Cristina's Testimony

A story about how God's love and compassion at Summer Camps transforms lives!

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At Mission Without Borders Summer Camps, the atmosphere of God's love and compassion, the fun activities, the beautiful environment, have given so many children a fresh perspective and transformed their lives!

A short distance from Sighisoara, Romania, a beautiful historic town that dates back to the 16th century, are many villages where Roma people live in deep poverty.

The children here grow up in incredibly tough home environments and receive very little educational, emotional or spiritual guidance from their parents or wider community. 

During the summer holidays, many of the children must get up very early to help their parents with work. Others travel to Sighisoara and beg for money from passers-by in crowded tourist areas. Unsupervised, some children get into trouble with the law – while others become easy targets for exploitation. For those children with any leisure time, there are very few ways of passing the long summer. 

Cristina, 49, works for Mission Without Borders (MWB), supporting families enrolled on our family sponsorship programme. 

She said, “I’d never before known poverty at this level. I had no idea of how much adversity and pain that people are carrying in these communities.”

Mission Without Borders' began running Summer Camps for the children from these villages – and now, there is a great deal of excitement and anticipation as summer approaches. As the children step off the bus at camp, it is the beginning of a week full of adventure, created especially for them; a safe place and a fun-filled refuge away from difficulties at home. 

Swimming, ziplining, trampolining, fun activities and delicious treats help to create the most wonderful time of the summer. The Bible teachings have an incredible impact, with God’s salvation through Jesus Christ the foundation of all the teaching – and forgiveness, kindness, acceptance, friendship, prayer, obedience, joy, and love all emphasized too.

Cristina has seen for herself the impact of Summer Camp on the children. She shared the story of Andreea, 15, who was electrocuted when playing by some train tracks.

“Cristina said, ”Andreea was burned on 40% of the right side of her body and needed months of treatment and therapy."

 

“During her recovery, Andreea thought about all the teaching she’d heard at Summer Camps and Christian events and gave her life to God, feeling grateful that her life had been spared. While humbly sharing her story at Summer Camp, children all over the room started crying and asking for prayer. Five of them even ended up giving their life to God.”

In 2020, MWB’s Summer Camps in Romania were cancelled for the first time in its history because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The children were greatly disappointed, but in one community in Mures county, they had a great idea.

“Some kids gathered on the streets in their village and divided themselves up into playing ‘volunteer’ or ‘participant’. They started playing Summer Camp – and soon their day was filled with fun and songs they’d learned last summer,” Cristina said. “You can leave camp, but camp never seems to leave you.”

With your generous support, we can send more children from backgrounds of poverty to Summer Camp and give them the chance to have a holiday filled with joy.

Over 3,000 

This year over 3,000 children will attend Summer Camps.


Will you help more children attend?

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