Progress Report – 2022 – SUMMER

This summer 2022 brought much joy to us and we could again experience that God’s love is monumental. After two summers in which the Covid pandemic considerably reduced our mission activities, finally we were able to return in the full strength and run almost all the camps as we did before Covid. We are very thankful for this gracious opportunity as it was great to meet our American partners face to face again and do our mission together. It was also very encouraging to see the smiles of children and adults who participated in our camps which included Ukrainian children and adults who became a part of our community and participated on our activities. We are looking forward to the coming school year 2022-23 to serve over 750 Slovak and Ukrainian students and again bring to them God’s monumental love through a first quality education.

J-Camp began the week of June 20-24, 2022, for our middle schoolers Under the leadership of Paul and Pat Wickerts, seven people from the Hales Corner Lutheran Church, Hales Corner, WI, together with our teachers prepared and ran various activities for 7th and 8th graders. They included Bible stories, sports, science, and crafts. Our students improved their English conversational skills and enlarged their English vocabulary. The Hales Corner mission team was also able to help in one of the Ukrainian refugee centers in Martin that CCE and LAMS support. We are looking forward to June 2023 to repeat this mission again.

The next mission activity was VBS which took place in July 4-8. We were glad to have 120 children, and 40 teenage volunteers who served in various positions. Our traditional partner the Grace Lutheran Church River Forest, IL, send eleven missionaries led by the senior pastor David Lyle and the youth and children ministry coordinator Julie Modrich. We all were reminded about God’s monumental love and care that could be seen not only from the Old Testament patriarch Joseph’s stories but also from our personal experiences. We were extra thankful for 20 Ukrainian children who attended the VBS. We hope that God’s love expressed through our ministry comforted their troubled hearts and brought hope for their lives.

Then our mission continued with two weeks of English language courses (ESL) that were taught by 26 members of the New Heights Church, Vancouver, WA. Shelly Johnson, the director of the Serving Slovakia Mission brought a very skillful and enthusiastic team that served about 200 Slovak and Ukrainian teenagers and adults. They not only helped to improve English conversational skills but also shared their personal faith stories with the participants..

In addition to the above-mentioned activities, CCE supported a two-week Slovak language camp from July 11 – 22 that our Lutheran Academy Martin Slovakia (LAMS) organized for more than 50 Ukrainian children. In addition to improving their Slovak language skills to better prepare them to study in Slovak schools, they also made an important step towards their integration to the Slovak community. We are determined to continue to take care of Ukrainians refugees by supporting the two refugee centers, integrating the Ukrainian children in our school, assisting them with housing, and other basic need until the need is here.

Dear friends and partners, God’s love is monumental in spite all the difficulties we are facing in our daily lives. This summer clearly demonstrated that truth. Relying on this love we can plan a look forward to the coming school year 2022-23 We also know that we can rely on your support and prayer. Thank you for being our faithful partners demonstrating God’s monumental love to us and the people of Slovakia and Ukraine.