That’s why Summer Bible Camps with Slavic Gospel Association (SGA) offer something increasingly rare: peace.

(Photo courtesy of SGA)

“Many of these children grow up hearing near-nightly air raid sirens. They are often without a father who’s either fighting on the front line or the economic conditions are such that the dad is needing to work somewhere else to make money for the family,” says SGA’s Eric Mock.

SGA-supported Ukrainian churches host these summer camps for children, and create a refuge from the realities of war.

The camps take many forms. Some resemble a neighborhood Vacation Bible School in a central building complex or apartment square. Others look more like traditional summer camps out in nature.

But Mock says this outreach goes far beyond a temporary escape.

“These camps then – more than just being islands of peace – are the islands of peace that pass all understanding, for these kids hear a message of hope. They encounter people who show them grace and love and patience and joy, and they encounter something different than the world has provided them.”

(Photo courtesy of Valentin Lupashko/Slavic Gospel Association)

As children and families experience Christian community, they also encounter the Gospel in action.

Mock shares, “Children and their families who have suffered from the ravages of war, who have known only difficulty and trials, are now brought into an environment that seems filled with light! [They go] from the darkness of this world to the light of the Gospel. They not only hear the Gospel message, but see the Gospel message.”

Please pray for Ukrainian children attending summer camps this year and for the churches sharing Christ’s hope amid the hardships of war. Ask God to draw families to faith and raise up a new generation of believers who will shine His light in their communities.

You can support SGA’s Ukraine ministry here!

Header photo courtesy of SGA.

But across Eastern Europe and Central Asia, summer camps can also mean something much bigger – a first encounter with the Gospel.

As Slavic Gospel Association’s Summer Bible Camps launch across 13 countries, thousands of children will spend time with local churches in day-camp style programs designed to share the hope of Christ.

(Photo courtesy of Valentin Lupashko/Slavic Gospel Association)

Eric Mock with SGA explains, “These camps are singular opportunities. Kids that have either grown up in impoverished homes, embattled homes, [or] troubled homes – who really never get an opportunity to know a day of peace – have an opportunity to go to these camps.”

The camps may look different from country to country, but the mission remains the same.

“You can imagine a camp in Tajikistan on the border of Afghanistan is going to look very different than a camp in the war zone, very different than a camp in Poland, or very different from a camp in Russia, especially far east Russia,” says Mock.

“What SGA does is not really put shackles on any way that they conduct the camp other than the centrality of the Gospel. So each adapts to their cultural setting, their economic conditions, the relationships they’ve developed with the community, [and] the languages that are relevant.”

Mock says the ministry often reaches beyond the children who attend. “Suspicious parents – wondering what these churches are actually talking about – come along, and every year, parents are coming to faith as they hear the life-saving and life-changing message of the Gospel.”

Kids at SGA’s summer camp. (Photo courtesy of SGA)

That local church connection doesn’t end when camp is over.

“It is run by the local church, and this is vital as we continue to see these children and their families impacted by the Gospel [through] relationships built for discipleship and investment [by] these churches.”

You can support this outreach with eternal impact! Click here to give to SGA, and designate your gift to their Camp Ministry fund.

Also, Mock asks believers, “Pray that, first of all, SGA is able to help the churches reach more than 88,000 children this year. That’s a huge number across 13 countries!

“Secondly, pray that in these camps, children and the parents…come to faith. Pray that these camps continue to be powerful tools in God’s hands. And then of course pray for our continued ministry as we serve the churches in these countries.”

Header photo courtesy of SGA.

As an Islamic nation, Iran has very few Christian resources for children. That’s why Heart4Iran’s virtual Sunday Schools are meeting such a deep need among Iranian kids.

Jennifer* is the manager of Heart4Iran’s Superbook Farsi program. She explains that each hour-long Sunday School outreach has two parts. The first 30 minutes are a TV broadcast of Superbook (a Bible-based kids’ TV series) supported by additional content. 

The host of the virtual Sunday School program, also an Iranian believer from a Muslim background, came to Christ through Heart4Iran’s Mohabat TV.
(Photo courtesy of Heart4Iran)

“We have Academy videos — Bible background that are very helpful in understanding the history of the Bible story. [We have] Signpost videos [on] how, for example, the Daniel story relates to Jesus and how it relates to our life today.”

After that first half hour, kids then get to interact with other Christians.

“We go live for 30 minutes on social media — Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Telegram — to worship. We [also] talk about the topic of that day’s program, and then do the craft related [to the program],” Jennifer says. “We have a lot of [responses] through that. It’s exciting!” 

You can help change kids’ lives with Heart4Iran through Superbook and virtual Sunday schools by prayer and support. 

“Pray for God’s transformational touch through this program (Superbook), reaching out to save all children, particularly those in Iran,” says Jennifer.

