Charity Cup, by God’s grace and provision puts together summer camps for orphans and under privileged youth each summer in the Republic of Moldova and Romania. We have the privilege to honor the kids, to love them selflessly and put the Gospel in their language each summer. The means to do this is sports. Soccer, volleyball and various games are used to minister to the kids. We feed, train and encourage the kids daily. Each morning the camp leaders spend one hour teaching the Bible and interacting with their groups. Each night, after the daily activities have ceased, the kids go to chapel for praise and worship, the gospel message, and personal testimonies. By the end of the week, each person is given the chance to personally accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, if they so choose. Many do. Some do not. That is why we’ll g back this year.

Imagine going to a far off country on a mission trip to harvest souls for the Kingdom. Imagine being given the right opportunity to minister God’s grace and love to a group of under privileged kids. Imagine being ready and willing to put into words the love of the Heavenly Father to theses kids as best you can. Imagine facing your group, and realizing that not one of them is hearing what you are saying. …the fields are ripe, ready, and right before your eyes, and your “hands” are tied behind your back.

Most of your group members are deaf, the others can barely hear.

I speak and communicate well, and have made a profession out of it. I earn my living by speaking. As a teacher, my best tool is my mouth. I believe God has gifted me with this I was ready to serve Him by serving the kids on this mission trip. Naturally, I felt helpless when I faced my group of deaf boys last summer. I realized that they were not handicapped in this situation, for they communicated well with each other using sign language, but that I was handicapped. The best tool I had was useless.

In these camps we teach kids love and respect. We share with them how important their life is. How God wants to use them. We do our best to hug, encourage, and motivate them to do their best on and off the field. We strive to show them the big picture: the meaning of life. As I worked with my group, I began to realize who was teaching whom in this scenario. Daily, as I showed up at their cabins for the morning bible study, I was greeted with hugs, pats on the back, and pure simple joy. Someone, no, everyone in that group was glad that I was alive and well. I was loved like I never have been loved before, all without any words. At times words are too weak for love.  My life mattered to everyone in that group. I began to see the big picture, to feel with the heart of Jesus, and to understand the deep meaning of life. We shared a great week together.

During that week the boys trained hard. They learned discipline, how to get along on the huge field without many verbal instructions, and how to strive for a win even if at a disadvantage. Life is that way at times. For these boys, life was like that all the time. Despite this fact, they played hard every time they had a chance to play.

That Friday morning during bible study, we gave them the invitation to personally accept Jesus Christ. During the prayer, I looked at these boys I now admired so much. Not one of them had their head bowed or eyes closed. All were attentively looking at Sorin Cretu and Lena who was the translator so that they won’t miss a word that was communicated. As the invitation was shared and the prayers prayed in perfect silence, tears rolled, and some lives were changed forever. For these, that was the most important day of their lives.

That day was also the qualifying round for the tournament. The championship was tomorrow. They qualified for the semifinals and were hoping to win the cup on Saturday. Their handicap apparently did not get in the way. In the end, they took home 3^rd place, which is quite an honor considering the tough competition and the level of skill some teams had.

I departed from my group with a huge smile and great lesson learned on the mission field. My mouth, what I considered my greatest asset, wasn’t necessarily the only thing God could use to minister His love. Love is mush bigger than words and God’s ways are much better than our own.  He uses people and circumstances as He alone sees fit.

This summer we need 80 volunteers to come and help out. There are about 1000 kids waiting for us to return.

The mission field is vast, the love of God endless, and the workers are still few…will you be one of them this summer? Maybe the life that will change, will be yours as well.