Investing in the House of Mercy Youth!

For the past 7 years, South Calgary Chinese Evangelical Free Church has been bringing summer camps to Uzhgorod, Ukraine.  Over the years, we've seen many children grow into teens and teens into young men/women.One major emphasis of this year's Week 1 Camp is to train HoM teens to take on more responsibilities and leadership positions.  4 of the 5 days have passed now and the team is unanimous in our assessment that these teens have done an excellent job!  Most of them are in charge of a small group of 6-10 children, leading them in discussing the Bible lessons learned throughout the week.  These teen leaders took their roles and preparation seriously, working hard before, during and after camp.  We are very proud of them!

 

Anna Maria

This is Anna Maria. She's a girl that doesn't live at the House of Mercy, but she does come to the camps. Her mother passed away last year, and she is currently living with relatives since her dad is in the hospital because he has tuberculosis. Her relatives beat her and are alcoholics. The HoM has been trying to bring her to live at the HoM, but her father refuses to give up the rights to his daughter because he gets money from the government for having her, and so he's unwilling to let her go even though she's suffering.  Please pray for her protection/future, as well as for her father to realize that giving the daughter to HoM may be the best choice for his daughter.

Prayer Request

Hi All,Our House of Mercy (HOM) camp is going well but there's a problem right now with widespread stomach illnesses.  At first it was just the Canadian team but as each day progresses, we're hearing more and more children and HOM staff being hit hard with stomach problems.  Nobody really knows what's causing it, so we could really use your prayers!

Tiffany was hit particularly hard in the past 12 hours and has been completely out of commission, basically bedridden, today, while Pauline is working at half capacity.

Thanks all.

Roma camp girls evening fellowship

We have Roma Camp bedside fellowship for boys and girls. For Wednesday night, we have girls outdoor fellowship.Also a picture of one of the boys bedside fellowship.

More Day Three Roma Camp Pictures!

Saul's men and David's men confront each other, as Uncle Tomson teaches

Today's bible verse in Ukrainian (and Russian/Hungarian? Gotta ask Mark again)

Lunch with our neighbour Hungarians!

Worship at the end of the day! (Thank you Aunty Lisa for taking the pictures!)

One of Our Interpreters, or "Why Dos Equis Should Hire Sasha"

He doesn't always play the part of Goliath...

But when he does, he'll do it while knitting.

Stay thirsty, my friends.

Roma Camp - Day 3 continued.

It is another busy day in the Roma camp. Morning was great. Weather has cooled off a bit, but still can feel the strong heat under the sun. Like what Andrew was saying...it is truly amazing to see the Roma teenagers catching with the worship songs. Not only the worship songs, but also the drama that they will be presenting for prodigal son and passion play.Life skill workshop has good success with the wooden tool box where all the boys learned about making measurements, cutting, sawing, pre drilling and setting screws for the wooden box.

Some even decorate the box with fancy colors and cool design. A couple of girls seems to mastering the knitting skills while most of them are still in learning mode.

Here are a few pictures to give you a glimpse of today's Roma camp actions...

An Unforgettable Opportunity

In addition to our lessons on the life of David, we want to give the kids a chance to be leaders, so we've been training them for drama and music. The opportunity comes this week and next - the kids will be performing skits and worship music to each other, and then to their camps. And we hope that when we're done, they can do this without us guiding them, making them true leaders and heroes.Under the tutelage of Bin and Tomson, the groups have been making progress doing skits about the Prodigal Son parable and on the Passion of Christ. Uncle Tomson can tell you more about how they are doing so far.

With Aunty Lisa and I, we've been training the kids to be worship leaders. Retaining the theory (really, just principals of worship leadership) has been a bit harder than expected, but the practical aspects of actually singing and presenting music to others has been much easier. These guys have been surprising me with how quickly they get better with music - and how much energy and fun they have from worship. Rowdiness is more a feature than a disadvantage with them.

