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We started day one of the Successful Business Principles seminar with a hearty breakfast and a devotion from the book of Daniel – an encouragement for us to be set apart and a good example while we are in a foreign land.

Scott Reed opened the day with introductions and logistical details for the week. 

Perry taught Module 1 on creating and leading a positive environment. The students were given the opportunity to take a personality profile assessment and consider how their management style impacts their organization.  We also discussed different types of organizational structures.

We gathered for a group photo on the steps on the Chamber of Commerce building before lunch.

Each of the instructors sat with students and an interpreter to facilitate dialogue and relationship building during lunch.  

Ken Farrington taught Module 2 on company culture and staffing in the afternoon.  Each Module provides students with an opportunity to work in teams and present ideas and concepts based on a case study.

Pam and Nanci spent the day touring Lviv with Nadia and Ivanka (Seminary Librarian who is also knowledgeable about the city’s incredible history) and discussing mercy ministry opportunities for the rest of this week and beyond.  

Pavlo was very kind to make sure our dinner order was correct before heading home for the evening.  Google translate took over from there and made dessert possible!

The Monday after Easter is a public holiday in the Ukraine, so we invited past and current students and some friends we’ve made over the last 18 months to join us for a picnic at a local park.  Andre (our in-country facilitator) cooked delicious chicken and pork on an open wood fire and we gathered in a shelter to share a fabulous meal together.  Nice apron chef Andre!

We toured the Ukrainian Baptist  Theological Seminary in the afternoon.  Slavic also drove us to a potential expansion site.  The Seminary had just 35 students when he arrived in 2013.  Their expected enrollment in the fall of 2017 is 600. They’ve developed a promotional video that we should be able to share later this week.

We finished the day at an Italian restaurant downtown.  The food here is excellent and with an exchange rate of 27UAH/1USD, a three course meal will only set you back about $10-12.  This incredible calzone and Caesar was just $7. 

Back at the hotel early for some final preparations for the next 4 days of teaching and presentations.  Please join us in praying for rest, clarity of thought, precise translation, humility, unity and boldness.  Thanks for following along!

Voistynu Voskres (He is Risen Indeed)!  

Ukrainian Easter celebrations seem to be a melding of traditional Christian practices, folklore, and ancient pagan symbolism.  For example, instead of Easter egg hunts, baskets are filled with foods prepared during Holy Week – eggs, sweet bread and meat – that were not eaten for the past 6 weeks during Lent.   Non-Lenten foods are also included along with decorative trim and candles.  The food is blessed at a midnight mass on Saturday or Sunday morning and then eaten on Easter, breaking the Lenten fast.  

We joined a local church to celebrate Easter and Nanci and Ken had the opportunity to share a testimony.

We also celebrated Pam’s birthday!  In addition to birthday cake, we enjoyed traditional Easter sweet bread and a dessert tribute to American friends.

After lunch we took a Ukrainian language and smile lesson.  The smiles seem to be a little easier to master…

We finished the day with great conversation and a light meal at Slavic and Nadia’s beautiful home.  We were incredibly grateful for their hospitality!

Thank you to all those who joined us in body or in spirit on Wednesday for our send off.  We’re grateful for your support and prayers!

We traveled in two groups on Wednesday and Thursday to Krakow, Poland where we met Slavic and Nadia Pyzh for a couple days of touring.Slavic earned a PhD from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and now leads the Ukrainian Baptist Theological Seminary in Lviv.  

The first group visited a salt mine on Thursday and we all toured Auschwitz I & II (Birkenau) on Friday.The labor and death camps served as a reminder of the devastating impact of the fall, our depravity and desperate need for Christ’s atoning work on the cross as well as our great hope because of the empty tomb.  

After a wonderful meal and much needed sleep, we toured downtown Krakow on Saturday morning before making our way to Lviv.

Friday/Saturday travel from GSO-Newark-Munich-Lviv – all good and normal, just like we like it!

Sunday, Feb. 12 Tabernacle Church Service at Reikartz Hotel in central Lviv was a terrific experience. Started at 10:45am and we final left for lunch at 2pm. Testimony from Roger Smith about his son Josh was gripping and many people sought out Roger afterwards for further discussion.

Monday, Feb. 13 – Module One with Rick Reed at the controls. Terrific participants, lots of questions and interaction. Very intrigued by the Contribution Margin. In the afternoon we had an extra session led by RR into a  deeper introduction of all instructors and all participants. Lots of fun, lots of laughs. Big question – Is Donald Trump really the President of the US?

