Sunday, 27 May 2007 – What an unexpected time it was for us. One of Mairam’s girlfriends came to Kiev for a conference. Things were mixed up and she was without a place to stay for a night. We invited her to stay with us. Mairam and her spent some time together talking, laughing and catching up with each other. Later that evening Mairam shared with me that our guest wanted me to pray for her. I was very open to spending time in prayer. Right away God placed it on my heart to ask her if she was opened to hear from God on any topic. She gazed at me with an odd sort of look on her face. I clarified what I thought God was asking. She hesitated and then said sure. I prayed that God would encourage her. Even as I was praying I felt that God was encouraging her. During the time of prayer, God brought up a deeper issue in her life. I offered to walk her through a time of bringing it before God for him to start the healing process. She first said no, but then after a few minutes she reconsidered. The time of ministry with her was uplifting. God took her back in time in her mind to a place where she needed healing. I helped as God freed her from the burden she carried for 17 years that was not even hers to carry. She received freedom that evening from that event. I praise God each time he allows me to participate in this type of ministry. It is amazing what God can do in an hour’s time that has an everlasting effect.

Monday, 28 May 2007 – Dima and I met together for a time of fellowship and mentoring. It was a hot day, so we decided to go down to the riverside to sit in the shade and hopefully catch a cool breeze every now and then. I enjoy our time together. He is a deep thinker. This is great and it has its shortcomings. For now our time is less structured. As I have shared before that we are waiting until I come back from California before we start a study. Anyway, our times are having a positive affect on his life. This is what he has told me. He shared how God has challenged him and why he believes what he believes. Dima is a young minister and one of the main speakers in his church. It is important for him not to just read and speak what he has heard, but to have convection about who he is in Christ. I see that our time together has been doing this. The easiest place to see this is when we take about religious traditions. His church has adopted a lot of cultural traditions and presented them as gospel. He challenge has been is find out what the Bible says about it. Some things are good, but more of this things he has found out that they are just traditions.

Our team on my last day of outreach. Two students (Sergey and Larissa) are staying to do a 12 week outrech. I and Mariana took an 8 week outreach. The other two people in the picture are the two leaders (Sharon and Claire).

Monday, 21 May 2007 – I met with my leader for the last time to evaluate my time and growth during the outreach. She shared how enjoyable it was to work with me. She stated that in general this was the best and easiest team to work with. I agree with her. I enjoyed working with each person. The biggest thing I walk away with is the understanding of how important it is to allow God to do the work. What I mean is that I can give out information, but it is God who brings change to a person’s life. I know that it is NOT me bringing change to people, but God working through me as much as I give him room to work. I found out that the more I depended on God to direct my teaching or one on one time, the more I saw people impacted for change. I saw people walk in feeling one way about themselves or their lives and walk out as a new person. It does not matter how long the person has been a believer. All that matter is how much the person is willing to face what is going on and receive God’s help in the matter. See it is only God. He is the only one who can work at the level of change.

Wednesday, 23 May 2007 – Things have slowed way down for me now that IBC outreach is over. I have a light schedule with just a few meetings until I leave for California.
I met with a guy who God put on my heart to mentor. Our meetings are focused on laying a good foundation of trust and understand until I return from my trip. I should say that this is my goal. Later we will study some material, but the main focus I feel still needs to be on him learning to trust and to bond with a male figure in his life. I believe that this will aid him in his desire to draw closer to God. For now, he has some personal issue to work out first before he will trust God enough to come close to him.

Thursday, 24 May 2007 – I met with a client. It was a fantastic time. I saw God open his eyes to a big stronghold in his life. My client was willing to deal with the problem by taking it to God, confusing, repenting for his part, asking for God’s help to move forward, and making the first steps into healing for it. I love seeing God at work in someone’s life. It encourages me in my own process journey with God.

Monday, 14 May 2007 – We finished up the topic on dysfunctional families. I see how this topic is one of the foundational ones for helping in the process of healing. When a person realizes what they missed and how it affected them, their denial becomes shaken. They have the decision to continue in denial or to face the truth. When denial is broken the work is half done. In my book, the breaking of denial is one of the hardest things to see happen. So when it does, I rejoice.

