An Open Letter To Future Team Members

Guest post by Glenda Moore (Team Leader, Team Mayak)

Dear future team member,

I am writing to tell you that if you come to Ukraine your life will never be the same. Your eye sight, your taste buds, and every part of you will be effected in one way or another. This past summer we met with our Ukraine family and discovered that they are far more courageous, grateful for life, and giving than we could ever become. Camp was beautiful. Each summer we go and meet the most amazing kids who have overcome the most incredible circumstances. Many of our campers are orphans and they will attend the camp all summer from the end of May until late August. When we come to greet them, it is they that change us. 

This ministry is far more than a one time mission trip. Should you choose to accept this trip, these children will befriend you and you will be in contact with them all year long. Our camp (Mayak) is mostly an orphan camp and orphans generally rotate from one camp to another from summer to summer. So that means that you may not see the same kids each year. This fact makes it important for you to connect with them while you are at camp, build a relationship with them, and be willing to love with your whole heart. 

I challenge you to join us, to be forever changed, to befriend a world in need of hope and grace. We are seed planters and waterers along a path uncertain. We can only offer of ourselves knowing that we are the ones that will walk away forever changed. The mission, you may find, is fulfilled when you are the one forever changed. You will be split in two for the rest of your life knowing what it is to love people deeper and better in two worlds. Come with us. See. Grow. Give. Be Changed. 

Note: Camp Mayak is unique among the other Ukrainian camps in that it primarily serves orphans and for the most part serves the same group of kids all summer long (every three weeks a new smaller group joins the main group, but the primary group is there all summer long). Other camps have a complete turnover of children every three weeks.