Fire Begins With Sparks

A year and a half ago, I came to Kyiv, and fell in love with the country of Ukraine. Everything about it just grabbed me....the people, the city, the culture....when I left, it was one of the hardest things I've ever done, and I was excited when God called me to do my DTS here. I waited an entire year for the chance to get back here.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but our time in Kyiv is just about over. We have finished up our official lecture phase, and this next week will be spent in preparation for outreach, and we leave for Moldova next Monday.

There has been a pretty big change to our outreach plan. Originally we were going to spend 3 weeks in Romania, doing a photography and journalism project on the human trafficking and night life of Romania. Because of Visa issues with the Ukrainians on our teams, we will not be going to Romania. We will however, still continue with that project in Moldova.

The city we are going to in Moldova is called Cahul. It is a small city where we have been told there isn't really anything to do besides form relationships. Like the rest of Moldova (poorest nation in all of Europe), it is really affected by poverty. And many people there have never heard the gospel, which is really exciting for us!

We as a team were disappointed that our outreach in Romania didn't work out, but we are viewing this as a hidden blessing. We now have the chance to spend the entire 10 weeks focusing on what God wants to do in Cahul.

We have really accelerated on outreach preparation. On worship, we are working on learning songs in Russian. We have 3 down so far (I Could Sing Of Your Love Forever, Break Every Chain by Jesus Culture, and All I Need Is You by Hillsong). It's really challenging but really exciting! And I'm not gonna lie....it is super cool singing songs in a different language. However, we have a bit of a challenge, because in Moldova, most people speak Romanian. We can't find any worship songs in the Romanian language here, so we're going to have to get some and learn them when we get there. Be in prayer for that!

In drama, we had an awesome opportunity to go into a church here in Kyiv and make a short presentation on YWAM and fundraise for our trip to Moldova. We had a chance to debut the first drama we created, and it went great. I was excited to hear afterwards that people were actually crying in the audience, and the staff from our team says every time they see it, it gives them goose bumps. In Cahul, the idea of drama's and dancing will be completely new to them, so I am REALLY excited to see what God does through our drama ministry!

Our journalism and photography project is a little hurt by the fact that we're not sure what to expect so it's hard to prepare. The photography team has started practicing taking night shots (they have all their fancy cameras and stuff), but for the journalist people (like me) we're probably going to have to figure it out as we go once we get there. 


We have also been assigned duties on outreach. For me, I will be the journalism guy....journaling about our trip, and sending out updates as we go. I will also be helping out with hospitality which I'm excited about!

Living in Kyiv for 3 months was even better than I expected. I love the city and God has given me such a heart for these people. It wasn't all work, there was a lot of fun involved. A lot of nights of sitting around playing cards together, crazy games of ultimate frisby and sardines, and fun trips to downtown Kyiv. Our English Club ministry was such an awesome experience for me and helped me grow so much. I had the chance to boldly share the gospel with some people, and we had a chance to make an impact on peoples lives. The staff here at the base was incredible to us....I honestly will walk away from this DTS feeling like I have a second family. It's a bittersweet feeling leaving for Cahul, because I will miss Kyiv. But at the same time, I have a feeling that I will be back here for one reason or another someday, and I know God is in control.

The lectures were incredible. They really helped my relationship with God, and I was really stretched. The topics we learned about were:

Week 1: The Character And Nature Of God
Week 2: The Father Heart Of God
Week 3: Identity In Christ
Week 4: Cross Cultural Communication (3 day teaching)/Creating With God (2 day teaching)
Week 5: Worldview
Week 6: Relationships
Week 7: Evangelism
Week 8: Holy Spirit and Spiritual Warfare
Week 9: Spiritual Wholeness
Week 10: Discipleship
Week 11: Jewish Culture (2 day teaching)/Bible Overview (3 day teaching)

The last 3 teachings were really incredible for me. I loved all our teachers and it was a growing experience for me. I really enjoyed our Jewish Culture/Bible Overview week....taking an in depth look at the Old Testament was awesome. Every single week was amazing, and all of these teachings impacted my life. I am ready to go now, and these teachings will always play a big part in my life. 

One of the things I really felt God speak to me before the trip was a phrase I randomly found: "Fire Begins With Sparks." I really felt like He was pushing me to let Him take care of the fire. The only thing we have to worry about is taking care of being the sparks, and our job is simply to trust Him to take care of the fire. I really feel like we are ready to go out and be "sparks" for Jesus. And I know He is going to start some big fires in Moldova. So, I'm asking the same thing that I've been asking since I decided to do this DTS. Being a spark for me turned out to be that God was sending me to Ukraine and Moldova. But I don't believe you HAVE to go across the world to be a spark for Jesus. But, as we go out on outreach now, this is the real thing. We're going to present the gospel to people who have never heard it. This is spiritual warfare, and part of fighting the Good Fight is prayer. Outreach starts now for us. This whole upcoming week we are preparing for outreach, and we aren't taking a break when we get there, we are jumping right into ministry. 

So after the months of waiting and getting ready, it's time to go now. This was always the end goal for the DTS. To go get as many people saved as possible. These next 2 and a half months will be life changing. So I'm asking you to pray for us. I've already said it and I'll say it again, praying for missions is a big deal. I think it's part of the picture of missions presented in Acts 13:2-3: "While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off." 

There's different aspects to the call to missions and praying for the people going out is a big deal. So please stand alongside us and fight this fight with us.

We need you guys. Please pray for us as we go out as sparks and witness God's fire in Moldova!

