Dnipropetrovsk "Topol" Daycamp Recap - July 21-25, 2003
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Big Turn-out in a Big Neighborhood
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During the week of July 21 - 25, a group of Americans came from Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, to work with children in a heavily populated area of the city of Dnipropetrovsk. The 11-member team, (7 youth, 4 adults,) worked in a heavily populated area of the city called "Topol". They lead 2 Bible camps per day, for 4 days. Working along with this group were Ukrainian ministry partners, "Team Dnipr" members, and our summer missionaries.
God worked in many great and wonderful ways during this last week. Here we have pieces of some interviews conducted with different members of the team. As this team consisted of both Americans and Ukrainians, we had two Ukrainians share with us their thoughts about the week. These two are living here in the Topol area right now, and are able to see not only the work that was done by the Texas group, but also the long term impact of the day camps.
Dima Lepin (see picture, below) is the church planter you may already know about from this website. We spoke with him on the second day of the camps, and this is what he had to share with us.
“We are conducting the camps with the goal of starting a church. Once there is a church planted here, one of the things that we want to see in it is a children’s ministry. We thank God that He has sent us this group from America. They are very good at conducting the camps, and here we have 2 camps going on each day... In both of these areas we are planning follow-up work with these kids. We don’t want to just leave them after the camps – we want to always keep contact with them. For this reason, we want to start here a Christian sports club called ‘AWANA’.
“The club will also help with the work of reaching adults in these areas. Meetings for adults can be held through the club, and later at holidays we can have skits & small shows, and tell them about Christ. Even now some parents of the children that attended the camps have shared a desire to learn more about God. For these reasons we are praying that God would give us people who would want to attend these clubs and meetings. Pray that He will draw adults, children, and also youth. Already, these camps have played a huge part in the process of drawing people in.”
We were also given a chance to speak with Radik, a 22 year old who loves working with kids and was very helpful in the camps. He had these things to say:
“The main thing that I try to do is to be friends with these kids. To get closer to them so that when the Americans leave, they won’t be as upset. Once the excitement of the camps has passed, they can see – hey! We have Ukrainian friends here who stayed. And from there we can go on together.
After the week of camps, we’ll have a club on Saturdays. There the kids will really get a chance to study the Bible, and we’ll have lots of games as well! We’ll have lessons and learn songs together. There will be skits and ‘mini sermons’, and then after the club time is over for the day we’ll be able to hang out some more, play some more games or whatever. That is how our future plans look from here!”
Finally, turning back to the Texans, we talked with one of the youth who came with the group from Wedgwood. This is what Taylor McLelland had to say:
“This is my first over-seas missions trip, and what I do in the day camps is go around to each group and help out. I like it a lot ’cause I get to meet all the different kids, and participate in all of the groups’ activities... I really like the team I’m here with from Wedgwood, ’cause they’re like my best friends. I really think that God has put together a good group for us to do these camps. I do a lot of missions back at home, but I’ve never had to deal with a real language barrier. Even though it’s frustrating sometimes, it is kind of fun, because you get to do a lot of talking with your hands and stuff. This trip for me has been great, and it’s all been a lot of fun!”
Feature: Day in the Life of a Volunteer Team - Day camp 2002
Photo Gallery: Medical Clinics
