МИР » Camp

Children must be happy

Katya — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 13:56:45 +0000

September 29 Nadya and I were invited to attend the Cross- Regional Conference on “Fostering: problems and achievements”, organized by the Committee of Education of the Leningrad region and held at the Great Hall of the regional government.

Elena Spasskaya, the chairman deputy started by saying that for five years in the Leningrad region the number of foster families has sufficiently increased and it has been a positive trend.

One of the main ways of social support for adoptive families so far has been a monthly payment: of 5516 rubles ($183) to the family with a child of preschool age, and 6953 rubles ($230) - to the school age child.

Conference participants acknowledged the positive experience of the Gatchina district where “The Town of Hope” hosts 18 foster families with up to a hundred of children. In 2010 the second building phase of this town has started. So far this foster family settlement is supported by Harmony Psycology Center specialists. The Town of Hope is a unique place. There are two Christian families so far, and Natalia, who has coordinated a group of children traveling to Estonia with Love Russia, is one of them. We hope to continue serving this place in multiple ways.

In according with the children’s rights specialist Tamara Litvinova, families are in great need of counseling

as conflict situations with children arise and their rights and boundaries have to be guarded.

Tamara Litvinova is reporting that less orphans and children left without parental care, as well as a growing number of children adopted by the Russians, not foreigners.

In 2006 in the Leningrad region, there were only 27 foster families, they brought up 44 children. 430 foster families have already brought up 608 children according to the July 1, 2011

A university Mr. Igor Schatz, who spoke at a conference on the psychological climate of the modern family, just formulated a simple goal to strive for which is the child’s happiness.

In conclusion of the conference the adoptive parents and ladies named Faith Hope and Love were granted with flowers. The representative of Russian Orthodox Children’s Mission spoke highly of the families’ achievements and introduced the textbook on Orthodox Faith foundations.

Nadya with foster families from”The Town of Hope”

Visiting Peter and Leah

Masha — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 12:08:50 +0000

It was a great visit at Peter and Leah’s family home last week. We specified our camp plans and checked the beautiful church building that’s in progress of being built. See the pictures below. Related posts:Visiting TeamsElama — A Look Back and ForwardCamp Elama Related posts:

Preparing to Send Children to Estonia!

Mike — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 18:14:44 +0000

We are looking forward to helping Love Russia UK run a camp in Estonia this summer. We will send about 55 foster children and orphans to the camp in August.

Alex, Jacqui and camp leader Debbie are visiting Estonia at the end of March to look at the site and make some decisions prior to the preparation weekend with the team which takes place in the UK at the beginning of April. (Love Russia team members are shown above at a fund raiser in England.)

This time a mixture of children with different age groups will come from Russia to the camp. In the past Love Russia team have not ministered to older teens, so they look forward to a new challenge with these young people.

Is it possible to get another 10-15 children age 7-14 so that the number of children will be between 50 – 55 overall.

This is the first time we’ll help with a camp for Russian children in Estonia for the first time; it is very exiting for us.

Elama — A Look Back and Forward

Mike — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 07:21:34 +0000

Here is a Before and After slideshow of Camp Elama. It’s great to see so much life and growth there.

This Saturday we’ll host a pilot ecological program, an ecologist from the UK will teach children from a shelter in the city. In November, a local church will run a youth sports camp. So, the work at Elama is expanding beyond just the summer. Even in difficult financial times, our work continues to expand.

Summer Pavilion by St. James team

Masha — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 13:19:08 +0000

St. James’ building team has successfully completed the summer pavilion building project at camp Elama. In spite of weather change, mosquito bites, health issues, struggles with the local saw mill it is done and done! As John Bull formulated it at good bye dinner, Allen Amason as a team leader and Mike Cantrell as a visionary put together a group of “good people” who honored God not only in the amount of work being done but also in the way they treated each other and everyone around them.

This pavilion is 100 square meters and will seat up to 150 people once the seating spots are available. The smaller building is summer kitchen. The picture shows it in progress of being built.

A lot of things were done for the first time: the first team of foreign volunteers actually staying in the camp through the week. The first team I’ve hosted at Elama without Mike and Olga. The first new building being build from scratch.New Elama pouring out all over. A great house-warming event for the new summer season, a very smooth and natural way for me to accept Elama as a part of MIR’s work and take more ownership over it.

This building project was a wonderful way of integrating many different ministries around children camp ministry. Through the time such ministries and group of people as St. James, Street Cry, Crimson Sales, MIR, Love Russia, Bethel Rehab Center, Christ to the World Church put the efforts together to make it all happen. Some were actively involved in building, others were facilitating different parts of the process directly or indirectly.

What really mattered in the midst of all that was happening was it all served the final goal of getting ready for children camp sessions in July.

As Allen summed it up: “This is the way it is supposed to be”.

Camp Elama

Mike — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 13:32:00 +0000

Camp Elama is slowly thawing out; Spring is here, yet the snows remain and our work preparing for the summer has begun. We have a good leadership team in place and exciting plans for the summer.

Back in December Sergei and John laid foundations for two new buildings, and in May and June we’ll have teams from Georgia and Mississippi building on those foundations and doing other prep work.

We’ve purchased a riding mower/lawn tractor which will allow us to clear much more land and create hiking trails. Unfortunately, some items were stolen this winter so we’re having to replace parts of the water system and a few tools.

Sergei Tovstapyat, our camp administrator and general handyman, has begun building wood stoves in the cabins so we can heat them and use the camp for more of the year. We’ve also recently opened a new website for Elama.

This summer, in addition to hosting several churches at Elama, we’ll run our own camp for the first time. We plan to have 20 children, and we’re also hoping that some young ladies from the Minsk Family Home will come up from Belarus to help. Anya Kazak and Natasha Pavlova will be leading that camp.

It’s going to be a good summer, and we look forward Elama being filled with life once again.

Click here if you’d like to support our work at Elama

Visiting Teams

Mike — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:06:45 +0000

MIR is hosting several teams from the US who are serving in summer camps.

As always, we are happy to have these fun Americans visiting, and the camp directors and campers are very glad to know them.

At Camp Druznik, teams from San Antonio are working with orphans for the month of July. They were at this camp last year, so they’re continuing to build relationships and bless the children. It’s great to have them here, and the kids LOVE them!!