Dear brother or sister in Christ,

My name is Stepan Turnaev and I am 24 years old and I am already working as a plumbing sales manager here in Tumen City in Siberia. Writing this letter I want to express my heartfelt thank you for being instrumental in helping me to find Jesus Christ who became my friend and my personal Savior. It happened six years ago here, in 2002, in Tumen where I still live with my family. I was invited to spend one week in a camp “The Ark” that was organized by a local church in an old pioneer’s campground in the area that once belonged to the communist party of Russia. I remember that I was so hesitant if I should accept that invitation. My parents did not care much if I went. They were mostly preoccupied with their work issues and social life living my summer along for me to decide to what trouble to get into. And those bad ideas were coming so often from my teenage friends that most of the time they got us into a lot of trouble. I loved my summer freedom and usually would spend all days and even nights on the streets experimenting with alcohol, weed smoking, stealing, fighting, etc. Nevertheless after receiving that invitation to spend one week in a camp I thought I should try it especially if it was already paid for by someone else. And if I did not like it I would just leave. So, I took that “risk” and went there. First day or two I felt very uncomfortable there since I have never been with Christians before and thought that they were just weird people who called themselves Christians because they just stayed away from fun, smoking, drinking, etc. . . . Not like my parents and their friends.

I loved sport games that were so well organized with prizes given at the end of each game and thought that I could tolerate all that other stuff just because of sport. However once in the evening, after a very good dinner, (by the way, food at the camp was just unbelievable), we had a bonfire and our leader, Pavel, shared a story of how he was searching for a spiritual satisfaction in his life when he was sixteen and that is when he was given a New Testament where he read and learned about how to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ who is the Son of God and who can live in the heart of a person. Pavel even shared how after a certain struggle of accepting this idea of Christ, he opened his heart for Jesus and then he confirmed that where He (Jesus) now lives. This was a discovery for me since I always thought that Jesus was not real, and for some He was an image in the form of an icon hanging in the corner of my grandmother’s house. I immediately realized that even if I wanted to
ask Jesus in my heart He probably would not want to live there—my heart was too dirty to make it a home for Jesus, the Son of God. At the end of that camp that I loved so much and where I made so many new good friends who did not try to tempt me into bad stuff like my street friends at home I
wanted to keep in touch with them even after the camp was over.

On the final night, around the fire, Pavel shared again and asked if he could help any one of us to take a first step toward Jesus tonight and to open our hearts for Him. Now my memory often goes back to that night by the fire when I felt Pavel’s strong hand on my shoulder when, for the first time in my life, I was praying to Jesus asking Him to come to my heart. And I am so grateful to Him that He did come and cleansed it with His precious and powerful blood and gave me a wonderful life and hope in Him. The next day morning I rushed home and couldn’t wait to see my dad and mom. I shared all about Jesus with my parents and then with friends. It is another story. I am so grateful that, after a while, my parents also accepted Jesus and now serve Him in the same church that six years ago because of Pavel’s desire and, as I have learned later, because of funds from Christians in U.S, he was able to organize that camp where many young people like myself had an opportunity to learn about God and His love.

I was told that you’ve generously supported summer camps ministry in my country, Russia. I am sharing this story because I want to encourage and bless you for playing a special part in my story. So, because of you who provided funds for brother Pavel at that time to have that camp available for many young people I now know Jesus and serve Him. I went through training as a youth leader. Now we with several of my friends and leaders from church are getting ready for this summer and praying that God would supply enough funds for us to be able to bring 200 children to a camp where I am preparing to serve as a leader now.

Please pray for me. I hope I can be like brother Pavel who had helped me to take my first step of faith and to invite Jesus to my heart so that I can teach many other children and young people about God and help them to take that first step of faith.

Thank you and may God bless you!

Stepan Turnaev
Evangelical Church “Spiritual renewal”
Tumen, Western Siberia

Once again, a team of energetic young Next Generation Christians from Vladikavkaz will pass through checkpoints, unload and reload vans for security checks, then finally arrive in Grozny to hold an evangelistic summer camp for children in this war-weary capital city of Chechnya.

Among this year’s team is a young man named Mayerbek Kusov. For Mayerbek, this trip to Chechnya represents much more than a week of summer camp. It is a chance to bury the ghost of revenge and embrace a one-time sworn enemy.

“I am a Christian now,” says Mayerbek, but he wasn’t in September 2004, when Chechen Muslim terrorists attacked School No. 1 in Beslan, Russia, and killed over 300 people, many of them children, during the three-day siege.

Mayerbek’s youngest sister Fatima was killed as were some of his friends. “For the longest time, we wanted revenge,” recalls Mayerbek. “This is part of our tradition, a sort of law—blood should be repaid with enemy’s blood. Then something happened to me.”

Some of Mayerbek’s friends invited him to a concert and discussion at the youth ministry center Russian Ministries opened in Beslan after the school tragedy. Mayerbek knew what to expect, because he had attended a summer camp the Beslan ministry center and the church in Vladikavkaz—where Gennady Terkun is pastor—had organized.

But Mayerbek was unprepared for what Marina and Allan, two young Next Generation Christian leaders, were planning to do—to go to Chechnya to help people who had suffered from the ongoing war in that region.

“I was stunned as they told us that forgiving one’s enemies was a lot more difficult, but more noble than taking revenge, and living only to make plans on how to repay enemies with the same evil,” explains Mayerbek.

Marina and Allan pointed out that a person could forgive his enemies when he followed Jesus. This initial discussion led to more visits and more in-depth conversations, and the day finally came when Mayerbek surrendered to God.

“My Christian friends did go on a mission to Chechnya, but it was not the mission my other friends and I always planned for—a mission to kill Chechen children since they killed children in our school. This was a different mission,” says Mayerbek.

The group had organized an evangelistic summer camp for children in Chechnya.

“At first Chechen children and their parents were suspicious because they thought that the Christian youth from Beslan came to do evil to them. But after several days of camp, everyone was amazed that, instead of bringing evil, they shared love and kindness with them,” Mayerbek describes the impact the camp had.

This summer, as Mayerbek travels to Grozny, gone is his need for revenge and in its place is a desire to share Jesus’ love with the children of Chechnya. “God’s love is powerful! His love is more powerful than evil!” declares Mayerbek.

One Child + One Week of Summer Camp = One Changed Life

It’s a simple equation that has eternal results for campers and for counselors alike.

You can stand behind young Next Generation Christians like Mayerbek as they share God’s love with thousands of children and young people at Russian Ministries’ evangelistic summer camps.

We especially ask for your prayers and financial support of the 2008 summer evangelistic camps. In Russia, Ukraine and Moldova, the cost of living has risen 25-30% and the dollar is dropping in value.

Additional funds are still needed in order not to cut back on the number of children who can come to these life-changing camps.

A gift of $50 will send one child to camp and provide one Bible, a gift of $100 will send two children to camp and provide two Bibles, and a gift of $150 will send three children to camp and provide three Bibles.

To make a secure online gift to summer camps, click here.