Miracles of Sport Community camps :-)

Hi everybody! 
I'm so happy to get back to you with the news on my ministry with Athletes in Action,  especially that there were so many things which happened, and about which i'd love to tell, about all God's miracles, but then i'd have to write a book ;-) So i'll try to share the most the most interesting moments ;-)
First of all, the end of May and June I was in the season of raising support. The Lord taught a lot during this time and led me through "His clould", thank you very much for the prayers! ;-)
Then we had a season of blessed camps which we called Sports Kids 2018.

Sport Kids and an evangelical Revival church camp in Kiev 
The video in the beginning of this post is the evening program of the church's camp where we had different points of activities for kids and their parents, which were located right in the park next to the church building in 5 min from the metro stop. I apologize the video has phrases in Russian but basically it's the activities we had: English club, Power show, Avana games for kids, Volleyball etc. On the first night during the special guest performance (we called it the Power show), the Gospel was proclaimed with the passages from the Bible. The parents brought their kids from the soccer sport community camp which was the first part of the camp during the day time. Then they would remain for the evening program as well. 
Here's the video from our soccer Sport Kids camp day time. We did it for three age groups - 3-6 y.o., 7-11 y.o. and 12-17 y.o. Many moms and dads were happy that their small kids could participate as well in the soccer camp :) (sorry for non-Christian song in it though the music seems to be quite matching ;-)

Now i'll tell you more about God's miracles;)
We had meetings with the team of the camp in the mornings, we discussed the passages from God's Word. During one of such meetings I prayed that God would send someone during the day who He wanted me to share Gospel with. On the photo is Luba and her grandson Nikita (he is very shy:-) On that day after I did my tasks with the registration table (my responsibilities for the camp were translation, administrative tasks, registration, communication and the follow up work with the kids and the parents), i decided to go ahead and to talk to the parents while their kids were in the sport community busy. I started to talk to Luba who turned out brought her grandson from the town quite far from Kiev to our camp. She had some disappointments in God when they lost their granddaughter few years ago. She shared she searched for God and even was going to go to the church but on her half way she would turn around and would say she was not ready. I shared Gospel with her and challenged her with the question to accept Christ, i prayed for her husband right there next to the field (as he has leukemia). Luba is very open. And she wants to read Bible. Yesterday I called her and she told me she visited the Revival church and she liked it. God is amazing! Please keep praying for her, for her relationships with the Lord, for her family and for the healing of her husband.                                 

Caleb (19 y.o.) is one of those not so many who came from the States to help with our sport community and also to do English club. On the photo below we were giving out flyers to invite to the camp in the neighbourhoods of the church.  

 These girls are from my registration and administration team. I wouldn't be able to do anything without them! Especially when I needed to sign the awards certificates (which needed to be ordered in advance)
Below is the photo with Sveta, one of the volunteers from our team. She is a contemporary dances coach. She has an interesting story how God brought her back to Himself and how she got back to the church. Please pray that God would keep working in her heart and would lead us in the relationships of mentor-disciple, probably.

  The Lord blessed through some good friends (the ministry partners) with the children's basketball hoop with 5 different height levels. In the evening different ages kids would come up whose parents would just walk in the park near the church building. I taught them the shooting drills etc. It was sometimes a good possibility to talk to the parents while their kids played.

 God showed so many miracles especially in terms of the weather when, f.ex. it was raining cats and dogs in other areas of Kiev, God seemed to hold His hand over our neighbourhood or would stop the rain right at the time when it was needed. In the church's building there was the awards ceremony. One of the prizes was Bible in Action.

Please keep praying for the hearts of the children and parents so that God's truth which they heard at this project, would produce its work. Also for the wise planing and the blessed follow up from September of the sport community on yet rented fields and then on the soccer fields which are to be built near the church. Thank you! 

Sport Community camp with the church "Ark" in Dniepro
Next day after the camp was over in Kiev, Caleb, my teammate Dima and I went to Dniepro (the city on the east side of Ukraine) where we had Sport Community camp last year. Our goal was to help the church here (the youth and the teen's groups) to do this project so that in future they would do it on a weekly level. God blessed us with good days - first planning and devotion time with the team, lunch together, going to the field together and then Sport Community for kids 7-11 and 12-17 years old with the break for the devotion part, then tournament with different colours jerseys teams. God brought to us 60 kids and many of them were from the last year Sport community (from the different field).

This is Vanya (Ivan officially), he found out about us since our last year Sport Community. When I saw him, i remembered him and talked to his mom. Turned out Vanya asked his mom to search for Bible after our last year Sport Community camp and they could find only children's Bible in different pictures. He liked to to read those stories and now he knew many of them. Vanya loves soccer and plays it every day. Isn't it a miracle? That's how God works! Please pray for this mom, Larissa, who visited the church a year ago but she still doesn't trust any church and is suspicious. 

The kids were all open, the parents who brought the kids were positive knowing that we do the devotion breaks and share about Christ, love to your neighbour, about humbleness and even the rainy day wouldn't be a problem for us )

This is Iliya (or Elija). He is 15. He was one of those not many guys from the older team who passed by the field knowing about the field and not knowing that there would something going on on that field. When his sneakers got ruined he would still come and hang out with us. He works at the factory, dealing with metals, he has no dad. Praise God there was a basketball court next to the field and I did my basketball community teaching different basketball things - shooting, lay up etc. I shared Gospel with Iliya but he didn't know if he wanted to accept Christ yet... Please pray for him that he wouldn't be afraid to search God and go deeper and to be in touch with the local team from the church who can be true Christian friends for him.

It was not always easy with the kids here in terms of discipline, the wisdom was in need. God blessed us with the amazing team from the church "Ark", may God give them wisdom and strength to continue this ministry on the weekly level. Yesterday they already did the first one after the project with the equipment that we left for them temporarily. 

God blessed also me to go to the sports conference to Kishinev (Moldova) where there were sport ministers from Russia, even Siberia, Belorussia, Georgia, Armenia etc)))) We studied the book of Neemiah and learned many useful things on leadership as humbleness and patience etc. But this is more to share later or when i meet you personally ;-) On the photo is the moment after our team building game )

 About my personal:
Please pray for the time of my holiday rest (thanks to the Lord for the rest and different meetings as i keep moving as a guest from place to place) - so that God would restore and recharge before the next season;
for my sister (Ira), my brother (Valera) and for my nephew (Vova) - for their true repentance;
for the right man from God for me to serve together if it's His will and if it's His will for me to stay and serve Him as single, that i would live with it easily (such a special new prayer request ;-)

Thank you for your prayers and support! Nothing is possible without them))) Looking foward to your news and i pray as well for you ;-)
With love in Christ,
Anya