Ukrainian and Moldovan Camps

Dear Friends,                                                                                                                              July 7, 2025

We just finished our Ukrainian ministry for this year. In week three of camp, we ran a day camp for teens in the city of Tatarbunary, Ukraine. There were 120 teens there, 46 accepted the Lord as Savior! On Saturday they invited their parents and friends to come for a program. The church was full with 300 people; 6 persons accepted Christ at that meeting and 3 more on Sunday morning. I met with several pastors and Baptist leaders from the Odessa region, and we discussed future evangelistic ministry after the war. While in Ukraine I spoke in four churches, and every church was full. I spoke to refugee groups, and there were no vacant seats. Ukraine is a ready mission field.

One of the heart-wrenching things to see and hear about is the number of orphans in Ukraine as a result of the war. There are about 36,000 war orphans in the Ukraine currently. In Tatarburnary, the church people are assisting in taking in orphans and raising these children as their own. The pastor and his wife are setting the example. They have 7 children of their own and have taken in 4 orphans. He introduced me to several other families that have done the same. One woman named Tanya has 5 children; her husband came back from the war crippled with an amputated arm, making Tanya the sole supporter of the family. Their neighbor lost her husband and was left to raise three children alone. Then the neighbor came down with an aggressive cancer last year and died. Tanya promised her neighbor and friend that she would take her children as her own, and so she has. This seems to be the pattern for many Christians in the churches I visited. They are getting little outside assistance. Pray for the orphans of Ukraine.

We have a week off to refit and prepare for 5 weeks of ministry in Transnistria. Pray for our team as we work in this Russian speaking area of Eastern Moldova.  The next three weeks will be spent with our first church-plant from 1993 in the city of Tiraspol.  Then we will be helping three village churches with day camps. Two of these churches we started in those early years of missionary work.

We want to thank so many of you that sent funds to help with the expenses of the Ukrainian camps and ministries this summer. It is always a blessing to see how God supplies through His people for the needs of the work of God.God Bless,Eric Chapman