Camp LELA | Heritage Ukraine

On August 22nd, the children boarded the buses and left. The camp seemed void of the happiness that had filled it all summer long. We immediately began the task of tearing down and cleaning up. The pictures may look a little...hmm...shall we say like a tornado went through?! They always say it has to get worse before it gets better. The team spent several days tearing down and getting things hauled to the storage site. A lot of the wood at the storage site was just piled up. There is a team that continues to work to get everything packed into the storage shed as organized as possible, so that we maximize the amount of space we have rented. Please pray for the team as they will continue working on this project for several weeks.   Panorama of the camp during tear down.  The team hard at work during tear down and clean up! Piles of wood waiting to be sorted and organized to be used for LELA 2015. 

The last full day of camp there was a battle. The kids had a great time preparing their costumes and preparing for their part in the battle.       The program finished that day and the children enjoyed the afternoon celebrating the victory in Narnia by having special treats including ice cream, pop corn, and cotton candy.   Early the next day, the children boarded the buses and headed off to their orphanages. Many children cried and many asked if we would have the camp again next year. 

Today is the last full day of camp. It has been a long summer of ministry and we are thankful for the opportunity to serve Him and His children. Today is the battle against the evil people that have been in Narnia all week. Please pray that our leaders will be able to have good spiritual conversations with the children today as the Gospel is clearly presented.

This has been an amazing summer of ministry to hundreds of children. The vast majority of children have come to us from the orphanages that we minister in every month. We have also been privileged to minister to many children from troubled homes and also refugee children. This week on Wednesday the last camp began. Some of us are quite relieved! Others a little sad as we count down our lasts. The last Saturday is tomorrow and the last first day was a few days ago. We are repeating the same program, Chronicles of Narnia, on this last camp with a few changes. It really makes a difference as we are doing the same things over again, just a little bit better. So I guess we can say that this will be the best camp of the summer! The children arrived and walked through the forest for about 10 minutes to arrive at our camp site. The entered the camp through the wardrobe and were quickly greeted by the leaders who are living in Narnia. Kids were quickly divided in groups, given special Nar

Please pray about the situation with the water truck. Today it broke and is in need of repairs. Please pray that it can be repaired quickly and for a fair price. We need this truck because we have no other way to bring in water at this time.

ЛЕЛА (Camp LELA) We need your prayers. Camp #5 is just around the corner. We have Saturday and Sunday to prepare for the first campers and staff that arrive on Monday. Then we have Monday and Tuesday to prepare for the rest of the campers that arrive on Wednesday. This will be the most challenging camp that we have had all summer. There will be 350 people at our camp site. We have opened our door to almost 100 refugee children and some of their parents, we have orphans from several orphanages, and we have children coming from troubled homes. Praise God that He has already provided the finances for the camp and for the extra supplies that we need to buy to have a camp this large. Please pray that God will give us strength for this work. Please pray that with this mix of children we will know best how to minister to them. Pray God will work wonders in the lives of these children. Please pray for the team. We have about 50% that will continue from the past camp and 50% that a

Chronicles of Narnia camp #4 comes to an end! It has been a long 12 days. The first two days were training and then we embarked on a journey with the children in Narnia for 10 days. The kids had a great time being part of the adventure. Often there were visits by the "dark people" those that served their master Garbage Mood. Aslan shared with the children each day the truth and the good people came out at night to share wisdom and truth with the children at the camp fires. The children prepared for a final battle with the dark side by making armor, filling water balloons, and even building a large catapult. In the end, Aslan and the animals of Narnia won. The children heard not only about Narnia, but about God's love and grace that is paralleled in this story. Of course, we celebrated the victory! With cotton candy, popcorn, and soda.   Thanks for your constant prayers and support of Camp LELA.

Wow! Time sure flies in Narnia. We have had a great 8 days of camp. Thank you for all your prayers and encouragement! Sorry we have not posted so often this week about the program. The Narnia program has gone very well and we are thankful for all the very hard work that the volunteers have put in for the last year in planning this program. Highlights of the program will be in the next post. We ask that you pray with us for what lies before us. The last camp begins with training on Monday and the children come on Wednesday. However, 60 children that are refugees will actually be coming on Monday. The last camp will be the biggest and most challenging. Pray that God will give us wisdom to see what needs to be accomplished before the time comes. Pray that we will find the volunteers that are quality leaders to serve with us in the next camp. Pray that God will help the leadership team to finish strong and to work well together.

We  were quite excited to take the children to the sea this week. It is very close to our camp and God provided a way for us to take them. The children also continue to enjoy the pool every afternoon.

The kids have been quite busy building many things this week in Narnia. The keep their campsites clean and build interesting things in order to win daily awards. Take a look at a few things that the kids have been working on.