A lady from Germany, whom I sent a photo from the camp, wrote to me: “How joyful it is to see the smiles of children from Ukraine.” And indeed, today every child’s smile is of the highest value.
Bringing joy to children in the midst of the difficult reality in Ukraine is one of the reasons why we decided to hold the camp. Children lack positive emotions the same as adults, even though they understand less about what is happening around them. In this cruel reality, when you can often hear adult words from them in relation to the enemy, there should be enough love for counterbalance.
From August 23 to 25, teenagers and several adults of the Evangelical Lutheran congregation of Novogradivka organized and conducted a camp for 20 children of primary school age.
The theme of the camp was “healing”. On the first day, we remembered, how Jesus healed the man, who was born blind, revealing the glory of God. On the second – how he healed the paralyzed, and on the third – how he raised Lazarus. In the first two stories, Jesus forgave sins, and in the last one he said: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live”. Even though the topics were quite complex, we were able to understand a lot.
Apart from Bible classes, we did crafts, learned Christian songs, played games, and had fun at the evening program.
We thank God, each worker, and each child because we all made the camp happen!
Now, starting from September 4, we hope to continue our work in Sunday school and youth meetings.
