|
European Workshop News
REAPP in EUROPE NEWS FROM ROMANIA The following was forwaded to us from Ivan and Villeta Buchakchiev by Andreas and Angela Fresz: "I had totally forgotten to share a small story from our outreach during the family course in Hisar last year. The pastor form the Pentecostal church invited me to preach Sunday morning... He asked me to share something from the teaching during the course..... The things I shared were from the REAPP-The 5 Characteristics of the Christian Marriage. After a few days the pastor's wife came to me and told me something unexpectuble. During the preaching Sunday morning there was a brother in the Lord. He had been divorced the last 13 years. During the service God met him in a very special way through the teaching. He decided to contact his wife( she is living in Russia) and to ask for forgivness and other possibility to get together. All this happend. Until this very day the only thing I can do, is to give prase to the Lord! It's worth to live even for this!!!" In response to our inquiry, requesting permission to share the Buchakciev's story on this web site, we immediately received the following reply............... "Yes, you can use our story on your web site. It has been great honor to get an e-mail from you. Honestly, I could only read your e-mail and cry for God's goodness! Without Him nothing would have happend! The man's wife came from Russia to Bulgaria with her father. They forgave each other. They went to the next Sunday meeting together and said before the people that they have forgiven each other. All of them went to live in Russia some time after. That is all we know." Best regards: Ivan and Violeta Buchakchiev (1/23/08) " Although we live in the country side life is pretty busy for us.Ministering to couples and families is a big part of our lives. We do this in different ways: leading Marriage Enrichment Workshops and seminars, organizing Candlelight dinners and coaching individual people and couples in working through relationship issues. ....... We are grateful for wonderful friends we're joined with as co-workers, both YWAM family ministries and in our local church and regional ministries. And we are excited about progressing steps toward a nationwide network ministering to marriages and families. The rewarding proces of getting to know and becoming friends with workers from a vast variety of denominational backgrounds now pours into corporately getting active in public in order to raise the image of mariage and to speak for the needs of the families. Challenging and exciting! .......... We are headed for Siberia again to faciltate REAPP workshops. We now have the translation of the books in Russion, and are training a team of facilitators and instructors there." Georg and Christine Schubert, Germany" NEWS FROM GERMANY The following is Andreas and Angela Fresz' report on the recent UofN Workshop in Taiwan Dear friends,
Earthquake shaking Taiwan An earthquake measuring 6,8 on the Richter-scale with several aftershocks shook Taiwan last night. News report that buildings in Taipeh were damaged, 4 people were killed and more than 200 injured. It was quite an experience in our hotel room on 6th floor and we prayed hard wondering if this was going to be our last hour. We are extremely thankful for God`s protection. Thanks for your prayers - they matter!
UofN workshop focusing on Asia Approximately 2000 YWAMers from around the world are participating in the University of the Nations (UofN) Workshop this week held in 4 locations around Asia: Korea, India, Thailand and Taiwan. Every morning and evening the four conference sites are linked via video-conference. Workshops and Meetings are scheduled in the afternoon. We feel privileged to be here, to get fresh input and inspiration from God, to meet our friends and co-workers, and to learn what God is doing in Taiwan and China.
Why Taiwanese families need Family Ministries Day 4 of the conference startet with a prayerwalk. Our team was led by two YWAMers from Taiwan who led us in prayer for Taiwanese families and shared some interesting facts with us. We learned that even though family has a high priority for the individual, reality often looks very different. Love is not shown with words or affection but rather by showing respect. Taiwanese people worship their ancestors and parents watch jealously that their kids don`t worship another God, because this would take the attention away from them. The economical situation forces both parents to work. It is very common that children grow up with their grandparents or a paid helper - often 24/7. We heard about a woman who didn`t see her son again until he was 5 years old. Pastors families are no exception. They are extremely busy because it is expected of them. There is a lack of healthy family models and many young people don`t want to have children. Abortion has become normal. The church, in which our conference site is, has rented out the first three floors to a medical clinic for women, in which abortion is part of daily life. A statistic was quoted that 8 out of 10 men in Taiwan are unfaithful to their wives and that women somehow accept this fact as normal because it has become such a common thing. In general couples are not open for input on marriage and family. They lack hope that something will ever change and are caught in a visious cycle. We prayed that God`s truth will break through - first among the christian community. This week the second Family Ministry School starts in Taipeh, a 6 months course to equip people for ministry to couples and families. Pray with us that God would bring revelation, healing, restoration and change to the families of Taiwan.
