Georges Carillet - fall report - november 19, 2014

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Teaching Ministries International PO Box 1483 Snellville, GA 30078 770-972-2205 USA

[email protected] [email protected] (LaVerne)

November 19, 2014

S i m f er op ol Cr imea

Ukraine

“Home”

We were home in Crimea the month of October, preparing our apartment to be put up for sale — preparing it to no longer be our home. Though the staff was shortchanged, I spent some time with them, preparing them for taking on more responsi-bility for the ministry, and assuring them that we are still a team.

We all felt the reality that indeed a change was tak-ing place. Just one more change in a sea of changes.

TMI’s board, CIU’s board, and my staff all knew that this would be a year of transition as LaVerne and I prepared to relocate our administrative base to the US. None of us had any idea how much of the tran-sition would not be in our hands.

Now we are hoping to make our ‘home’ in Mel-bourne, FL. December 11 is the closing date on a house we hope to buy. This is our second attempt—we were to have closed November 4; the first house

did not pass the Wood Destroying Organism inspec-tion.

[CIU = Commonwealth International University]

The CIU Center

Our Fall

Report!

“Itinerant”

When we formed Teaching Ministries International, we envisioned an itinerant ministry, with a European base initially and my teaching in various countries. We did not envision spending twenty years in one country and doing almost all of our teaching there.

Now we are looking at my having an itinerant ministry, mostly in Europe, but with a US base.

I have invitations to teach modular courses (up to three weeks per course/site) for two seminaries in Ukraine, including teaching at their satellite schools.

I plan to use my three-year Russian tourist visa to spend four to six weeks three times a year in Crimea. I may teach during those visits, but the main purpose will be to maintain property and encourage staff with my presence. Skype works well for individual and staff meetings, but presence adds another significant di-mension.

“Lord willing and the creek don’t rise,” I plan my next trip around March 1. Occasionally, LaVerne may re-turn with me. Our ‘home’ in Simferopol will be the Center — a couch in my visitor’s room, which is next to my office and its bathroom. We will share the staff’s kitchen. (We have had invitations from church members to stay with them but I will prefer the Cen-

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ter.)

I also have invitations to oc-casionally teach in Prague and Berlin.

Our teaching ministry con-tinues, as does my adminis-trative responsibilities. I find myself being an administra-tive hub for helping other ministries in Ukraine and Crimea from time to time as well.

A report from the team leader in Simferopol

Just before leaving for an

IFES (International Fellow-

ship of Evangelical Students)

leadership development

seminar near Berlin, Germa-

ny, Team Leader Olya

Viktorova reported on Sep-

tember and October activi-

ties at the Center.

The college level course this

semester is Christian Doc-

trine (Basic Theology). Seven

students are enrolled; five of

them receive varying de-

grees of financial aid to take

the course. Most of our

courses are free or charge a

nominal fee, but the aca-

demic level courses in Bible

and in English require tuition

-- however, the rate is very

low due to the economy.

Shannon teaches courses

that are conversational lan-

guage labs. One of them is a

cooking club! It meets once

or twice a week. It alternates

with her book club.

Shannon also teaches an Eng-

lish Bible course.

Olya usually teaches a Bible

course each semester but a

guest teacher is doing the doc-

trine course this semester. She

has some English students that

she teaches one on one.

The Center still provides the

TOEFL (Test of English as a For-

eign Language) exam once or

twice a month for the English

Testing Services (US), but there

are complications yet to be

worked out under the laws of

the new government.

Our dorm is a bit above ideal

occupancy, with 21 students.

What started out as a monthly

meeting with the dorm stu-

dents is now a weekly meeting.

Though much of the meetings is

about maintenance, cleanliness,

keeping the rules, we try to

make it more about community

building, helping the students

to understand some of the ba-

sics to functioning as a commu-

nity. We try to share Christian

principles about living and

working together, hoping that

they will begin to see how

these principles apply to one's

personal life. Some students

come to staff members about

personal issues and a few have

begun to ask the worldview

CONSIDER using thirds for some

pages, or boxes in the middle,

maybe pictures.

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questions, like, who am I, where am I going and how

will I get there.

Some of the residents are in some of the Bible and

English classes, but most are not. Pray that they will

become attracted to the Christian events and classes

that God might gain a hearing in their lives.

Many students -- like much of the population of Crimea

-- are wondering how they will afford higher education

and living away from home. Prices were already high

under the Russian occupation, but with the continual

devaluation of the Russian Ruble, students wonder

how they will be able to afford being a student.

The staff throws a birthday party for residents each

month. Not all are able to participate. The first party

only had eight students; the last one had 12 - more

than half the residents. We hope that God uses these

contacts to say that we care about the students, and

God cares about them too. Birthdays are much bigger

events in Crimea than in the US, so this is an important

thing that the staff does.

Anastasia -- Nastya -- continues to work with orphans

but not with orphanages. One of the first things that

the new government did was to close the orphanages

in town and use

the facilities for

other purposes.

Nastya tries to

get together

some of the or-

phans she has

mentored. (One

orphan is in her

second year in

our dorm.) Re-

cently, Nastya

had an ice-cream

cafe event in her

free time with 3 girls; another time she took three

girls to Yalta to visit the zoo.

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I preached two of the three Sundays we were in Simfero-

pol. The church is half its size since last year. They seek to

keep unity in Christ though they are politically divided.

LaVerne and I visited Andrei Taran’s mother,

Leonida, in Yalta. Some weeks after our visit,

she went to Kiev for cancer surgery. The infor-

mation from the surgeon is sketchy. Leonida

had cancerous nodules removed, but they can-

not say if they got all the cancer. It had spread

to the lymph nodes, though. Apparently she is

not up to post-surgery chemotherapy. She has a

lot of fluid buildup, too. Leonida has other

health problems, too. Besides cirrhosis of the

liver, she has pinched nerve problems.

She is in considerable pain, but not sure from

what ailment. Not sure that pain management

in Ukraine is done as well as in the US.

Shannon returned to the US for her brother-in-

law's funeral and to spend time with her sister

and family. Shannon will apply for a visa to re-

turn to Crimea in January.

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Commonwealth International University’s

Center in Ukraine is a

Disciple-making student ministry

Bible degree granting school

Ministry & outreach center

Pray!

Healing for Leonida, and peace that passes understanding for Andrei.

Healing for Shannon’s family.

Courage, cooperation and creativi-ty amidst adversity for the Cen-ter’s staff.

Recovery of/compensation for the building we want to sell that is now slated to be nationalized, after being occupied.

Students to know the Lord and be a catalyst for others to enjoy the same transformation & renewal.

Praise!

Leonida’s faith and peace in the Lord.

In court, Natalka won the right to residency in Crimea.

What we got accomplished in less than one month in Simferopol—all packed.