Monday night = dinner at the Panorama Opera Hotel, 7th floor = $$$$

Tuesday, FEB 14 – Happy Lviv Day!

Roger Smith leads budgeting, forecasting bringing a wealth of knowledge from his role at BBT.

LVIV Hotel – Mike and Roger spoke to a gathering of accounting professionals to answer questions about tax rates, accounting  credentials and other highly technical accounting talk. It was an impressive crowd.

HEBRON ACADEMY Visit – We had an awesome visit and meeting with Liliya Valihun to learn about the boys orphanage and their vision and mission to turn these lives around. Roger Smith told the story of his son Josh and everyone around the table was tearful. But we followed up the story with the message of salvation by grace through faith. Roger, Mike and myself believe there is further work that we can do in this orphanage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkOFQ4BhiDE&feature=youtu.be

We followed up this experience with a visit to the Ukrainian Baptist Theological University and to the office of the President Slavic Pyzh. There is no doubt that Troika and Calvary can provide much support to this seminary through our teaching and experiences.

Wednesday in Lviv

Rick makes his standard introduction for the day’s teaching. (It’s cold over here.)

Mike Dixon teaches the time value of money: how much is 100 hrivna worth in 3 years? Mike was smooth and clear and steady teaching very difficult concepts of NPV, DCC and IRR.

At break we gave away a special signed copy of the Five Love Lanuages to NINA who correctly answered the question “What is Donald Trump middle name?”

In the afternoon Roger, Mike Stresser and Rick went to the Lviv Polytechnic University to speak to the Senior Audit class. We were allocated 90 minutes and had a wonderful experience. Thank God for Roger’s expertise.Rick just sang and danced while Roger did the heavy lifting.

Neal went on city tour with Petran

In the evening Roger, Neal and Mike went to a Bible Study and taught Genesis. There was an interesting sign on the frig.

Rick went to dinner with the local IMB Missionary (no pictures allowed). Our future teams should check in with this man and his wife just for encouragement purposes. Their mission is unique and difficult.

Late dinner at Celentano’s = pizza!

Thursday, February 16

Today is Neal’s day to lead our teaching.

Company visit with Ruslan Voloshyn, a friend of Stepan, who requested that I visit. Ruslan is founder of APTEHEPTO, an energy company that provides wind and nuclear power. Check out his cool office as Anya did while we waited for coffee.

Thursday night, Feb. 16 – Dinner at Slavic’s (President of UBTS) home, of course a delicious meal, a wonderful family, Andriy, Sveta and kids joined – we were blessed beyond measure.

Friday, FEB 17

Our final Module is led by Mike Stresser and Frank Louthan

The normal Friday reception was great. All instructors shared a word of thanks and gratitude.

Friday afternoon, FEB 17 – Andriy had arranged for a presentation by Rick Reed of Dr. Chapman’s 5 Love Languages at 3pm in the main government building known as The Ratusha. The experience was remarkable; many people stayed to ask questions and interact with our team. We finally left about 6pm.

Friday night dinner was at Bachevski Restaurant, 8 Shevska Street. Future teams – do not miss this opportunity for great Ukrainian dining experience.

Of course, as was the  case every night, Roger had to have a dessert. This one was smoking good –

Saturday, FEB 18 – Depart LVIV FOR MUNICH

At Lviv airport, we need dessert before we go:

The team had a wonderful afternoon and evening touring Munich Marienplatz and a terrific dinner at the Paulaner Bavarian Restaurant.

Munich Airport and Hilton Inn

“…Let the beauty and favor of the Lord God be upon you all, confirming and establishing the work of your hands.” Psalm 90:17

Please follow our journey over the next 10 days as we have the opportunity to lead and share successful business principles to a group of business leaders in Lviv, Ukraine.

Dec 8th, 2016 – We have been busy over the past few days and wanted to share some sites and sounds of the last few days. We have been teaching classes, visiting business, getting to know the team, and sharing good times with new friends…. We will have one last update after the team gets back…

https://youtu.be/MQhPYArJuZ8

Dec 5th, 2016  – Today we started the training with the Chamber of Commerce with Successful Business Principles from Highmark. We have 22 students in the class and it was a great day of getting introduced to each other, learning about each others business and kicking off the first session on marketing….

