Life skills
Life Beyond Orphanage Walls
CBN.com – Every year Angelina and Anya spend their summers at a camp in Skadovsk, Ukraine, on the Black Sea.
This may sound like a fun way to relax each summer. But Angelina and Anya are not your typical young girls. They are orphans.
Thanks to the support of Operation Blessing International, AGAPE Ministries and Crossroads Community Church of Lawrenceville, Georgia, Angelina and Anya, as well as 230 other kids from their Kherson orphanage, are able to participate in a two-week Life Skills Camp.
Thirty-five volunteers from the Ukraine and the U.S. prepare lessons, activities, and memorable moments for the orphans, who range from five to 18.
The camp focuses on life skills that many orphans lack and encourage them to think about the future-- a life beyond the orphanage walls.
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They are taught that they are uniquely special in God’s eyes and how He can turn their dreams about education, jobs, marriages and family into reality.
“…I learned that God is bigger then all of us and that we really have to rely on Him to make a significant change or miracle in the lives of these kids,” volunteer Amber said. “Being here showed me that God can use one person to make a difference in the life of a child, even if it is just through a hug, a smile or a word of encouragement.”
The Life Skills Camp in Skadovsk may expose their heartache, but it ultimately fills the orphans’ hearts with the everlasting hope in Christ.
Vanya, one of the Ukrainian leaders summed it up best, “Ultimately it is not us changing these kids’ lives, but Christ -- and we can’t forget that.”
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