STORIES
Get ready to be inspired!
SANDRINE’S STORY
Jeremy’s Story
SANDRINE
By doing Titus Project I have grown in self confidence in teaching. I’ve also learned how a little training on how to teach can go a long way. I’ve been able to equip many DTS students as well as SBS and BCC students with tools to communicate effectively what they’ve received from God. This has become my favorite thing after Titus Project, multiplying teachers!
Living the Dream
Our family’s experience with Titus Project was really a dream come true. Being able to be trained in teaching about the Bible and then go out and teach through the Titus Project was something my wife and I had been dreaming about for years. And then Titus Project came to us! At the time we were a part of YWAM Hurlach in Germany and were trying to figure out how we would go wherever Titus Project training was available and how we would do that with our young family (our daughters were 2 years and 3 months old at the time). But then, the Titus Europe team came to run their training phase at the campus in Hurlach and we were able, with the help of wonderful babysitters, to complete the training and head out to Ukraine for outreach. Later, we had the opportunity to lead a Titus Project team to work with refugees in Athens, Greece. We taught for 6-weeks that included Bible Overview and deep dives into how to study the Bible through the book of John. It was incredible to see how our small team, through many difficult challenges, were able to be a blessing there.
JEREMY
A God of Miracles
Upon getting to our destination in Central Asia, we quickly learned our contacts had big plans for us! We were in the fourth largest city in the country (though it has a population of just over 60,000, so it feels quite small). There are about 180 villages around this city.
Our contacts here, who are leaders in their churches in the surrounding area, have a big goal: a house church in every village, with two leaders in every house church.
So where do we fit into this? When we met with the leaders, they expressed their hope that we would train twenty believers identified as having a teaching gift, to teach the inductive method, so that these house churches would be able to study the Word in this way!
In addition to training these teachers, the leaders asked us to do mini “outreaches” with them – watch them teach other groups, evaluating them as teachers. While this is a really exciting opportunity, there are some significant challenges.
The leaders asked us to teach three separate groups of teachers, on three separate days. This means we had about five hours with each group, to train them as teachers, before sending them on “outreach.” A few of them have seen the Philemon seminar, which is the best tool we have to equip them with learning the inductive method in a short amount of time, but most of them have not studied using inductive method before. This is significant.
When we train our Titus Project participants in teaching inductive method, it is after they have spent nine months studying the whole Bible for themselves, using the method. They know the method very well, and are prepared to pass it on to others after three weeks of training.
Our participant summed it up very well when he said after our meeting with the leaders, “They are asking for a miracle.” Fortunately, our God is in the business of miracles!
We are doing our best with the time we have, emphasizing that good teachers are first good students. We want them to realize that to teach the Bible, they have to study it for themselves. We want our new students to understand we can provide them with tools they can use to study and then teach other books of the Bible.
Yesterday (Friday) was our last day of prepping our “students.” On Sunday, we start mini outreaches with them – watching them teach the Philemon seminar to others, and evaluating them so they can grow. We have done our best, and pray God uses what we taught to expand His Kingdom, and that He speaks to our students about being studiers and doers of the Word, before they can be teachers. What a privilege to be able to use the training we have received to make a difference in this Central Asian nation. May all of these church plants be rooted in the Word of God and in the love of the Lord, bearing much fruit!
