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Posted on May 13, 2021
by Nathan
Bible First Online
Over the past month, we've had a few more people finish Bible First from our Pioneers group. The next step is to release BFO for use in the wild. Right now, the main thing standing in our way is that the legal side of BFO needs to be shored up. (We need terms of service, a privacy policy, and the like.) We are working with a lawyer on the issue, and should be hearing back from him sometime in the next week.
In the meantime, I've been working on filling out the support documentation that the Pioneers and other future BFO coaches will need when using the application. It's not a glamorous job, but someone's got to do it!
Translation
Now that Josh is back in Ukraine, we are making good progress on our latest translation project: By Divine Design. We are almost finished proofing Chapter 5, and then we will have the translator move on to the next couple chapters. There are 12 chapters in all, so we are nearing the halfway point!
Family
May has finally arrived and brought its flowers with it! We have all been enjoying the warm weather, and some of us even have sunburns to prove it! Ukrainian Easter was the 2nd of May, and the kids had fun coloring eggs and baking Ukrainian Easter breads. They then gave most of the bread away to friends and neighbors, along with a few copies of Good and Evil.
Speaking of baking, the girls baked some treats (without recipes!) and organized this tea party.
Posted on April 12, 2021
by Nathan
A New Milestone
When Katelin first arrived in Ukraine, she studied the language just like everyone else on our team, and as a result, she is very conversational. However, fluency is something that has always eluded her. As a result, one of the things Katelin has never done is public speaking in Ukrainian. But as of last week, that has changed.
Lately, Katelin has been doubling down on her language skills, and when she was asked to give a 20-minute talk on child training, she agreed. Not being quite comfortable with speaking from notes, she wrote down what she wanted to say in English, and I translated it. A friend proofed it, and then Katelin practiced reading it until she was comfortable.
The big day finally arrived, and Katelin went to her ladies' Bible study and delivered her talk without a hitch! Although what I consider to be a much bigger accomplishment, was that Katelin was able to take part in the two hours' worth of discussion on child training that followed! It's one thing to put together a presentation, it's totally another to take part in an unscripted discussion where anything is fair game.
Katelin didn't get any pictures of her talk, but here's a picture of a different ladies' meeting that she attended. :)
The Steele Family
Now that the health of Joshua Steele's parents has stabilized, he is back on the Ukrainian side of the Atlantic. Jet lag really did a number on him this last trip, but he is now back in the saddle.
Registration
Katelin and I recently received our renewed residency cards and we are good to go for another year! Technically, there is one final formality to the registration process, but that is on hold until the current Covid lockdown is over.
Family
Spring has finally arrived, and we are loving it! It's so nice to be able to pack up the snow pants and winter coats, and actually have things be warm for a change! Granted, there is a decent bit of rain in the forecast, but hey, how else are we going to get our May flowers?
First balcony picnic of the season!
Posted on March 19, 2021
by Nathan
Carpathian Mountain Outreach
Unfortunately, CMO has once again fallen victim to the coronavirus. However, if you had your heart set on coming to CMO, there is good news! CMO alumni Elliot Shupe and Ben Sargent are once again organizing a mini-CMO in Colorado. (To avoid acronym confusion, instead of being called Colorado Mountain Outreach, it's being called Rocky Mountain Outreach, or RMO for short.) If you are interested in going, get your application in soon, as space is limited and filling up fast!
Passing out tracts during RMO 2020.
The Steele Family
Joshua Steele is currently in the States for the second time this year. For the past few months, his parents have faced health challenge after health challenge. While things are looking up at the moment, his parents are not out of the woods yet. More information is available on the Steeles' blog.
Bible First Online
As a result of Josh's travels, progress on Bible First Online has been a bit slower. The next step is to sit down with an attorney and put together some terms of service for BFO and make sure that things are watertight from a legal perspective. While we'd like to just charge ahead and release BFO to the world, in this age of lawsuits and such, we feel like discretion is the better part of valor.
Registration
Our family is in the middle of the process to renew our residency permits. Thankfully, we have an excellent attorney that helps us through the whole process. I still have to spend a decent amount of time running around town to gather all the necessary documents with all the appropriate stamps, but thanks to our attorney, I always know exactly what I need.
Family
Snow, snow, and more snow! Okay, on the one hand, we haven't gotten that much snow over the past month. On the other hand, there are still piles of snow sitting around from the snowstorms we had over a month ago!
Despite the snow, Katelin and the kids have been able to get together with a lot of friends lately. In addition, Katelin has recently plugged in to a ladies Bible study, and has really been enjoying it!
There's so much snow, you can barely see the cars!
Posted on February 17, 2021
by Nathan
Bible First Online
The Bible First Online project continues to move forward! The folks in our Pioneers group, as we call it, are moving through the Bible First lessons and some of them are moving over into coaching roles. To that end, we hosted another Zoom call where we demonstrated the coaching side of BFO. We are excited to see what some of these Pioneers will do with BFO in the future!
In the mean time, we have a steady stream of new students into the Ukrainian side of Bible First. In the last 30 days, we've received requests from 16 people to enroll in Bible First! Also, it's interesting that 75% of the requests were to study online, as opposed to receiving paper lessons. (When someone fills out our enrollment form, they can choose between paper and online.) It's exciting that we finally have the online version of Bible First for the people that prefer to do things online!
Documents
Despite the cold and snow, our trip to Kyiv to renew passports went well. This morning, I was notified that our new passports have arrived at the US Embassy in Kyiv, and should be delivered via courier in a couple days.
Next month, we will start the process of renewing our residency permits.
Family
In the past ten days, we've gotten more snow than we have in the whole rest of the winter combined! Initially, the kids were excited, but now I think everyone is looking forward to spring. We can't complain, though. Despite all the cold and snow, our utilities have remained on, unlike friends and family in the States.
For a while, the girls were numbering their snowmen. But I think we may have lost track!
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