We praise God for the blessings to work with children in Moldova especially knowing that many children do not have their parents close to them, since many parents left the country looking for jobs in other countries in order to provide money to feed their children. The children are often left with their older brothers and sisters, sometimes grandparents and even just neighbors to watch after them. In this situation our Summer Camps are crucial for them because for many of the children it is the only opportunity to experience love, care and understanding. For many children and youth, our camps are the help they need to stay away from getting into smoking, drinking and drugs.
This year, by God’s grace, we were able to organize 17 summer camps in many cities and villages with over 1,100 participants. Most of the camps were day camps when children came for the day, and at the end of the program they were sent to their homes. In the morning, the program started again. We taught Bible study to them, sang many Christian songs, played games and sports, spent time with them showing love and care, and hugging and encouraging them.
Every morning kids would come 1-2 hours early, because they were looking forward to our programs and just couldn’t wait. When we arrived they ran to our car with a smile and expectation. Our youth prepared Puppet Shows for every day when children could meet different animals and birds from the other side of the world, telling them the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Everyday we had newcomers because they were telling their friends about the program and somebody would get interested and join the crowd. Usually the group almost doubled every day. And the most difficult thing was to close the program on the last day. Children were crying and asking to come back and some were even running after our car as we were leaving.
We went from village to village, and every time we found children ready to hear the story of Jesus at any cost. Sometimes it would rain and most children did not have an umbrella, but it was not a problem because they came anyway. Many times they had their little baby brothers and sisters to watch after, but this wasn’t a problem because they would carry them up to 1-2 km in their arms just to be able to hear the stories from God’s Word.
Even adults attended the children’s lessons. In one village, a lady about 90-years-old was present every single day at our lessons. She could not stand for the whole lesson, but it was not a problem – she brought a little chair every day and sat and listened God’s Word.
The camps were also a great encouragement for our missionaries that are planting churches in villages as they participated in these camps along with our teams. It also gave our missionaries a new field of work – visiting all of the families represented in the camps and starting new home Bible studies with these families for follow up.
