Dear brothers and sisters! 
With gratitude to God, we 
share the fruits of the Christian summer camp “One Step Closer”, which took place on the territory of Rudenskaya boarding school for orphans with mental and physical disabilities. We have been praying and preparing for a long time, dreaming of bringing light and hope to every child at this school. There were 23 volunteers in our team — people who love God and these guys, people who work and have dedicated their summer vacations to serving at this camp. The camp program was designed to take into account all the children’s needs and to make it easy for them to understand simple but very important truths.
Our camp themes were “One Step Closer”: to joy, to love, to hope, to faith, to victory, to freedom, to forgiveness, and to God. In most families, parents help their children develop their feelings and skills, but who will help an orphan? These children live in groups of 15, and a single teacher cannot teach them how to behave or respond to situations. Every day we discussed one topic.: “One step closer to…” For example, on Freedom Day, the guys shared what they want to get rid of — bad habits, anger, obscene language. One teenager asked: “Please pray for me, I’m tired of living in this sin, I really want to be free!” After him, all the other teenagers from his class began to ask for prayer support and opened their addictions to God.
Also, when we were discussing
the topic of forgiveness, many said that they live in non-forgiveness to their parents for not being able to overcome their weaknesses and addictions to alcohol, drugs and a criminal lifestyle. When we opened the topic of forgiveness Sasha, he is 16 years old, said: – For the first time I prayed for forgiveness of my parents and it was so relieving. During the camp, we developed a very good relationship with the children and the teachers. Every day, we worked with the children in the garden, and during our work, they shared about their lives, what had happened, and why they were there. During one of our conversations, Lera (who is 18 years old) said, “When I graduate from school, I want to join your ministry and travel to schools like this one, giving children hope through Jesus.”
In addition to the Bible meetings, we also held art and craft classes, where we helped the children gain confidence in themselves and their abilities. Many of the children had low self-esteem, and by creating beautiful handicrafts, they were able to experience the joy of learning a new skill while also showing empathy towards others who had more difficulty completing their work. Sports games and unity games helped children to release their energy and emotions. After the games, they were more calm, attentive, and friendly. Each game was designed to teach the strong to help the weak and to stop humiliating others by encouraging and inspiring them to win.
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I am grateful to God that on the last day, when we were discussing the topic “One Step Closer to God,” more than 60 teenagers decided to pray a prayer of repentance and ask God to help them restore their lives and regain joy, love, hope, faith, more victories, freedom, and forgiveness. Additionally, some teenagers shared that they had prayed a prayer of repentance in the previous year. For example, Ksenia (age 17), who had repented in the previous year, reported that she had become more joyful and kind. She began to read the Bible and live according to God’s commandments. Her teacher said that Ksenia has become a different person, more calm, less aggressive, and more capable academically.
We are so glad that with God, 
children have hope and faith, and their lives are filled with deep meaning. The camp has come and gone, and many teenagers have expressed a desire to learn more about God through the correspondence Bible school program. Pastor Igor has started working with them. We have tried to build a good children’s evangelism service, so that every child is reached with the gospel and love. After the camp, we continue to work with the graduates, meeting one-on-one, communicating and being mentors for them, who help them make the right decisions in life. Together with the team, we come to their cities and villages, where we introduce them to brothers and sisters from the local Churches. Dear friends, thank you very much for your prayers and support! Let us pray together that the good seed we have sown will bear good fruit in their lives. With gratitude, the Belarusian Orphanage Ministry Team.
I want to share with you the good news: the camp that we planned for orphans from the Belinichy boarding school took place, Thank God! We called our camp “The Secret Inside” and
chose a golden verse from the Bible, Proverbs 4:23 “Keep your heart most of all, because from it are the sources of life.” Conducting Bible lessons in the morning and evening meetings, we focused on the state of our hearts, what we think, what we worry about and what we believe. Every day we had a special name, for example: the secret of obedience, the secret of 
forgiveness, the secret of loyalty, the secret of love. Throughout the day, communication with children, games, creativity, and most importantly, examples from God’s Word were focused on making everyone understand the importance of kindness, obedience or love. The first day began with a secret in 
kindness, and the children talked about how they had seen very little kindness in their lives and rarely managed to be kind to others. Nadia said that it was easy for her to be kind to dogs, because they do not betray, but not with people, because the closest people abandoned her and when she asked them to come, at least to visit, they cheated and did not keep their promises. Already towards the end of the camp, after the topic of forgiveness, she decided not to be kind on her own, but to learn from Jesus and draw kindness from communion with God and Bible study.
behavior stems from wounds and pain that destroys their heart. That is why we did not try to correct their behavior, but allowed God, through the truth of the gospel, to free them and heal broken hearts. In our team of volunteers, we took only people dedicated to God with a changed character, because the children we serve have mental and physical disabilities and sometimes, in order to test us how much we 
believe, they can hit, call and even spit in our face. Yarik and Timothy, in 
order to attract our attention, sometimes showed aggression, but seeing our kind smile in response and calm speech, they stopped behaving like that and asked us to pray for them to change. The girl Sasha, who for 10 years did not want to communicate with anyone, was sad and closed from everyone. A few days later, a smile began to appear on her face and she expressed a desire to learn golden verses from the Bible. At the end of the camp, her eyes were shining, 
and she was completely different, joyful and peaceful. Sasha said that she felt safe and very much loved next to us.
