HOPE for Ukrainian Internally Displaced Children

Fearful and quiet eyes filled the room on Tuesday afternoon as we started the five day camp. The setting was quaint, but full of life – ponies, sheep, kittens, a dog and even pigs. The camp began with Ukrainian words that brought smiles. Then the leader of the North Carolina team through translation got hands raised to show the level of excitement. The level increased through the week; their faces reflected what they had found at this camp: HOPE – Hope, Opportunity, Peace and Eternal Life. That was the name of the camp and the four days of teaching at the camp. The fifth day was a special family day where squeals of joy came from the children as they tried out riding a horse, playing folk games and shooting a bow and arrow. Through it all that one word summarized best what each child, helper and family received – hope.

In closure, the songs the children learned throughout the week were shared together with a clear presentation of the gospel Sunday morning in a rented space in the city center. Shockingly they all came – children, parents, helpers and even younger siblings. One mother stood up and said, more than two years ago the ground underneath my feet began shaking and it hasn’t stopped until this week. Her husband fights on the front and this week she saw real smiles on her children’s faces after two long years. She said, the first day when they came home after camp they brought with them into the house something so real yet intangible – hope. She said thank you through tears, but the room was already full of wet eyes because the children had just shared the ribbon dance they had learned to a Ukrainian slow version of Hillsong Alive. 

The final moments of the dance had a gold canopy overhead representing the eternal life that begins on earth – God’s protection and covering of love amidst the harsh things of this world. The dancing children hardly wanted to leave that space of 1.5 yards square underneath the "shelter". The whole crowd in a similar way hardly wanted to leave the community center after each children had received their backpack and comic book style Ukrainian Bible. These Bibles were so captivating that the children came to look at them during their free time at the camp. Several asked if they could take it home and now even the helpers hugged their copy like it was made of pure gold. May the seeds of the gospel produce many hardy feet that will one day walk on streets of gold out of this precious group of 60 children, 10 helpers and all the others involved in some way in HOPE Camp 2024.