Ukrainian Camp Plans

Dear Friends,                                                                                                                                                   May 1, 2025

We have been in Moldova for a few weeks and have just returned from a short trip to Ukraine to investigate running camps there this coming summer. I spoke to a group of 5 pastors near the city of Izmail, in southwest Ukraine. A few years ago, a businessman gave one of the churches in this group a camp on Lake Kahul. It’s a beautiful spot and has lots of room for growth in the future. This year we can invite 110 youth per week. We must limit the number because 80 refugees - displaced from war zones in eastern Ukraine - are being housed on the property. With a little help this camp could easily host 300 plus campers and staff in the future. The group of pastors in the area received us with joy and tears, and they expressed that we were the answer to their prayers. We also felt like they were the answer to our prayers. So, we have a property secured, and plan to run camps in late June. 

The Ukrainian pastors are exhausted. They have so much ministry work there but so little help. Due to economic depression, they all work secular jobs and pastor churches with 100 to 300 persons. They run youth programs with hundreds of youth and with limited resources. They feed the refuges with help from Romanian churches, but running camps is a drain on their energy and resources. Several of the pastors have taken orphans into their families. We have agreed that God wants us to come along side these churches and run 2 weeks of teen camp and 4 weeks of children’s day camp (similar to VBS). To reach their parents, we will have a Friday evening evangelization at each day camp. God has also opened the opportunity to run a week of teen camp and 3 weeks of day camps near Tiraspol, Moldova, where our family lived and ministered from 1993-1997. 

Pray with us about the needs: 

1. Peace in the area of the Ukrainian camps.

2. Workers for the Ukrainian camps: many of the young adults have been sent to the front to fight or fled the country early in the war. 

3. Funds, for which we are trusting God to supply: 

• We need about $16,500 total for the overnight camps: $10 per day ($50 per week) per teen. 

• We need $5,000 total for the day camps: $5 per week per child for the 1000 children expected to attend in the various locations.

Pray we have strength and wisdom. My personal belief is that this is just a beginning of our mission in the Ukraine. Your prayers and support are crucial to success. 

God bless,

Eric Chapman D.D.