Darryl - Youth Camp Program

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.

^{Guest post by Ray Castellano}

I have never understood the reality of what a calling is, until I stepped foot on the grounds of Camp Smerichka.  God can use us all, even someone like me who is far from perfect.  From the moment I first walked through camp with the children, my heart belonged to Ukraine.  The hearts of the children yearn for Christ and their willingness to learn is something I’ve never seen before.  God used me in ways I never thought possible while teaching lessons to the teens.  We all laughed, we all cried and we all found common ground through God’s word.  I never have had a group of teens stop me after class and ask for another lesson.  An extra lesson on their time, an extra lesson about God’s word and an extra lesson in a secular camp.  In this same camp children run to get in line for the best gift ever, a Bible.  Putting a Bible in their hands can lead to the greatest gift ever, salvation!  

^{Ray Castellano being mobbed by his class on the final day of camp!}

I never thought this trip would affect me as much as it has during the past two years.  I started this journey asking God the help me touch at least one life.  He did not let me down; he changed my life!  He changed my daughter’s life who joined me in camp this year.  He changed the life of one of my first students who is now one of my interpreters. He changed the life Bogdan who has his own Bible and does not have to wait on the family bible to make it to him in rotation. He changed Vika’s life for bringing her new friends that accept her for who she is.  This mission changes many lives and there are many more stories.  My connection to these children is amazing as I message with over 275 of them daily on social media.  

I’ve sat in the pews and listened to the reports about spreading God’s word.  Always clapped and congratulated those that go into the world.  Thanked them after their awesome presentations on the work they did.  I wrote checks telling myself “I wish I could do more“.  I was excited to help put the care boxes together for people around the world, putting my own special note inside.  I’ve spent decades of being content with staying in my comfort zone and not pushing the limits of my talents.  

Now I can’t imagine not pushing the limits, not leaving my comfort zone, and not returning to Ukraine to do Gods work.

Let’s Go!

-Ray Castellano (Team Spirit, Burleson)

_{A guest post by Terry Kile}

Sometimes…

God whispers in your ear and touches your heart and he says “this way – go here – do this.”  And you have a choice: to listen or not.  That decision, seemingly small at the time, can have huge and lasting effects on your life. 

It is an invitation to go to Ukraine, to be in a youth camp, to work with kids, to hand out Bibles, to show God’s love, to teach them to love God and love others.  That invitation, that whisper, that nudge can bring you into contact with amazing people from around the U.S. and around the world.  Those people can enter your heart and become a part of you forever.  That team can become the family for whom you’ve been looking.  That activity can become the life-mission for which you’ve been longing.  Those friends can become so much a part of your very essence that you cannot bear to be apart from them.  That country and those kids can dominate your mind even when not at camp – they can invade your sleeping dreams almost every night, and become the primary goal of your waking dreams.  That adventure, that calling, that activity, that one-in-a-lifetime and forever-life-changing activity in a Ukrainian youth camp can be amazing.

Sometimes…

God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things.  They are weak and uncertain, or are proud and overly sure.  They are ordinary, everyday people like you and I.  They bind themselves together with his love and together become unstoppable, insatiable, unchanging in their desire, no, in their need to be together in that country with these kids in this camp. 

The Americans find new and amazing friends among the Ukrainian interpreters.  The Ukrainian interpreters find strength and encouragement among the Americans.  Both Americans and Ukrainians learn from each other what God’s love is really like.  Both groups enter each other’s worlds and live in the hearts of each other.  These people that hear the whisper, that step over that threshold into a new and amazing adventure – these people are never the same again.

Sometimes…

God loves a land and a people and a generation so dearly that he sends others from far away to teach and live his love among these children he loves. 

This Ukrainian country is still so young, but is home to a people that are ancient.  These people have lived at the crossroads of empires for thousands of years, who have been pushed and dominated and hurt by greed and power-seeking of neighboring nations.  These people saw the birth of Christianity for an entire continent, saw it subverted and used for political means, and now so desperately want it back. These people want God’s word, want his love, and want to know Him.  These people want God and will eagerly respond to God if, and when, someone listens to God’s whispered invitation to join him in that land, to bring his love and show them first-hand what his love is like.

Sometimes…

I hear God whisper to me.  And I take a step of faith over a threshold into a land far away.  And my life is changed forever.  And I go back again and again.  Because I must.

God is already there in Ukraine.  Waiting.  For you, too.  To listen to his whisper.

This time…

Will you say yes?        

