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Beresino, Minsk region:

Summer project report of Olga Smolyakova

I had project in the town of Beresino. The church in Beresino was planning to have a summer camp on June 7-26. The first two weeks of the project were the preparation for the camp.

June 1

In the morning I was at home helping my mom about the house. In the afternoon I visited one woman from or church that was ill. She was very glad that I came. I could sit with her child and then we discussed what we could do in Sunday school during the first two weeks.

June 2

In the afternoon I helped my mom. Then I went to clean the Sunday school classrooms. There were a lot of things to do since the roof was leaking and everything was splashed with mud. On Wednesday evening at seven we have Bible study. That time 14 people came. We read 1-Corinthians, chapter 15.

June 3

In the morning I visited my friend in the hospital. She gave birth to a girl. After that I worked at home.

June 4

In the morning I looked though the program to the camp.

In 2003 a few people went to Brest to study the program "From heart to heart" for children. We were going to use that program for the camp.

I had been thinking of how to apply that program with our teenagers for the entire day. At six in the evening I went to the prayer meeting.

June 5

At eleven I went to Sunday school. That time we cleaned the cafeteria.

After cleaning we went to the hospital with one girl.

At six in the evening we had a youth meeting. After the meeting we stayed to discuss our work and responsibilities in the camp.

June 6

In the morning there was a choir rehearsal. Then we had a morning service till 12. We had guests from Ruzhany. After the service we prepared lunch for them.

At four in the afternoon we had another choir rehearsal. In the evening we had the last class on "One on one with God".

June 7

I worked in the house and in the evening I practiced dramas with children for the first day of the camp.

June 8

The entire day I worked with the program "Form heart to heart". Read the manual and studied the plan.

June 9

My mom was ill and I took care of her. In the evening children came to me to practice the dramas. After the practice I went to the Bible study.

June 10

I took care of my mom and studied the program "From heart to heart".

June 11

In the morning I went to Minsk to buy several things. In the evening we went to the church service.

June 12

The youth decided to clean the territory of our church.

At seven the youth prayer meeting began. After that the workers of the camp met to work on the last details of the program.

June 13

I was at the morning service. At two o'clock children practiced their sketches.

At six I went to the evening service and after that I visited a sick sister.

The camp in the town of Beresino

The first week of the camp lasted from the 14th to the 18th of June. That week was for the children from 6 to 9 years old. There were about 40 children and by the end of the week more than 50. I was the leader of the group. There were 13 children in it.

The daily round

9.00 - 9.30 - morning exercises
9.30 - 10.00 - breakfast
10.00- 11.15 - Bible lesson

Lesson

The purpose of the lesson: to show that Jesus is a Teacher who can change the heart and answers the need of every man. Bible verse: Mathew 4:23-25 Golden verse: "Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go". Mathew 8:19

Drama "Again to school"

11.15 - 11.30 - crafts and creativity
11.30 - 12.50 - common game
13.00 - 13.30 - lunch
13.40 - 14.30 - watching movies
14.30 - 15.00 - evening meeting

Drama A story

15.00 - snack, distributing letters, leaving home
15.10 - 16.00 - a planning and discussing meeting for the leaders

June 19, Sunday

Participation in the morning service
Visitation
Participation in the evening service

A story

Children in my group were each with a different character. One boy who seemed to be so quiet in the beginning fought with another boy. I couldn't make them reconcile. Philip said that he couldn't forgive Yasha since other boys would consider him weak and helpless because of that.

I spoke with him about forgiveness. I explained to him that we do a lot of evil to our parents but they forgive us, we often sin against God but He also forgives us, because He loves us. Shouldn't we forgive our friends, remembering that God has forgiven to us much more? In the evening Philip came to me and said that he watched a movie and heard how Jesus said to Peter that we should forgive more than seventy seven times. I was very glad that Philip could find answers to his questions and reconcile with his friend.

The second week of the camp was from June 21 to June 26. It was for children of 10-13 years old. The daily round was the same as on the first week.

A story

We had mail in our camp. Children could write each other letters and throw them in a special mailbox.

There was one girl from a troubled family in my group. She received letters and gave me to read one of them. Natasha, a girl from a very good family wrote the letter. The content of the letter was very offensive. I asked Natasha to stay with me after the camp.

I had a long conversation with her explaining that God loved Svetlana a girl from a poor family as much as Natasha. Svetlana doesn't see love or care of her parents and needs support of her new friends. Hearing offensive words from them hurts her.

I often talked to children explaining to them what was the will of God in different situations. Many of them immediately recognized their mistakes and tried to correct them, for some it took time. Natasha belonged to the latter group. It was difficult for her to change her attitude to Svetlana. Though in a while Natasha's hostility went away and the relationships of two girls improved.

June 27, Sunday

Participation in the morning service
Discussing of how we work in a camp in the village of Yakshitsy
At four o'clock we went to the village to see what we needed to bring for the camp
Participation in the evening service