When Your Day Camp Is Interrupted by Drones

In North America, kids summer camps have to fight off the threat of mosquitoes. In Ukraine, the threat is bomb-carrying Russian drones.

Day Camps

No doubt you have attended or volunteered or at least heard about a summer day camp for kids. These camps are a hi-lite for kids around the world in the summer. However, Canadian day camps are a bit different than the ones in Ukraine, especially since the Russian invasion in 2022.

What’s remarkable is that while under the threat of attack, day camps carry forward on schedule. Until something happens.

Dana is a key volunteer leader in eastern Ukraine. Last summer she helped organize day camps for hundreds of children. We met with her on Zoom to help plan day camps this summer.

This is her story about remaining calm under fire.

Prepared

“We organized a one-day children’s program for local children in a village in the Poltava region. It was a miracle with games, creative crafts and thematic lessons, and the children were impatiently waiting for something new. We diligently prepared, prepared for work and prayed for a safe and blessed day.

The program went according to plan, the children laughed, played, drank, and the atmosphere was filled with joy. All of a sudden we heard the sounds of drones. This is a signal about trouble. But suddenly they arrived at the village. The program was interrupted, and we quickly began to organize the children and move them to safety.

Bomb Shelter

The children began to babble as they moved into a shelter. The older children who helped in the program quickly joined in helping: they encouraged the children, told them words of encouragement and helped them move to a safe place, giving them a tasty snack. The bomb shelter became a carefree place for the moment, where we simultaneously looked for the end of the threat.

Once the trouble had passed, we turned around until the program was completed. Although we wanted this day to be completely different, we planned it differently. The children realized that it is not themselves who instill fear and uncertainty in the moment – it is the responsibility of the people who support them, and of God, who always protects.

We experienced this moment at once, and I believe that the children took away from it not only knowledge about fear, but also a deeper understanding of the fact that trust in God is valid, especially in the most important moments of fear and hopelessness.

You can help Dana this year with your donation here. Loads of Love to B&J Ukraine Ministry 

Thank you.

Hope grows here.  We share stories that inspire people, build faith, and offer lasting purpose.

We’d love to have you Subscribe to REVwords. We’ll put helpful content into your inbox Mondays and Fridays.