Tears of joy - camp in 'h2o' conference center for children from east of Poland  

There are few words which can be used to describe the Feb 2012 Camp. All we know is that the Holy Spirit moved in mighty power amongst campers and leaders alike. Souls were saved, believers encouraged and many challenged about their need of Salvation.

This winter the camp was held in a purpose built facility `h2o` in Kiczyce. As always the camp was run in conjunction with the Christian Joy Foundation from Warsaw. For this camp, Henryk had been able to come in contact with an entirely new group of underprivileged children from the Eastern region of Poland. Coming from extremely difficult personal circumstances, it was a very exciting prospect to reach these kids with the tremendous news that God loves them. Altogether the camp was made up of 65 Polish children, 10 Polish Leaders & 25 Irish Leaders.

When the children first arrived on the Sunday night, they were pretty shy and quite withdrawn, which was to be expected. However by the end of the camp, both the Irish team and polish leaders had established a genuine bond and love for the kids. Through a busy and active programme consisting of bible stories, singing, quizzes, games, workshops and day trips the team were able to draw along side the kids and show them the love of Christ. Regardless of the activity, every opportunity was taken to share the gospel and demonstrate Christian love. It was both an honour and privilege to be used of God is this way.

Meetings

Each morning and evening, a meeting was held to present Christ to the children and their need of Salvation. Almost of all these children apart from a 1 or 2, come from spiritually dark circumstances. Not only had these children been deprived of so much physically, they had also been denied the Truth about life and death. Sin and forgiveness. Heaven and Hell. It was very apparent they had never heard about the abundant life and freedom they could have through Jesus Christ. Using scripture, testimonies, song and bible stories from the bible on Daniel, Joshua, Jairs' Daughter, David & Saul, Esther as well as the parables, these children were brought the good news that Jesus Saves. It was thrilling to see how the kids had evidently taken everything in as they took part in the quizzes with such enthusiasm and energy.

Workshops

Each day, the campers took part in various workshops including craft, cooking, language, games, life scenarios and worksheets. Working along side the Polish leaders the Irish team enjoyed fellowship and fun with the campers as well as taking the opportunity to talk through scripture and particular life issues. Through planned workshops, the team addressed subject matters such as forgiveness, image, temptation and relationships. The children took an active part in these sessions and continued to discuss the scenarios later on in their devotional times with the Polish Leaders.

Conviction

On the final night of the camp, the meeting was held as normal. The team testified, sang and brought the scripture to the children. By this stage the kids were familiar with the new choruses they had been learning, so they were able to freely enjoy the lyrics and actions. However during certain parts of the meeting leading up to the story, we noticed the children were quite restless and somewhat distracted. Colin presented the story of the rich young ruler and Zaaceus. Throughout the week, the children were very attentive during the stories which was such a blessing, however there was a noticeably marked shift in the concentration of the children as Colin began to preach about the blood of Jesus and Christ’s death on the cross. The spirit of God was clearly moving amongst the children. At the end of the meeting, Henryk gave a short word of testimony and asked the children to consider further what they had heard during the week. An appeal was made, inviting children to come forward if they would like to find out more about being saved.

In this moment, almost every child simultaneously walked to the front of the hall, leaving the leaders dotted around the rows of seats. It was quite simply breath taking. Everyone sang the children's chorus

'Oh how I loved Jesus'. What happened next could only be described as 'Supernatural'. God poured out his spirit in such abundance and every person in the room could feel the tangible presence of God. Practically every soul wept (leaders and campers alike). God had clearly started to convict those of their sin and was ministering to the souls of believers. A humble and most fearful experience. For the next 2 hours, the Polish leaders counselled dozens of children as they confessed their sin and literally cried out to God for Salvation. Eventually many of the children returned to the hall were the leaders had remained to pray and cry out to Lord. Tears of sadness turned to tears of joy and we all worshipped the Lord together with joyful hearts and much singing.

Like the women at the well, these children responded to the glorious hope of the Gospel after hearing it only once. We praise God and give Him all the glory for the movement of His spirit amongst us all on Thursday night. Something etched on our hearts for eternity.

The very next day, we began to teach the children about the Armour of God and how to start taking a stand for God. A stage we never thought we would never get to after only 4 days of being introduced to these lost souls.

We return unto God all the glory and praise, for it is He who creates the anxious thought. It is he who offers the gift of repentance. It is He alone who is worthy.

We appeal to you now, to bring these young lives before God praying specifically that:

a). They would stand firm in the Lord

b). They would be able to withstand the fiery darts of the devil

c). They would have courage to tell others
d). Those who did not make the step of faith would do so, quickly.

Yours for Christ,

N. Irish Team 1 (Feb 2012)

author: Reveren Geoff Sloss