“Yolchka” Campground… Christian Camping in Russia

For many westerners, and even for Russians, the words “Christian” and “Summer Camping experiences” just don’t go together. This may have been true in the past, but it is not true in the 21st century.

“Yolchka” means in english “Christmas Tree,” and was the name given to this campground facility over 40 years ago. You see, “Yolchka,” the name given to it during Soviet days, was for decades a Communist Pioneer Camp. It was a campground used in the Soviet youth training system to teach young children how to be good communist as well as devout atheist.

In 2003 the campground was purchased by a group of Christians in Bryansk as the USA to be used as a Christian

Campround, and is currently owned and operated by a registered Russian Christian organization, “New Life Ministries.”

What was a stage in the auditorium that was used to teach people to have no belief in God has now in the 21st century used as a stage to teach people how to have an eternal relationship with the God of the Universe in Jesus Christ. For decades there were banners and posters of Stalin and Lenin on display, but  today those same displays are paintings that teach the stories of the Bible. Before 1990 it was practically illegal to take a young person under 17 years old to any relgious event. Today… this campground is a

place to encourage young people to find out for themselves what a walk with Christ can be like in their lives. Yolchka is used for such a purpose.

Yolchka consist of 20 acres and 32 buildings, including a cafeteria, shower facilities, soccer fields, sports courts, outdoor theater, and the auditorium called “the KLUB.”   It is located 25 miles from the city of Bryansk near the beautiful Desna River and is surrounded by forest of evergreens and birch trees. The famous “cookoo bird” will often wake you up with his call on an early summer morning, and the summer breeze coming off the field nearby is wonderfully refreshing. There are wonderful walks to the river nearby, or strolls through the forest of mushrooms, wild strawberrys, fields of summer flowers, and great birdwatching. But best of all is it provides a friendly confine for children, youth and adults to openly discuss, pray, reflect, and learn about who God is and His great love for us. Russia is a deeply secular culture due to its long history. It is not a common sight… almost an unheard of event… to have see spiritual values displayed in the society at large. Children in school will almost never receive any kind of spiritual encouragement from their peers or their school leaders. Yolchka becomes one of rare spiritual oasis where children, youth, and adults can openly talk about spiritual things, and develop relationships with their peers on a deeper spiritual level.

It is a place where they can SING PRAISES openly as they walk with each other through the woods on their way to a class, a sports event, or the friday night bonfire!  Yolchka is a happy place where people develop relationships with each other and relationships with God.

Over the last 7 years, this campground has hosted well over 5000 children for summer Christian camp experiences.  Hundreds of children have to come to faith in Christ through the ministries conducted here. At most of these summer kids and youth camps Yolchka has played host to not only kids sent from churches, but the unreached non-church kids from those cities. At those camps Yolchka has hosted many children from orphanages, deaf children groups, children from alcoholic and drug addition families, and even one year 100 children from the terrorist ravaged city of Beslan in southern Russia where hundreds of kids died on the opening day of school in 2004. In addition to the kids camps, Yolchka has played host to two major Russian Baptist Congress events, where thousands of Baptist Christians from all over the nation gathered for a national event.

It hosted a Russian Baptist Youth Congress as well with over 700 teens from the nation came together here. Yolchka has also seen the Gideon Bible Society gather; numerous training events for Pastors and Church workers; many individual church family camps from more than one denomination; marriage conferences hosted by Word of Life Ministries from the Ukraine; and even secular Soccer and Sports Camps who have used the facility. Yolchka truly is a unique and blessed place in a nation that needs places of hope such as this.

Yolchka could use your help.

Yolchka is owned and operated by New Life Ministries of Russia. This is a registerd religious organization with the government, which means it is free and legal to conduct all religious activities on this property. It is also a legal Russian non-profit organization.

Like any of these organizations anywhere in the world there is a need for operation capital as well as capital improvements. We are seeking those individuals who feel led to be “Friends of Yolchka” on a regular basis.

During a camping events obviously has cost. Yolchka does charge for the use of the campground, but over the next few years it is almost impossible to cover all the cost with just camper fees. There is a need

• Annual cost of operation help
• Some debt recovery from improvements required by the government (fire alarms and other safety requirements
• Smaller capital improvements such as new beds, bathrooms, a kitchen needs
• Large captital improvements, such as heating in several buildings, and the desire for a lodge type faciltiy to be used year round as a training facility.

If you feel led be a “Friend of Yolchka” or find out more about this, you could do this in one of several ways:

1. Giving on a consistent basis throughout the year.
2. Giving on a one time finanical gift.
3. Going to visit Yolchka at one of the summer camp experiences.
4. Praying always for the camps and events that regularly happen at Yolchka (see the prayer request page on this web site)
5. Contact us any time at:  Billy Arnold: barnoldlifeway@gmail.com

Our Dreams for the Future at Yolchka

• To continue to see summer Christian Camping grow, allowing churches and ministries from all over middle Russia have such a reasonably cost facility for such a summer experience
• To see the facility become modernized in the areas of the kitchen, bathrooms, and shower facilities.
• To see sports fields developed as an outreach to the local communities, and the development of outreach sports camps.

• To see Yolchka become a year round faciltiy by developing heat in buildings.

• To see a Lodge type facilitiy built to used as a year round training location for ministry seminars, church planting training schools, church health training and development, individual church retreats and family camps, and prayer retreats.

Would you prayerfully consider partnering in seeing these dreams develop and come true?  The greatest desire of all is to lay the foundation for a movement of God in Bryansk and in this part of Eastern Europe. God opened the door and a new generation unlike any previous generation in a thousand years of Russian history has emerged. We are responding to this and relying on God for his provision.

This page has the following sub pages.

• Summer Camps