from L to R last row; Artyom, Vita and Stepon (our translators) Vita's father and mother,Vasya and Maria.
We camped on top of the mountain and went to bed watching sunsets like the one above. We were staying on Vita's parents farm.
It was so nice to get some good Ukrainian food. Vita's mother even cooked us some food from the Carpathian mountains. I loved her cook shack. It was so quaint. There was a big, wood burning cook stove in the corner and then cabinets and a little work table. Why would you want to heat up you house in the summer time with cooking, when you have a great place like this. You should have seen the tomatoes growing right outside the door.
When I say that this trip was no vacation, I'm not kidding. Working with the gypsy kids was WORK!!! I have never done children's ministry with kids like these gypsy kids. You can't help but love them, but man are they Wild! Most of them have never been to school so they can't read. Not only that, they can't sit still, or be quite. You just have to talk over them, and them reward the one that was the best behaved.
We tried to play games with them but that didn't keep their interest very long.
We did feed them every day after telling them a Bible story, and singing with them. We tried to make crafts with them and some of them kept eating the craft supplies.
Our time was split between being with the children and cooking for them.
Of course when you are serving food all the moms come too. Artyom was helping serve the gypsies here. I was so proud of him and the way he loved the kids. He is a very, VERY clean person, and gypsies are... well not. At least the ones we were with. The paster required the children to wash their faces before they could come to VBS. One little guy had no pants but he got his butt cleaned as well as his face. But Artyom would hug those little kids even if they smelled bad and had lice. I prayed the we would see the little people that needed to see God's love not just the dirt.
They all just found a place in the shade and chowed down.
After they were done eating , what do you know, they had a new hat. Who said that one person's trash is another's treasure? Any way they could be pretty funny.
One thing for sure, they really loved the watermelon. I think one little guy even used it for hair gel. Hey why not? They make fruit smelling hair spry, don't they? The kids had not been taught a lot of manners, and we had a hard time getting them to say "please" or "thank you" for anything. But when I had a big bowl of watermelon and I would only give a piece to the ones who would say "please", they learn real quick.
Even though we were all worn down by this time and it was the hardest VBS of the summer it was so worth it when you saw the smiles on their faces, the twinkle in the eyes and....
... the group that came forward to pray. We showed them how to pray and ask God to forgive their sins. Then we knelt down and prayed together. It was one of the hardest things we did this summer, but Oh, so rewarding. If you can't tell, I kinda like being a missionary and teaching kids about God.
Slavic came to camp for the first time this year. He is from our village and from the looks of it he is enjoying camp so far.
We set up our tent in the trees along the beach and set up camp. We all slept in tents, bathed in the sea, ate food cooked over the fire and used the bathroom in outhouses. The weather was nice, no rain. It was cool in the mornings and evening and pretty warm during the day, but not unbearably hot. We thank the Lord for a great location. Here you can see our church set up. Workers tents are on the one side and behind the cross was the boy's tents. Looking the other way was the kitchen, more worker's tents and then the girl's tents.
Here we are all unloading and getting ready for the week.
We had 25 campers this year and we split them up into two teams. Our team leaders for this first team, Light of God, was Jeff and Tonya Duddek. Their helper and translator was Vita. They were a great team. Their team learned the most Bible verses. Thanks Jeff and Tonya for all your work!!!
The next team was the Seraphims. Jeff and Stephannie Appling were their leaders and Stepon as helper and translator. They did a wonderful job leading their team. The teens really learned to work together and won with the best time in the morning obstacle course several times. Good job Applings!!!
Nodiea and Roman led the singing for us in the services. The teens really liked to sing and Roman did a good job leading them.
Not only were the Applings and Duddeks leaders they acted out skits every night before the evening preaching.
Every day we gave the teenagers time for them to have personal time with God, reading their Bibles and praying. I am so glad that we did this. One boy told me that he couldn't wait until this time every day. He would run to his own quite place on the beach so not to waste even one minute of his alone time. How many of us are that serious about our prayer time?
We had a ticket system at camp where the teens could earn tickets for memorizing verses, taking part in the evening services, and extra work. Then they turned them in at the "store" for snack food. Some of the teens really got into earning tickets. Faith ran our store for us. Thanks Faith!!!
We had so much fun this year. Our theme was "On the trail with Jesus". Every day we learned something new about staying on the path to Heaven. Many of the teens said that it was the best youth camp yet. Thanks to all who prayed and gave.
Here we have started off and swinging across on the rope swing. Then on to the .....
team skies. Artyom had such long legs and took big steps that his team kept falling down. There were other things they had to do like fill a bucket with water from the sea by passing a pop bottle down the line of people, and walking across a board, Oh and crawling through a tunnel.
One day they had to climb the rope to the top.
I think the best part of the obstacle course was lining up the words for John 3:16 (in Ukrainian) on a board and then carrying until you crossed the line. If they hurried too much and dumped it they had to start all over again.
It was a great way to start the day and it really helped with team spirit. I think it really brought the teens together and taught them how to work together. Not a bad thing for anybody to learn.
Here is another picture of that wonderful night. Thank you for everyone who prayed for this camp and the teens.
After they all had a chance to nail their sins to the cross, we took them all down and burned them in the camp fire. Praise the Lord we don't have to carry those sins with us any more.
Yes, the skits were great and the night services were a highlight for me. But there were other times in the week that we all felt God's presence near. Like the early morning worker's prayer meeting. We had prayer together before the teens were allowed out of their tents. Seriously this prayer meetings gave me the help I needed to make it through the day!
So many memories, and so many things I could tell you about. Like singing around the campfire after the evening service...
The jokes the teens played on each other. The girls took the boys shoes and buried them on the beach. As you can see they were very happy when they finally found them.
Another joke that one camper found when he climbed out in the morning.
I love the memory of the teens on the beach having their quite time with God. Please pray that God's Word will impact their lives.
One thing that most of the workers and teens both agreed on was that everyone like the food. Nodiea and Aunt Valya did a great job. It was so good that some of the teens said it was like restaurant food. Cooking over a campfire in the heat is not an easy job, but they worked hard. Thanks for all your work!!!! ( and the good food)
Over all youth camp 09 was just pretty good. Perfect no, but good and lots of good memories to have for a life time. Thank God for a good youth camp and for you praying for us.
The week before that we were camping on a different mountain range and working with gypsies. That was the most challenging VBS of the summer. It was hard, but I am so glad that we did it. When thirteen children come forward to pray, you know that it is worth everything you put in to it! We also fed the children at this camp. Here they are enjoying the watermelon.
Then the 10-15 of Aug we had our youth camp by the Black Sea in southern Ukraine. It was a great camp even though were missed Katrina who was in the US getting her leg fixed. I have a lot of pictures to share with you as soon as i get them all organized. So you can look forward to hearing all about it. Here is one picture for you though. We had 25 campers and two teams. This is just one of the teams. Jeff and Stephannie Appling were the team leaders and Stepon was the translator. Jeff and Tonya Duddek were the leaders of the other team.
We want to thank everyone who has been praying for us this summer. God gave us help and protection all along the way. A week ago we got back home to Osikiva and started right into home school. Here in Ukraine, school always starts on Sept 1st. So we have one week of school done. But things haven't slowed down very much for us yet. Tomorrow we have to get on a train and leave the country to keep our visas legal. If you think about it say a prayer for us. God is helping. We are encouraged, but very tired. So I will catch you up in more detail when I return.
