I’d like to begin by mentioning 3 particularly valuable to me moments. Firstly, it is a unique opportunity to share the Gospel with young people for 5 days: to tell them about sin and God’s judgment, about the need for forgiveness and the Savior Who can meet this need. Secondly, this is a great opportunity to work for the Kingdom of God with other Christians. When you see that each member of the team works like a bee, performing his/her functions in the camp, the heart is filled with joy and a special sense of unity in our Lord Jesus Christ. Thirdly, I remember the words of one participant of the camp, the girl with the beautiful name of Malvina. She said on the last day: “Now I have to wait a full year to come back to the camp…”
And especially I want to thank God… Because He is the only One Who makes our camps blessed and effective. Without His grace and presence all this activity wouldn’t make any sense …
Our camp was called “Against the Stream”. It was conducted by the Bible Missionary Church “Christ the Redeemer” (the city of Ivano-Frankivsk) and took place from August 15 to August 20, 2016 in the mountain village Krasnosillia (Verkhovyna district of the Ivano-Frankivsk region). Actually, the camp had two themes. The first one was “Sexuality in light of the Bible”. It was covered during the morning meetings and then discussed in groups. The second theme was “Gospel presentation”. Sermons on this theme sounded during the evening meetings.
I think these two themes complement each other very well. Through the prism of the theme of sexuality in the Bible, it was very easy to talk about universal sinfulness and need for salvation from God’s wrath. It is no secret that young people commit sexual sins very often. Therefore, this topic provided a lot of opportunities to talk about sin and God’s commandments and then about the Gospel.
Also during the evening meetings a few members of the team gave testimonies, the stories of how they came to Christ.
In the camp we had the following objectives: 1) to present teenagers and youth in greater detail the Gospel and to call them for repentance and faith in Christ; 2) to communicate with young people in groups, where to provide the detail and practical explanation of the Gospel; 3) to organize interesting and fun leisure time: competitions, games, sports, master classes, mountain hiking, etc.; 4) to establish long-term friendly relations with young unbelievers who took part in the camp. I think that by the grace of God we have achieved these objectives in large measure!
The camp was visited by 38 young people (13 team members and 25 participants). In addition, in the camp there participated not only young people from Ivano-Frankivsk, but also from the city of Dolyna (the Ivano-Frankivsk region). To be more precise, the ratio of participants was as follows: 14 people from Ivano-Frankivsk and 11 from Dolyna. We were very pleased with this, because our church has been conducting in Dolyna home group Bible study for a year.
I would like to emphasize that all young people liked the camp. At the end of the camp, they filled out the questionnaire-feedback, where each and every participant wrote that he/she would like to visit a camp next year and invite his/her friends. Also members of our team were very pleased with conducting camp. They got a great joy from working together for the sake of Christ and from communication with the camp participants. And of course, this camp in a particular way has brought together our church youth and strengthened the unity within the youth team.
Below you find short reviews of some participants of the camp:
“I am glad that I was in this camp. I wish this camp lasted longer.”
“I don’t want to leave the camp!”
“I want to be reconciled to God and grow stronger in Him.”
“I have a sad heart today, because I wish our camp to continue…”
Immediately after the camp we started the post camp work. The first meeting of Youth Discussion Club “Against the Stream” was already held. Several participants of the camp attended it. We plan to hold a Club every Sunday evening and in the format of discussion to consider different issues of relevance to youth from the point of view of Bible. The post camp meeting is scheduled on September 4.
I want to thank everybody who helped us in conducting this camp! May God bless you! If it weren’t for your help and support, we would not be able to hold such a beautiful camp and many young people who visited it would not be able to hear the Gospel. Please pray for them! Let the good seed that was sown in their hearts can grow and bring the fruits of repentance and faith. Pray for us that we continue to serve the campers and do this only for the sake of Jesus Christ. All glory to Him!
With respect and gratitude, acting pastor of the Church “Christ the Redeemer”
Sergey Kirilenko
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