Tuesday 15 May 2007 – Sergey taught on trauma at the male rehab center. It was a time of many questions and comments as they tried to understand their own life and the process that led them to be a client at a rehab center.
The guys there are opening up more and more to us. We met with one of the leaders who is dealing with his own issues. It was hard for me, because he does not see things clearly. It is not my job to force him to see it. I know that it is all about timing. This is something that I am learning to let it be. I am not there to fix him that is God's job. I am there to assist in the process and not to take it to a place where the person is not ready to go.

We went to the mom's meeting in the evening to finish up the topic of dysfunctional families. This time around there were questions coming left and right. Sergey was not able to present all the material he had prepared to give. This was not a problem. The more interaction we can have on the topic with the listeners, the more we are able to understand how well they understand the topic.

Wednesday 16 May 2007 – I have been asked to mentor a young guy in local ministry. He is one of the teachers in his church and he leads several groups too. I see it as an honor to be able to feed into another person's life. We had our first meeting today. I will meet with him again next week, and then we will start back up after I come back from the States.

Thursday 17 May 2007 – Today was a great example of how something simple can turn complicated. We planned to have a barbeque with the street kids. It went fine, but we had a problem with the grill. We used choral coal on the grill and half way through they died and the fuel ran out. I had half cooked meat on the grill and hungry kids. We worked it out, praise God. Overall, it was a good time of fellowship and fun. I feel bad about the grill, because I was in charge. I know that I rushed the process and that is why they went out.

Friday, 18 May 2007 – Today the team with to the outpatient rehab center. Larissa taught on codependency. I was not there, but I heard that it was a great time of teaching and discussion. I leaving outreach at 8 weeks, but there are two more people who are going on to do the full 12 weeks, Larissa and Sergey.
Today was my last day for IBC (Introduction to Biblical Counseling) outreach. So I met with my leader for final evaluation. It went well. I see how God has grown me. He has brought healing, understanding, and peace in my life as I have been serving others. For me the most important thing I walk way with from outreach is my confidence in my ability to listen, to hear clearly, and to respond correctly on how God lead me in ministry. This may sound funny, but what I have learned is that my job is to listen to others, ask God how to help, and to employ what he tells me. I have seen God get to the heart of the matter and bring healing in the life of people, because he said something to me that I did not make complete sense me, but had meaning to the other person to help him surrender his issue to God.
In the evening we met together as a team for dinning and reflection. It was good to have one more chance to be together as a team. This was the best outreach I have even done. I enjoyed the leaders, Sharon and Claire. I love the other students, Sergey, Marianna, and Larissa. They all helped me to grow personally, spiritually, and professionally. Thank you guys.

After next week, I will be traveling to California. I will be sharing about what God is doing there. And then I will come back at the end of June to start ABC (Addictive Behavior Counseling) outreach. This will be my last outreach for the year. I am planning to work full time with the counseling ministry here at YWAM Kiev starting in September, but I will have to wait to see.

Thursday, 10 May 2007 – It was a hard time with the kids this time around. There was only one that we knew and everyone was very antsy. Half of them were under 10 making it even more difficult. The younger ones did not want to even introduce themselves. They were very stand offish. We tried the best we would to connect. All our efforts seemed to go to naught until we said lets watch a cartoon. Then it seemed that we reached a starting point for connecting. I hope that next week will not be so hard to reach them.

Friday, 11 May 2007 – We went back to the outpatient rehab center for the third time this week. And this time there were people there compared to last Friday when no one showed up. Larissa taught on Rational Christian Thinking. It is a very simple lesson to teach, but when you ask people to work it through a situation, it becomes more challenging. We helped on person who has been seriously struggling with his sobriety look at one reason why he relapses through a situation he gave us. I kind of felt sorry for him, because as we were helping him it was like 4 on 1. He had no hope but to find what the false beliefs were. I know that God knew just want he needed and that is why we all together were there to help me.

Saturday, 12 May 2007 – I started the counseling process with a new guy that my leader recommended to me for one on one counseling. I don’t know how to share about my counseling. I can’t give names or any details to you. This is why I have not mentioned any other long term counseling sessions to you. I will have to figure out what to do. I am sure as I develop more skills I will have more one on ones and I would like to give you a break down of what is going on in our ministry, so we will see. I’ll ask for some help on how best to handle this part.

This was a busy week.