On a great side-note, thanks to our interpreters being our go-between with the kids and us, we've had the side effect of also training our interpreters into becoming great dramatists and worship leaders as well - complete without expecting or planning for it at all. To me, it's just another little way that God is moving in the short term mission He's assigned to us, producing more good than even we expected, and rewarding both his servants and those who receive his message incredibly.

...And now I have to go. I think the kids are running around in towels and little else after their evening shower. Discipline in the camp is great, but only after we talk to them about the "rrrrrrrrrrrules!"

Roma Camp - Day 3 (part 1)

Roma team updateThe morning of the Day 3 we have awesome time together with our Roma teens. Andrew led our worship time and taught them new song.

Then we had some bible lesson on David. Heroes do what is right.

Day 3: Today's lesson

Thank you Uncle Tomson for clarifying what was going on yesterday!You may or may not know by now, but our lessons focus on the life of David spread out over the camp's week, using him as an example to inspire our kids to be leaders and heroes in their own Roma communities.

Day 1 was going over how David was chosen to be king of Israel through the prophet Samuel, and how God's gifts to us help us become heroes.

Day 2 - which was where those pictures with no explanation were - was the duel between David and Goliath, telling us how heroes trust in God. (Bin looks like he's having so much fun, by the way, showing how David's sling struck down "Goliath"-Sasha)

Day 3, today's lesson, will focus on how David chose not to kill King Saul when David was fleeing for his life, and how heroes know what the right thing to do is because they listen to God's word.

Wow, it's almost 2 over here! That means carpentry for boys and knitting for girls is about to start! I'll best be leaving now, before I arrive late and have to do push ups!

Look forward to pictures and more logs tonight!

Day 3 - Roma team prayer items

Prayers are key to our mission....What do you do if there are teenagers who believe they don't have God in their lives but only devil?

What do you do if there are no hope in their lives but miseries?.... We PRAY....

Please pray for our Roma teensPray for their salvation (Jesus is the Way, the Truth)Pray for hope and deliverance (only by the power of the Holy Spirit)Pray the Roma team and helpers (our coordination and team work)Pray for the strength and wisdom for all of us here...

Roma Day 2 - part 3

Just a few more pictures for Roma Camp...please pray for our Roma teens by name.

Roma Camp Day 2 - part 2

Day 2 Roma Camp summaryWe thank God for the weather for 2nd day. It was a lot cooler with overcast and occasional sun. We were grateful for the weather as it allows us to stay focus more. First day was tough to get all the teens focus. In the morning, we prayed during the the team devotion time.

In singing time, we decided to add the Ukrainian sounds to the English song to help the teens to get to sing better with the song.

God answered our prayers and worked among the teens. They were a lot more focus and into the program. Today we continue to learn about David and his life through drama, play and singing.

Bin did a great as our main teacher today. Andrew continued his wonderful song leading with the teens. We had to reinforce a lot of the rules as there were teenagers wants to test the boundaries.

In life skill project, girls learnt about knitting and boys learnt about wood work. We had a great time together.

In leadership training, they continue to learn song leading and drama. Here are some more snap shots...for the second day...

HOM Camp Day 1 & 2

Yesterday marked the start of our VBS Athens camp here in Ukraine.  The day started out with registering 63 children, mostly from the villages.  It was a good turnout with a lot of our HOM teens leading small groups, called Oikos groups.  Each teen at HOM has been given the responsibility of taking care of approximately 8 children for the day & they have been doing an amazing job!  All of us feel very proud of them as they've taken their responsibility very seriously.  It has been awesome to see them leading some of the smaller kids through discussions & keeping them all in line.  Please pray for them as they have a big task each day including the possibility of leading a child to Christ.  It's very exciting to see new leaders being born!Our Day 1 started out with some singing & a lesson about how God loves us.  It was a very hot 36 degrees Celsius outside so it was a difficult day for all of us including the kids.  We had fans & a mobile air conditioning machine going the whole day but still we all felt drenched from sweat.  Needless to say, we prayed for better weather for today!  When we woke up this morning for Day 2, we went outside & it started to rain!  The clouds covered the sun but it was still warm outside!  It was a huge answer to prayer!  The rain also stopped shortly after our morning gathering, just in time for us to do games outside!  God has been very good to us.  However, please continue to pray for Crystal as she has some heat rashes from the day before & the weather is still warm.

