More Summer Recap

I've already written a bit about Live Life Camp (the New Life Church evangelistic camp) earlier this summer. Rather than write more about the camp, I want to write about the follow-up and the continued ministry that is happening after.

I have mentioned Steve Copeland before. He is a missionary from New Zealand who teaches at a university here and owns an apartment which he rents out in order to support himself. He uses his English as a tool in ministry and it opens doors for him to build relationships with students. In the past he has started a school here in Kiev which offered free English lessons as a means of drawing new students to the gospel. He has turned that over to other hands and currently he runs a weekly Bible study and discussion group from his home (along with a home-cooked meal!). He uses this as a way to guide and mentor and evangelize.

A number of Steve's students (both believers and non-believers) attended this camp in July. Two of them gave their lives to Christ at camp and three are actively searching/seeking. They all are keeping in close contact with Steve's group and with myself and the other New Life intern. We have a wonderful opportunity to continue using our English skills as a draw and benefit to our ministry here rather than let our lack of Russian skills impede us. These students all speak English at varying levels and their English is an important part of the education at their university. Opportunities to talk with native English speakers are not taken lightly and discussion groups like this usually happen within a school situation and cost money. Of course, Steve always brings the discussions around to Christ and the gospel. He's not shy about what he's doing and doesn't hesitate to share with students the fact that he does these things for the sake of the gospel that he holds dear.

This camp (and the people who volunteered and helped) made a very real impact in some lives at camp. It was nice that I was already plugged into Steve's ministry before camp and have been able to continue interacting with these students and welcoming new ones to the group. Steve has encouraged me to start my own small group, using short guitar lessons as the draw. The format would involve a short guitar lesson at the beginning followed by a Bible study. Another ministry leader has suggested the same thing at a different time and I know there are already students interested in this.

Please pray for my courage to begin this endeavor if it is what God wants now. It will involve some firsts for me. I am also a little concerned about scheduling but I think that if I do it on alternating weeks (trying to shy away from the weeks I have extra evening rehearsals and services with the second worship team) then it can fit in. This would be a good opportunity to build common ground with some guys and have the regularity and opportunity to build into their lives.

Please also pray for Sasha and Sergei (new believers) and for the three students who are oh-so-close and who keep coming back for more: Eera, Sanya, and Vitya.

Here is a picture of Sasha which I caught recently. But regardless of the particular moment, this guy has not stopped smiling since he accepted Christ a month-and-a-half ago. I actually took this picture during setup for the last New Life camp which finished today. Sasha volunteered to help with the setup and teach a dance masterclass during the camp. He will also be dancing tomorrow in a drama at our church!

Here is a photo of a couple of my guitar students goofing off at Live Life Camp.

And here is a photo of our meeting area for worship and preaching. Some people put serious time into constructing this area. The photo above shows the stage area (which they built up in dirt with a small rock wall in front) and the one below shows the rest of the area. The church plans to put on a permanent roof when they have the funds.

Thanks for reading and supporting me. I know I have been seriously slacking on sharing what God has been doing here and what I have been involved in. I will try to post more information and photos from summer in about a week.

Summer

I have seen God work through many different experiences this summer. Some of them were ones I was excited about participating in and others were ones I had mixed feelings about. The summer started off great with getting to see some of my friends from Midtown church in Nashville and going with them to Kharkiv to work again with the orphan camp which was my first missions trip experience last year. I have already written about this a little but I want to include my reflections now that we are nearing the end of summer.

Even that camp had it's emotional struggles. My initial sense was of being overwhelmed and not knowing how we could really help this huge number of kids. God brought me through that within the first two days or so, thankfully. He also helped me figure out and adjust to the expectations and time tug involved with participating on both the American team and the Ukrainian team (as a member of the worship team). My experience was actually very much the same as last year's. For part of the trip I was concerned that I was missing something, expecting that my experience should be much different the second time around. But I believe at this point that God just chose to put me in similar roles as last year and grow my abilities within those roles by stretching them a bit.

One thing that I enjoyed seeing in myself on this trip was MUCH greater ease in interacting with the Ukrainian members of the missions team. These are the guys and girls of the coordinating, technical, drama and music teams. I enjoyed seeing the value and opportunity of being a liaison between Americans and Ukrainians and I see this being a role where I can assist and have helpful input in the future! I enjoy seeing the behind-the-scenes workings of a camp or program and looking at ways to make people more efficient, more able to communicate their needs, and more appreciated.

Through the yearly commitment of Midtown Fellowship to travel to Kharkiv and work with this same group of kids over and over again, many of the orphans at this camp now display a true knowledge of a relationship with God. The impact of God's people and God's presence is huge when comparing this same setting a few years ago during Midtown's first trip here (From what I hear. I didn't make it until the following year). What these kids really need now is a partnership with local churches who can provide more constant attention throughout the year and give them a support base as they graduate and begin lives on their own which they are desperately unprepared for. Please pray for this need.

I will follow up over the next week or two with more things from the summer. I hope to have time to track down and include some pictures to help put this summer into a more tangible form! Thanks for continued prayer even when I don't give regular updates.