How wonderful it is to see how God’s love changes the lives of these children! Back in the camp, we held creative lessons, where we taught them drawing, modeling, and other useful skills for their development. Each craft was not only beautiful, but also useful – these are water bottles, paintings for the room, T-shirts, grocery bags and much more. I wanted them to learn how to do the right things with their own hands and at the same 
time, so that they did not have to spend a lot of money. All the guys tried very hard, and together we were happy that they had new skills and a useful hobby. When we held games on the street,
we taught them unity in the team and helping those who are weaker, taught them to say words of support and encouragement. Throughout the camp, we talked a lot and listened to everyone’s opinion, thereby showing their significance and importance.
Artem from the older 
including children with Down syndrome, are located. There are 83 children in the school, 56 children were participating in the camp. Our camp was called:”You’re Special.” Our goal was to plant the acceptance of themselves as the Lord created them into the heart of every child, as well as to help them reconcile with God and find a relationship with their Father, getting rid of the aftermath of 
orphanhood and self-dislike forever. We have been coming to this boarding school for 17 years, conducting Bible lessons, helping children develop their talents and gifts, teaching them to overcome bad habits and build their life on the Word of God. Conducting a camp on the school grounds gave us the opportunity to surround each child with love, care and be an example for them of how believers live and act for 10 days. 
On the first day, we shared the theme of the camp and asked the children if they concidered themselves special and what it meant to them. The children unanimously answered that they are specia because of particular diseases and various deviations in physical development that they have. It was painful to hear, and we could hardly hold back tears of compassion, but it gave us confidence that we could help them change and learn the truth about themselves and about our Creator. When we held Bible lessons, we took as an example the heroes of the
Bible who were also without parents, unloved, betrayed, humiliated, but they dedicated their lives to God and accepted by Him, to whom God entrusted great deeds and their names are recorded in the Bible and in history. One of the days we devoted to the importance of forgiveness. 
We shared our testimonies, how we forgave those who offended and even those who did not ask for forgiveness. They said that forgiving makes it easier for us and thus we become more like Jesus Christ, who never kept a grudge. One of the girls, Anya, said that she was able to forgive her parents and stopped being angry at people and even began to sleep better, stopped worrying. Tanya said that she was very angry with God for being born without an ear and having hearing problems with the
second one as well. She asked God for forgiveness for her grudges and anger and began to read the Bible to find out what God is like and how much He loves her. At all evening meetings, we talked about how each of us was wonderfully created by God and the verse that was the most 
influential was Isaiah 49:15 “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!”. We discussing that they are not a mistake and God will not leave each of them. We taught them to pray and talk about their experiences, pain and fears to God. Even children with Down syndrome (who could not speak) began to cross themselves during prayer, with such gestures they showed their prayer.
As well as Bible lessons we held sports games, which were mainly targeted the ability to work in a team, where everyone is important, and mutual assistance and the ability to support each other are needed to win. At first it was difficult for them and the guys quarreled with each other. Those who were stronger did not help the weak, but after a couple of days each team really became united. Everyone who were a bit stronger, helped the others the most, encouraged each other and, of course, won! At the end of the camp, the teachers told us that they were watching us and 
seeing that love and care for all children, they can say with confidence that we are believers not only by what we say, but also by what we do! We were grateful to God for having an opportunity to be a good example for people! At the last evening meeting there was a call to repentance. God filled the atmosphere in the hall with His love so much so, that even the most 
reserved guys hugged each other and us, and also sang loudly, praising the Heavenly Father! About 25 children that evening prayed a prayer of repentance, for which we are very grateful to God and to all those who supported us through prayer! And the end of the camp we had our traditional “Birthday Celebration Day”, where we were able to congratulate all the children at the same time, regardless of the season and date of their birth. In addition to birthday cakes, the children were able to receive great gifts that gave each child a lot of positive emotions!
Hi everyone!!! I would like to share my impression of the amazing summer camp we were at. Our camp program was called ‘Your time’. Every day we had interesting, amusing and unusual games (such as soap competitions, water games, the zoo, life in an hour, a banana relay race, dodgeball and others) and different activities (such as crafts, the school of trials and discoveries, board games, the flying fox and catamarans). But besides that, we together with the children found the time to dream, love, act, win, forgive and reconcile with God. Good and sunny weather helped us enjoy this time as well, although there was heavy rain and wind in other parts of our country.
We were lucky to see around 85 talented, amazing and at the same time difficult and wounded children at this camp. Each of them got a bunch of emotions, freedom from the wrong mindset, made new friends and just had a good rest in this good forest place with clean air. I think I will remember not only the children who repented and a great and joyful atmosphere during the worship, when all the people in the room praise God. We all have the things we struggle with and these children are no exception. I was happy to see that many of them made a decision to go on fighting with bad things in their lives (such as their bad habits; denial to forgive their friends, parents, other people; discontent with their lives, themselves and God; inability to love; unwillingness to see their mistakes and correct them). It was such a joy to see that they could do it.
There was a guy in my group who had an adopted boy in their family. He said that they bullied their brother and wanted to get rid of him because he was a little mentally disabled, he didn’t appreciate their help, didn’t listen to them and just annoyed them. He told me that he wanted his brother to leave them as soon as possible as he couldn’t stand him. At the end of the camp after we had discussed the topics of love and forgiveness, I asked him if he was willing to give his brother another chance and he said that he wanted to give it a try.
Another girl after the emotional abuse from her aunt (to cut the long story short) said that she was ready to forgive her because she didn’t want to be like her aunt. We have so many stories like these ones. It’s awesome that God gives these children strength to do this and they go and do it.
LOVE 4 THE CHILDREN 