good idea of what other things we can think of incorporating in Europe.
Of course we will also focus on spending time with my mom, the rest of our family, and our friends. So our weekly schedule will look like this:
Of course this schedule is somewhat flexible, especially when fall starts and life groups start filling in the evenings. BUT for now our wed-fridays are open to get together with people in the evenings. Give us a call: 334-8784 The value of investing in othersThe difference between addition and multiplication.
Ben and I love to teach the bible. BUT we are only two people. That is why we love Titus Project. Because then we get to train more people to do what we do and it makes more of a difference. Today we sent out 4 people to go teach all over Taiwan and 5 people to go to the big country just North of us. Sometimes we forget how important it is for us to work with Titus, because we don't always see the long term results. But let me contrast two different scenarios.
1) A few years ago Ben and I went and taught in the Philippines. We taught for a week in a bible college. We still keep in touch with the pastor but we have never been able to go back.
2) Around the same time as the Philippines we went to Indonesia with a Titus team. We were able to work with a few churches. The next year we took another Titus team back there and because of the relationships we built the last time we were able to run a short bible school with pastors and leaders. Now two of the members who were on that Titus team are thinking about taking another team back there next year to keep working with the same people!!
Moral of the story: working in teams and multiplying yourself is much more effective then just doing it on your own!
We are leaving in three days to come home to Winnipeg Canada! Looking forward to seeing many of you soon!
Over Half WayOur time has been full with giving our cousins a taste of missions, teaching and mentoring 10 new teachers, planning a teaching schedule for them in Taiwan, and packing up our apartment! Whew! I'm tired just reading that last sentence.
To be honest this past month has been really tiring, I'll even use the word 'busy' to describe what I have felt (sorry that is an inside joke for our faithful blog readers).
As a reminder, we train people to teach the bible. We give them 3 weeks of classroom training and then take them out to teach for two months. For this particular Titus Project Ben and I will only be participating in the 3 weeks of classroom training. We are already finished week two! We helped set up the schedule for the two months of teaching here in Taiwan but our friends Rachel and Reyna will be leading the team while Ben and I head home to Winnipeg. We have our flights booked for the end of July and are so excited to be with friends and family again in the not so distant future!
Our students are really great, there are 10 of them and they are working so hard to prepare themselves for being bible teachers. I've been so encouraged getting to know them. One of our students Rebecca just got back from leading a DTS team in Afghanistan and Pakistan, she's amazing! Two of our other students are going to be living in Taiwan long term so this is a deeper investment for them than simply 3 months. I could write about all of our students because each of them have a story and an exciting future!
Even just writing this, I am again refreshed thinking about the impact we have the opportunity to make. Thank you to all who make this possible for us!
My homeland :)As we flew into the Ukraine I looked around at all the people. After observing the size of their noses I said to Ben 'these are my people' :) This was the last stop on our trip to Europe. It was really exciting to see all that is happening in the largest country in Europe! We spent three days in Kiev, the capital of the Ukraine. Interestingly enough, it really reminded me of Winnipeg. It has two major rivers that run through the city and the trees and foliage are very similar. The population is quite a bit bigger at 3-4 million, they speak Russian and Ukrainian, and there is still a lot of corruption- but overall the impression I had was, did I fly home to Winnipeg or am I in the Ukraine. We went up to the top of an Eastern Orthodox church and looked out over the city (Ben climbed all the way up the bell tower carrying Cassie! What a dad!) and we saw lots of flat land just beyond the city. It looked similar to the prairies around Winnipeg.
We had a great time visiting the YWAM SBS staff there in Kiev and they showed us AMAZING hospitality taking us out for lunches and dinners! Perogies, Holopchi and yes, yummy Kulbasa! You can see pictures of our time there on the side of this blog. Also we took a video of us going up the longest escalator I have ever seen!! It took us over two minutes to get up the escalator! Europe WhirlwindThis is my first time in Europe (besides the one day I left the airport in England). What an amazing place. In Germany I was impressed with these beautiful small villages where all the houses have red roofs and are encircled by farm fields that look like patchwork. Here in England the brick homes that line the streets remind me of a street in Winnipeg called Wellington Crescent (but not nearly as large).
Today we had a really great meeting with a man named Phil. Phil has been working with YWAM and particularily the School of Biblical Studies (SBS) in Europe for around 15 years. He gave us a really warm invitation to bring Titus Project to Europe. This is so important from a man who knows the most about the different YWAM bases here. Having his blessing will mean a much easier integration for us to join this European YWAM community.
Please keep praying for us as we travel to Sweden tomorrow. We are really sensing the value in this trip for bringing clarity and direction. Today as we prayed I felt God give me picture of a farmer. Imagine the perfect farming conditions, think of Manitoba or Saskatchewan. It is a large bountiful harvest of wheat...a bumper crop if you will. But then the farmer takes the abundance of food and brings what is needed to the hungriest parts of the world. In a similar way we are doing the same thing. Taking the abundance of SBS graduates in Europe since there are so many and bringing them to teach in the hungriest parts of the world.
Ben and Angela- Football Coaches!Blue Forty -Two! Blue Forty-Two! Hut Hut Hut!!!
Okay, well, maybe we aren't football coaches per se... But our lives are similar in a way. We have an on season, and we have an off season. But do coaches stop working in the off season? No way! Well, neither do we. Our to-do list is as full as ever. But what do we do you ask? Some of the things we are working on right now are:
Plus we are preparing for our next Titus which runs in 2 months from now!
So while we may not be on an outreach at the moment we are not short of things to do. Don't worry though. I am still keeping my New Years resolution and not using the word 'Busy'. Instead I say, my life is full of purposeful, important things that I love to do. And the most important thing? Hang out with my daughter!!! I get all my work done during her nap times and taking turns with daddy!!!
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