In only two months, summer Christian camp season across the CIS will be here. Here is a special chart illustrating what God did through your prayers and faithful support, along with a wonderful report from Belarus sharing the fruit of last summer’s camp harvest.

What God did through you in the 2016 Camp Season

• 349 Camps
• 11 Countries
• 17,103 Children attended 
• 2,561 Repented

Pastor Boris
Vitebsk Region of Belarus

Our camp sessions took place along the Braslaw Lake. The children ranged from 9 to 16 years old, and we had 40 children in the camp. 

The name of our camp program was Alpha and Omega, and the goal was to tell the children as much about God as we could. We used the biblical names of God in the camp such as Mighty God, God Almighty, The Lord Who Sanctifies You, The Everlasting King, Jesus Christ, and Adonai – the Lord. Every morning the kids assembled a jigsaw puzzle of God’s character. The Bible lessons were Who is God?, Where Can We Learn about God, “Why do men need God, How Can Man Come to God, etc. 

On the last day of the camp, we talked about repentance and gave an invitation. Uliana came to the Lord after the lesson, and the next day Anya, Sasha and Dariya repented. Anya and Uliana visited Sunday church service after the camp season, and Anya’s parents allowed her to attend our Sunday church services and Sunday school. But sadly, now Uliana’s parents are against the church and they don’t like their daughter to attend, so they are no longer allowing her. And Sasha’s mother is totally against the church. We will keep them in our prayers, asking the Lord to change their hearts!

Pray for the Little Pearl Camp in Belarus!

Late in 2016, we became aware of a serious financial challenge for the SGA-sponsored Little Pearl (Zhemchuzhenka) Children’s Diagnostic Camp in Belarus—a challenge so serious that the camp was threatened with closure. 

We are praying for God’s gracious provision. Camp director Pavel Mishchenko wrote to share the fruit of last summer’s camp sessions for children who have radiation caused cancer and other physical ailments . . .

We had successfully completed five camp sessions including two for disabled children and one session for children with cancer. A special blessing for us is that afterward, the children from non-Christian families have shown the desire to attend our churches. In addition, other meetings with Christian youth are already being held for these families. Many of them want to come back this year. They tell us that they have never been treated so well as they have here at Little Pearl. We have only done what we are supposed to do as Christians (Luke 17:10), but for these children it’s been a great testimony.

Many children were sincerely moved to tears. Sadly, disabled people in Belarus are not treated in the best way by the system, but for us they are unsaved souls who have need for the Good News and the love of Jesus. As the Apostle John wrote about how Jesus healed the ill at the pool of Bethesda . . . having five porticos. In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered (waiting for the moving of the water), they believed that an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water (John 5:2-4) —this reminds us of our society. So many are sick and needy. And we’ve tried to do everything we can for them. And there are a lot of Bible hours where they can hear the Gospel.

Our prayer is that God will provide the resources needed to keep this wonderful facility open reach thousands more children with the Gospel, while providing important das diagnosis and treatment.