In just 4 days…

From July 19-22, 2021 we were able to have a youth camp. With God’s grace, we were able to take 15 youth. Due to previous English lessons through Zoom and in-person, we knew each one of them. For 6 of them, they had never been to any spiritual event with an evangelical church before. In fact, for 4 of these 6, they actually would proclaim themselves as being either agnostic or atheist.

 Originally, when we (Cornel and Rachel) talked about having the camp this year, we thought about having it be an English camp. Rachel was still able to teach English this year, however we really felt like it was necessary to have deep spiritual conversations with these youth. Each day at camp was a direct topic taken from Galatians 5:22-23. We focused on goodness, faithfulness, self-control and love. In each of these days, we were able to take the topic and share the Gospel through it. The typical day in camp had English, Bible Study, worship, some sort of outing and free time to build relationships with one another and Hope Church leaders.

God really opened the eyes of the youth to see that religion is more than a word that defines your cultural identity. (Many Romanian youth say that they are Orthodox, because they are Romanian, but in fact they don’t practice any Orthodox traditions or even go to Orthodox church). We think that each one of them really began to question what their faith looks like and who or what their faith is in.

One of the most encouraging things from camp was that a girl, by the name of Celia, accepted Christ as her Savior! We didn’t know this until after camp, but she has already told us that she feels a deeper peace that she has never had up until now. She is even reading the Bible she received in camp every single day! 

Even though Celia was the only that we know of who made her decision to follow Christ, we fully trust and believe that God was stirring in the hearts of all of these 12-16 year olds. We don’t always know what He is doing, but He promises it that it is good. Thank you everyone who is praying for these youth. God is working through your prayers and even though it may seem slow, the youth are starting to become more sensitive to the things of God. 

May God bless each and every one of you!