Day 1 & Day 2 have been very good with the children getting very excited about the songs, sharing different ways that they see God at work both in the camp & around them.  We heard that one of the kids during the sharing time today, shared how God protected & saved him from injury/death when he was walking to school one day.  He was looking up at the sky & didn't notice that the cover of a sewage hole was open & fell in.  There were a bunch of sticks inside which could have severely injured him, but his backpack straps got hooked to something inside the sewer which prevented him from falling in the whole way.  This was how he sensed God protecting him & taking care of him!  These are the kinds of things that the kids here have experienced & it's awesome to hear about how they see God in all of this!

So far the camp has been going well with Dan & Crystal doing the Bible stories & memory verses, Pauline doing crafts & Colin & I doing games.  The kids seem to really be enjoying themselves!  One of the little girls from the village today asked if she could come to camp again next year because she was afraid that when she turns 9 next year, she would be too old!  I suppose it shows that the children love camp!

On one other note, please pray for Colin as he started to have some stomach issues today.  He was unable to help lead the games in the afternoon & had to lie down.  Later this evening he threw up & felt nauseous.  He has also had some chills & feels a little bit weak.  Please pray that he gets a good night's sleep & that he is able to participate tomorrow.  We were able to obtain some antibiotics that we would normally get in Canada but pray that God is the ultimate healer of both his knee & his overall illness.

To end off our post for today, here are a couple pictures from the last 2 days.  We will try to post more pictures soon.    

As a side note, this is Tiffany writing this entry as Colin is currently ill...

Photos of Day 2

Image dump time! I'll talk about the contexts of these pictures later tonight, when it isn't so rushed!

Sendi

We had the opportunity to visit Sendi in the hospital.  Here's a picture of her and her beautiful smile!  Very sad she wasn't able to make it to the camp this year.  We miss her a lot.

Day 1 Roma Camp snap shots

With day 1 Roma camp coming to an end, we are all feeling quite exhausted. It is not so easy to keep up with 19 Roma teenagers running around with "unlimited" energy.Anyway, we met some awesome Roma teens also. It is truly amazing to see God's people who has a desire to follow him live a life pleasing Him.

ROMA: Day 1 Going On Day 2!

So busy and so fast!That's what went through my mind today as we were going through the first lesson for the Roma kids - God calling David to be anointed as King of Israel.

Even with registration being prolonged from one hour to two and some hours in order to collect all the kids via minivan, the day was just stuffed from one end to the other - so much so that I actually couldn't take pictures of everything!

Highlights probably go to the first time doing worship for this camp, along with all the creativity during crafts time, the well-mannered behavior during  meals, and a really rousing bedside fellowship that is going on even as I type!

Just some prayer points that were going through my head as we end this day off:

- Pray to thank God for our kids! This year, about half our kids came back from last year, and we actually had more kids coming from the Roma camps than we anticipated! We hope to lead all of them into becoming future heroes and leaders in their camps for God!

-Pray to ask God for wisdom and flexibility. Finding out that the English words "Get Up" had some...unsavory...homonyms in the Gypsy tongue lead to us having to cut that worship song from our list. And we've also had to adjust locations for our worship/crafts/meeting area due to changing circumstances. I'm sure there are lots of other little things that we'll have to adjust for to improve this year's camp, but we'll need the adapting spirit, the trust in God, and some inspired initiative if we are to tackle all of them effectively.

-Praise God for our translators! Lara, Sasha, Mark, and our new translator, Joshua, are all incredible in their commitment to the Roma kids, and they've pulled more than their weight and then some not only with being translators, but also as guides, mentors, handymen, porters...you name it, they rolled up their sleeves and pitched in to help us side by side. Pray that God will bless their hearts and protect their minds and bodies in the coming days.

