By God’s grace, in this year of 2024, we were once again able to hold the Children’s Orthodox St. Tikhon Camp on the shores of Pigeon Lake.

The main feature of this year was an exceptionally large, record-breaking number of children. There were many who wished to attend, and we did not turn anyone away. Consequently, there were more counselors and volunteers, as well as more work and responsibilities.

As always, the children started their day with exercises and morning prayers; then came breakfast and lectures on this year’s theme – “The Twelve Great Feasts of the Orthodox Church and the Resurrection of Christ – Holy Pascha” – dedicated to the most significant, mysterious, and salvific events that Christians celebrate as the greatest of Feasts. Two rather large groups alternated between participating in arts and crafts lessons (which we simply call “crafts”) and going to the study-play room for lectures led by clergymen and experienced volunteers.

This was followed by a few minutes of free time and a delicious, hearty lunch, after which we cleaned the camp to maintain cleanliness and order, rehearsed for the upcoming performance at the final concert, rested during a quiet hour, and finally went (although there was barely any need to walk) to our lakeside beach.

After dinner, there was evening prayer, once again in our small, beautiful, and cozy chapel of the Archangel Michael located in the eastern part of the camp. And in the evening, there was a gathering around the campfire by the lake, a meeting and communication between the children, counselors, and volunteers, and the experience of a very picturesque sunset.

We are grateful to many people who started taking care of the camp long before it began, gathering people – reaching out to each person individually, and then holding general meetings, analyzing past experiences, attracting new people and new ideas.

A huge thank you to the camp director, Father Igor, for organizing the people for this good cause, renting the camp complex, ensuring prayer, leisure, and meals, planning, and providing spiritual guidance.

This year, we updated our children’s prayer books, for which we thank Alexey Anokhin for beautifully designing them in the form of books, taking into account the specifics of our camp, in two languages, and in a sufficient number of copies. Our morning prayers included the reading of the daily Church Gospel, some litanies, and a somewhat shortened prayer rule, but including all the main prayers, which we both read and sang.

There was also something unique this year. For the first time, our camp was visited by a small zoo, and as you can probably guess, it brought great joy and delight to the children. Parishioners of the Patriarchal Parishes, Allan and Carol Borys, traveled quite a distance with an entire caravan, bringing us many different animals. With the help of our counselors, they set up an enclosure and not only allowed the children to see their cute pets but also to hug them, brush them, give them water, and play with them!

On the same day, Alexey Anokhin organized computer courses for the older children, introducing them to the basics of web development using a significant number of laptops he brought.

And on that same day, the boys were introduced to the art of wrestling by the former head coach of Kyiv in this sport, Aristos Aleksandridi. Together with his partner, they taught the boys the basics, not forgetting the moral aspects, and every move was immediately practiced under their careful supervision.

As we mentioned, every day the children learned some art from experienced instructors. Under the guidance and assistance of the Sunday School teacher of St. Barbara’s Cathedral, Maria Holden, Matushka Olga Protsenko, Ekaterina Udod, Mariia Zhurova, Olena Ivanova, and Svetlana Storozhenko shared their experience and secrets with the children, of course with the help of our counselors, and also helping each other.

The sacred events and their celebrations – the Twelve Greatest Feast and the Holy Pascha – were explained by clergymen – Father Igor Kisil, Father Alexei Suraev, Father Eugene Protsenko, Protodeacon Andrey Boldireff, and the experienced Sunday School teacher from Calgary, Alena Ivanova, sometimes with the help of the children whose teams were named after the Twelve Great Feasts and Easter, with interesting tests, crosswords, and quizzes with prizes at the end of the lessons.

To get the children moving after their nap, during exercises, and in free moments, those responsible for sports and games were our head councillor Konstantin Sumkin, Nykodym Demianchuk, Matthew Ivankiv, Kateryna Trutnieva, Illia Zarychniuk, Mark Verovochkin, and Ksenia Aleksandridi.

One of the most permanent activities in the large and very active group of children certainly was providing medical assistance, which our kind and attentive Nurse, Tatyana Popovskaya, has been helping with for several years now.

All day long, and until midnight, work was boiling in the kitchen, both literally and figuratively. After all, as they say, the food in our camp is unmatched anywhere else. The variety of dishes, generosity, and culinary skill of our cooks, led once again by the Head Chef Natalia Ilyina, deserves great thanks (with applauses, as we used to have after each of our meals). We want to express our immense gratitude to her, as well as to the servants of God, Evgenia, Milania, Lydia, Tatyana, Matushka Faina, Oksana, Anna, Victoria, Valentina, Alena, Zinaida, as well as Olga, Margarita, Diana, Irina, and all our kitchen helpers!

The unique and interesting introductions between the children at the very beginning, the festive and instructive concert on the penultimate day, and two Liturgies with the participation of the church choir of St. Barbara’s Cathedral under the direction of the experienced cantor Irina Trutnieva – all of this created an atmosphere of a blessed Christian community, in the likeness of the ancient Christians, which was very edifying and beneficial for our souls.

Once again, we thank everyone who patiently bore all the trials and labors and gave the children a charge of spiritual and physical health, and we hope that the Lord will continue to bless us in this good work!