Reminiscing about Camp in Moldova

Camp has started in Moldova with hundreds of children excited about the week. We are expecting great things from the Lord this summer and need your prayers and support.

Let me reminisce a bit about the camp through the years. We first rented this camp in the summer of 1998. It was a nice place in the forest about 40 miles from the capital. It needed a lot of work and renovation, but the camp was all we hoped for. It was for sale, so we pursued the opportunity and struck a deal to buy it for $93,000 in Moldovan money. We only h

ad half that amount, so I wrote one letter to our sponsors asking for help and prayer. We received a letter from a major sponsor and friend of the ministry offering matching funds to give others incentive to help us. In just a matter of months we had the money and were ready to buy the property. The Moldovan owners at that time decided to hold out for more money after we had a deal, so we waited and prayed. A few months later they agreed to the original terms, but due to their delay the Moldovan currency fell against the dollar and we actually bought the camp for $63,000!

In the early days it was a tremendous amount of work repairing the camp. Every pipe and every wire needed to be replaced. The roofs all needed replacing, and all the rooms, including the rest rooms were remodeled. It took many years to fix it all, and in some ways we are still working on it. However, God met every need and we have never gone in debt. God is Good!

It was evident that God’s hand of Blessing was on the ministry from the beginning. In those first years of running evangelistic camps there were weeks when almost every teenager accepted the Lord. It was hard to give reports to you, my supporters and prayer warriors, because it was just too good to be true. I was accused more than once of padding the numbers.

Over the years more than 30,000 youth have made a profession of faith in Christ. We know thousands of youth that have had a change of life and are now devoted Christians. There are pastors, youth leaders, and missionaries serving God as a result of this ministry. We just graduated our 5th Bible Institute class. Many of those who have graduated from our Institute were saved in the camp and are now in the ministry. Most of our camp staff are now graduates of our school.

So we begin year 18 of the camp ministry in Moldova. WAS IT WORTH IT? Most of our support through the years has come from those of you reading our prayer letters: from average income Christians who love God and the souls of youth. This has been a great work, because God has blessed it. God is already blessing this summer. Will you pray for the camp? Will you help us send a child to camp? It costs $20 per child/teen. We have sponsors for the first 1,000 children. Will you consider helping the children and teens that are coming the last three weeks of summer camp, so they may also hear the Gospel? Thank you both for your prayers and support.