News from the Fund for Mission in Europe:
”In the contemporary reality of Eurasia, there is a great problem with socialization for people with special needs. Life in society is organized in a way, which creates even more difficulties for the disabled people. Two programs are planned for summer 2021 at the Crystal Centre in Russia: a camp for kids with Down's syndrome and another for people with Cerebral palsy.

If you have not been there in the summer - the summer was wasted. 

Many who came to Crystal on a mission, to serve people with special needs, or just to relax think this way: 

“My little dream to see fireflies has come true here . Do you know that if you walk along the path from the main building to the gate in the evening, you can see bright green lights in the grass? - We saw... 

Can you hear the pine trees creak sadly outside the window? - We heard. Surely you fed red fluffy squirrels? - We did. 

I will remember our weekend here for a long time and will definitely come back again. A place where the soul is at ease. 

Turn off the music, listen to the birds and the old forest. They will tell you a lot. Don't forget to look up at the stars at night. They seem to burn brighter here".  

Camp Crystal with churches of Voronezh and Volgograd are parts of the Central Black Soil District of South Russia Provisional Conference.

For more than 10 years pastors and leaders of the district have served people with special needs with love and care. About 600 adults and children of believers and non-believers come to Crystal annually. Each - with its own goals, but they all experience renewal and transformation and receive a powerful boost of vitality for the next year. 

At the beginning of August by local efforts in a short time, practically urgently, a camp for people with special needs and their parents was organized in Crystal. With the relaxing and lifting of pandemic restrictions, parents were looking for opportunities to leave home for rest and fellowship after several months of isolation. 

"... we offered them two options: to have a rest on their own - just eat and live in the camp, or to have a rest with us, but in an organized way, they decided to choose on the way number 2. And we did it !!!" - the leadership team shared. 

For Crystal, the camp for people with special needs is an annual event. This time is keenly waited for… . But due to quarantine and for security reasons, the possibility of opening the camp for guests had long remained in question. As the situation changed, the Crystal team were able to get together and do what they themselves and the participants would remember for a long time. 

 When Love reaches hearts, it is impossible to forget.