Dec 3rd, 2016 – We have arrived safely. Thank you all to for your prayers and support that got us here. Here is a quick recap of the last 24-48 hours. We will add more posts soon.

https://youtu.be/Exz3QY9Im_M

This video is from Day 1, Preparing to leave…

Graduation Lunch

What a great final day in Ukraine for the Strategic Planning seminar! The week has gone by very quickly, but it has been great getting to know the men and women we had the privilege of teaching this week.

We decided to wear our shirts with the Ukrainian flag and symbolism on them today to honor the class since they were so kind to give them to us in case our luggage did not show up on Sunday. Jay finished up Module 4 from Thursday, and then the three of us took turns team-teaching the final session.  The material mixed with our personal experiences made for a lot of fun with the class on the last day.  There was a genuine interest in what we were teaching them, and they know we care deeply for them.  Before the day started, Anatoliy even brought us several gifts from his hometown and from his company as a “thank you” for the time we spent with him, his wife and Vasyl. We are looking forward to seeing many of them when they come to visit Winston-Salem in October.

After the session concluded, we awarded certificates to those who had completed prior courses and congratulated them and celebrated.  Afterwards, we had a great time celebrating over lunch and wrapping up personal conversations with many of the participants and interpreters.  Perry’s business experience mixed with his heart for people has clearly endeared him to the members of the class.  Jim’s teaching skills, humor and practical examples have been a big hit too. Having had a pastor in Jay lead some of the sessions provided some great opportunities to talk about spiritual things, and leading by influence when a paycheck is not the motivating factor for those you are trying to lead.  We have had a great experience this week, and our prayer tonight was that the Holy Spirit would continue to work on the hearts of those we talked with and influenced this week, that He would continue to bring back some of the Biblical principles we shared this week in a way that continues to arouse curiosity in those who do not know Christ, that He would strengthen the believers who are already in the business community here, and that our in-country contacts would continue to love and share Christ with the group as they stay in touch with them.  I know you’ll pray with us to those ends.

After a break this afternoon, we headed downtown for some gift shopping, and one final dinner before heading to Munich in the morning.  Perry has done a great job as a first-time team leader, and Jim and Jay have thoroughly enjoyed their rookie trip. As good as it will be to start heading for home, a portion of our hearts will remain here with the people we’ve befriended this week.

Jay finishing Module 4

Team teaching Module 5

Andre

Vasyl

Yulia

Olga

Natalya

Olena

Halina

Tatyana

Iryina

Roman

Ihor

Voldomyr

Anatoliy

After a busy Wednesday, Jim finished up the morning with Module 3 for the group, and then Jay began Module 4.  We can tell that the group continues to enjoy the practical illustrations from our personal and professional lives when they relate to the material. It was interesting to watch them try and wrap their minds around how a pastor could talk about business principles and apply them to a church, when religion in their country is so separated from secular life.  They asked great questions and it allowed Jay to talk them through how we use the principles in the church and apply them to the general mission of spreading the Gospel, and Calvary’s specific mission in our own community.

After another great lunch, we met over coffee at the hotel with three of the class members who were not able to attend the Lead Like Jesus seminar on Tuesday–Vaysl, Anatoliy and his wife Natalia.  Jim had lunch with Anatoliy and Natalia, and we spent the first hour just getting to know him better and his approach to business.  He let us know that he had been awarded by both the Roman and Greek Catholic churches in his city for his donations to their civic and charity causes.  With that in mind, we had a 2 1/2 hour discussion about the business and political climate in Ukraine, the culture of his business, the role of a leader, what it means to lead like Jesus, and why we believe it’s a better way to lead people.  The fatalistic sense that if he tried to do better and lead better that his people would not follow and would continue to take advantage of him is so strong.  It is something we are seeing repeat as a theme over and over in the business climate here–that nothing will change or get better unless everyone rule by authority, takes no responsibility, or acts in trust for each other to build a better culture.  It allowed us an opportunity to share several points of the Gospel with Anatoliy and Natalia (Vasyl is a believer) and to hear the difference in perspectives on the new vs. old economy between him and Vasyl.  In the end, the Gospel was shared from a relational perspective, and we pray that the Lord would use it to work on Anatoliy’s heart.  He was grateful for the time we spent with him and the conversation.

