Prayer focus

THANK YOU, GOD

• For preserving the lives of the CCI/Ukraine staff during another week of intense missile attacks, including a missile strike that caused an ammonia leak near Kyiv, thankfully without resulting in mass casualties. For protecting camps and sustaining the leaders' faith and hope as they continue sharing Christ with children despite the war.
• For CCI/Armenia's visits to a four-day residential church youth camp for 30 young people and the Upper Room Camp with 180 campers, where the team encouraged camp leaders through prayer and gathered insights to strengthen future training.
• For a church in Country X that launched its first seven-day camp for 30 campers after participating in previous CCI/Country X seminars, marking a significant step in developing its own children's ministry.
• For the five-day mountain Camp session, You Belong Here, where the Camp Circle of Friends in Ukraine served 54 young people through hikes, worship, campfires, and Christ-centred fellowship. 

ACTIVITIES

• CCI/Ukraine is preparing for the September Covenant Group gathering and collecting camp testimonies from directors. Ukraine has very few missiles left to intercept Russian ballistic missiles; last Wednesday, none of the 28 missiles were intercepted. Large food and logistics centres were destroyed. With ballistic missiles, only minutes pass between warnings and explosions, leaving no time to reach shelter. Last week, attacks on civilians came every other night. Two strikes landed within 1.5 km (one mile) of our office, where our COO, Pavlo, his wife, and their two daughters live. After sleepless nights, heavy smoke, and an inability to work, they have temporarily found refuge at a remote mountain retreat.
• CCI/Armenia and CCI/Georgia continue their camp visitation programs this week to encourage camp leadership teams, strengthen partnerships, and help develop future camp leaders.
• CCI/Country X is meeting with the Samaritan's Purse team to facilitate customs clearance for church and camp ministry gift boxes.
• The Circle of Friends team is preparing its next church-based camp session for 35 campers.

INTERCESSION

• Please, pray for urgent protection for Ukraine from ballistic missile attacks and for effective anti-ballistic defence to safeguard civilians. Pray that God would protect our staff, camp leaders, and their families, strengthen those serving under constant stress, and continue transforming the lives of children and youth through His Word at every Christian camp this month.
• Ask God for the upcoming CCI/Country X camp for 24 children, asking for God's protection, good health, favourable weather, and for children and their parents to come to faith in Christ.
• Please intercede for the youth of the Circle of Friends ministry, that they will be protected from harmful influences, grow in faith, and remain faithful to Christ.
• Thank God for protecting Oleg, Andriy, and Maxim—the husbands of our CCI/Ukraine staff Oksana, Dasha, and Jenya—this past week as they serve near the war’s front line. Pray for their continued health and safety. Pray for Andriy’s recovery and for the full restoration of his leg’s function after he was wounded at the front line in January.
• With the sharp increase in Russian missile and drone attacks on Kyiv and many homes destroyed, please pray, as God reminds you, for God’s protection over our Kyiv staff Oksana and Pavlo, their families and homes, and the CCI/Ukraine office located in a residential area. 

FROM THE MISSION FIELD

Staff Testimony — Circle of Friends Camp (Ukraine)

Sofia, 18 years old

My name is Sofia, I am 18 years old, and I serve on the Circle of Friends team. My heart has always been with children and teenagers, and I want them to know that God is not distant or outdated—He is alive, relevant, and active today. For a long time, I struggled to grow spiritually because I believed I was too young to serve, that God worked only through experienced and “spiritual” people, and that His love had to be earned.

Through Circle of Friends camps, God began changing my heart and breaking down these false beliefs through His Word, counselors, serving, and the children I was called to serve. I learned that God does not wait until we are good enough; He equips those He calls. In 2023, I became a counselor for the first time—not because my fears disappeared, but because I trusted that God could work through me.

Today, as I serve teenagers, I want them to know they are not too young, too weak, or too insignificant for God. He sees far more in them than they see in themselves. If you feel that you are not enough for God, remember that He does not call only those who are ready; He prepares those He calls.