You may have read our theme for camp and wondered, what exactly does that mean? We first came up with this theme due to the political unrest in Ukraine and all the talk of being for Ukraine or for Russia. But the deeper underlying meaning and goal was to get the kids to understand their choice of living with God or against Him. Our speaker, Pastor Valentyn, spoke on character, integrity, and choosing to live a life of conscious decisions and values - either for or against God. Camp was full of thought provoking discussions and games that had to do with the theme, crafts, soccer, baseball, and free time. The kids even painted different banners symbolizing the two sides and their understanding of what each side means to them.
ALINA
Camp was the first interaction 18 year old Alina had with any ministry of Open Arms Ukraine or our local church. She's currently dating one of our regulars and we are so thankful he wanted to introduce to Open Arms through spring camp. It was amazing to watch God work through camp as we began a relationship with her there. She expressed how much she loved camp and how glad she was to meet everyone. By the end of the weekend, she already said how excited she is to start coming to our weekly Wednesday night meetings. We can’t wait to see where God leads us in our relationship with Alina and what He will do in her life.
This camp was run by the smallest team of Ukrainians and Americans we’ve ever had, and we were a little worried of how it all would go. In the end we were lucky to have such a great group of kids who were so excited to be at another camp. God gave the leaders the necessary energy and resources and our unified team was able to run everything smoothly and successfully.
We are so thankful to all of our sponsors and those who prayed for our camp! Every kid at camp received a bag of hygiene items, socks, toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, deodorant, shampoo, and lotion. Thank you to Temecula Hills Christian Fellowship for all the hygiene items and to the Church @ Clayton Crossings for all the socks! The kids were blessed by the gifts. Again, thank you all for the role you played in our camp! We could not have done it without your faithful support!
