In just sixteen days my feet will be standing on American soil (!!!). Until then, my eyes are fixed on the “here and now”. The last stop on our journey is a children’s camp (“Jeremiah’s Hope“) in Evankiv, Ukraine. Here you’ll find PLENTY to keep busy: volleyball, tetherball, soccer, swimming, arts & crafts, playground equipment, badminton, Bible classes, camp Olympics and more! There are tie-dyed t-shirts, scheduled naps, small cabins for the kids to sleep in, and sand in the bed sheets. Everything you remember about camp as a kid…it’s all here!
During our stay, we’ve had the pleasure of working with INCREDIBLE teams from Australia, Holland and Texas/USA (you know who you are!). As the teams come and go, it’s difficult for us to watch them leave, but the blessing they’ve been to the campers and our team far-outweighs the pain of (yet another) round of goodbyes. For the past two weeks, we’ve been hosting groups of campers from social service homes. The kids arrive on Monday morning, and leave on Saturday afternoon.
Many of the children here at camp come from troubled homes. For most, things like physical and verbal abuse, neglect, alcoholism, drugs and abandonment are part of their everyday lives. Our oversized van drives through their villages on Sunday night to invite them to camp, and comes around again on Monday mornings to gather those who’ve packed their bags and are outside waiting for us, ready to escape for a week.
Jeremiah’s Hope provides these children with food, a warm bed, how showers, clean clothes, and new friends who share in their same struggles. Through sports, bible classes, arts & crafts, movie nights, camp Olympics, funny skits (etc…) we’re presented with countless opportunities to love on these kids-to show them a glimpse of Heaven through laughter, safety, provision, friendship and protection.
Our team is loving the way God is moving through this camp. As we clean toilets and brush out pony tales, set the table and tuck kids in at night, play duck-duck-goose for the umpteenth time and mop (and re-mop) the floors…we see God’s love in action. It’s softening hearts. It’s comforting. It carries with it a banner of hope and strength. God’s love is forming a shield around His children, and when they leave this camp, it continues to cover them. Praise the Lord!
Given the relationships we’ve been able to dive into with campers and staff these past few weeks, I can joyfully and honestly declare that there is no place I’d rather spend the last month of my race than here, at this camp. I praise God for His unconditional love for us all, and for the ways He chooses to display it right before my eyes!
If you’d like to browse through a few photos of our first week of camp, please click here! 🙂
Love to you all…I’ll see you soon!