“I always say one day, if I go to heaven and only five kids come to me and say ‘I came to Christ through Superbook,’ I’m like, [it’s] worth all the hassle and everything [involved in this work] — even just five, even just one, right? It’s worth it!”

Visit www.heart4iran.com to learn more and support ministries like virtual Sunday School with Heart4Iran. 

*Name withheld for security reasons.

Header photo courtesy of Heart4Iran. 

Heart for Lebanon’s Camille Melki explains, “Our Summer of Hope campaign is meant to bring joy, peace, tranquility, and a sense of togetherness to children who have experienced the hardest of life, whether they are refugees or whether we’re talking about local children.”

Lebanon is not an easy place to live, and children need hope. Poverty is rampant, and daily essentials are hard to come by. Cross-border shelling between Israel and Hezbollah threatens war.

Only one source offers peace that passes understanding. “Summer of Hope is meant to bring the hope of Christ to every little kid that has suffered tremendously in the last year or so,” Melki says.

(Photo courtesy of Heart for Lebanon)

“Our teachers, staff, and volunteers come alongside hundreds of children every day this summer [to bring] a smile to a child who has lost a loved one; bring a place of belonging, a place where they can play safely and feel welcomed.”

Connect with Heart for Lebanon here to learn more about the Summer of Hope and follow individual hope stories throughout the summer.

“Pray every child that comes in our doors will experience this hope in Christ,” Melki requests.

Pray the Lord will transform children’s lives and entire families through this outreach. Melki adds, “Pray for our safety. Both of our Hope Ministry Centers [are in] very difficult locations, but purposefully located so we can reach out to those suffering the most.”

Header and story images courtesy of Heart for Lebanon.

Regan Miller with Mission India tells us, “The kids are drawn to the Bible club because it’s fun, it’s engaging. It’s not like sitting down in a class.”

Miller says Bible club is like Vacation Bible School to the extreme, since it goes for 10 full days over the course of two weeks, morning to evening. Children learn fun Bible-based skits, Bible stories, and songs with motions and dance moves to it, and more.

“We partner with local Christians who are in India and from the area to run these 10-Day Bible clubs. That’s especially exciting because that means after the 10-Day Bible club ends, that leader is still a part of the community and able to pour into those kids lives for the long term,” Miller says. 

While persecution is a serious issue in India, Bible clubs are often an exception. A community may not welcome a church, but they see the good that a Bible club does in keeping kids out of trouble in the summer. 

“Even if they’re against Christianity, a lot of times they’ll allow the Bible club to run and not oppose it, because they see the good that it’s doing,” Miller says. 

(Photo of Jamia courtesy of Mission India)

Jamia is one girl whose life was turned around through Bible club. She was largely shunned by her community because of an eye condition she has. When she learned about Jesus for the first time in her life, she blossomed into a bright, confident girl with a heart for serving others.

“When Jesus came into her [Jamia’s] life, it changed her confidence. It changed the way she viewed herself. It changed what potential she saw in her own life. It changed her family life, changed everything,” Miller says.

“We’re so excited about how much something can change a child when they hear about Jesus over the course of 10 days.”

(Read more of Jamia’s story here.) 

You can join Mission India in reaching more children like Jamia this summer through their special matching challenge. From now until April 30, gifts will be doubled up to $250,000.  

The incredible thing is that it costs only $1 for a child to be part of a 10-Day Bible Club.

“We’re excited to open up the invitation for people to reach out to more kids like Jamia so that they can have this awesome summer experience with Jesus,” Miller says. 

Visit Mission India’s website to join the matching challenge here.

Header photo courtesy of Mission India. 

MAF’s Director of Learning and Development Mike Snodgrass says, “We feel like we have a really good story to tell about how MAF partners with other mission agencies to share the love of Jesus in really isolated areas around the world.

“We also know and feel that the SOAR! program that we’ve created is unique because of our focus on missions throughout the whole week, not just a part of the VBS. Currently, there’s really no VBS that’s focused entirely on missions and especially not mission aviation.”

MAF serves people in isolated and hard-to-reach areas with the love of Jesus through aviation. They often work with other ministries and non-profits to provide things like emergency aid and medical or teaching services.

(Image courtesy of Mission Aviation Fellowship)

Since they are in the heart of the missions world and work in so many different areas, it was natural for MAF to spearhead a VBS focused on the Great Commission.

With SOAR!, Snodgrass says, “Number one, it’s all about the kids because we know that that’s the focus of any VBS. We want kids to discover who Jesus is and ultimately accept Him as their Lord and Savior.

“We also want to let kids learn about the Great Commission. A lot of kids just don’t know about missions work in general.

“Then the third thing is we’re praying that the Lord will start to plant seeds in the lives of kids and in their hearts to become our future missionary pilots, mechanics, and teachers because there’s always that need that we have at MAF.”

