Summer Bible Camps
Evangeline’s Story: 6-year-old sharing Christ at Bible camp
Lives are changing for Christ across Eurasia through our summer camps every year. Just ask Evangeline of Novomoskovsk, Ukraine. During the pandemic last year, the 6-year-old seized on opportunities to share the gospel with other children while serving alongside her parents at our neighborhood Bible day camps. While she has endured her own ongoing health challenges and disease, her parents-Sergey and Valentina-say she is growing strong physically and in her faith. The young girl speaks about God with knowledge, wisdom, and understanding that is far beyond her years, her parents say. Instead of fearing death, Evangeline sees it as a road to eternity with the Lord. Sergey, who is a pastor, sees his daughter’s name as an example of God’s providence. Her passion for sharing the Good News of the Jesus with everyone is evident, he says. While working through their daughter’s health issues, Sergey and Valentina have learned to trust God more…
Irina’s Story: A Heart Transformed at Summer Bible Camp
God can transform even the hardest of hearts in an instant, and at our summer Bible camps each year, thousands of young people surrender their lives to Jesus. For the last four years, the village of Andreyevka, Ukraine has endured the violence, destruction, and despair of war. In order to share the eternal hope and peace of Christ with the children and youth living in these tragic circumstances, our School Without Walls (SWW) students from Berdyansk have been hosting summer Bible camps in war-torn Andreyevka since the war broke out. Last year, Irina, a young woman from Andreyevka, was invited to camp by one of her friends. At first, Irina and her group had no interest in Christianity and just wanted to hang out together, but then God started working in Irina’s heart. “I wanted to relax and get away from my everyday worries, but then I saw a completely…
A Muslim Family Transformed by the Gospel: Lika’s Story
“I was born into a Muslim family and like a good Muslim, I followed all of the rituals,” shares Lika, one of our School Without Walls (SWW) students from Georgia. But God got a hold of her heart—and the hearts of her entire family—in a powerful way when she was invited to one of Mission Eurasia’s summer Bible camps . . . “A few years ago when my family moved to the town of Gory, one of my cousins told my parents about a Mission Eurasia summer Bible camp and asked their permission to invite me to attend,” shared Lika. “I attended the camp and was amazed at the kindness of the SWW students I met there—and I started attending a local church soon afterwards. I was so excited about this new church that I shared about it with my whole family, and soon my sister started attending with me….
Stepping Out in Faith: Living Israel Bible Camp
Last year, God called several young Next Generation Christian leaders to organize a summer Bible camp to share the gospel with unreached children in Israel, in partnership with Living Israel, a messianic church and ministry committed to sharing God’s love with Israel’s Russian-speaking population. These young leaders knew that many children in Israel are unreached by the gospel and in danger of getting caught up in crime or substance abuse, and they wanted to create a setting for them to experience the love of Jesus and the care of godly role models. And so, the idea for a summer Bible camp was born. We weren’t sure whether or not the camp would bear immediate fruit–but we took a step in faith, trusting that God had a plan and that He would be faithful. And by the end of that first week of camp, it was clear that God was working powerfully in the…
Alex’s Testimony: A Miraculous Transformation
Alex is one of our School Without Walls students and Bible camp leaders from Russia. His testimony is one of miraculous transformation that began when God saved his life after repeated suicide attempts. Today, Alex is a thriving leader who is serving the church, ministering to hurting people, and reaching his community for Christ. Alex’s testimony: “You could say that I came to know God through many challenges. When I was younger, my heart was filled with emptiness, loneliness, pain, and resentment toward many people who had betrayed me. In order to stifle the pain, I started doing martial arts. But that wasn’t enough to heal me, so I tried committing suicide twice. The first time I tried to kill myself, my mother was able to stop me in time. I think this first attempt was a cry for attention, because I wanted people to know the inner pain I was…
God’s Word in the War Zone: Yevgenia’s Story
Last summer, our School Without Walls (SWW) students hosted a youth Bible camp in the front-line cities of Andreyevka and Avdeyevka, Ukraine–in partnership with a local Mennonite church. Yevgenia, a 16-year-old girl from Andreyevka, was just one of the many young people who participated in this camp and had a life-changing experience with Jesus. Yevgenia, her mother, and their friends are going through a hard time, as war continues to rage in their hometown, and they hear the sound of gunfire almost every day. Sadly, even before the war broke out, Yevgenia had already experienced suffering. Her father abandoned her 16-year-old mother as soon as he found out that she was pregnant, so Yevgenia never met him. Her mother’s grandmother was also killed in a car accident when she was seven months pregnant, and the emotional and psychological stress caused Yevgenia’s mother to go into early labor, so Yevgenia…