-Terry Kile (Team Imagine)

 

^{_{Guest post by Sue Ann Mills}}

I cannot begin to truly explain what happens to you when you open your heart to the ministry of these EEM Youth Camps.  I do know what Bible Camp meant to me growing up.  Do you remember that feeling of anticipation that you had?  You couldn’t wait to see your friends, sing the songs, laugh at everything, and feed on the shared Spirit your life seemed to be lacking.

When I saw the EEM Youth Camp video, I was drawn to the sights and sounds of camp in a faraway place.  Brilliant, twinkling eyes and eager smiles.  These camps were not like my Bible camp at all.  The video said it all, “You have to go”.  And “go” I did, over and over again.  Seven times to date.

There was an amazing common bond from my camp experience in these children, they genuinely anticipate a summer at camp.  But they seem to long for it with more passion than I ever did.  This is “The experience” for them for the year.  They love being in camp and gladly accept everything that is offered in camp.  And we are now a part of that experience.  We are allowed to come in and live the love of God and teach his Word!  How amazing is that?  These are not Bible camps and yet we are sharing the Spirit and love of God.

But there is more. 

We have the most amazing interpreters, they are our co-teachers and family.  They give up their family time and take their vacation time from work to come share this experience.  It is the experience of the year. We love them dearly and cannot survive without their friendships.  We connect throughout the year and have an amazing bond. We cannot communicate the love of God without their sincerity and shared love.  We share our love of God with one another and then turn that powerful love loose on a camp of hundreds of children, counselors and staff.

It is rushes and ripples like a powerful river through the camp, God is amazing.

He has introduced us to so many new friends. We have met, befriended and love hundreds of sweet faces in a far away place. We see them in our dreams, we seem to look for them in crowds at home and we long to meet them again each summer.  

In the past we have traveled to the Eastern side of the country where a war now rages among a people we love.  There are prayers and constant communication with so many of them. We will see them again.  

I guess you can tell, its not just going to camp, its not just the beginning of throwing the seeds of God’s word.  We get to see the instant eager, acceptance the seed will have, and the growth that comes with His power. Then we come back the next year and the next. 

It is amazing.

Love God, Love others and go to Ukraine… I can read that in so many places in my Bible.  “Here I am Lord, send me”.  

He pointed me to Ukraine.  He must be pointing you, as well. 

Want to come with me?

Sue Ann Mills (Team Imagine)

 

Guest post from Geoff Casella

What I love about mission work is what I love about reading God’s word: there’s always something new. Our team (Agape) has worked with Camp Smerichka in Western Ukraine for 11 years. What I really love about the program is that it involves unique experiences in interactions with Ukrainians and providing God’s word in their own language.

Every year has its challenges and through those challenges unique opportunities to demonstrate whether we believe in the message we bring or not.

Camp demographics have changed somewhat in the past two years. We have more children from Central Ukraine. They can’t go to the East for camp because of the conflict there. But they don’t quite fit in with the Western children either. Camp becomes a place where we demonstrate love for those different from us, and where we encourage others in their attempts to be accepting of those different from them. 

And it works.

Most of all, we are giving children, camp counselors, staff, and even some of our own interpreters the opportunity to see Christ in a new way. It isn’t about doctrine that can become politicized, but about faith that can be personally realized. Because of this we can stay in touch with children throughout the year, even those who cannot return to camp because they are moving on to university, marriage, and even starting their own families. In the process, friends and family of these children also have the opportunity to receive the word of God.

We’ve also had opportunities to distribute Bibles in the local village. Americans can’t generally comprehend the joy this brings to families and whole churches who cannot afford to purchase their own Bibles. All efforts in the Youth Camp Program are now without challenges. But I’ve come to see the challenges as incomparable to the joy of having done what I can do in this effort.

A couple of weeks of your life each year is a true blessing to both others and yourself!

-Geoff Casella, Team Agape (Houston, TX)

Five teams of 80 Americans and Ukrainians touched over 2,000 lives this summer in secular camps of Ukraine! What an amazing impact on the lives of children and adults in Ukraine.

I could spend time writing about the raw stats: the thousands of Bibles distributed, the exact numbers of kids taught, and camp staff served. There is a place for that and soon we will post the annual camp report.

For now, I’d like for you to see what the people are saying. These voices represent interpreters, American team members, and even campers.

First, a statement from The Government Courier a newspaper in Ostroh, Ukraine. Correspondent Inna Omelyanchuk spent time in one of the camps observing one of the teams. This is what she wrote.

