Post-camp Communication with Teenagers

After the winter camp, which the employees of the Christian ethics department, Arkady Slyoza, and Ruslana Kovalchuk, held in January, God put it on their hearts to continue serving the youth – the participants of the camp. Now, every Thursday at 8 p.m., an online group for studying the Gospel of John begins. During February, there were five such meetings. And on February 4, on Sunday, many camp participants from Rivne, Klevan, Shepetivka, and Kremenets came to worship at the church Community of the Good Shepherd in Rivne, and then gathered together for a post-camp meeting: they talked, had treats, prayed for each other, played games, God gave a lot of joy.

From time to time these young people ask for help or need advice or support.

 

  • Svitlana, an orphan from the shelter, wanted to visit her sister, Anya, a patient with cerebral palsy and encephalopathy, who lives with her grandmother in a village in the Rivne region. So Arkady Slyoza and several other young people went to support Svitlana and meet her family. God arranged the circumstances in such a way that there was also her mother, Natalia, who at one time was deprived of her parental rights because she wanted to sell little Svitlana for organs. Mom cried and asked Svitlana for forgiveness. During the conversation with her and grandmother, Raisa, they talked about God and our Savior Jesus Christ, who grants forgiveness and salvation, sang Christmas carols, prayed together at the end, and asked for God’s blessing on this family. On February 22, Svitlana turned 18, she took her passport from her guardian at the college and went off to Poland, where she will continue her learning online. The girl told the pastor of the Ukrainian church in Lodz that she had repented and wanted to be baptized. Pray with us for her future.

 

  • One evening, a young man, Vitaly, an orphan who repented in the winter camp, called and asked for prayer, because he felt sick and was taken to the hospital. Soon he was operated on for appendicitis. Thank God, Vitaliy recovered quickly and is sincerely grateful for visiting and supporting him.

 

  • Arkady Slyoza also responded to the needs of the family of the girl Valya, who visited our Christian camps several times. These are displaced people from Severodonetsk, who lived in the dormitory of the Klevan special school for two years, and now Valya’s mother has found a job in Kyiv. He decided that he had to help this family with moving their belongings to the capital. We ask you to pray for these people who have repeatedly heard the gospel. It is interesting that at one time Valya’s great-grandfather was deprived of his estates by communists in the Rivne region and his family was exiled to the Amur region, and after the exile, they returned to Ukraine and settled in Severodonetsk in the Luhansk region.

 

Exhibitions of Paintings in Educational Institutions

In February, Ruslana Kovalchuk and Arkadiy Slyoza continued with the exhibition of paintings “The Life of Jesus Christ” by visiting educational institutions of the Sarny community.

February 12 – the school in the village of Korost,

February 14 – gymnasium # 6 in Sarny,

February 19 – village of Strilsk,

February 21 – village of Luhcha,

February 28 – villages of Lyubikovichi and Beliatich

More than 1,500 students, 150 teachers, and school workers heard the Good News about Jesus Christ. After the exhibition, everyone had the opportunity to receive a Bible, Christian books, and magazines for children and adults as a gift.

Praise God that the Word of God is abundantly sown. Pray with us that many children and teachers will accept the Word of Truth into their hearts.

Sister Ruslana continues to regularly go to Klevan Special School # 1, where she teaches classes in Christian ethics for visually impaired children. As part of the “Dreams Come True” project, on February 15, the thematic event “The Meeting of the Lord” was held in this school, where children learned to entrust their dreams to God, following the example of priest Simeon.

Thanks to the support of the mission partners, every student and employee of the institution received humanitarian aid (clothes and shoes), and primary school teachers received handouts, which are very valuable for their work in corrective classes for the development of fine motor skills.

In Rivne Lyceum’s “Ukrainian,” sister Ruslana also teaches classes in Christian ethics. More than once, during air raids, these lessons are held in bomb shelters.

Ruslana Kovalchuk presented the mission Hope to People during the awarding ceremony of the winners of the 28th All-Ukrainian Festival-Competition “Teacher of the Year of Spiritual and Moral Subjects – 2024,” which took place online at the Ostroh Academy National University on February 25, 2024. General topic competition – “Leadership in the Light of the Bible.”