From May 29 to June 1, 2023, a soccer/football day camp called “Nadia – ZSU” (ZSU – Armed Forces of Ukraine) was held at the facility of Christian Soccer Club “Nadia.” The purpose of the camp was to share the gospel with the children and to provide financial support to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. We had about 40 children and several adults in the camp. The program of the camp, under the title “Willingness to Play,” featured very apt analogies from soccer that are related to everyday life. For example, if someone created soccer, then we can surely say that Someone also created the Earth. If there are rules in soccer, then there are rules in life. There are penalties for breaking the rules in soccer — there are also penalties for breaking God’s rules. In terms of soccer, players are often given a red card – in terms of life, the analogy would be death. Speaking of soccer, if a soccer player gets a red card, and he cannot return to play on the field, in real life, Jesus Christ comes down to this earth to take all our punishment upon Himself and He actually gives us a second chance. That was the spiritual program.
Of course, there were fun games and various competitions in the camp.
We had children of 5-8 years old, that is, little ones, but we tried to convey to them the most important thing, that the biggest, best help we can give to the Armed Forces is our prayer. And also, a large part of the collected funds went to support our three soldiers. We didn’t buy them anything too special, but there were goodies and a microwave, and we think that we met at least some of our soldiers’ needs.
Another cool thing about this camp was that the older boys from Nadia (the older camp participants 10-12 years old) were learning to serve and to be coaches, and it was fun to see them doing that as well.
We thank God for the camp! We express our gratitude to the people who prayed for us. In my opinion, it was a very good time, and I hope that the lessons our little ones learned will be useful for them in the future.
Oleksandr Honchar
