COMPUTER OUTREACH TRIP

A team of four from the First Baptist Church of Bryan, Texas helped the Central Baptist in Kharkov, Ukraine share God’s love and truth through a computer outreach in May 2008…hear about it from Jason, one of the team members:

I had been on missions trips in the past, but I found out early on that this was no ordinary trip!  Our plan was to teach computers as an outreach event in Ukraine, and our eDOT leaders knew what we were up against. They had prepared a thorough, online training to help us with adjustments to the culture, team building and testimony preparation. There was also a curriculum to be learned and high expectations for the quality of the presentations that we were to make.  The eDOT group works hard to deliver meaningful training along with sharing God’s plan of salvation.

Whenever you organize a mission trip, there will be hurdles to overcome.  I have come to realize this is how God shows his power to us.  In our particular case we had many obstacles to overcome.   Our team was small—six adults; but the day before we left, two of our team members had to cancel due to serious health concerns with their father. One night during the outreach all of the electricity went out at the church. God showed his power by enabling us to complete our entire class on the batteries of the laptops.

We taught two 3-hour lessons each day; the lessons seemed to be very basic however, they were right on target for the level that our students needed.   As the week went on, the computer lessons became more involved and the Bible lessons became more focused until on Thursday we asked if anyone would like to pray for forgiveness and ask Jesus into their lives.  Several of our students reacted very emotionally and shared their faith with us as we had opportunity to talk with them during breaks and after class.

On Sunday, after our first week of classes, we had a graduation during the regular church service.  To my surprise almost all of the students showed up and they each wanted to share with the church about their experiences!  One couple shared that they had made a decision to follow Christ and one repented of her sin and asked for forgiveness.

While the mission trip was one of the most difficult jobs I’ve ever done, I wouldn’t trade one moment of the experience.  The pastor of Central Baptist Church invited us to come back again next year.  He shared how grateful they were to find a way to bring people into the church and show them God’s love.  I’m considering making the trip—but if I can’t go, can you go in my place?

Posters placed on fences and personal invitations by church members announced the coming of a team from the U.S. to teach computers at the Birth of Christ Church in Kiev in April.  The response was, as always, amazing.

Forty students joined the team of eight from the Washington, D.C., area to crowd around eight desks during two classes each day for a week.  Some came curious about America and wanting to practice their English.  Others came though they’d never touched a computer, realizing the importance of new job skills.  Delight spread across their faces as they experienced the magic of cut-and-paste and the creativity of developing a colorful graphic design based on Christ’s empty tomb or John 3:16.

Often in a classroom setting, students remain strangers to each other and never talk personally with the teachers.  But the U.S. team found most of the students open and responsive, perhaps due in part to the many great needs in their lives.  One teenage girl was the oldest of 11 children, all of whom lived in one room with their alcoholic parents.  She began bringing her younger siblings to the classes; they loved decorating cakes in a computer game but really ate up the hugs and conversations with the teachers!  A young man who walked into the class using a cane bore scars of a near-fatal drunk-driving accident.  We learned that God had used his brush with death to reclaim his life and heart.

Several students specifically mentioned that they came to upgrade their job skills since computers are becoming more commonplace in Ukraine.  But teaching computer skills is not the primary course objective in a computer outreach.  The team came to Kiev to show Jesus Christ to a community through their love, service, and words.  At the beginning of the week, one student started openly arguing with the men who gave the gospel talks during class.  At the closing ceremony he asked for the microphone and spontaneously expressed his gratitude “not only for the opportunity to learn computers, but also to learn about Jesus.”

During the last class the students learned how to do e-mail.  Several of the students and their teachers have already found a very positive application:  they continue their new friendships – by e-mail, of course.

Janet was part of a team of Americans who came to do a computer outreach at the Svyatoshina Baptist Church.  Here is her story:

In Kiev, incomes average $300 a month, yet a small apartment rents for $800.  Though computers are not yet in common use there, technology is spreading in Ukraine’s cities, with great potential for computer-literate people to improve their careers.  This is one reason our team came from the Washington, D.C., suburbs to Kiev in March: to teach basic computer skills at the eLearning Center (eLC) at the Svyatoshina Baptist Church.

We also came because eLCs bridge churches to their communities.  Advertisements and personal invitations brought many nonbelievers into the church classroom. We gave them basic computer instruction as well as the good news of Jesus Christ.  Relationships that began between church members and other class participants continue to develop in a weekly computer lab offered by the church.  Believers also benefit from the instruction, both in job potential and in learning how to use eDOT’s eBible courses.

At first I wondered how we could reach people with whom we could not converse.  But our genuine concern was shown by smiles, tone of voice, handshakes, hugs, patience, and gifts.  They felt God loving them through us, transcending the language barrier, connecting our hearts.

The students were spellbound as we shared spiritual truth and testimonies.   During our computer outreach, one young woman took a translator and me aside and asked, “How do I get connected with God?”  As we talked with her, we saw she was deeply affected by the truth she heard and the love she felt.  Another woman, who continues to attend the weekly lab, said she is now reading the New Testament which we gave her at the “graduation service.”

Indeed, we were more blessed than they were!  We knew we were working with God there.  We were touched by the sincere, open hearts of the students and church staff.  I think we all look at our American lifestyle differently since we glimpsed the Ukrainians’ hardship.  Now we are asking God how we can raise funds for more eLCs and to get ourselves back there again to be Jesus’ hands and feet to the Ukrainian people.