Superpower China - a blessing to the world Did you know that China has a total population of 1.321.851.888 (figures from 2006)? And that in 1949 there have only been 4 million christians in China. Today there are 135 million. According to the goverment 10 % of the chinese population are christians. It is expected that in 25 -30 years 25 % of the population will be christians - and it only takes 30 % of the population to change a culture. Since the government fears the influence of christians in China, they continue to imprison christian leaders and shut down house churches. In 25 - 30 years China will be one of the most influential nations worldwide - a christian nation and a blessing for the world. As we prayed over a 9 by 6 meter map of China tonight, a chinese pastor was quoted who had said "what China needs most now isn`t teaching that goes to the mind but to the heart". The Chinese christians need teachers who disciple and encourage them to take their place in the kingdom. Which part are we as a mission, ministry teams and individuals to play in China in the future? This has been our question to God as we focused on China tonight.
Snaketails and refrigerator experiences Our daily walks between the hotel and the conference-centre lead us through the streets of Taoyuan. We are attracted by the foodstalls and mobile kitchens along the street because it smells good and we are hungry. Since we already had noodles and vegetables for breakfast, we`d like to eat something else for a change. We look if the kitchen is fairly clean and order "from this" and "from that". Since we can`t read Chinese and most people don`t speak English, sign-language is our only option. Exciting! Yesterday we had soup with ??? and noodles with meatfilling. The side-dish was another undescribable ???. We still don`t know what we ate. Andreas` guess is snake-tails. Well - it was good and we only paid 135 NT (approx. 4 US $) for the two of us. We figure, when we continue to eat here the next days we could quite easily get rid of the 2-3 extra kilos we brought home from our holiday in Spain last month, because you only get a spoon if you order soup. Otherwise it`s chop-sticks. We are amazed how skilled our table neighbours eat with them and rejoice over every bite we are able to successfully land in our mouths. Hot spices bring forth water from our eyes and noses. We need to remember that blowing the nose at the table is regarded as non-appropriate behaviour. Another thing to get used to are the huge refrigerators along the street. Some of them are several storeys high. Entering them after we have been walking outside in hot and humid air feels good - but only for a few moments. Then we have to bring out a warm pullover - otherwise we might freeze.
Amanda`s birthday party and tears Coming back to the hotel the other night, a birthday party was going on in the entrance hall. One of the hotel staff celebrated her birthday and invited all of us. YWAMers sang birthday songs to her in several languages. Larry Ballard gave her his book on "Integrity in Courtship" which had just been released in Chinese. And one of the younger YWAMers asked her if he could pray for her and bless her. Although you could tell this was totally new to her, she agreed. Much to her surprise the prayer made her cry and she kept saying "but it`s my birthday - I shouldn`t cry". Would you take some minutes and pray for Amanda, that the seed that was planted on her birthday will have space to grow and create a hunger to find God?
More meetings to come Following the UofN workshop, the International leadership team of YWAM Family Ministries and Family Resource Centre will meet from Sunday - Tuesday. We would appreciate your prayers for us as we share, listen to God and strategize together.
