Ukrainian Team Training This Week

This weekend is our annual Ukrainian Team Training Seminar in Donetsk, Ukraine! As always it is a joy to spend time with our Ukrainian Team members from across Ukraine. Each year I am impressed with the dedication and quality of our team members. These young men and women are incredibly intelligent, dedicated, and sincere. They want to do the best possible work and they eagerly look forward to being with the American team members in the Summer. For those of you who have never participated in the Youth Camp experience, I wish you could meet and get to know these wonderful friends and co-workers. I am eager to reconnect with familiar friends. But there is also a bit of sadness, too. For each year someone may have had to move on to another country or to a profession that will not allow them to take off and work in the camps. This is the hard part of my job: missing my friends who for some reason or another cannot join us. I take comfort in the fact that they are with us in spirit and that they would join us in a moment if they could. This is a microcosm of what the youth camp program is all about: building eternal relationships and friendships. It is the fulfillment of the two most important commands: loving God and loving others. Every ministry worth the effort focuses upon these two primary tasks. If you wish to measure the success of any endeavor then hold it up to love. Does the ministry promote love of God? Does it demonstrate love toward others? Ministry is not ministry if these two elements are not at is heart. Please keep me in your prayers as I travel to be with my Ukrainian team members this week!