My name is Tonya and I would like to share with you what God has done. When I think about my childhood, it was not without problems. My father died when I was three years old and I lived with my mother and two brothers. I received absolutely no care from them. At home we had nothing but alcohol and fights, so I ended up in the orphanage. During every stage of my life God was sending someone to help me, and eventually I came to live in the Little Lambs home. This is a Christian home for adolescent orphans in Rovno, Ukraine. This home provides Christian upbringing financial support, medical treatment, education and work to us.

Last summer God gave me my cherished dream to go participate as a counselor in a Christian summer camp for orphans in Mariupol. This is the orphanage where I grew up and which I left 8 years ago.  At Mariupol I was able to meet with my educator Yuri Ivanovich, other teachers, and also older children whose brothers and sisters I knew from my time there. When I met my teacher he was very much surprised and sincerely happy for me. I asked many questions about my class, and my friends and he told me the boys are in prisons and the girls are on the streets.  I was shocked because they had lost all purpose in life.

At this camp, I shared in my group that I was just like them and told them what God has done in my life. I have never regretted that I became a child of God. I also had a chance to meet with the officials of the orphanage. I reminded them that I had lived there for many years. I also expressed my gratitude for what they had taught me. This year was my first camp when I worked as a counselor and it was not easy, but the Lord went in front of me and helped.

In camp, we had a special class and for them does not exist any authority. They do not obey anybody, no matter what. Often they would attend meetings drunk and smelly of smoke. We felt so helpless, but finally the ice began to melt. God was beginning to touch their hearts. They started to attend the Bible studies, read the Bible, play our games, and dialog with us. One night an educator came to my group to thank us for our hard work with the children and said there were obvious changes in their lives. Praise God. It wasn’t us who touched their hearts, but He did that through us. I would love to go back to this camp again next year.