Warmest greetings Angela & Andreas (9/07) "We have begun afresh with each other -- we arrived here in discord and are going home reconciled!" "We have made some important decisions together and before God!" "We have drawn so much closer together as a couple." "The best was that we had so much time to talk to each other." A strong marriage relationship is the key for healthy families and this is why we are investing so much time and energy into the multiplication of the REAPP programme ( Relationship Enrichment by Applying Preventive Principles). Last year we were able to introduce this marriage enrichment workshop in many European nations and in some were even able to train people to offer the workshop. This year people from Austria, Holland, Belgium, Norway, Romania, and Lithuania have asked if we can bring the workshop to their nation. In addition, in summer we will go again to Latvia to train further people to hold the workshop. But we can't do it alone. We need partners! To attend a workshop is an enormous financial challenge for the people in eastern European nations. The cost of such an outreach is around Euro 2000 when ten couples participate (Euro 200 per couple), and includes translation and the repinting of the workbook, food and accommodation for the couples as well as our travel costs. We are seeking people who will sponsor our workshops in Latvia, Lithuania and Romania and therefore make it possible for one or more couples to take part. For further information contact Andreas and Angela Fresz. E-mail: azf@jmem-hc.deREAPP Relationship Workshops are being multiplied al over Europe. Dear friends and prayer partners, We are waiting for the next plane from Bukarest back to Germany. 8 hours waiting time is the latest news. Oh well... a good opportunity to send you a report about our time in Romania. We have been in Iasi, North of Romania, close to the Moldovan border, from December 4 - 12 training 25 new facilitators for the REAPP workshops. Most of them are gipsys and students of the C-DTS in Iasi. Three couples have travelled from the South of Romania - spending 12-15 hours on trains and busses - and Moldova to participate in the training. Some facts: The YWAM-base is situated on a hill overlooking the city of Iasi. Iasi is the third biggest city in Romania with almost 350.000 people. Although the YWAM base is a simple building it seems luxurious compared with some houses in the neighbourhood. We have seen windows without glas, just some plastic foil to keep the wind out. The average income is 150 $ per month. A flat costs from 200 $ up. Therefore a lot of families live in one room renting out the others. Exciting!!! - how eager the students participated in the training. Some men became sick after the first day, but didn`t want to miss a session. One of the students being pregnant with the deliverance due in two weeks should have been in hospital all week. She insisted to go home between treatments and her husband filled her in on what she had missed in the evenings. It was probably better for her anyway because at the moment 3 women have to share one bed in this hospital. Doctors only treat patients who can pay and a deliverance costs 200 Euros. - how open the participants were to accept new ideas who don`t necessarily correspond with their cultural and church experience. For example their concept of spiritual authority which is often authoritarian and dominant. Or their concept of role models. Should a husband really help his wife in the household and wash dishes? The example of Jesus as a servant leader touched the men and towards the end of the week we saw many of them in the kitchen offering their help. Also the fact that you can`t expect your spouse to read your mind but rather that you yourself are responsible to communicate. Or that anger and conflict don`t have to threaten the relationship but can lead to greater intimacy. - God`s presence during the workshop and especially during the time of communion. Many reported how God touched them. Already at the beginning when they introduced themselves and shared about their happy and sad experiences from childhood we were deeply moved to see with which wounds and burdens most of them have to live: growing up in poverty, abuse, early death of parents, father killed when the house burnt, abandoned from their parents and adopted... traumatic experiences which only God can heal. - the story of D. & L. D. had problems with alcohol and violence which eventually led to two years in jail. Only two months before the C-DTS started he was released from jail. In the meantime he had decided to live with God radically. Since he had also committed adultery a couple of times his wife was sceptical if she could trust him again. We had the privilege to see the process of change happen as the workshop went on. At the end of the workshop, when couples had the opportunity to renew their marriage vows publically, D. spontaneously declared that he and his wife only had a civil marriage so far and that this would be their opportunity to get married before God and the