Salvation Church of Poltava, as part of its development of foreign missions, sent a team of 9 to Georgia from June 29 to July 5 to assist at a youth camp. The camp was held in the village of Ureki (30 minutes drive from the city of Batumi) in a recreation center (which was still under construction) owned by the Georgian Baptist Fellowship. The camp was attended by 30 Georgian young people, most of whom were non-believers, or more precisely - had not accepted Christ as their personal Savior.

The purpose of the trip was to help the Georgian missionary Aner Giunashvili work with young people, particularly those who are currently living in refugee camps. In fact many of the young people at the camp were refugees. The camp was called "Not the Me Generation" and was thematically focused on re-evaluating relationships between friends, parents, co-workers and ultimately - with God.

Each day began with calisthenics, then sports, swimming and team conversations on the theme of the day. The second half of each day had a competition in some kind of sport and the evening ended with a general assembly. It was a great encouragement for us to see the Georgian young people who had been in a similar camp two years ago and who now have grown spiritually and have started to serve in youth ministry themselves! For us, as Ukrainians, it was an interesting experience to work around the language barrier, since modern Georgian young people, especially those who live in rural areas, do not speak Russian. All of the conversation and preaching had to go through a translator, however, by the end of the week the young people on both sides had already learned to communicate with each other using simple phrases, and so on the final night there was a competition between the Georgians and the Ukrainians to see who had learned the most phrases and words during the week. The result of the competition left everyone pleasantly surprised - it appears that both the Georgian and Ukrainian languages can be learned!

For our missionary team the trip was also good practice in adapting to a different culture (as much as possible!) and in expressing love, practicing patience, paying attention and being observant. On one of the evenings the pastor of the church in Kobuleti, Zura Asatiany, visited our camp. He spoke on the theme of the relationship between parents and children, and after the meeting we spent time talking with him.

Every morning at 7:30 am Georgian time our missionary team got together for a planning meeting. Each meeting ended with the prayer that the hearts of the young Georgians would change, and that they would decide to dedicate themselves to the Lord.

On the last evening, after Aner's sermon about our relationship with God, everyone was invited to leave the room and go onto the street, where a cross of candles had been laid out on the ground. Upon leaving the room each person was given a small candle, and the young people went down one after another and put their candles around the cross, forming the shape of a heart around the cross. Then it was time to ask everyone to think about their personal relationship with God, and if it was not in order - to repent and be restored, and for those who did not have such a relationship - to repent and accept Christ as their personal Lord and Savior!

It seemed that evening that the whole spiritual world froze in anticipation - who would make a decision and take the step over to God's side? And then came one prayer, then another, after that another ... We did not understand their language, but God understood and responded to the cry of the Georgian hearts and souls! Two young men were praying, asking God to restore their broken relationship with Him, and three others repented of their sins and asked Christ to come into their heart!

Many thanks to God for all those who prayed for this missionary project and for those who donated to finance our trip! Please continue to pray for the mission to Georgia, that more young Georgians might become serious followers of Jesus Christ!

Andrei Khudyakov and The Team from Salvation Church