An experienced volunteer from North Carolina helped MAF create the VBS curriculum for SOAR! And MAF’s marketing team brought many of the ideas to life with original music, videos, and materials.

MAF also worked with four churches to refine the program. “They actually piloted the VBS for us and they gave us a lot of valuable feedback that made us make some significant changes in our curriculum…. Through that, we feel like we’ve made even a much better product.”

(Photo courtesy of Mission Aviation Fellowship)

SOAR! is now available for churches and ministries that want to provide a fun and missions-focused VBS experience. Learn more at maf.org/soar.

“That gives them all the information they need. We have a promo video out there that gives them kind of a minute and a half of what the program is all about. They can also order our starter kit from that website. We have sample songs, we have what we call is the flight plan — kind of the overall view of what the program looks like Monday through Friday — and then we also have the daily Scripture verse and what that characteristic of Jesus is each day that we’re teaching the kids,” Snodgrass says.

“Then we also have a hat for Pilot Pete,…the key character in the daily skits where kids discover who Jesus is and about missions. Then the last piece is we also give them a windsock because the windsock is a primary decoration in the main stage set for VBS.”

There is also an inquiry form at the bottom of the website where you can ask questions about the program.

Ultimately, Snodgrass says, “We’re really excited to partner with churches! We feel that kids need to learn a lot more about missions…so that hopefully we can have future missionaries out there.”

Header photo courtesy of Mission Aviation Fellowship.

(Photo courtesy Buckner International)

Individuals aged 21-35 are invited to apply for Buckner International’s first-ever Young Adults Missions Trip to Kenya this August!

The application deadline is this Sunday, May 1, 2016. So, applicants need to act fast! The team will travel to Bungoma, Kenya, with Buckner International from August 31-September 11, 2016.

Buckner’s team will hold a three-day Leadership Conference, training community members and small business owners in leadership skills. They will also visit homes in the community, help with work projects at the Busia Family Hope Center, and host a children’s Vacation Bible School!

The Leadership Conference will cover several topics:

• How to Grow in your Faith
• Leadership in the Church
• Budgeting for Personal Income and Small Businesses
• Creating a Savings Plan at Different Income Levels
• And more!

Each morning of the three-day conference will start with a morning worship session, and then team members will lead the various seminar topics. Click here for the full schedule.

There is a serious need in Kenya for Christian leaders and businesspersons to start transforming their country. According to the CIA World Factbook, Kenya has a high unemployment rate at around 40-percent and is among the low middle-income nations. Nearly half the Kenyan population lives below the poverty line.

Buckner’s team members will be a part of cultivating creative business practices and spiritual growth with our Kenyan brothers and sisters in Christ. This growth can have a ripple effect in Kenyan communities as Christian leaders are empowered in their personal and professional ministry efforts. A ripple effect with eternal impact!

If you are interested in joining the Buckner missions team, submit your application and a $250 non-refundable deposit by this Sunday, May 1, 2016. The “land cost” of the trip — the cost of food and lodging, transportation, etc. — based on a 14-member team is $1,900.

Learn more about the trip with Buckner and apply!

(Mexico flag courtesy Wikimedia Commons)

Mexico (MNN) — Sometimes the simplest answers to a challenge are staring you in the face.

That proved true for MOSES, Inc. After a few years of attempting to teach Vacation Bible School in Mexican churches with limited Spanish abilities, Nancy Halberstadt, a bilingual partners of MOSES, finally suggested that the ministry offer a conference to equip the local church leaders to teach their own VBS.

The rest, as they say, is history. Roughly a decade later, the ministry now comes alongside the local church for an annual training conference for community church leaders, VBS, building ministry, and more. Training sessions provide everything a VBS leader needs, from a theme to songs and crafts. MOSES Vice President Jerome Richards explains that today, “Local people now run that. We just provide the supplies. Typically, there are 300 or 400 people that come from area churches in Ensenada, Mexico.”

After the training, the real work starts. Richards says, “They, in turn, take that same material and go and reproduce it themselves…. And they take it farther south, even to remote islands off of Mexico.”

(Photo courtesy MOSES Inc)

It also makes sense to come alongside these partnering churches and provide some manpower. An upcoming short-term trip to Mexico takes place July 8-20. “The purpose of the Mexico trip is really equipping the individuals there to go out and repeat what we teach them and what we do.

“Our deadline for early registration is May 1, just around the corner. There are scholarships available.”

Richards says the teams drive to Mexico from Grand Rapids, Michigan. They’ll take as many people as they can get. Hopefully, they’ll have enough to make up as many as 7 or 8 teams that go out to churches each day: one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

More to the point, they’re looking for two types of leaders. “The adult leaders only basically drive and come alongside a student leader that needs some guidance in some issue that has come up. The student leader that goes along goes through the training to be able to, in turn, lead the devotions, lead the work site locations that we’re going to.”

