Word: Independence
Reflecting on last week, I chose the word independence to describe my week of teaching English to our church here in Rivne and celebrating Ukraine’s Independence day on 8/24. This word also describes what I am learning about Ukraine’s history, my reflections of teaching English and my faith discoveries over the last week. I will explain more towards the end of the blog. Keep reading 🙂
This past week, Monday through Sunday, we started our English teaching lessons. It was really more like an English class camp that we facilitated. The camp was titled Living English and the theme of the camp this year was brave! The week consisted of four nights of English classes taught by “the Americans,” games, worship, raffles, and our team shared our testimonies at the church every night. The camp was offered to people of all ages and faiths. Our team split up and offered 5 different classes of about 15 people in each class. I taught the pre-intermediate level with all girls! Each lesson consisted of an ice breaker game (shout out to all my orientation experience coming into practice), a practical lesson on basic vocab, and a Bible story that we read together in simplified English. We had fun!
The classes on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were taught at the “camp.” Basically, if people were interested in continuing the classes, they were invited to join the church at their camp in Zalissia, Ukraine, a smaller village town about an hour outside of Rivne. We stayed in a retreat center located in the forest area. At the camp, English classes were continued, but everyday included many other things. We ate all meals together, had a morning exercise time, free time and games (volleyball, ping pong, capture the flag, scavenger hunts, hide and seek, board games, etc), and at night we had a service with a testimony and basic message shared, finishing the night off with time around the campfire! About 50 people from the church attended! Our American team planned most of this, so we were quite exhausted after the week finished.
Here is the link to the facebook page on “Living English!”
https://www.facebook.com/groups/EnglishWithAmericans/
Back to why this blog is titled independence, this week I learned about independence in Ukraine because of teaching English. I had some questions about why I was teaching English. It is a great ministry idea and many people are interested in learning English, but I kept asking myself… why? Why do so many want to learn English, why does America have so much influence, why am I privileged to have learned English as my native language, why is English the universal language, and should there even be a universal language? Although we were providing a good service to the church, I didn’t really want to teach them English. I didn’t want to answer their many questions about America, and I did not want to receive so much attention for being an American who can speak English. It felt like we were famous, but I felt guilty. Why?
Instead, I wanted to learn the Ukrainian language. I wanted to hear about their history, culture, and politics. I wanted learn about Ukraine and hear a love for their own country. My fear was that teaching English would in some way take away from their original culture and language.
So I made a friend who speaks great English and engaged in conversation with her. I told her about this conflict of teaching English and our American “fame.” She explained to me a little more of Ukraine’s history. Because the country has really only been independent since 1991, Ukraine is still building up an identity of their own. She recognized that Ukraine could work on their own pride for their nation. This is an issue so much so that there are organizations that help to strengthen the country’s national pride by providing lessons on Ukrainian language, history and culture. So as Independence day came up on 8/24, I had a much more full understanding of where the country was on national pride.
So as a missionary, in the same way that I want people to follow their own original culture and language, I want people to have a relationship with the Lord in their own independent way. We are all unique individuals to God. We see Him, talk with Him, and experience Him in different ways. I think diversity is a beautiful part of the church. Each person must make their faith their own for it to be sustainable anyways. Therefore, I think that it is more important to empower people to follow God in the way that they identify His presence than to say, no follow me in how I see Him, mine is the best way. Because encouraging someone to follow me is way too much responsibly for a mere sinful human as myself. Only a sinless God can lead the way.
So just as I made efforts to understand the culture, history and politics of Ukraine this past month, I want to carry this mentality over to all ministry work this year.
I want to seek first to understand, then to be understood.
I will seek first to understand the history, background and culture of a person or ministry, and then seek to be understood in how I trust our one true God. Because I respect and praise God for the independence and individualism of each person, ministry and country, I will seek to empower through independence this year! Proverbs 4!
ya lyublyu ukrayinu!
