Ukraine English Camp '09 Part 3

The rest of the week followed the same schedule as Monday, each day building on the others as far as teaching them more and more about Jesus, who He is, and our need for Him. By Friday we could see many of the kids thinking through the whole process. Many of these kids had grown up in church traditions, but not ever learning of a relationship with Christ. Many others of these kids have grown up with basically no knowledge of God. Quite a different set of ideals, but both of them lost. We had many Christians in the group who had brought many of the other kids with them. We spent so much of our days building relationships with the kids. They kids would have trivia to ask us or homework questions like,"What is your favorite type of food and why?" if the class was talking about food that day. We did games in the evening with our Bible Reading/Conversation Groups. (along with everyone else) We had some goofy ones. One of my favorite days was the waterfight on Thursday or Friday. They were having a bunch of games with water balloons. One minute they were throwing the balloons at each other and the next there was a deluge of a rain shower. It was quite funny! One of the girls from our English Class had asked us earlier in the week when it was raining if it was raining cats and dogs. We told her not then. Dan told her that it was raining puppies and kitties. After the water balloon fight, I told her that that was raining cats and dogs. She said that she could feel their claws it was raining so hard! Friday evening is Gospel night. We spent quite a bit of time in prayer that day. We knew that many of the kids had been thinking through what they had been learning that week. I could truly see "wheels turning" in a few of our girl's minds in our group. One of the conversations that we had had earlier in the week that came back on Friday was that the Americans that they had met had so much happiness. They thought that it was due to our political freedom. We were able to tell them that the Americans that they have met were Christians (our youth group has gone there for the past 3 years and has had English club when they have been there). Our joy is due to the fact that we have a certainty on our future. This brought one of girls into more deep thought. Friday night was amazing. I know that God is incredible, and I should expect the impossible, but we saw it. Each night, one of the Americans or Canadians would share their testimony. Friday night, one of the Americans and one of the Ukranians gave their testimony. Alonya, one of the Christian translators, shared her testimony. She was saved the year before at camp. It was exciting to see how powerful her testimony was to those who were going through the same thought process that she had last year. We saw 13 kids accept Christ at camp. It was wonderful to listen to them share what they were thinking and feeling. Saturday was our last day at the camp. We were finishing up classes as well as keeping up relationships--we weren't done yet. Saturday night we had a banquet decorated with Canadian flags. It was fun. There is no national pride in Ukraine, so it was good for them to see a National pride. At the end, we left the camp. We spent our last 4 nights in the town of Odessa with one of the missionary couples. There were 8 of us in their apartment. We spent our days doing things with the kids. Sunday was church, picnic at the Black Sea and pizza and Fireproof. Monday we saw Odessa, shopped and did an evening talent show. Tuesday we did a WWII war museum and memorial. This was interesting to see from the "Russian" side". Tuesday night was the goodbye evening. We watched a slide show of our week and said our goodbyes. We were amazed at how many of the kids did these things with us. Some of the people were coming from far away to spend a few hours with us. We are on facebook and emailing with a few of the kids. This definetely was a lot of work, but it was very rewarding. It was a great opportunity to feel the ministry of the team in Odessa as well as see God work in a different way. If anyone has questions, please ask. I wish that I could write more, but time and my poor writing skills keep me from doing that. My pictures are all in the album Ukraine English Camp'09. I'll have to add photos soon.