We’re excited to share a wonderful report and slideshow from Olga Goncharenko in Belarus…
Dear friends,
We are glad to share some personal news as well as camp news with you!
The month of July was very fruitful. We had a team from MA, ran two camps, and our third child (a baby girl) was born on July, 28th. She is adorable. We are still working on the name. We thank God for her and ask His blessings on her life.
Camp for orphans from Sluytsk and foster families. (The story continues below the slide show)
[postcasa width= height= size=large bgcolor=000000 align=center showcaptions=yes]http://picasaweb.google.com/data/feed/base/user/107346076513704900222/albumid/5502405182649902577?alt=rss&kind=photo&hl=en_US[/postcasa]From the very beginning this camp was God’s real miracle. First of all, we got a team of 12 wonderful people from Holden Chapel, MA. The team was led by Pastor Tom. It’s the only team we had in two years. Secondly, as we started looking for camps in the spring, it was not easy to find one that would accept us and the team. But our God is so good that we found a camp on Braslav Lakes. We have never been to that area, so we didn’t really know what to expect. It turned out to be a wonderful place; the lakes were great, but the most important thing was that we had complete freedom to do whatever we wanted and to run our own program. One of our translators, Lena Lisovich, said that have not had such freedom since 2001, when we ran our very first camp.
And thirdly, the group of teenagers was also a great blessing. From the very beginning we were planning to have orphans from Sluytsk. But at the end of May it became obvious that the orphanage would be closed, but no one knew when and until very last week we didn’t know if Sluytsk orphans are allowed to go. In the end, everything worked out very well.
The camp was for 7 days and we had 30 teenagers. The program was prepared by the team from MA and it was great. The team was very well prepared and organized. We learned a lot from them. The teenagers were divided into 4 groups. Every day was full of many events: soccer stations, craft time, small group Bible studies, big group activities, swimming time, etc.
The whole program was based on the message of Salvation. The key verse was Romans 10:9 and everyone learned it. It was really great to see older boys participate in all the activities. At the end everyone was given an opportunity to accept Christ as their personal Savior. It was precious to see those who made the commitment.
As the camp came to an end there were many tears, but everyone knew that it was a great time blessed by God and no one will be the same after it.
