Dear brothers and sisters, i want to share with you a little about God’s miracles what we have seen with our own eyes. Since July 29th to August 9th, we had the opportunity to be at the South and held two camps for children and teenagers, but the wonders came on the scene a little earlier.
We had the opportunity to hold the camp for adolescents in this
year, but at the same time we did not have enough resources and workers to bring about this project. God has taught us recently a lot on how to be confident in him, and that’s why we began to pray, and I believed that God will provide. It was really a miracle of God, because in the bank account started flowing funds from you. Your generosity and willingness to serve God were the response to our prayers. God has sent with even more than we needed at first place. Also in parallel, we were looking for people who could go and serve in the camp. Recently, because of the challenges of crossing the border that kind of hinder us getting to the place of our ministry, but each time the Almighty preserves us and blesses on the way there. At this time, we also were met with warmth and welcomed in one near the border church, where we left our car and drove farther. When passed the border over to the other side, we rejoiced and prayed, that God will use us in full swing over the next two weeks.
I want to share a little bit about our team. There were 16 of us.
We converged from different cities. God miraculously brought all of us together from different parts of Ukraine, some teammates have not even known each other, but they knew that they were coming to serve to people, who desperately need Savior. We had people in our team from Sumy, Rivne, Zdolbuniv, Kiev and Sevastopol. Almighty has knitted our hearts together with His love for the people, to whom we presented the Good News. There were those who participated in this ministry for the first time, but despite of this the Lord was uniting us together. Most of the time we experienced the support and understanding, everyone wanted to serve and bring about one common cause together. There was no need to force anybody to serve. I’m thankful to God that He brought precisely these people, and particularly at this time that His name was glorified. I also knew that everyone who went there, in their family church remained solid service of the rear – those who were praying and worrying all the time. Therefore, the number of the team might be multiplied without any doubt in twice, or even in thrice.
Since July 29th to August 1st there was the camp for teenagers, we had 35
teens, although we were expecting more than that, but God brought those whom He chose.
Those, who were open to hear the Gospel. Many of those who came in the
camp were not for the first time, and they have heard a lot, and it gave us
the opportunity to speak with them straightforward. They heard the Gospel in the classroom, from the stage during the meeting, in person communication and at small groups Bible study in the evenings.
At one day within the camp we went hiking in the nearby mountains. If
you were hiking sometimes, then you know that this is a unique opportunity to
talk about many things with your fellow travelers. Our guide has a special gift to
communicate the Gospel through poetry and description of the nature that is everywhere. While hiking we have made four stops, and at every stop he was gradually speaking about Christ, of His life and our sinfulness. Before the last
stop came he asked the guys: “Where is the way out of the sin in which we all live?” Then there was a difficult uphill to the top to where there is a big cross stands, and there he shared about the sacrifice of Christ and said that He
is the only way for all of us… Thanks to God that He kept all the partakers of ascent, because the road was steep and many people among us were falling, but everyone has survived.
We also played the game, called “life for one hour,” many may have heard about it, but I will briefly explain the essence of it. It’s being said to teens that now will be a game in which for one hour they can live through their entire lives, they are given for start a scanty amount of money, and then everything just starts right away: school, university, casino, bank, shop, registry office, a beauty salon… and everything like in real life. Likewise at this time there are preachers walk around the territory inviting everyone to repent.
Surprisingly, as in a real life, many guys were rejecting the exhortation to them and were saying that they did not make enough money, did not finish their education, did not start a family yet, etc. Then the game all of a sudden came to an end and it means that everybody died and those who believed in Jesus and repented, they will get to Heaven, and all the others – to hell. It is pity to say that, but Hell was overcrowded. It was a good opportunity afterwards to speak with guys about what has happened and what could happen to them in the real life.
Everything was very clear and realistic.
It was really hot in the hell and later on many were saying that they never had thought about how there really is.
At the end of the camp some teenage girls stayed with us to help on a kids stage. They were waiting for it. One girl had a trouble with her parents of letting her stay here, but we prayed with her for a miracle. And, God made a miracle, she was told over the phone that she might stay in the camp! We all praised God, that He is the One who fulfills the deepest desires of our hearts and that He who answers prayers. I ask you to pray in a special manner for girl, and I think she’s closer than anyone else to accept Jesus as her Savior. She prays for the repentance of her relatives, but she is also afraid, that if her family will find out that she is with Jesus, she will not be understood and she will be ostracized for her belief. At the end, when everyone was going home, it was hard to hold back our tears. I was thinking a lot about what it would be with them in the future, they took away a lot of information with them, but when they will come home, they will be left alone again one on one with themselves and their questions. I pray to God and hope that you will support me in prayers for these teens so that the Word that they heard, would’ve worked in their hearts, that the Lord has sent to them more people who would be willing to share their faith with them.
