Russian Youth Camp - 2007 Report

Kostya, this years camp director, wrote this email to share with you, “The 2007 youth camp was one of the most amazing camps I have ever experienced.  Location was beautiful, food-fantastic, games-exciting, sermons-effective, small groups productive, prayers-penetrating, worship-overwhelming, God’s grace-awesome.   We have tried to invite two types of teens this year; our non-Christian friends (as much as possible) and Christians who starved for serving in the camp.  The result of God’s work exceeded all our expectations; we have experienced a rise and maturating of many young leaders as well as marvelous emergence of new praise ‘n’ worship band.  But what we celebrated the most was the repentance of 13 out of 20 former non-Christian teens who gave their hearts to the Lord Jesus Christ! Those who did not repent admitted they want to come next year.  Please express my gratitude to all of those in America who made all of this a possibility!  May God bless them as they have done to us.” Konstantin Gayduk

Praise the Lord from Whom all blessings flow!  This camp was deemed the best ever by everyone involved.  The facilities were great (Russian standards), food was incredible, and leadership did a tremendous job, we didn’t have to share the camp grounds with any one else (which in the past had been a problem, since we are a Christian camp and the others were not). But the most important thing was that 13 young people came to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ in their lives!There were four young men who were very skeptical when they first arrived at the camp and after experiencing the joy on the faces and lives of other campers, hearing the Word, and spending time with their small groups and leader, they came to a time of weeping and wanting to experience that joy.  It was such a privilege to pray with those boys there in the worship center after everyone else had left and they were compelled to stay.Please pray for those 13 young people that they will stay strong in the Lord and will influence others to experience the same joy in their lives because of the love of Jesus.  Pray that they will be a shining influence in their homes so their moms and dads will see the difference Christ makes.  Pray that they will“Spiritually exercise for a stronger relationship with God!”

I’m sending along a couple collages of pictures with this report so you can see some of the activities that took place during the camp.  The creativity of these kids never ceases to amaze me.  Everything thing they did was done in extreme heat, in excess of 100 degrees every day, the highest temperature reaching 118 with absolutely no breeze.  I asked them one day if they really thought it was extremely hot and every hand went up of course, I then reminded them that it compared to nothing as to what hell would be like!

With the rules changing in Russia for churches using the camp sites, we continue to see an increase of costs to conduct the camps, this year the camp and related expenses was just over $9,000.  God provided through your generous giving and the youth took time to express their love for all of you that helps to make their highlight of the year a reality.

I want to share with you that before I left Russia, God gave me the theme for next years camp and I had the opportunity to share it with the leaders of the camp and we are all excited about what God has in store.  The theme is “Passion of/for Christ!”  The first night will be centered on the passion that Christ had and has for us; we will show the film “Passion of Christ” in Russian language and point out the continued passion for us.  The rest of the camp will be to highlight the passion we should have for Christ because of the passion he had/has for us and in what ways we can express through our Christian lives our passion for Him.  Each day we will have a particular passion that will be emphasized.  Passion says I get to, I choose to and I want to!  Obligation says I have to, I must, I should, I oughta, I gotta!  We want these youth to serve Him with passion because they get to, choose to and want to!  Start praying now for next years camp that we will stir the passion in these kids and see great results from their passion for Christ!

Thanks again for your continued support and the lives you touch through your giving, on the other side of the world.  May God continue to bless you in all you do for Him!