body of Christ. Within a minute they had chosen another student couple to be their witnesses and they asked Andreas to bless them. The whole thing ended in joyful singing and worship. - that all 25 participants of the workshop wanted to become facilitators and participated in the training. This came totally unexpected. - the testimonies of the participants. They understood immediately that there will be change when they put the new principles into practice. Thus they eagerly practised what they had learned and reported the results. On Sunday we heard from Mari, the base leader, that a couple even gave their testimony at church explaining that there is more than just one level of communication. - to meet people who have a heart and calling for family ministries. For example Virgil & Lidia who have been working with YWAM Sigishoara for the last 4 years. Or Mirella, a German-teacher, whom we met while visiting the base-leader. Mirella shared with us that she was given the Von-Anfang-An book (a programme for young families to teach their children under three about God) and that she is interested to translate it into Romanian.. When we shared with her that we plan to come back next summer and that Doris Braun, the co-author of the book is coming with us, Mirella was in tears. She and her husband, a psychologist, have been working with families and would love to learn more. - how flexible the Romanians are!!! When our friends Renate & Esben Christensen with their son Daniel showed up for a visit, despite the fact that there was no bed left in the whole house, they just put together some chairs in the class-room and created beds for them. "No problem!" We heard that word many times.. We also had some challenges... - i.e. little sleep, because the 100 dogs in the neighbourhood had their own communication system - one started barking and all the others answered... all night long. - that the translation was almost finished but was lost the day we arrived due to a computer crash. Since nobody was able to take care of the problem they did the whole work again: 200 pages in 2 days and nights with several people working on it. Beatrice, our interpreter, did a great job too. She promised to work through the translation of both the marriage- and the single-workshop again until March, when we come to Medias to train the next group. - i.e. the loss of electricity right at the beginning of the training. Great that Andreas always has a little torch with him. It helped us to read our notes (: Back home again! After a short stop-over in Munich - visiting Julia - we are grateful to be back home and enjoy our fire-place, a hot bath, our own beds... we feel blessed and rich. We are so thankful for these 8 days in Romania, for God`s presence and how he touched the people we met, each one of them so precious. A big THANKYOU to all of you who helped us to make this trip possible - with your prayers and finances. The TV-Talk... ... just before we went to Romania, went much better than expected. Another big THANKYOU to all who prayed for us. It was comforting to meet Torsten, one of our former Hainichen DTS students, in the studio. Before we started all TV-people gathered for prayer which was special. God was there! Yet it was a challenge to pretend you are all alone with the moderator while 10 people jump around, three cameras filming you etc. However, the 30 minutes went by fast and we were happy and relieved that it was over. We are now busy working on our website which will be recommended to the audience at the end of the TV-Talk. Warmest greetings Angela & Andreas (12/18/05) YWAM Family Ministries Europe
Angela & Andreas Frész
Berthelsdorfer Str. 7
D-09661 Hainichen
Germany From Georg and Christine Schubert: One of the most fulfilling aspects of this ministry is the fact that we can do it together as a couple and that it is enriching our relationship! There you have it, friends, from the couple who first translated the books from Spanish into German, and that was the beginning of the work in Europe. :-) :-) Dear Friends, We trust these lines help to connect again as we share with you some highlights of the year. Our year started with a candlelight dinner for 60 people. It was a lot of work to prepare that feast for those 30 couples, and it was a lot of fun because a wonderful team from our church helped. About half of those participants enrolled in the series “time for two” – eight evenings for couples, ones a month. Each of those dates had a specific topic related to marriage. We’d prepared about 30 minutes of teaching and a nice snack. The main thing of the evening was one hour of couple dialog guided by questions presented on worksheets. Several couples told us they very rarly ever had such long and meaningful conversations with each other. For the future we’d like to see these serie multiplied in other churches of our region. Always a special opportunity to invest in people’s lives are the REAPP-Workshops (REAPP stands for Relationship enrichment by applying preventive principles). We had six this year and all six workshops had