A day centre called “Dzherelo Zhyttya” in Zhytomyr (Ukraine) recently decided to see if they could motivate teens to seek God and to read His Word through a competition. They challenged young people to spend a week without the Internet, to pray more and read the Bible every single day. A week later all the young people were sharing with sparkling eyes about their experiences.
One girl hugged the leaders and thanked them. She said that this competition provided the impetus for growing her relationship with God. Not only has she begun to read the Bible regularly but she has also seen the blessing of it in her life.
Youth for Christ’s social department coordinator Bogdan Novakov has also had several meetings with churches in different regions of Ukraine who are prayerfully considering opening similar day centres. Several new day centres have already been opened, such as a new youth day centre called “Angel” in the Zhytomyr region.
The instability in the Ukraine over the last few years has raised the reputation of day centres in the eyes of public institutions (schools, orphanages etc.), and they are gradually opening their doors to Christians again. As they see the genuine desire of the Youth for Christ staff to help people, they sometimes even initiate the cooperation. This is what happened with the ministers of the day centre of Velyka Volytsja village. A director of the local school brought her own children to the day centre. The same is happening in the city of Khmelnitsky.