Monday, 7 May 2007 – Today I taught on dysfunctional families at the women’s rehab center. It was a very powerful time. The women were very stocked, moved, and intrigued. They asked a lot of questions that let me know that God was touching their hearts. They asked so many questions that we were not able to finish the teaching in one session. We will finish it next week. I can’t want to hear about what God opened up to them during their time of completing their homework.

Tuesday, 8 May 2007 – WOW! What a long day. This was the first time we did two ministries in one day. In the morning we went to a men’s rehab center where I taught on relational bonds: fear bonds vs. love bonds. It was a good time with the guys. We have built a strong relationship with them, so they are opening up to us. We see how God is changing them through the work we are doing with them. The climax for me during this teaching was when I shared about the importance of enjoying ourselves. I felt like I was talking to a bunch of junior highers. But with the help of Sergey, we were able to give them examples of what it means to enjoy ourselves. Basically, it is learning to love ourselves for us inside and out.
The second place for today was going in the evening to a parent’s of addicted children meeting. I taught on dysfunctional families, but it was hard. For two days I worked with people who were responsive, but this group was like talking to a wall. I had to put that aside and look into their eyes. God was moving. I had to stop to remain them not to blame yourself for the state of your family. If you were not taught how to do something a better way and you did the best you could then you don’t need to feel guilty. What is important is that as you learn how to change yourself it will change your family. But because we started late, we were also not able to finish this topic. We will finish it on next week. I pray that God will give them revelation as they do their homework.

Wednesday, 9 May 2007 – Our plans original got cancelled for today. But we were invited to go to the outpatient center last night for a time of fellowship and we decided to take them up on the order. When we got there we realized that they were waiting for us to teach them something. We were not prepared for that, but we share about our own testimonies. I prayed and felt that I should share about the process God is taking me through on how to love all of me with the people there. After our time was over, one of the guys came up to share with me that yesterday God started sharing with him about how he did not love himself and was not able to receive the love he had for him. He was encouraged to hear my story and the process God is taking me through to help me learn how to love all of myself. It was an encouraging time for all. We hope to see them on Friday when we plan to teach there again for the outpatients

Thursday, 3 May 2007 – We had an interesting time with the street kids today. There were not too many of them. Marianna and Sergey taught about boundaries, walls, and gates. The some of the kids did not stay for the whole time, but the ones who stayed seemed to have learned from the teaching. One kid shared about his family life. I wanted to cry. The things his father does to him. There is no system here to protect children, so a lot of them opt for the streets. Sergey did a good job in sharing from his own experience of how God can help anyone who turns to him get the things that their earthly father did not get.

Friday, 4 May 2007 – Today we went to our third new rehab center this week. This place is an outpatient facility that services the whole family. But there is no way to know how many people will show up on a given day, because the problem is voluntary for the participants. On this day there were no patients in the morning session. But it was still good. We had a chance to share with the director and her assist. This gave us the opportunity to hear about their program and for us to understand how we can work together.

Monday, 30 April 2007 – We went to a new rehab center that we will be working with on Mondays. It is a women’s facility. The women were open and receptive with what Marianna share with them. During the teaching, they asked questions that helped us understand where they are dealing with in their lives. We are going to teach on dysfunctional families next week and then boundaries. This should be fun. I have prepared a teaching for both. I believe that God is going to really work in there lives if they will continue to be open to God.

Tuesday, 1 May 2007 – It was a difficult time teaching at the rehab center today. There was only two patients who where free to listen to what we had to share and two staff. The biggest problem was that people kept coming and going as Sergey taught. Now on the other hand it was the best time we had yet. They did not sit still, but they asked questions and shared about themselves. There was only one patient who listened to both parts of the teaching (two weeks ago and today). We noticed how God broke his denial. The first week he told us that everything was prefect. His family did not have any type of problems. He was just there because he had an issue with alcohol. Today he started to notice that things are not right in his marriage and that there were problems how his problems related to him. This is a great thing. All the disturbances were worth it to see how much work God did in the heart of this one person.

Wednesday, 2 May 2007 – We went to a new male rehab center outside of Kiev. It is a very simple place that focuses on God and his power to change a life. They don’t have any other recovery program. We hope that we will be able to work with them to help each person get down to the root of their addiction, so that God can do some specific healing in their life, in order for them to stand on the truth of God manifested in their lives. We will see how God will use us.