With some financial support from the government, the SCMM rented a cabin in a recreational park, where they had full use of all the facilities. The Sulomai children were joined by children from four other villages, where they enjoyed three weeks of hiking, art and craft, good food and Bible stories – using Scriptures provided by the Siberian Branch of the Bible Society in Russia.

“Every day we had Bible lessons and each of the children had his or her own notebook to write things down,” describes Mrs Anphinogenova. “We played Scripture games and puzzles, read stories from the Scriptures, discussed them and sang songs. They really enjoyed it.”

But it was not always easy to share the Gospel with the children, many of whom came from strongly atheistic homes or whose parents practised the shaman religion indigenous to the region (see related feature).

“We tried to get the children acquainted with God but we had problems,” says Andrei Kirilov, one of the mission staff who served as camp counsellor and music leader. “Some of the unbelievers were not very open to the Bible but many others were. In my group of 15, only one child was still closed to the Gospel after the first week. I am very glad that so many of them accepted Jesus.”

Another challenge the camp leaders faced was the fact that some of the children struggled to read the Scriptures used in many of the activities.

Difficulties

“Some had difficulties reading, but they learned Bible verses by heart, and enjoyed that,” said camp co-ordinator Olga Gribova. “They also loved to act out Bible stories.”

Miss Gribova, herself a schoolteacher, attributed some of the children’s reading difficulties to their village environments.

“Some are taught by adults who don’t read well,” she said. “But some just do not want to study – people in the north can survive by hunting or fishing or raising livestock, so they have little desire to learn how to read, or about maths or computers.”