-Pray for our hosts, the owners and operators of the hotel that we are using for this year's Roma camp. They were a great help to us last year, but this year they've renovated most of the hotel and have a bigger client base using their facilities. As a result, there is some friction between their regular operations and our Roma camp that did not exist last year. Pray for openness on both our part and on the part of the owners, that we can anticipate each other's needs and coordinate to better benefit each other. Pray also that God will move in the hearts and minds of the owners and their clients, that they can continue to look past local biases towards the Roma and see and treat them as they are and deserve to be: as fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

If you were expecting pictures, don't worry - there will be some coming up soon, I promise! For now though, I leave you with one concluding thought about today: Everything went better than expected.

An aside about driving in Ukraine

There is a joke in Canada about an Eastern European immigrant that had recently arrived that refused to cross at pedestrian crosswalks at intersections - even when the light indicated she could cross.When asked point blank by her relatives why  she did that, she replied that she didn't like how all the cars just stopped in front of the crosswalk - it was if they were waiting for her to cross so that they could aim for her!

Thankfully, this is just an exaggeration of driving habits outside of North America, but there still must be something to be said for the...greater liberties...that our foreign drivers take while on the road.

For those of you who have not ventured out to Ukraine or other parts of Eastern Europe, you must understand that roads in Ukraine are rarely bigger than a single lane in each direction, and that in the immediate region surrounding the House of Mercy, they are not maintained with a dedicated amount of care - resulting in lots of pot holes and uneven surfaces.

There are also few traffic lights to direct and control traffic, and most police members have more important things to do than to direct traffic or chase speeding motorists - though when I asked Sasha and Mark, they said that the police were responsible for administering qualification exams for driver licenses.

All this  combines to create an "anything goes" atmosphere when it comes to driving. Even on a simple trip to the supermarkets just yesterday, Sunday, I was somewhat amazed by the number of maneuvers that in Calgary would have all been considered near misses - and grounds for a stern talking-to from a traffic officer, if not an outright ticket or license revocation.

Still, this also goes to show how hardy the Ukranian people are when it comes to taking everyday risks on the road - and how far God is willing to go to protect his squishy sons and daughters when they come to a foreign land to enact his will.

And on the bright side, we have encountered virtually no traffic congestion since arriving. Take that, Crowfoot Trail!

Ukraine team prayer and meeting for the camp kick off

Yes....today is the day for the first day of camp kick off. Our Ukraine team met together for our team devotion and prayer before our busy day..Go Team Go....(sorry, my hands are holding on the iPad). Go Mercy Go....Go Roma Go....

We learnt from Psalm 32 today about confessionConfessionConfession Let us humbly confess our sins unto Almighty God. Almighty and most merciful Father,we have erred and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep,we have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts,we have offended against thy holy laws,we have left undone those things which we ought to have done,and we have done those things which we ought not to have done.But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us,spare thou those who confess their faults,restore thou those who are penitent,according to thy promises declared unto mankindin Christ Jesus our Lord;and grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake,that we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life,to the glory of thy holy Name. Amen.The Almighty and merciful Lord grant us absolution and remission of all our sins, true repentance, amendment of life, and the grace and consolation of his Holy Spirit. Amen.

Psalm 321 Happy are they whose transgressions are forgiven, *and whose sin is put away!2 Happy are they to whom the LORD imputes no guilt, *and in whose spirit there is no guile!3 While I held my tongue, my bones withered away, *because of my groaning all day long.4 For your hand was heavy upon me day and night; *my moisture was dried up as in the heat of summer.5 Then I acknowledged my sin to you, *and did not conceal my guilt.6 I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD." *Then you forgave me the guilt of my sin.7 Therefore all the faithful will make their prayers to you in time of trouble; *when the great waters overflow, they shall not reach them.8 You are my hiding-place;you preserve me from trouble; *you surround me with shouts of deliverance.9 "I will instruct you and teach you in the way that you should go; *I will guide you with my eye.10 Do not be like horse or mule, which have no understanding; *who must be fitted with bit and bridle,or else they will not stay near you."11 Great are the tribulations of the wicked; *but mercy embraces those who trust in the LORD.12 Be glad, you righteous, and rejoice in the LORD; *shout for joy, all who are true of heart.