Yura Fedoryuk, a co-founder of Camp MAXIMUM and now a pastor inZolotonosha, was born into a non-Christian family. But after a dramatic change in his parents’ lives after they came to faith, God also turned Yura’s lifearound. Here he shares the significance of times at camp in his life as adisciple of Jesus.“
I have two special moments in my life when I had a personal meeting with God. The first was one summer, during our church adventure camp. I noticed that the team of leaders were different from people I saw at school and in my normal life. They were not only talking about God's love, but they really showed us that love. And especially to me, because I was that boy who was very active, running everywhere and never sitting still; but they never shouted at me, they just showed me God’s love, and I really felt it.
“At the end of the camp, God touched my heart and I repented. As a seven-year-old boy, I made this bold decision, that I wanted to follow God. And something that is really special to me is that after I repented, God gave me a desire, a dreamin my heart, to be a pastor one day. I know it was unusual - as a seven-year-old boy, usually you dream of being a football player, or a firefighter. But my dream was to be a pastor.
“After that I was serving in church, doing ministry, helping my parents ,and just loving life as a Christian. But as I became a teenager, I started to have a lot of doubts. In that stage of life you have a lot of challenges, you start questioning many things about your life. When I was 13 or 14 years old, I had a moment when I felt like God was really far away from me, even though it was me who was far away from him.
“But then I received an invitation to a camp that was done by our church with a team from Great Britain. For the whole week, we were living in tents in the forest by the Dnipro river, and my friends were with me, and that was so different, it was like a different planet for me. We had these British people who didn’t really speak Ukrainian, but the love, the passion and joy I felt from them was amazing. I remember looking at that team and thinking that I wanted to be one of them, to be a person who shows God's love, joy and hope in that same way. That week was so special, it really impacted my life.
“On the last evening, God spoke into my heart saying, ‘Yura, what about you? Do you like the life you live today? Do you need to change something? Do you want to be closer to me? Yura, I really want to use you.’ By that time, I had lost the dream of becoming a pastor but in that moment it came back to me. I was standing there and God said, ‘Yura, do you want to be a pastor? If you want to be my pastor and serve my people, you have to change your life.’ So I stepped forward and renewed my relationship with God. That was my second turning point: when I realised that I wanted to spend my entire life with God and for God.
“That moment changed my life - I became dedicated to reading the Bible and learning Bible verses; I became more involved in youth ministry in my church; and I was part of worship group. I began preaching in youth meetings and I built stronger relationships with my Christian friends. I didn't know realise it, but God was preparing me for his future plans.
“When I was 17, my parents were called to plant a new church in the small town of Drabiv, and they invited me to be part of it. So for the next seven years I was a youth pastor in Drabiv, working with teenagers and youth. God really blessed me during that time; I learned a lot and I met and married my wife, Nina.
“When I was 27, God called me to help to start Camp MAXIMUM in Zolotonosha [with Vitaly Sobko]. I was the Programme Director there for five years, from the day we launched it. It was amazing because I remembered when I was a teenager at camp and I admired all the leaders and wanted to be like them; and then years later I actually became one of them, a leader who can impact many lives. Now the young people were looking at me - I hope that through my personal life and my character and who I am in Jesus Christ, they were also inspired like I was.
“Then four years ago, I made a big decision: I left Camp Maximum, and planted a new church in Zolotonosha. We started as a team of 11 people, but God has blessed us so much, we now have around 80 people in church every Sunday. So that little dream God put in my heart as a seven-year-old to be a pastor one day, has become a reality. I get to share my faith, and help other people to come to Jesus, to meet him and join God's family. It is really amazing to see how God has used me, and used other people to bring me to where I am now.
“I would love to finish with this: I probably don't have enough words to describe how thankful I am to those partners and prayer warriors who've been doing amazing work in Ukraine for many years. For a guy like me who was 13 years old, and had kind of lost himself at that time, those teams who came to Ukraine and spent their holiday time with us Ukrainian teenagers, really impacted my life. At this present moment, a lot of those teenagers and kids who those leaders dedicated their time and resources to are pastors and leaders in Ukraine. So I want to say thank you for the partnership, friendship, and ministry.”
