From July 23 to 30, 2019, the youth camp “Jesus Is My Way” was held in the village of Polyana, Svalyavsky district, Transcarpathian region. This outreach camp was organized by the staff of Hope to People and the Second Presbyterian Church of Memphis, USA.
Most of the camp participants were orphans from boarding schools of the Rivne region, the children from socially disadvantaged families, and the children from foster families. Some of the children, who were at the camp, are the winners of Olympiad “Young Bible Experts – 2019.” We were also excited to see a group of youth from the city of Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk Region, which comes to the camp every year. In total, there were 40 people (within the age range of 15-23 years). Some of them were in the Christian camp for the first time. The camp program was designed for six full days and was geared for getting the idea across to the children that Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation and reconciliation with God. Every day, we had the opportunity to study different images of Jesus Christ from God’s Word (Living Water, the Lamb of God, the True Redeemer, and others).
The spiritual program of the camp was filled with many activities:
6 Bible lessons and 12 worship services in all – the services were held twice a day, in the morning and in the evening, as well as many individual conversations of participants with mentors about personal relationships with God and the Savior Jesus Christ. Some camp participants for the first time in their life got to open the Book of the Books, and it also was their first experience of reading it aloud, writing out some Bible verses and memorizing them.
Basically, at each service, everybody got to hear the testimonies of some mentors and team members about their conversion to God and the decision to follow Christ.
On Sunday night service, after hearing John Wittemore’s sermon, “The Good News of Christ,” and the invitation to reconcile with God, 14 young people (10 boys and 4 girls) came forward and prayed a prayer of repentance. As the preacher was asking them a question, each of them was giving an answer that he or she accepts Jesus Christ both as Savior and Lord of his/her life, and wants to follow Him. Praise the Lord for drawing these hearts to Christ!
In this camp, God gave us another opportunity to see His Grace – that He continues to save sinners, and that He, again and again, reminds us on the importance of evangelizing young people whose hearts are open to the gospel.
Please pray for the further spiritual growth of these young people, so that the Lord will send them disciplers and will put them into the local churches.
We also ask you to pray that the Lord would bless us to continue our post-camp ministry, helping these children to become solid believers.
In September, we already planned the meeting and invited all the camp participants to come to Rivne. The meeting will be held at the Hope to People mission house. We’re extremely glad that everyone eagerly accepted the invitation!
Arkady Slyoza