If you would like updates on our team, go check out and "Like" my Facebook page "Josh's DTS With YWAM Kyiv, Ukraine ( http://www.facebook.com/joshukrainedts?fref=ts ) . If you would like to support us (we still are below budget for outreach and several team members still have needs), you can go to my GoFundMe page at http://www.gofundme.com/130ajw?pc=fb_cr . Or, if you would like to support us, want more information, or have any questions, you can contact me at joshholmes19@gmail.com.

Natural, Supernatural

"Our responsibility is to be natural. God will take care of the supernatural part."

This idea was drilled into us this week, during our week of teaching on the Holy Spirit and Spiritual warfare. Though we covered many different topics, it always came back to this idea of natural, supernatural. That if we just take care of being obedient, and living a natural christian life, God will do supernatural things. We just have to try. We have to be willing to go along for the ride.

Creation Vs. Evolution. That was the topic for our English Club Outreach this week. Every week, me and a few other team members head out to a local Kyiv church, where there is an English Club held every Wednesday night. Russian and Ukranian speakers come to learn English and develop relationships, and native English speakers, (as well as people that can speak both languages), work together to coordinate the meetings. 

Every week there is a topic that everyone is to discuss. There are different groups....the groups are split into how well everyone can speak English. Group 0 is the lowest level, group 6 is the highest. Our DTS team splits into 4 different groups, and I am in group 5. We were told in the beginning that though we could be open with the fact that we are christian, we would have to be patient to directly share the gospel, because the people are coming to learn English. 

The topic of Creation Vs. Evolution is complicated enough on its own. After an introduction and a game, the discussion began. The conversation in my group started off a little slowly, but me and the person I was working with to run the group (she was from the church) pushed to get it started, and we got a pretty good discussion going. So we're sitting there discussing how we see evidence for creation or evolution in nature (most of the people at our table believed in some kind of creation) and there is a two second pause in the conversation. It wasn't even like the conversation ended, there was just a slight pause where everyone was catching their breath. That's when the man sitting next to me turned to me and shocked me by simply asking:

"So what do you think about the end of the world?"

So, I was kind of taken aback, but I did my best to cover it up. After all, I figured it wasn't a huge deal. I'd just give him one of my automatic Christianese answers, and we'd move on with the discussion. But then, while the rest of the group was laughing at the randomness of the question, I realized, "Oh wait. This is the kind of opportunities I should be looking for, and we're learning about desiring the Holy Spirit to fill us up and move through us....I should probably try that here." So I just sat back and asked God what He wanted to do and asked the Holy Spirit to fill me up and work through me. 

So right away God starts speaking to me. Without thinking, I simply ask the guy, "Well, what do you think?" This caught him completely off guard. "What? Uhh..." Again without really thinking, just reacting and obeying, I go: "Well, are you ready?" 

Then...boom. My brain kicks in. I start to freak out. And yet, it didn't really affect me, because at the same time, I was too excited that I was hearing from God this clearly and had this incredible opportunity. He's laughing the whole time. He answers my question by saying, "Well, you tell me!" Again, listen to God, obey. Completely terrified I look at him and go, "Well, what's your relationship with God? Be honest with me." He then basically throws open the door for evangelism. "I don't know. Who is God to you?" Wow. And I realize more and more that this is an incredible opportunity because this guy is super open to what I'm saying. "Well," I said, "He's my Father and my Savior. And I believe that He loves you, and I know that He wants you." So then he nods thoughtfully and looks down for a second. Then he looks me right in the eye and asks, "Do you believe God can change people?" I knew the answer for this one and replied, "I know He can." After this, I focused on developing a relationship with him and building trust. He was incredibly interested (the fact that I'm American helped) in everything about me. Where I'm from, why I'm here, what I do at home...tons of questions. Also, another thing that has helped start conversations for me here....evidently, I look like a Ukranian. To the point where I have had people try to argue with me that I'm not American!

At the end of the night, he looked at me and said very excitedly, "Ok, I come every week now, you tell me about Jesus, ok?" "Ok," I said, "let's do it!" 

In that moment, it literally took all of my concentration to not start doing fist pumps and yelling about how awesome Jesus is. I didn't put pressure on myself to give a Yoda answer, I just was obedient and natural, and God took care of the supernatural part. Please be in prayer for this situation guys. This is an incredible opportunity for me, and I am excited to see what God does!

I can't believe this, but we just finished up our eighth week of school here in Kyiv. What does that mean? There is 4 weeks until we leave for our 10 week outreach in Moldova and Romania! We will spend a few weeks in Moldova before heading to Romania. It's been an incredible 8 weeks so far. God has stretched me and moved in my life so much, and He is preparing our team to come together and go out and change the world. Here's a recap of what we've been studying so far:)

Week 1: Character And Nature of God
Week 2: Father Heart Of God
Week 3: Identity In Christ
Week 4: Cross Cultural Communication and Creating With God
Week 5: Worldview 
Week 6: Relationships 
Week 7: Evangelism 
Week 8: Holy Spirit and Spiritual Warfare 

Here's what we have left in the next 4 weeks: 

Week 9: Inner Healing
Week 10: Discipleship 
Week 11: Bible Overview 
Week 12: Outreach Preparation 

We are still focused on what God is going to do through the rest of this school, but the countdown for outreach has definitely begun. We are all feeling the anticipation and excitement, and we have started to prepare. In fact, this week we started to prepare some of the things we're going to be doing on outreach! The 3 things I have volunteered for are the worship team, the dance and drama team (Drama for me. Not dance), and to be on the journalist team for a project we will be doing on the human trafficking night life in the city of Iasi in Romania. I am super excited to start preparing for all 3 of these, and we are starting on other projects as well!



I love Kyiv so much. It's been an incredible place to call home for two months, and I'm going to enjoy this last month. I am desiring more of God every day, and I love it. I'm ready to be natural and see God do some incredible supernatural things:)