"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all." 2 Corinthians 13:14
Camps
Within a year we do two different kinds of camps for orphans and orphan students, who have already left orphanages: winter and summer camps. Our summer camps take place at the seaside and we have been able to take 50-60 orphan kids + 10 orphan students there for 7-8 days. Our current goal is to reach 100-kids mark. It's a massive evangelism event where most of these orphans accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Most of them refer to one of these summer camps as to the turning point of their lives. Winter camps take place right in the orphanage and are mostly follow-ups to summer camps and relationship builders. Many orphans have accepted Jesus in winter camps, though, especially the ones who weren't able to go to a summer camp or the ones who did go but couldn't make up their minds. Coastal Church, (Vancouver, Canada) has been supporting these camps and sending missionaries to present the Gospel to the fatherless and to demonstrate our Heavenly Father's love in action.
Summer camp
Summer camp is a starting point in our relationship with orphans. So many of them would come to one of these camps not knowing what to make of all those talks about God and then would leave in a week having invited Jesus into their hearts. They mostly don't know our volunteers as they come, but we become friends along the way and we treasure their friendship and trust. We open our hearts and share our lives, striving to show them Christ and what He has done for us.
During a Summer Camp kids have no time to get bored. The camp schedule is made up in such a way that one interesting activity gives place to another even more exciting one which creates a unique atmosphere of joy and fun combined with prayer, Bible study and worship. Our primary goal is to give personal time and undivided attention to each child and the number of volunteers in our team along with the missionaries coming from abroad makes it possible. We believe that the follow-up is as important as the camp itself that's why our volunteers come regularly to the orphanages where these kids live, encouraging them to keep on praying and following Jesus.
Winter camp
Winter camps are held right in the orphanages which we visit throughout a year. A winter camp usually lasts 3-4 days and is full of exciting activities, such as: indoor and outdoor games, sport games, quests, shows, arts and crafts time and of course praise and worship time, evening meetings and Bible lessons.
Christmas time is a family time in every culture, so the kids who stay in the orphanage for Christmas become acutely aware of their loneliness. Our volunteers willingly give up spending Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve (which is a big deal in Ukraine) in the family circle to spend it in the orphanage. Just as in any project of our ministry, in winter camp we aim to give each orphan maximum personal time and attention.
One of the greatest problems of orphan children is the lack of hope and self-respect. They struggle to believe their lives matter, that's why they often give themselves up to destructive lifestyle. When we come to the orphanage for a winter camp we want to make these kids feel that their lives count. We pray a lot for them and with them, read Bible stories together, encouraging them to believe and to reach out for what their Heavenly Father has in store for them. Of course, no Christmas can go without gifts and we make sure to bring them useful things, usually something to make their free time more interesting, like skies, table tennis equipment, soccer balls for boys amd Barbie dolls for girls, stationary, good books, etc.