The Camp!!

What we’ve been waiting for is here!!!  Today is the camp move in!!

 It is 7:30 am.  Clear skies.  Beautiful Sunday morning. Our team loaded the bus and headed to Shatsk, Ukraine.  A beautiful part of Ukraine is located in the most north western part of the country. It is less than 10 miles from the Polish border and about 5 miles from the border with Belarus.  The bus ride was approximately 3 hours.  Our team used this time to connect as a team, to pray.  Eugene led a worship service on the bus.  More time for devotionals and more training. 

 We arrived at the camp facility around noon and our team immediately started to prepare for the family arrivals.  We soon got the word that Ukrainians were 1 hour away.  This proved to be bad intel that led to some confusion.  As our team was getting ready, all of a sudden we hear “the BUS is here!!!”  What bus?  Our plan was to be outside, welcoming the families and we thought we had another hour to get ready.  We had to move fast!!

As the families started to come out of the bus, our team jumped into action.  Boys on the team helped with bags.  It was wonderful to finaly see the faces of those we came to serve. 

We moved into our rooms and settled.  That evening we had a camp opening ceremony.  We started with worship music and a 10 minute welcome.  Then buddies were assigned to each child and all kids left, leaving the parents in the large hall.  Was it smooth?  No, but it was wonderful.

We are finally at the camp with the families.  The Lord brought us to Ukraine, he brought the families and we pray that His Name may be known in Ukraine and beyond. 

More about the 2019 Camp. 

 Liya Christian Ministry operates in Ukraine under the name Wings of Faith.  Wings of Faith is a non-profit organization that helps families who are raising children with disabilities. McLean Bible and Liya Christian Ministry partnered with Wings of Faith for this trip.   

Dr. Zoriana Vuiv is the founder and the director of Wings of Faith.  Wings of Faith helps the families that have children with disabilities.  The organization provides physical help (Wings) and moral and spiritual (Faith). 

The camp that our team hosted this summer was for the families who are part of the Wings of Faith ministry.  These families all have one thing in common - They are special families with special children.  This year Wings of Faith decided to have the camp for Autistic children and some children with CP. 

Our team consisted of three groups.  First group were the specialists from the USA.  They are trained to work with children with disabilities and have many years of experience in this field.  They were tasked to work alongside the Ukrainian team.  They worked directly with the children. 

The second group was called the “buddies.”  Every child at the camp had a buddy.  We made a promise to all parents at the camp - “We WILL watch your children, please relax and enjoy the camp.”  Every buddy was responsible for a child.  For the next 3 days each buddy and a child would be inseparable. 

The third group was tasked with working with parents.  Pastor Dave Young led bible studies, Timofey let the SO WHAT talks, Randy Huntley let men’s bible study, Holly worked with women, Dr. D led the music during the time of worship.

In addition to the three teams, we had a number of leaders responsible for running the entire camp.  Zoriana and Andrea helped to keep the schedule, Julie was instrumental in making sure the team was well cared for an Eugene led our team in devotionals and time of prayer.

We had a total of 120+ people at the camp this year.