Ruka Dopomogy Camps

Two weeks of Summer Camps are in the books.  The first week was mostly middle-schoolers; the 2nd week, mostly high-schoolers.  The camps were sponsored by Ruka Dopomogy, the Ukrainian organization I work with in training churches in a Jesus-Focused strategy of youth ministry.  Most of the churches that attended the camp have participated in our training.

I worked at a large, residential camp 3 summers ago near Lugansk.  There were a couple hundred kids and the facility was a run-down Sanitoria- a wellness retreat of sorts, from back in the day.  I also worked at a Day Camp here in Uhzgorod last month at a really nice guest house/hotel.

But this was different.  Understand: this time last summer I accompanied the Zion Hill Baptist Church Youth Group to StudentLife at the Beach in Daytona, FL.  Louie Giglio was the Camp Pastor; Chris Tomlin and others led worship.  We stayed in a resort hotel on the beach.  There were 6000 kids there!!  It was big-time to say the least.

These two weeks were a little bit different.  Thirty kids. Tent camping.  Cold showers.  Outhouses.  The food was pretty good- simple, authentic Ukrainian fare provided by a couple of sweet local ladies everyday.  The campsite is a Dacha (a country home with land for a garden) that's owned by one of the participating churches.  There were other camp facilities all around our property, some more, some less developed.  We basically set our tents up around the farmhouse.  Services were held in a small shed or outside on the hillside behind the house.  We had Bible studies and messages in the mornings and evenings.  We had "track-times" of English Worship, Arts and Crafts, and Sports.  We had large-group games everyday.  It was all you could wish for in a camp without bells and whistles.  (Ok, there were a few instances of bells and whistles.  We did use a projector for movies and we had a simple sound system for worship.  The best use of technology was playing drums on an Ipad to accompany the guitar during worship.)

Here's some pictures:

Slovakia Road Trip

So I got this friend.  Susan W.

Way back in 2005 I was the Camp Pastor for a week at a World Changers project in Pikeville, KY.  There were 4 college/post-college kids on staff for that camp and I've stayed in touch with 3 of them ever since then.  Susan W was the staff team leader.

Last week I was surfing Facebook when I ran across Susan's status saying that she was packing that night and headed to Slovakia the next day.  My first thought was, "dang, that's right next door".  (Literally, it is- the border is probably a mile or two from my house!).  As the weekend progressed I started wondering if I could swing a quick road-trip to see her.  Turns out she was serving in a small town about 3-4 hours away.

Of course, nothing is ever that easy!

So last Tuesday I went by the Bus Station and bought a ticket to Kosice, Slovakia for the next morning.  That part was easy.  I was pleased with myself!  I figured once I got to Kosice it would be easy to find public transportation to Jelsava another hour or so away.  Yeah.  That's what I thought.

According to the Internet (which is always right, right?) there were buses leaving every couple of hours.  I figured I'd take the bus to Jelsava and then grab a taxi to the hotel where the team was staying.  No problem!

Upon arriving in Kosice I learned that the next bus left in 4 hours so there I sat and waited...not knowing until it was too late that I was a block away from the Mall and the McDonalds!  Live and learn.

Finally, about 3 pm I caught the bus to Jelsava and when I got there I discovered the only town in all of Europe that doesn't have taxi's standing by at the bus station.  To be fair, it's really not a bus station...just a bus stop.  I knew the hotel was out-of-town and up a mountain a few miles away.  I asked around and figured out that the bus going back up the mountain would be another hour wait.  I played charades with a girl in a bar for a few minutes trying to find a taxi.  She made a call for me but as best as I can tell the taxi just didn't want to take me up there.

So after a few minutes of contemplating I said a quick prayer for help getting to the hotel (really, I'm embarrassed to say how quick and faithless a prayer it was), and I started walking.  I thought, worst case, I'd have to walk 5 miles, or maybe I could hitchhike.  After about 5 minutes of walking I saw little a Roma girl running past me with her face painted and the crazy thought occurred to me that the team might be in town doing ministry.  A few minutes later, I saw more kids and was really beginning to feel I was on to something.

The I saw a big bus pull out of a schoolyard and I thought...yep, that's them.  Or rather, that was them.  I just missed them!  But alas, there was still a couple Vans in the parking lot.  Someone directed me to the one with Americans in it and when I asked if they were from World Changers, the driver asked me if I was Susan's friend!!  In a matter of minutes I was on top of the mountain with 50 or so students from International World Changers.  I spent the night with them at the hotel and I got to visit with Susan and some pretty cool IMB Missionaries working with the Romani people group; I even met a MSU Grad that's getting ready to move to London.  I got to spend a few hours with them that evening doing ministry with 100 or so beautiful Romani Children (lots and lots of them in that little community!).

And just so you don't think the adventure was over at that point: The next day I planned to go back to Uzhgorod (because I'm a busy guy!) but lo and behold yesterday was a National Holiday and the bus schedules were "abbreviated".  As far as I know I caught the only bus out of the village that day but couldn't get a bus to Uzhgorod.  So like all suffering servants I got a room at Best Western in Kosice and had a Dr Pepper to go with my Subway Sandwich and Walkers 100% British Potato Chips.

Jelsava is a small and pretty run down village in a small valley in the mountains that seems to be inhabited by a lot of beautiful Romani people.

Here's some of the World Changers with the people they were ministering with all week.

Here's one of my color-enhanced shots of sunset and a kid with a very bright shirt!

Meanwhile, back in Kosice.  This is the Philharmonic.  It once was an 1100 seat Synagogue.  Pre-World War 2 there were 12,000 Jews in Kosice.  All but 600 were killed in the Holocaust.

St Elizabeth's Cathedral, the easternmost Roman Catholic Cathedral in Europe, construction began in 1390ish.