About 50 people serving children and teenagers in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan took part in the workshop. Leaders and volunteers from churches of different denominations gathered to learn, support one another, and be encouraged for the coming camp season.
My role at this workshop was both organizational and instructional. I was responsible for the workshop as a whole and led the course for program coordinators.
It was not an easy setting where everything slowly unfolded according to plan. Our team had to adjust quickly and stay flexible, and I was grateful to see how they used every opportunity to invest in the people who had come.
We also saw how eager the participants were to learn. They asked many good and thoughtful questions, listened carefully, and clearly wanted not just to receive information, but to understand how they could use it in their own churches, teams, and camp ministries.
One of the special blessings of the workshop was the time spent in “Biblical Encounters with God and Man” around Scripture. It was a gift to slow down together, read biblical passages, reflect deeply, and listen to what God was saying to us through His Word.
I want to share with you a testimony from a young man from Turkmenistan that especially touched my heart:
“Thank you for helping me be here. I didn’t even expect that I would be here. I prayed for the opportunity to attend a seminar like this. I came with many questions about ministry. For example, if I had ten questions, here I received answers to all twenty. I have discovered that I have so many friends and brothers from all over the world. I was wondering how to share the Gospel with children and young people, and God showed me yesterday and today how this can be done. I have made many new friends here. Praise God, I am very glad that I came. Thank you very much for helping me be here.”
This is one of the reasons why regional training matters so much. Many leaders serve in places where they have very few opportunities for encouragement, training, and fellowship with others who understand the realities of camp ministry. Thank you for praying and giving so that people from different countries and contexts could be there.
Here is a video with testimonies from other participants. These testimonies were very special for me to hear and encouraged me as we continue developing ministry in this region.
