We greet you with the love and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ, dear brothers and sisters from the USA, our partners in evangelism in Ukraine.
Today, having a little rest from the worries of the camp, we want to write to you about our service in the Christian camp Candela in more detail.
1.Thanksgiving:
-First of all, we want to thank God for the peaceful sky and favorable time during our camp.
-We thank God for the protection and security of the team of 5 people from the USA who came to serve in our camp.
-Thank you to all the brothers and sisters in the Lord from the USA who donated their money to sponsor this camp. We ourselves could not have paid such a sum, because in the camp there were many displaced children who lived near us during this war in Ukraine.
-We also thank you for supporting us all this time in your prayers before God. And thank God for the fact that He heard your and our prayers about this camp and answered us with a blessing and His protection over us.
-All these children thanked us for such a blessed 5-day camp, where they rested with all their hearts. And the most important thing is that the sown Word bore fruit in repentance and at the end of the camp 35 teenagers and children repented - Glory to God!
-We are also grateful to the team from the USA of 5 people, led by Cornel Stef, who is the president of the PIEI America mission organization. They worked very hard here with us both in the camp and when leaving the camp every day. And the result is very positive - 25 people who received glasses from Sister Debbie prayed the prayer of repentance - Glory to God! May the Lord bless them all richly!
2.Working with leaders:
-During this difficult time of war with us, it was very difficult for us to look for leaders for our camp. Many former leaders went abroad. But we prayed to God that God would send us those people who we needed to serve in the camp. And thank God that God found us the right number of youth leaders who served God with all their hearts. We also fasted together and prayed that the Lord would bless this ministry.
-And on July 21, at 4:00 in the afternoon, all 20 leaders arrived to prepare the camp for July 22 in the morning. Already all the children who were supposed to come to the camp were distributed to their rooms. And then everything went according to the camp program.
3.Camp program:
- All 5 days served according to the camp program, which everyone had with them.
-Leaders’ prayer and daily planning at 7:00 am, exercise, prayer with leaders in each room, breakfast at 9:00, Bible studies for all 3 groups from 10:00 to 12:00. Lunch at 13:00. Then from 14 :00 to 16:00 swimming in the pool. And 16:00 sports for everyone. At 17:30 to 18:30 again 1 hour of Bible study for all 3 groups. Dinner at 19:00. At 20:00 - Evening worship, where there were sermons, songs of worship, where youth from the camp participated, and games, skits and various competitions. Thank God everyone liked this program.
4. Dividing the camp into 3 groups to study the Word of God:
-The first group was the group of David Beckwith's brother - from the USA team, who had a very useful theme for these teenagers. "Know yourself. Personal relationship with God." Brother David worked with these children for 5 days. They had a lot of questions and Brother David always answered these questions. And in his group more than half of the teenagers were from non-believing families.
-The second group was introduced by the teacher, brother pastor Pavel Petikhachny. Its theme was from the Sermon on the Mount of Jesus Christ from Matthew 5 - How to have a pure heart and be blessed. This group really enjoyed this study of God's Word.
-The third group was introduced by teacher Sister Tamara Buzdugan. The teaching topic for the group was from the Gospel of John, which indicates that Jesus Christ is God. There were also lessons about Christian ethics, what should our words be? Speak every day without any foul language. God's blessings to us depend on this. At the end of this camp, many of these children who loved to use foul language changed their behavior and some repented, thank God.
As we wrote to you before, 70% of these teenagers were from unbelieving families, so it was a little difficult for our teachers to teach, but thank God that many of these teenagers repented at the end of the camp.
5.Evangelism with glasses:
-Four brothers and sisters from the US team went to the villages every day, from 10:30 to 18:00 in the afternoon, where they prepared to check the eyes of people who needed glasses. Doctor Debby Conry brought glasses and every day she gave 70 or 100 glasses to people who came to church in the villages where we visited them. These villages: Dinivtsi, Kotileve, Rokitne and Tarasovtsi. And in these churches 25 people from the world prayed the prayer of repentance - Glory to God. The consultants (spiritual guardians) family Philbrook Stanley and Cristen, and brother Cornel Stef, president of the PIEI America mission organization, worked very hard. They also had 3 translators who translated the team from the USA.
6.Evening worship in the camp:
-Every evening in the camp there was a worship service, where all the youth participated in this program. And the worship group, and sermons from our brothers from the USA, as well as various skits, competitions and games. Everyone enjoyed such evenings where the name of the Lord was glorified. And on the last evening of the camp, 35 teenagers repented. Later we will write their testimonies of repentance. In another report. This will be separate from this report.
-On the morning of July 27, after breakfast, all the vacationers went home. Many, with tears in their eyes, told us that they had spent so few days in our camp. Everyone thanked us for this wonderful camp.
7. Meeting of our missionary families with the team from the USA:
-July 27, in the morning, at 10:00, our missionaries of the PIEI Ukraine mission, together with their families, met there in the camp in Boyany with a team of brothers and sisters from the USA. We had a blessed meeting where we all thanked the Lord for the favorable time for the ministry of our brothers and sisters from the USA. We also thanked God for protecting us all during this turbulent time of war in Ukraine. We had good communication together and a delicious lunch.
-After lunch, we all went home, and the team from the USA went to our home, in Chernivtsi, where they were located at my house.
8.Visiting 4 churches of the team from the USA.
-We also visited two churches, with a team from the USA, Rokitne and Dinivtsi, on Sunday July 21, and on the second Sunday on July 28 we visited Tarasovtsi and Kotileve. The brothers and sisters from the US team had the Word and preached, brother Cornel Stef preached and glorified God through singing on the guitar. It was a very eventful program - thank God.
9. Seeing off the team from the USA:
-July 29 in the morning, at 5:30, a team of brothers and sisters from the USA, led by brother Cornel Stef, left for Romania, to Alba Iulia, and from Albu on the second day they reached their homes in the USA. We all prayed for them to get home safely. And thank God that we heard the good news as our brothers and sisters returned safely to their homes. We are very happy and grateful to all of them for their service to God here in Ukraine. May the Lord bless everyone and return them a hundredfold for your sacrifice.
Once again, thank you all for your love and support for Ukraine. We love you and are praying for you. With love, the Petikhachnyy Pavel and Larysa family.
