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:
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:
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