It's been 15 years since we, then a few Christians from the Central
Baptist Church of Kyiv, first visited children at Kyiv
orphanage # 21. After some time, we had an opportunity to conduct our first
"Little Lamb” summer camp with them. Then we had camps with children from
orphanage #12...The Lord expanded the boundaries of this ministry and over
these years we have had nearly 50 Christian camps for orphans in different
regions of Ukraine.
Time flies, children grow up, but thanks God, they remember us, visit,
call, write letters and invite for the wedding. We are sincerely happy to see
them in our churches. Along with that, we wanted to gather some former
graduates who live in
{mosimage}{mosimage}{mosimage}Imagine the diverse company of 150 persons: students and
co-workers of our first camps, Christians and "advanced" modern
youth, young mothers with their children. All were happy to see each other,
some even hadn't met for years. It was also very noisy in the hall but it
became quiet in an instant when the preacher Stanislav Gruntkovsky invited all
to pray at the beginning of the meeting.
...The violinists’ ensemble played. It was something special. The
music filled the hearts with peace and reverence. The event took place in
domestic warm atmosphere. There were memories heard and slide shows of the
pictures taken back in camps years ago, funny contests for married couples, games
for the youngest ones and the Bible quiz.
The testimony of Victor Lodzinsky was interesting as well. Most of
graduates knew him from school, that is why his words about how God changed his
life sounded in a special way. Lilia Bilodub sang a psalm about trust in God. And
those were not only lyrics but her life's testimony.
We remembered Sasha Chigireva who works in
{mosimage}{mosimage}The culmination of the evening was the preaching by Stanislav. It
was evident that the Word of God touched the hearts of the listeners. At the
end, singer Igor Melnichuk sang. He, together with his family, wife Miroslava
and four sons, sang a few songs for us. This was very beautiful. He sang about
how dearly God loves us and how, through our life experiences, He carries us in
His hands as a Good Father.
Everyone was touched. And when we saw tears in the eyes of people,
all difficulties, exhaustion concerning the preparation were forgotten. It was
wonderful to see the Lord's action and to be His co-worker. This joy exceeds
all efforts spent!
We want to thank the Central Baptist Church of Kyiv for the hall
given, the violinists’ ensemble, Tatiana Sakhno (MC), preacher S. Gruntkovsky,
I. Melnichuk and his family, Victoria Vozna, sound technician, photographers,
Sunday school graduates and to all brothers and sisters who helped organizationally
and financially. Special thanks to those who supported us in prayers. We apologize
to those we couldn't get in touch with by phone to invite them. Maybe it's
worth dreaming about the next meeting...
Co-workers of All-Ukrainian Community Charitable Fund “Strumok”
Translated by Natalia Lucus and Anna Sedova
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