When generous friends like you help sponsor children to attend Summer Camps held by the churches we serve, they have an opportunity to meet Jesus and experience a brief respite from the chaos of their lives. Some of these children might be orphans, as you can read about in SGA-supported Pastor Vyacheslav’s ministry report below.

As an Orphans Reborn coordinator who ministers to orphans throughout the year, Vyacheslav sees the powerful results of taking hurting girls and boys to participate in camp ministry. Whether camp is held at a church building or in an outdoor setting like Haka Lake—a camp base which SGA helped to fund several years ago—children can hear the Good News and learn that God has a plan and purpose for their lives. It’s a special time of discipleship and fun that helps build the Kingdom.

Read more from Vyacheslav . . .

Greetings!

We finished the school year on a high note! While May is often a time when attendance drops because children want to enjoy the outdoors, we had an amazing month. All of our planned meetings took place, we held some lessons outdoors, and we were delighted to see all of our committed students throughout May, moreover, we were able to reconnect with those who had dropped out earlier through the year, all thanks to meetings on the lawns of the orphanages!

We have made good progress in getting the children attend church meetings on Sundays: from the children’s side, we have some of them writing in advance a list of those who wants to come. From the church side, we have brothers (who are not involved in other ministries) who are ready to bring the children to church and back. We are hopeful to maintain this process in the new school year (until the children went to state camps, they continued to attend Sunday meetings). The kids are also thrilled about the camp and week-long retreats that we held at the orphanages, as they always are!   

Thanks to your support, this year, we had an opportunity to take some of the church children and children from the orphanage to a campsite on the shore of Haka Lake. It was quite challenging for the team and campers, as the train journey to the site took 12 hours, and at the destination station the train would stop for just one minute, but we made it. Surprisingly, the children handled the trip quite well. We took a van, and part of the team met the children in cars to cover the remaining part of the road.

This year our camp theme was based on the book of Daniel. The children had a spiritual journey in the “Lost Empire.” On the first day we celebrated a Jewish holiday, and the next day, the children were “taken to captivity” by the “Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar,” and then we went through all the elements of the book of Daniel, adapting them for the children. The children participated in creating an idol statue from the king’s dream, which later the king appropriated for himself and painted it in gold, compelling everyone to worship it, but eventually realized that he was wrong. Finally, the statue was committed to fire along with the notes listing wrong ways to worship written by the children. The king went crazy and ran on his fours, with one hand having blood on (made of special paint used in movie productions). Daniel was thrown to the den of lions; he talked prophecies on the latter days.

In addition to the camp theme, we wanted the children to learn and enjoy new skills, offering them classes of crafts like woodcarving, sailing on paddle-boards, and catamarans.

In the first few days, we were concerned with much rain falling in the area where we camped. It did not prevent us from conducting the outreach, but the water was increasing. The lake came out of its banks and the water came up close to one of the houses where the children lived, as well as the bathrooms area, so we had to build a wooden platform to prevent flooding. We were thinking of moving to the site and finishing the program at the Spiritual and Cultural Center in Khabarovsk. However, in spite of the forecasts and media reports that flooding would persist in our neighborhood, the water began to gradually recede and came back to normal within three days. On another note, it was both a blessing for our church and a challenge to get a cooking crew to feed 60 people (37 children and 13 program workers, nine who worked in the housekeeping and kitchen, and one caregiver from the orphanage). Now we understand that it is difficult, but not impossible thanks to the support of our church.

By God’s grace, we had a great time of fellowship, in addition to the scope of the main activities: we had large discussion groups during the day, small evening groups, and gatherings, but also in their free time the children eagerly sought fellowship and asked clarifying questions about God and Christianity. Several talked about their repentance and dedication to God.

Part of the spirit was achieved through singing daily the camp anthem. We had also a song written for the lessons, when we talked about Nebuchadnezzar and his empire.

A special blessing for us was the participation of a former graduate of the orphanage as an assistant mentor. The gild is now preparing for baptism (in the photo, the “Camp staff” she stands to the left of the “king”).

Running of the weekly outreach venues have already started, though not yet in all orphanages. The last one will be held in the last days in August. I will send a separate report on these in early September.

We are especially thankful for the additional budget for the camp—it was a significant contribution that allowed us to take the children to Haka Lake, in view of all campsites in our city being closed or having very high costs.