“God, save Ukraine ! Lord, have mercy on us!”

These words were the hymn and the topic of our winter staff training conference as well as one of the hymns of the Orange Revolution. None of us remain indifferent to the events that happened in our country in December 2004. Each of us has drawn our own lesson out of it, and all of us have our own memories. But we all were united as one in singing during those six days of the conference “Mighty and Great God, save our Ukraine …”

To remember our history and culture, we wanted to create the atmosphere of the old Ukrainian house. So, with the help of various decorations, we made it feel like we were back in the 19^th century. Many people were dressed in national costumes. It made our conference very colorful, joyful, and interesting.    

At the very beginning we reviewed our vision. Then we took a revolutionary look at all components of our usual training conferences – teambuilding, spiritual development, and the development of skills. So we had such sessions as “Revolution of Small groups,” “Revolution of Gifts,” “Revolution of Leadership.” By taking this fresh approach, we gained new insights.

The most important thing is that we all have become closer to each other and to God after this training. Our big family became stronger. We now have new memories, new stories to tell our friends and each other.