Then immediately after that, on August 1st has started another camp with small children. About 65 dynamic children have arrived, and it was really hard because we were all exhausted, the program was new to us, some of us got sick previously in the recent camp. But God has not left us. In the book “Praying life” by Paul Miller, I have read this: “The suffering – is the gift of God, designed to indicate conventionality of life. It creates an environment in which we see the true nature of our being – the dependence on the living God. “And surely, only thankfully to the living God, we could continue serving and to show Christ’s love for children who have just arrived. We needed a lot of patience and love in order to organize them for any joint activities.
I was writing earlier that some teenagers stayed for help in kids camp, and they were particularly happy about this. They felt that they were trusted as an adults. Of course, they could not manage in all things, but it was visible that they wanted to help. Please pray for them, that their positive desires would develop in them, and they glorified God, not themselves. Pray that throughout this year, we could still meet with them and to speak with them more about Christ.
In spite of this, God gave us a lot of joy. Every evening we had a small meetings where the Word was heard, and there was glorification of God.
It’s so amazing to praise God in the language of the people to whom you serve, to sing with them to the same God and mostly understand what you’re singing about. Their worship – it’s not just to get up and sing, but to proclaim what you sing, clap your hands, and at the end of the song to cheer loudly to God. It was a bit unusual at first, but then I remembered the verses from the book of Revelation, which describes, as people from all the nations praise the Lord. I thought about what kind of noise will be there and dancing at the same time. These evening meetings gave a little opportunity to experience the joy that awaits us there.
Many teenagers and children by the end of the camp requested us to present them the Scripture. Afterwards they went with it everywhere, read it and asked questions. Pray for them, that their zeal would not go away, but just have intensified. With many of them we keep in touch through the social networks even now. They say that they continue to read and it’s interesting. Thanks God for this, because it is a miracle from Him, and response to your prayers.
At the end of the kids camp an interesting game took place that was called VIP zone. During the game, children played a waiters, a masseurs, a hairdressers, a fashion designers, a taxi drivers, and all the adults were their customers. It was funny and nice, the way children could dress us up in anything just to dye and make a massage. There was a lot of laughter and joy both for children and adults. Surprisingly, that God gives us the opportunity just to enjoy and have fun, despite of our shortcomings.
Throughout these two camp shifts we have often seen His loving and a caring hand. We realized that now we’re foreigners, and this camp quite risky event for us. But we prayed God and believed in the miracle that He will preserve and provide security. But if not, then let’s go with us like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from the book of the prophet Daniel. God has been merciful to us, and no one came to us during those two weeks. It is a miracle from the Most High! Thank Him with us for all that.
We were able to relax, to analyze what we have done and to think about what we have to do next. But it was not so simple here, because just before our departure in this region occurred some events due to of which all border check points have been closed for an indefinite time.
We began to pray to God again for mercy and protection. We heard from the news a lot of conflicting information about what was happening. And specifically at this time I felt absolute assurance in the One, Who have lead us here, to this place at this time. He was faithful to His promises during the previous weeks, and He remains the same God today. He was walking in front of us when we were going through the border, and He was keeping us safe. This transition has taken us much longer than usually, but eventually we ended up on our native land. On the other side of the border we were met by the blessed brother from the church, which is located nearby. When we were almost done with passing of border control, he called us and asked how much time we still needed, because his wife had to be taken to the maternity hospital. We’ve tried to persuade him to go to his wife, but he stayed anyways to pick us up and take us to church (about 100 km). He has not just picked us up, but arranged us a real feast in the car, it was so unexpected and so nice. We were so tired, that did not even think about food, but God took care of our needs even before we have voiced them to Him.
A little later there was a meeting with friends who are dear to our hearts.
They were previously ministering at the place where we were just now, but because of the annexation they had to leave. We fellowshipped in the evening, shared testimonies and praised God that He united our hearts around Himself. We were able to get some rest before the long, weary way and get back on track with a fresh energy to continue our way.
I’m thanking to every one of you who helped to bring about this trip, we were sensing your prayer support every minute. And thankfully to your sacrificial hearts, many people were able to hear the Good News and to contemplate about what awaits them in the future. Perhaps, thankfully to you, in future, we will sing a new song before the throne of the King of Kings. Please do not stop praying for these people group, and do not stop believing in miracles.
Our God does them every day, but we often just do not pay attention enough.
Ira P
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