In january 2016, I started a DTS (Discipleship Training School) at the Youth With a Mission (YWAM) base in Amsterdam. The training contains two and a half months of lecture, in which we learned more about God and His caracter, and three months of outreach, which is the practical part of the training. For my outreach we went to Russia to serve the people and spread the love of Jesus.
In Russia we were serving in three different cities. The first city we visited was Perm, a big city close to the border of Europe and Asia. In this post I would like to tell you more about my experiences there.
We stayed at the YWAM base in Perm and did ministry together with the staff of this base. One of the most important things we did was kids ministry. We visited a few orphinages around the city, brought gifts, did nice programs and played with the kids there. We were also running a kids club every week at the base for children from the neighborhood. Besides kids ministry, we also reached out to people in elderly homes and we went to a homeless shelter to wash and take care of people. During our time we connected to the local ‘New Testament Church’, which was a very big church with a lot of youth. We did ministry together with youth from this church and we threw them a party at our base. Their church gave us the opporunity to share and sing during the services and I also got a chance to share my testimony, which was so special to me! It was such a big step for me to speak in front of so many people in English, but God helped me and the people understood my story. Afterwards lots of young people were asking me many questions and one girl told me that she wanted to become a missionary in India! I felt so blessed…
I really enjoyed my time in Perm, although it was tough sometimes. The people we met were so warm and friendly and everywhere I came people started clapping and shouting when they heard that I am from India. I even made it to the front page of a local newspaper! During this time in Perm, I really overcame my shyness and learned to be bold and to step out in new things. “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13)
After Perm, we moved on to Saint Petersburg. I will tell you more about the time here in my next blog post.