And even I came home with a gift: a set of Bibles in Ukrainian. And I thought that these smiling Americans came to our country at a right time and with the right purpose and how much they were able to accomplish for two weeks: they discovered Western Ukraine for themselves and for their interpreters from the East of our country, they strengthened faith in goodness in hundreds of little hearts! Humanity and compassion determine everything in this world! “Summer with the American Volunteers,” The Government Courier, August 19, 2015

Here are some observations from campers, former campers, interpreters and American Team members.

…thank you guys for this important part of my life and thank you for your teaching (I mean not teaching a lessons in Camp, I mean teaching of life’s lessons). I’m [a] really lucky person that …all of you were my teachers.

-Sasha, former camper

 

I was astonished by friendly, kind and patient attitude of American team… I admire these people as they all had to pass through the serious hardships, through pain and doubts, through the things that break other people, but they survived. Moreover they saved the light of love inside them and gladly shared it with others. I’m not a very sentimental person but when somebody tells you “I love you just because you are” it touches the thinnest chords of your soul. And this is amazing.

These days spent together with kids  – I’ll remember them for all my life. Now I know that love and attention transform an impudent teenager into a nice and open guy ready to help you…

 This camp opened a new and unknown side of the life for me. I’ve met amazing people there.  I’ve found wonderful kids and we’re still in touch with some of them. I can definitely tell that I’ve learned a lot about love this summer.”

-Anna, interpreter

 

You taught our class, remember? …Thank you so much for the books. You know, I always wanted to read the Bible, but somehow hands did not reach. And now, I do not know [how], but I pretty much changed my worldview. Just thanks!

–Ukrainian teenage camper

 

It’s actually extremely difficult for me to even put into words how visiting and making friends in Ukraine has changed my life, but it has immensely. I get messages every other day from one of the kids in camp or a counselor or one of our Ukrainian team members… It’s amazing to have so much love for people who are so far away… I was not expecting it to be so emotionally intense, but I’m glad it was. I made real friends and I left a part of my heart out there. I cannot wait for next year.

-Marissa, American team member

 

The teams of missionaries that come to Ukraine are a huge example of bravery and devotion to the ministry and people of Ukraine; especially considering the current situation in Ukraine…It all matters. There is nothing meaningless at camp. Whether it is helping a child with the beads for a bracelet…or distributing the Bibles, it all matters in the eyes of the Lord. And it is a great honor and pleasure to be a part of it.

-Nastya, interpreter

 

I told you last year that I viewed your coming to our country in such a difficult time as a heroic deed. I know that many people in America are amazed and surprised that you are coming to our country with such a great and needed mission in bringing up children. Children are the future of your country and our country. They are most important. The future will depend on the way we bring them up.

–Alexander Pishcheyko, President, Ukrainian Association of Workers of Children’s Health Resort Establishments

So, what did you do this summer? What about next summer? You could make a lasting impact on Ukraine! Think about it. The Summer of 2016 is waiting!

 

It has been a little over a week and a half since our teams met together at the Hyatt Place Grapevine Mills in Grapevine. Teams are now in full swing preparing for their adventures in Ukraine this summer! As usual the event was filled with great reunions, new faces, excitement, and anticipation. We are ready to go back to our lovely Ukraine!

Five teams are preparing to go–yet they represent seven teams! 

Really?

Team Imagine is made up of team members from Fort Worth, TX and Winston-Salem, NC and former team leaders and members from Team Love Wins (Aurora & Pueblo, CO) and Team Inspire (Las Cruces, NM). While extenuating circumstances kept each team from being able to form a full-sized group, those who were committed to going were not going to back down. Ukraine is in their blood and they are not about to skip a year! This team is lead by veteran leaders Terry Kile and Sue Ann Mills.

We also have Team Agape, the veteran team that has been traveling to the same camp for years: Camp Smerichka. Geoff and Sherry Casella have been leading this team since 2006 and they are always ready to return to their Ukrainian friends! They will serve the kids in the third session of camp.

Team Mayak primarily from Amarillo has been setting up creative communication strategies with their team members and their interpreters. They have been in regular communication with their counter-parts in Ukraine through social media. Using a closed Facebook page, they brainstorm lessons, review cultural differences/similarities, and keep each other motivated. This will be team leader Glenda Moore’s third year to work in Poltava (Camp Mayak). She is assisted by her trusty co-leader Tami Carrol. 

Then there is Team Roza from Tyler. Roza is returning to Ukraine after a bit of a sabbatical–but now they are rested and eager to serve. They will be traveling to Western Ukraine (Camp Edelweiss) which is about a 20 minute walk from Camp Smerichka. Team leaders are veterans: Marjorie Hollingsworth and Liz Frazier.