been important events – three for couples and three for singles. One took place in the area we are living in; one for couples and one for singles at the Rhein, one for couples in Timisoara/Romania and one for the single YWAM staff in Hurlach (Friends of us led a parallel workshop for the staff couples). Even though we are giving workshops now for about ten years every time it’s a new adventure and a privileg to touch people’s lifes. It has been a special joy to us that our friends, Angela and Andreas Frész, had been to Romania beginning of December leading a very creative workshop for couples and singles plus training people to give the workshops. They had been invited into a crossroads DTS by Helga, a longtime friend from our church, serving in Romania as missionary. Helga got to know the Relationship enrichment workshop two years ago in our church. Also the Romanian translation is now on it’s way. Finally all the different efforts to get the workshop going in Romania seem to pay off as multiplication is happening. Investing in marriages and in families is a concern that has grown close to our hearts. The creator has designed life in a wonderful way, much of it happens in relationships and a new generation gets substance and roots. It’s also an area of much sorrow and despair because it’s so sensitive and it’s closely connected to our identity as human beings. With some of these struggles and pains we got confronted by various husbands and wives asking for counselling often after they had been with us in a workshop or similar occations. When we evaluate our investment of the last ten years we can see blessing and confirmation. The Lord connected us with others who became dear friends and coworkers. Concerning the workshops quite a number of couples in the country and in several other countries took on the challenge of multiplication. That’s great. Considering the great need in our nation and in the Eastern European nations all of our efforts – and those of other ministries – seem so insignificant. We desperatly need the Lord’s supernatural move for revival and reformation. We want to keep praying for it. (Georg and Christine Schubert - 12/31/05)
The latest from Georg and Christine ( ) Annegret began to tell you about the Candle-light dinner and how they decorated the room. That was something!! We expected up to 20 couples and 30 came. We couldn't give the word to all we would have liked to invite. The meeting room in our church was not big enough, and fortunately we could rent another room. I'll give you some background. Beginning of last year we've had a MEW in our church with 5 couples from the villages around Buch am Wald and 5 from outside which was good. For the 5 couples from here we offered a growth group once a month for half a year. They came and we gave them mostly exercises. At the end we adopted the idea of a candle-light dinner which we copied from Hainichen, cooked a good meal, organized a single table for each couple, decorated the living room nicely and served them the meal and another exercise with love. Annegret and Thomas Berger helped us. Then we asked for an evaluation of the evenings during the previous 6 months. We were amazed by the response. The couples suddenly told us that these were the best times they have had with their spouses. Often it was the only evening they had "alone" with each other. One man who owns a mechanic garage said that in their 25 years of marriage they couldn't remember when they were served like this. All the time is eaten up mainly by the business, and they have 4 children. The workshop together with this follow up had put a light glowing and sparkling in their eyes again. To see this new love and new hope where they had already settled for a dull marriage which was functioning only by commitment and responsibility was a big reward and brought home to us that we are to invest in these faithful couples in our local area. Then we took the next step. We started the candle-light dinner (great decoration, single round tables for all couples, a funny drama, a bountiful and delicious meal, 20 minutes of teaching, 25 minutes of exercise, introduction and invitation to another series of monthly meetings for the next 6 months. For each of these six evenings we want to work out a specific topic with an exercise. What blessed us most was the mix of couples -- some who come to church regularly, several who are frustrated and don't come any more, some non-Christians or where only one spouse is a believer. It is a great way to teach "new" people. In July we shall evaluate the whole thing. But now we feel the Lord's leading and anointing in it and we are excited about the possibility of investing ourselves in our local community. By the way, we had great co-workers as our kids and 5 people from the previous growth group got excited and infected with the "candle-light-dinner-virus. ALBANIA Dear family and friends, We just wanted to write you a short note to thank you for your prayers and update you on our current happenings. We just got back from a wonderful six weeks in Norway – the bulk of which was spent up north at the artic circle. Almost the whole time was warm and sunny while the lower part of Norway and most of Northern Europe suffered with unusual cool weather, rain and even flooding. We had a great time up at Jorid’s home church visiting friends and holding three meetings. Jorid’s pastor Bjorn and his wife Linda were very gracious and hospitable. We enjoyed meals and outings with them in our 10 days there. From there we headed to Jorid’s home – the island of Traena. When the weather is warm and sunny Traena is an idyllic place. We enjoyed trips to various neighbor islands including an overnighter to Jorid’s grandparents’ island Holmen (there are only 5 or 6 houses there). All of the siblings were together in years so there were many late evenings talking and laughing. We also enjoyed taking strolls to watch and wonder at the midnight sun. During our month up north it was never dark! (the winter is a different story) After Traena we took the long journey down south by boat, bus, night train and another day train. We ended up in Hamar for a YWAM family camp were we taught for mornings on oneness and communication. Jorid and I team taught. I chickened out on teaching in Norwegian, so Jorid translated for me and then jumped in with her parts. We got a lot of positive feedback from many of the 45 couples that were in the sessions. They especially enjoyed Jorid’s fun, honest and down to earth way of sharing. During the camp a very generous offering was taken up for Family Ministries Albania that will cover our Albanian family camp this summer as well as different projects we hope to get off the ground in the coming year. What a blessing! From Hamar we headed further south to the Evangelical Lutheran Free Church missionary conference. Finally, before we returned to Albania we enjoyed a few days with our friends Per and Maalfrid who head up Team Albania in Norway. They come down to Albania and Kosovo twice a year with help and encouragement for many families and have been doing that faithfully since 1994! They know us and our kids so well that they are nearly like an extra set of grandparents to them. (Ned and Jorid Spiecker -- 7/25/2007)
LATVIA. NORWAY Dear Friends! Here is a ttle sign of life from us! The pictures are taken today and as you see they create a perfect frame around the Christmas season!! We are doing fine here but our focus is on the upcoming Family Ministries school starting January 13 here in Norway! As you might know, we will lead the school, and we have 11 families and a single lady coming as students. We are really looking forward to this event, even though we fell a little small in front of it!! By the grace of God we can do it! Actually He is he one to do it and we will only be co workers in His service! That is great!! Take care and God bless!! Love Trond and Anne-Helen Straethen SIBERIA. LITHUANIA. ROMANIA. CZECH REPUBLIC and SLOVAKIA. GERMANY. REAPP workshop for singles in Hainichen, Germany From May 19.-23. we had the privilege to run the REAPP workshop for singles in Hainichen for the first time. 24 singles participated - most of them students and staff of our present DTS. One of the challenges was to do it bi-lingual (German/English) in 20 hours. However, with a good team (Andreas, Mathias & Susi were the facilitators and Angela did the translation) it worked well and God blessed us beyond our expectations. Here is what the participants said about the workshop: - Deep communication brings power into my life - I realized how hard it is for me to truly listen - I understood how important it is to express my feelings - no one can know what I think or feel, I have to communicate it - it is more important to help others find their own solutions by listening carefully than to give advice - I want to make the prayer of Francis v. Assisi my own prayer: "Lord help me that I don`t aim so much to be understood but to understand!" - I am so happy that I now know how to deal with conflict - great to have 4 options when dealing with conflict - it doesn`t help to avoid conflict - it was a new thought for me that through good listening I can avoid many conflicts - now I know how to deal with my anger and that there is a primary feeling behind the anger - It`s been so good to talk open and honestly about sexuality, that helped me a lot! - I realized that I am responsible for my growth - it´s been great to have time to think about our personal goals and to make a growth plan - I realized that I have to set goals for my life - I realized that the relationship with God has to be the most important one - God revealed another part of my past and healed me, I count on His power to pursue my goals - It was very helpful to have so much time for communication with others - the exercises made the workshop so practical - the communion at the end was so wonderful, I trust God that He continues helping me to grow personally and in my relationships What a privilege to be part of what God is doing! Interested to bring this workshop into your church? Contact us FD-LE@jmem-hc.de
|