After a short break, it was back downtown to walk around and decompress from the day and grab a bite of dinner.  As the week is winding down, we took some extra time to sit, talk and enjoy what the Lord is doing in and through the group.  After our devotional it was to our rooms to study for the final session which we have broken down into three parts. The last session will be completed after Jay wraps up two main points from Module 4 that didn’t get completed on Thursday.  Thanks for the continued prayers!

Jim wrapping up Module 3

Jay teaching Module 4

Sharing Calvary’s strategic opportunity in Winston-Salem

Coffee and Lead Like Jesus with Igor, Vasyl, Natalia, Anatoliy and the team

75th Anniversary Celebration of Ukraine declaring its freedom

The Pravda band in full swing

Lviv was back to work today after the Constitution Day holiday on Tuesday, and so were we.  The morning started with a visit from the Vice President of the Chamber of Commerce to whom Perry gave a nice Cross pen with Calvary’s logo on it.  Later, we went down and met briefly with the President to thank him for letting us use the facilities.

Jim took his turn in front of the class today leading them through a session on assessing their company’s resources. He shared some great experience from his time at Walk Through the Bible and it was clear that the class was engaged with his practical examples.  He’ll finish up a few notes on Thursday morning before turning things over to Jay for the session on identifying strategic opportunities.  Once again, lunch with the class created some great opportunities for conversation about the session and getting to know our Ukrainian friends.

A couple of themes that we have seen emerge from the class is how deep the authoritarian culture runs in this country and in their businesses.  Every question comes from one of two themes: 1) How can I crush those in my business who make mistakes, and how can I please my boss so that I don’t get crushed, and 2) there is fatalistic sense that there is no better tomorrow.  We are trying to encourage them to lead like servants and to better the people around them, and this is clearly counter-cultural.

After lunch, local IMB missionary Shannon Ford picked us up and took us to the Ukrainian Baptist Theological Seminary for a tour and to meet with the president, Miroslav (Slavic) Pyzh.  It was a great time hearing from Slavic about his vision for the seminary, and how he has transformed it into a true training ground for pastors to preach the gospel and build up the local Ukrainian church.  The conversation was encouraging and challenging, and we came away incredibly impressed at his drive, passion and gifting and how the Lord is using him to impact theological and pastoral education.

This evening, it was back downtown to Rynok Square for some dinner and a walk through the old city.  After an evening devotion, we turned our hearts and minds to the day tomorrow.  Pray with us that the Holy Spirit will use the principles we are teaching to grab the hearts and minds of the class and that we will be sensitive to how we can partner with Christ to love and serve them in an effort to show and share the Gospel!

Lviv Chamber of Commerce president, Dmytro Aftanas

Jim leading Module 3

Ukranian Baptist Theological Seminary

Where students from UBTS come from

Jim found his name on one of the UBTS students’ shirts

Slavic Pyzh sharing his strategic vision with us for the seminary

Today in Lviv was a busy one at the Chamber of Commerce.  We got started with Module 2 of the Strategic Planning course, and Perry did a masterful job leading not only through the material, but interjecting several case studies and personal experiences through his time in business.  You can tell that the class really enjoys learning through the personal experiences of the instructors, and that they are aware of what is going on in business around the global markets.

After a great lunch and some enjoyable conversation with the class participants, we had an opportunity to lead an overwhelming majority of the class thorough Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges’, Lead Like Jesus. We picked up that there was some apprehension from the facilitators on how a book like that would work with this class, especially knowing that one of the presenters is a pastor.  Those concerns went away as Perry, Jim and Jay showed the class why leading as a servant leader like Jesus may turn the culture of their business upside down, but the rewards are great.  They asked several great questions throughout the session and at the end that shows us that they are processing deeply what we talked about.  They even asked for more time to think this through and maybe ask some more questions on Wednesday. Pray that the Holy Spirit will use this as an opportunity to show those who do not know Christ a different way of living that is founded in love for each other and joy in our faith.

After a long day, we went downtown to Lviv to walk around and grab some chocolate and a quick bite of dinner.  It was a beautiful evening in the high 60’s, and a great way to decompress after a long and intense day.

Wednesday, Jim will be presenting Module 3, and we will be meeting with Dr. Pyzh and Shannon Ford at the Ukranian Baptist Theological Seminary in the afternoon, along with some Gideons to get Bibles from them. Thanks for your prayers!

Perry teaching Module 2

Lead Like Jesus

Downtown for some dinner

Chocolate for gifts…and to eat…