Finally we have a brand new team from Burleson, TX: Team Spirit! This team formed as a “team plant” from Agape. Last year Ray Castellano served as co-team leader with Team Agape–John and April Young from Burleson also were part of Team Agape. They so fell in love with Smerichka they felt the need to create their own team in order to share it with others in their home congregation. John Young will be the co-leader along with Ray. They will be serving kids in the second session of the camp.

So, you think you aren’t able to participate this year? Au contraire! You may not be able to travel to Ukraine on a team this year–but you certainly can participate. How? To quote an old campaign slogan from The Voice of the Martyrs,

The least you can do, is the most you can do: pray!

Will you be a prayer team member? Lift up these five teams, the team leaders, members, and the camps they will be serving this summer. We at EEM believe this is not about us. We don’t make things happen: it is all God. So we need people like you to keep petitioning our God that he will further his goodness, love, and peace throughout his beautiful country of Ukraine. Pray that he will use these dedicated volunteers to be a part of his agenda to touch lives.

If you would like to consider traveling to Ukraine as a team member, please explore this website. Contact us and we’ll be glad to talk with you about all of the possibilities. If you would like to have an EEM representative visit your church to talk about the opportunities to serve the children of Ukraine, simply submit a request online and we’ll get back with you!

 

There are so many conflicting legends regarding Valentine (or Valentina) that no one knows how much is truth and how much is just plain old fiction. Common stories suggest a man who was committed to sharing the message of God to the point that he tried to convince Caesar Claudius II to become a Christian. For his trouble, he was beaten with clubs and stones and then beheaded.

This isn’t exactly a fun story for a day normally associated with flowers, sappy greeting cards, candy, and romantic poetry!

During the days around Valentine’s Day, though, I cannot help but think of what it is that compels so many of our volunteers to travel to Ukraine to teach biblical character, distribute Bibles, and build relationships with children and adults. The motivation that drives our volunteers is simply love: nothing more or less.

Jesus tells us the greatest commands are based summed up in the word love. In Matthew 22 Jesus tells us the highest command is to love God with our entire being and the second command is to love our neighbor, as we tend to love ourselves. The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7 and the parable of the Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) make it clear that “neighbor” is an all-inclusive term covering everyone, even (or should I say especially) our enemies.

 Throughout the New Testament, writers like Paul and James echo Jesus’ words that all commands are summed up in the “royal law” which is, “love your neighbor as yourself.” One cannot claim to be a Christian and ignore the command to love God and neighbor. It is the heart of our calling. It is at the heart of our behavior.

 So, as you mail that card, buy that candy, or bouquet of flowers—remember that Valentine gave his life showing God’s love. He believed in this love of God and neighbor. Remember it was love like this that changed a world and can still change a country like Ukraine. It can still change a world–even though it seems like power and violence are winning the day.

On Valentine’s day and every day after, take a moment to pray for our teams who will be working hard to raise funds so they can go and demonstrate God’s love to his children, the Ukrainians. Better yet, after you pray, contact us and see how you can be a part of this amazing opportunity to serve!

 Be God’s “valentine” to someone today!

Every year working with the EEM Youth Camp Program is filled with surprises. Each year is like a new child born—a new child complete with potential, challenges, unique personality, and incredible joy.

The 2014 experience was perhaps the most unique to date. We only had three teams with 26 American team members and 25 Ukrainian team members. Yet, the impact was perhaps the most powerful and meaningful ever. I had never witnessed teams bonding with kids (and adult staff) quicker or more deeply than in 2014.

I do not know what will happen this year. Ukraine has experienced so much pain. It seems like the heartache will never end. Because of this it is all the more important to embody the love of God by returning and serving.

We have a potential for six teams this year. Fifty-seven team members have signed on, including over 20 new applicants. One team is a brand new team and being sponsored by one church! We have another team that participated in 2012 and is now back and ready to go!

Here are the teams:

• Agape (Houston, TX & Las Cruces, NM)
• Burleson (Burleson, TX)
• Imagine (Ft. Worth, TX & Winston-Salem, NC)
• Love Wins (Aurora & Pueblo, CO)
• Mayak (Amarillo, TX)
• Roza (Tyler, TX & West Monroe, LA)

Please keep all of our teams in your prayers. Pray that God will continue to open doors to touch lives through demonstrating the mind of Jesus, teaching biblical character, and distributing Bibles.

Remember, the least you can do is the most you can do: pray!