Fee schedules are between the adult ($550) to student leaders ($350), and there is still an early registration discount until May 1.

Trips have  three elements: training, practice (Vacation Bible School), and relevance (helping with building or cleanup projects). If you’re not going, Richards says, “There are so many things that you can pray for: just for the awakening. Pray for the churches that in turn go out to spread this Vacation Bible School. They may touch up to 7,000 other individuals.”

Links to registration are here.

Photo courtesy of CWO.

Haiti (MNN) ― The Haitian kids got their names written in large letters and then attacked the craft with glitter and sequins.

But the truth behind the themed craft shone brighter than the craft itself.

Kids in Haiti learned “God knows me by name” during a four-day Vacation Bible School with Christian World Outreach (CWO) last month.

This revelation is transformational since Haitian children can feel pushed to the side at times. 500,000 children still live in Haitian camps since the 2010 earthquake, according to Save the Children. Several others live in the slums and are susceptible to trafficking, child labor, and exploitation.

But on June 11-14, a team of high school and college students traveled to Haiti to hold VBS and focus their love on these kids. The VBS was hosted at a CWO church on Haiti’s central plateau. They had 350 kids show up the first day, and by the last day they attracted around 600 kids.

Greg Yoder with CWO explains the VBS activities, “The memory verse gets repeated numerous times during the day or during activities. We tell Bible stories, we use Scripture getting them to think about the idea and how that applies to their lives. We do some crafts with them–something that those children don’t always get to do–so it’s a fun time for them to draw and to use glitter and glue and markers and crayons.”

It all ramped to the last day and that theme, “God knows me by name.” Yoder says ultimately, “Our hope is that some of these children do accept Christ and that they get involved in a church. Children have a big influence on families no matter where it is in the world. Here it brings a big awareness when this big of an activity happens in a town of this size.”

They’ve seen adults in Haiti impacted through the children’s VBS. “It’s really an outreach for the church,” says Yoder. “The pastor and leaders of the church thanked us for doing this and participating and being a part of the church activities so that people are aware that they are there and they are curious and that gives them opportunities to share Christ with the adults.”

How can you respond? Yoder asks, “Pray that these children and the stories they heard, the Scriptures that were read, the verses that they learned, songs they sang, that they will really take them to heart and that they will take them back to their families. That people will see a difference in the lives of the Haitian people daily working through the church and the community, that God will be acknowledged.”

If you’d like to support CWO’s Haitian ministry and help point others towards Christ, click here.

This group of students left Denver, Colorado to hold the VBS for kids June 25-29. They started with 475 kids on the first day and ended with 553 kids.

The high school team worked with a local church in Lavictoire to put on its second annual VBS. They gave daily Bible lessons and testimonies, and did crafts and games with the children.

CWO is well known for providing training to local church pastors and community leaders. The goal of leadership training is to provide individuals with skills that can be used to improve the conditions in churches, schools, communities, and the entire country.

Greg Yoder with CWO says their church development work has a broad range of ministry. “One reason we do [VBS] is that we can come alongside them and it puts the word out to the community that this is a church wanting to help the children…. The churches know that to be effective in Haiti, they need to minister to the community in all different kinds of areas.”

And the Lavictoire church, in coming alongside the Denver mission team, met several of their children’s needs. Nearly 20% of Haitian kids under the age of 5 are underweight. At the VBS, high school students and church members fed the children a meal of rice and beans every day.

They also ministered to the kids’ spiritual needs. The Gospel message was shared on the very first day of VBS, and throughout the week children made decisions to commit to Christ. The church’s pastor will follow up with those kids and their families.

CWO continues to have a long-term focus on the children’s ministry with the church in Lavictoire, Haiti. “We don’t want to go in and then that’s it–they’re on their own,” says Yoder. “We’ll go back again so we can continue. The lessons we taught the first year were all evangelistic in nature. This year, we taught more: here’s how you can serve others, here’s how you can share the Gospel with others.”

The team of high school students also blessed the local school community where lots of the kids at VBS attended. Yoder says, “One of the things that happened out of that group was that we raised a little more money than we needed for expenses and for feeding the children. The teachers at that school haven’t been paid since February, so we’ve been able to also help give a little extra money so they can catch up the teachers’ pay.”

The high school students were also personally impacted. “These young people right away were coming alongside and saying, ‘Hey, how can we continue to help this church, help this school, help these children?’ First, I just say, ‘Pray for them. Don’t forget them,’” Yoder states.

Yoder goes on to say, “That’s one of the reasons we take groups: to help people be aware of what’s going on in Haiti and the other countries we work in.”

Pray for the ongoing ministry to kids and families in Haiti. Pray that the saving message of Christ would change many hearts.

If you’re interested in supporting CWO or even getting involved, click here.