Training for God's Kingdom
This weekend I participated in an intensive training weekend with Let's Start Talking (LST) to better prepare myself for my mission to Ukraine this summer. I had a great time getting to know my team better, meeting other teams from various schools, and encountering interesting and unpredictable adventures.
One thing I really appreciate about LST specifically as opposed to many other mission opportunities is the highly evangelical purpose in forming one-on-one relationships with people and the emphasis on team unity and leadership. Along with that, LST highly trains their workers before hand so that all teams have a good idea of what to expect and their specific location, and have confidence and problem solving skills even in the unexpected.
This weekend training started late Friday afternoon at a local church. There were teams from Harding University, Pepperdine University, York College, Oklahoma Christian University, and other schools in attendance. The whole weekend is somewhat of a prototype for the trips we will be going on including lots of decision making, team building, and problem solving. We turned in cell phones at the beginning of training as well as checking in through immigration, and weighing our luggage (we had a 14 pound limit for the weekend). We also under went a time difference changing all watches and clocks to LST time (i'm still recovering from that one.)After checking into our international rooms as teams we got to meet some of the other teams. We have training sessions, individual team devotions, and team building exercises throughout the evening and next day. The themes of our team devotions were
1. 1A teams=What is means to be a one another team. Basically, what our are individual strengths and weaknesses and how can we use those to work together for a common effort?
2. We are the illustration=In everything we do, we are leaving impressions of Christ and the church. This relates to how we act, dress, speak and interact with other team members, readers, host missionary, or local church.
3. The Word is the teacher=We are going to teach English through the bible, but it is important to allow the Word itself to come alive in the hearts and minds of those we are teaching. This takes away some of the pressure of not knowing how to answer certain questions or feelings of inadequacy.
4. Jesus is the only way= Many of our readers may be from different religions or have a narrow view of who Christ is. It is important to not only present a good representation of Christ through our actions but to understand that Jesus is the only way and let guide our teachings.
One thing we did as small groups is take the Firo-B interpersonal relations test. This was very eyeopening as we discovered different personalities, and how me might mesh and make decisions as a team. It is very helpful to understand your teammates, how they might react in certain situations, and how they need to recharge.
For meals, we were given a certain amount of money to keep track of and use. We drove off location and had to budget and plan for each meal. Nothing broke college student living hasn't prepared me for. One of our activities was an off-site scavenger hunt completing tasks without our phones in a unfamiliar city. One of our tasks was to find people not native to the US and do individual interviews about their culture expectations and religion. I interviewed a very sweet Japanese women named Ritsuko at the public library (which by the way is a good place to find people from all walks of life). That in itself was a very interesting experience as it was some what difficult and uncomfortable to communicate. We also had to borrow strangers phones for selfies as we completed some tasks. One task was to all try a food we had never tried before so we stopped at a German restaurant and split an appetizer of Jager Fries which were french fries covered in pork, gravy and mushrooms. They were so good and definitely something I never would have tried on my own.
Yet another task was to find something made in our mission country which it is very hard to find something made in Ukraine since they do not manufacture many products to the states. After searching countless pawn shops for Ukrainian coins or USSR guns, and some research we finally stumbled upon a radio shack and went in to ask if they could look up where parts where manufactured for their devices (some of our research had shown that Samsung and a few other brands used some parts made in the Ukraine). As the lady began looking up the information she suddenly remembered that she was wearing a bracelet that she had ordered from Ukrainian refugees. It just goes to show that God provides in the most unexpected ways.
We all learned alot this weekend and grew together as a team. Starting next week we will also begin weekly team training sessions to equip us even more for the task at hand. I am so excited to see how God will work through us to help meet physical and spiritual needs of the people in Ukraine.
May God be Glorified,
K.L.E
Ps. If you would like to donate to the cause please follow this link Donate Here or get in contact with me. Also, updates on fundraising goals and potential team fundraising efforts will be posted soon so please watch out for those and always be praying for the work that we will be participating in.
One thing I really appreciate about LST specifically as opposed to many other mission opportunities is the highly evangelical purpose in forming one-on-one relationships with people and the emphasis on team unity and leadership. Along with that, LST highly trains their workers before hand so that all teams have a good idea of what to expect and their specific location, and have confidence and problem solving skills even in the unexpected.
This weekend training started late Friday afternoon at a local church. There were teams from Harding University, Pepperdine University, York College, Oklahoma Christian University, and other schools in attendance. The whole weekend is somewhat of a prototype for the trips we will be going on including lots of decision making, team building, and problem solving. We turned in cell phones at the beginning of training as well as checking in through immigration, and weighing our luggage (we had a 14 pound limit for the weekend). We also under went a time difference changing all watches and clocks to LST time (i'm still recovering from that one.)After checking into our international rooms as teams we got to meet some of the other teams. We have training sessions, individual team devotions, and team building exercises throughout the evening and next day. The themes of our team devotions were
1. 1A teams=What is means to be a one another team. Basically, what our are individual strengths and weaknesses and how can we use those to work together for a common effort?
2. We are the illustration=In everything we do, we are leaving impressions of Christ and the church. This relates to how we act, dress, speak and interact with other team members, readers, host missionary, or local church.
3. The Word is the teacher=We are going to teach English through the bible, but it is important to allow the Word itself to come alive in the hearts and minds of those we are teaching. This takes away some of the pressure of not knowing how to answer certain questions or feelings of inadequacy.
4. Jesus is the only way= Many of our readers may be from different religions or have a narrow view of who Christ is. It is important to not only present a good representation of Christ through our actions but to understand that Jesus is the only way and let guide our teachings.
One thing we did as small groups is take the Firo-B interpersonal relations test. This was very eyeopening as we discovered different personalities, and how me might mesh and make decisions as a team. It is very helpful to understand your teammates, how they might react in certain situations, and how they need to recharge.
For meals, we were given a certain amount of money to keep track of and use. We drove off location and had to budget and plan for each meal. Nothing broke college student living hasn't prepared me for. One of our activities was an off-site scavenger hunt completing tasks without our phones in a unfamiliar city. One of our tasks was to find people not native to the US and do individual interviews about their culture expectations and religion. I interviewed a very sweet Japanese women named Ritsuko at the public library (which by the way is a good place to find people from all walks of life). That in itself was a very interesting experience as it was some what difficult and uncomfortable to communicate. We also had to borrow strangers phones for selfies as we completed some tasks. One task was to all try a food we had never tried before so we stopped at a German restaurant and split an appetizer of Jager Fries which were french fries covered in pork, gravy and mushrooms. They were so good and definitely something I never would have tried on my own.
Yet another task was to find something made in our mission country which it is very hard to find something made in Ukraine since they do not manufacture many products to the states. After searching countless pawn shops for Ukrainian coins or USSR guns, and some research we finally stumbled upon a radio shack and went in to ask if they could look up where parts where manufactured for their devices (some of our research had shown that Samsung and a few other brands used some parts made in the Ukraine). As the lady began looking up the information she suddenly remembered that she was wearing a bracelet that she had ordered from Ukrainian refugees. It just goes to show that God provides in the most unexpected ways.
We all learned alot this weekend and grew together as a team. Starting next week we will also begin weekly team training sessions to equip us even more for the task at hand. I am so excited to see how God will work through us to help meet physical and spiritual needs of the people in Ukraine.
May God be Glorified,
K.L.E
Ps. If you would like to donate to the cause please follow this link Donate Here or get in contact with me. Also, updates on fundraising goals and potential team fundraising efforts will be posted soon so please watch out for those and always be praying for the work that we will be participating in.
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