Do you remember who discipled you? Who was that person who invested in you early on and helped you make your first steps in the faith? Our kids camp just finished, and as I mentioned in my previous newsletter, it was the first time that our elder son, Misha, participated. He thoroughly enjoyed his time, which was evident by the fact that when I came out to visit the camp for a day, he hardly paid any attention to me because he was so enthralled with all his activities. By the way do you remember a story about our neighbors Ilya and Katya that I shared with you back in May? Well their daughter Sonya joined our kids' camp this year. Sasha also went to the camp this year as a counselor and camp leader for the youngest group of girls including Sonya. She has participated in various roles in the camp in the past, including one time serving as the programming director for the camp. So, it was an interesting return to a very familiar ministry for her.
I went out to the camp for a day on Thursday a week ago just to spend time with the team, to pray for and support them. It was during that day that I heard an interesting insight I wanted to share with you. At our camp we have a very special team. As a matter of fact, we call it “The Dream Team” and it consists of teenagers who are too old to go to kids' camp but still want to come out and serve. Thus, this team serves as both a transition into the youth ministry and also as an opportunity for us to get these kids involved in serving early on. That is how we intentionally build a culture of serving one another in the church.
One of Misha’s counselors was a young man, Yasha, who went to our camp when he was a kid. Yasha is 17 years old, and it was his first time serving at the camp. At one point he approached our “Dream Team” leader, Polina, and said: “It just dawned on me what you are trying to do! This is discipleship in action! You are discipling these teenagers and preparing the next generation of leaders for our church and our camp.”
That revelation is priceless. It is one thing for us to try to do something. But it is totally different when you get to hear from one of the younger camp leaders that he sees this discipleship in action, especially from one who was a kid himself at our camp in the not-too-distant past.
Yours in praying and hastening the day of revival in Moscow and Russia,
Constantin and Alexandra
PS Yasha is heading out to our youth camp next where he will be a participant. He is getting ready to be baptized in the fall, and in my next newsletter I will share a story about someone who was baptized in the spring – a story that I promised to share a while back.
THREE PRAYER REQUESTS:
Please join us in praying for God:
- To bless us to see the kids that went to our kids' camp but who do not come to church to get plugged in this year and to start attending Sunday School. So that God would use this camp as the first step to a trully meaningful lifelong relationship with Him.
- To bless youth camp. While our kids' camp is over our youth ministry is working hard on putting finishing touches on their camp that is about to launch in 2 weeks.
- To bring peace to Russia and Ukraine. Moreover, ask God to use this conflict by bringing reconciliation and revival to these countries.
