Hot beginning of summer Lord has blessed with vibrant events. During six days in the Rivne Ukrainian Gymnasium was conducted a Christian children day camp. The theme was called “God, what’s your name?” for students of 5th-7th grades. The camp was attended by nearly 40 children, who were supervised by 7 adults under the guidance of Ruslana Kovalchuk. They were mostly the employees of IPO “Hope to people,” members of the churches “Community of the Good Shepherd” and “Grace” from Rivne. The camp was held from 10 to 15 o’clock, this time was full of various activities, where children had the opportunity to praise God in songs, to learn the Word of God, to do sports, crafts and to play games.
The main objective of the camp was to familiarize children with the names of God and His character, so every day during Bible lessons children learned one of the names of God and Its meaning. With great pleasure the students learned about God the Creator, God Almighty God the All-Seeing, All-Powerful God, the Lord, the God of Piece, and glorified Him in the songs. It was a joy to watch children memorizing the names of God and His character, making practical conclusions from what they had learned. They learned by heart the “golden verses” from the Bible, as well as fulfilled tasks from the Bible study.
Sports and crafts were also an inherent part of the camp. Boys were immersed in the relatively new kind of sport — floorball, where gladly did physical exercises, learned the rules and, of course, competed in teams. At the end of the camp there was organized even a floorball mini-tournament. Girls were blessed with the opportunity to do craftes, they made leaflets, pendants, wreaths, candle holders and suspensions.
Every day children had a camp game. There were quests, brainteasers, code searches and team games, which ended necessarily with prizes and sweets. However, a special game culminated onthe last day of the camp. The game was called “Live life in an hour.” In this game everything was just like in real life, and just as real and suddenly came the finale: those who were reconciled with Christ in “life” — were rewarded, and those who were too busy, or didn’t have time or didn’t want to come to Him — got to hell. This game had a strong impact on children, and forced them to think about their personal relationships with God.
In general, it was a blessed time, when the Lord was working with the hearts of children and teachers. The camp did not remain indifferent anyone to the Word of God and what He does in our lives. Here are some reviews of children about the camp:
“At the beginning of the camp, I could not decide to go there or not. Almost all of my friends signed up to the camp of the English language. To be honest, I have also signed there to improve foreign language skills. But lately, I have ceased to praise the Lord, and at the last moment I moved to the Christian camp, and I did not regret. By visiting this camp, I again believed in God, began to read the Bible. I have learned that God is the Creator of everything, that He is Almighty and All-Seeing God, He is also the God of Piece. The next year, I’m sure I’ll go to this camp.” (Dasha, 5th grade)
“Camp “God, what’s your name?” is a miracle. There I met new friends, excellent teachers. I learned a lot about God, especially the fact that He created me. I want to live forever with God, but it does not always work. I liked camp games, where all played together and had fun. I will miss the camp.” (Maxim, 5th grade)
“I really liked the camp, where I spent six days of fun. I learned the names of God and their meaning. With the Bible lessons I have learned that we should not be proud of ourselves, and we should always trust the Lord. I thank the organizers of this wonderful camp for the fact that this week I spent usefully, not by the computer or surfing the Internet, and as a result, I would’ve further deteriorated my sight.” (Angelina 7th grade)
“I’ve been in the camp for three years, I love it here. I was very excited by the Bible lessons where I learned the names of God. I was able to find hope in God’s Word. I realized that without God I would not have appeared in the world and only He lets my heart beating. God sent me to glorify Him and to tell other people about Him. I also liked crafts, where we did various things and we could take them home. I made a gift for mom, she liked it.” (Tamila, 7th grade)
“I liked camp games, especially when we had a “candy rain”, when the teams were gathering delicious candies. And I learned to trust in God and to trust Him my secrets. I hope that next year the camp will be held again and I will find something new about God.” (Katya 7th grade)
We thank the Lord for the time filled with blessings, for the opportunity to testify children of Christ, to build a relationship with them! Many thanks to all who supported the camp in prayer, financial and with personal engagement in different activities! God is good, all the time!
Olga Denisyuk
