By Chris Dale, Management Services Consultant, UBS Europe-Middle East Area Service Center

Children at a church summer camp. Photo: UBS/Chris Dale (MAC06DJ-30.JPG)

MACEDONIA — Every summer, Lake Ohrid in southwest Macedonia is the beautiful setting for a series of camps where up to 1,000 children attend lessons about the Orthodox faith and enjoy games and adventure activities. Children aged from 10 to 19 come from all over the country during their summer holidays to attend the camps. While learning about God and the Church, they also make new friends and have the opportunity to explore new challenges in a safe environment. Many of the children come from poor families who struggle to pay the nominal costs of the holiday, but it is a valuable time for everyone and every year more children want to take part.

We visited the camp, situated right on the edge of the lake, on a hot day in August. It was just after lunch-time and Bible Society General Secretary Petko Zlateski and I were there to meet the children and their leaders and to distribute Children’s Bibles and other illustrated books suitable for young children and teenagers. These would complement their holiday lessons and help them to understand more about the Bible.

The children formed an excited queue to receive their books under some trees which shaded us from the extreme heat of the afternoon sun. Professor Grozdanoski, Dean of the Orthodox Faculty, handed out the books, asked each child their name and which type of book they would like to have. The children then settled down around tables to take a closer look before there was a call for hurried group photos and everyone disappeared for the afternoon adventures.

The Bible Society has been supporting these summer camps for several years and aims to continue as the numbers of children increase. Before leaving we were presented with the Ohrid summer camp T-shirt as worn by all the children to remind us of the visit, but even without the T-shirt it would have been impossible to forget the sight of so many happy children exploring the Bible and stories of Jesus!