There is no more valuable treasure on earth and in the whole universe than Christ. In Him alone there is salvation, real life, joy, fullness, peace and significance. Christ is the only need of people! That’s why it is so important to tell everyone about Christ. That is why we are so thankful for the opportunity to have the camp “Exit”. This is an amazing opportunity to preach Christ.
Our church “Source of Life” has already held 5 camps for the past 3 years. The peculiarity of our camp is that it is focused on the people, who don’t go to any church in our city. We specifically seek and invite unsaved people to acquaint them with the message about Christ. Our camp program is built in such a way that during 5 days we clearly and comprehensively share the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Probably the most difficult thing for us is to find the people for the camp, so we specially launched a whole campaign to advertise our camp in the city, so it was on everyone’s lips. And, thank God, every time there are enough unbelievers. Our camps develop very well and are well-known in the city with a good reputation among the youth. Also, many parents, whose children are wallowed in sin, persuade them to go to the camp. Parents hope that the camp will serve as a point of change and salvation from the life in which their children are buried. So one family puts the condition to their daughter, that she will go to the camp, hoping to change her. She used to escape from her house, she was often found in the slums, she was a terrible drinker in her 16 years. When she came to the camp, saw a different attitude to her and heard the gospel, it made a strong impact on her. She did not want to come home, because now she knows about Christ and she wants to live a completely different life. We see a great blessing in the opportunity to have the camps for the youth of our city. God gives us a good tool to influence with the Gospel for the expansion of the kingdom of heaven.
This year our camp was in Zalissia. There were 93 people (22 members of the team and 71 campers). The theme of the camp was “Finding Happiness”. We were talking about the prodigal son from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 15. Every morning we were studying the Bible and in the evening were preaching on the parable. God has given us marvelous grace we have seen and heard how the Word touched hearts, people, who have been alienated from God, for the first time talk to God and sought His face.
At the end of the camp many people shared that they have decided to follow Christ and repented. Time will show what God has done through our work, but now we are planning to keep working with them to mentor and help in the first steps of faith.
Such camps are also blessing for us because they make it possible to identify and cultivate new leaders in the church. Many people want to be in the camp team to participate in this ministry. Many church youth learn there to tell people about Christ. Also it helps us as a church to fulfill the main mission – to preach the Gospel. The whole church prays and participates in the camp.
On behalf of our church I want to thank everyone, who is involved and supports our ministry in prayers and financially. We believe that our work in the preaching the Gospel will not be in vain before the Lord and bring many fruits for His glory.
Sincerely, responsible for the camp Andrew Bortniychuk