Preaching of the Gospel to a dying world – is the blood of the Church. Namely, at the very moment, when the Church ceases to preach the Gospel to the world, it slowly begins to die. One of the problems that our church is facing, it’s a celebration of the Christian way of life within the church, where everyone is focused on their personal struggles, personal achievements and personal difficulties. Some young Christians are even articulating this way: “I do not mind being a pastor of the church in the future, but the only thing is that I would not work with the unbelievers.” The church has become warm and cozy place where you can relax and have a sigh of relief, but to go beyond the walls of the church became something fearful, uncomfortable and even “stressful”. And it is – the ugly view of life and mission of the Church on earth, which threatens to inherit the next generation of our church. That is why, for us, as for the leaders of the church, holding such a camps is very important happening in the life of our church.
This is the third evangelistic youth camp, that God gives us an opportunity to carry out by our church. As in previous camps, it was a great blessing of our church. We had the opportunity to preach the Gospel of our Lord to young people who do not know God. And also, we could’ve engaged our youth in organization and to engraft for them a taste of evangelism, and by doing this to cheer up a great ministry in all our church.
Our team consisted of 16 people. There were 52 campers altogether, most of them are unbelievers. The camp was held at the recreation center in Zalesie. The purpose of our camp was, to reveal and to convey for 5 days, step by step the essence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For that purpose, we studied the Bible at the morning and preached at the evening. From the first day God gave His grace and people have taken the Bible in their hands and began to participate in the study of God’s Word.
At the end of this camp a few people came to believe and turned to God for forgiveness. Here are some reviews that people wrote in their questionnaires:
“In this camp I’ve encountered with God so close, as never before in my life. I truly opened my eyes to the fact that I am a sinful man, I am all the way frazzled by sin from my very birth. The first time I opened the Bible and was able to understand the Word of God. During the sermon, every day, I was gripped by fear of what, would happen to me…”
“After the camp, I want to put God in the first place and begin to serve Him alone. I want to believe that at one time, 2.000 years ago, Jesus Christ shed His blood for all of my sins. I also want to pray to Lord and ask for His mercy to me, so that I may not be lukewarm, I wish that God gave me the genuine faith…”
“I want to make a decision to reconcile with God. I have an understanding of the fact of the death of Jesus Christ on the Cross for me, but I have no faith. I want to pray for the faith and reconciliation…”
We had the opportunity to talk with many people in the camp one by one, and it was a wonderful time of communicating not only of our beliefs, but of our genuine concern for them. God really has given a wonderful opportunity to serve the people who do not know Him. Thank you for all the prayers, without which neither camp and not a single ministry unable to bear fruit.
Andrey Bortniychuk, the church “Source of Life”, Zdolbunov
