responses to the SC retreat, in moms’ own words
Our Stop the Cycle blogger, Yulia Sagaidachnaya, spoke to all the moms in the oldest group who went to the Carpathian Mountains on retreat this summer. She asked them to write their thoughts about camp.
Just recently, the Stop the Cycle group watched home videos from camp and shared their memories of that special time. Here are those precious words from our moms, and photos from the meeting when they shared their memories.
Yulia’s own response is the last.
From Alona Pavitska and Sasha Kaplun:
It is very important for us to become good parents. We heard so many things here at camp that we hadn’t known before.
We do want to raise our child right, according to God’s Word. We’re thankful we have leaders who took our parents’ place and direct us onto the right path.
From Marina Shepeluk’s family:
Thank you so much for such a great trip to the Carpathian Mountains. Our family just loved it. We had wonderful lessons where we shared our experiences raising children and could find solutions for different situations.
I learned and understood how to control my emotions so I wouldn’t hurt my kids. If the mom in the family is happy, the children are happy and calm too. When I am ready to burst, I remember our lessons on parenting and calm down. Thank you for such a gift!
Through the program Stop the Cycle, my attitude toward my kids has changed for the better. I try to find a common language with my children, and not to hurt them, but to listen to them first and then try to explain the right way to behave. I want to teach them discipline so when they grow older it will be easier for them to respect older people.
From the Orendovski family:
We were so happy to have this vacation in the Carpathian Mountains. We’ve never seen such a beautiful place.
My husband and I realized our disciplining methods didn’t work and sometimes even hurt. We love our child so much. We must change and work hard to make our Lerochka happy. We are thankful to God for this camp and for the people who arranged this trip for us.
I am very thankful to everyone who helped on this trip. After the retreat, my kids were very happy that they had found so many friends and discovered things about life and world around us!
From Vladimir Ostrovsky’s family:
Through this trip my husband and I received many answers about how to bring up our child. Now, when my child has something she shouldn’t have, I know the right way to take it from her.
We cannot change or mend all our wrongs immediately, but together with such wonderful, kind people, who set good examples for us, we are moving in the right direction.
From the Goncharuk family:
We became wiser. We listened, and realized a mother should bring up her children with love. Thanks to our sponsors for such a wonderful trip and for their care and prayers for my family. Thanks to them we changed our attitudes toward each other.
From Yulia Sagaidachnaya:
A month prior to the Stop the Cycle trip, I was in the Carpathian Mountains with my daughter. Frankly, when I learned we’d be going to the mountains and not to the sea, I was disappointed. I decided it would be cold and rainy. But I decided I couldn’t miss such vital training from Oksana.
God blessed our time with a very nice weather. I can’t even describe my feelings when the sun was shining, it was warm, and the mountains looked different every day. Every day I thanked God and asked His forgiveness for my unbelief.
But we didn’t only enjoy the weather and landscapes and tours. We had good training and pleasant fellowship with two wonderful people, Natalia and Ruslan. They made me think about things that had seemed insignificant before.
The most important lesson from the training, for me, was that no matter what we teach our kids, how hard we try to raise them well and provide them with the examples of our leaders — none of it will help if we first don’t discipline ourselves, and make a comfortable, balanced family where the kid is raised. Every mom should remember that her child will follow her example, her habits, and traits, much more than her theoretical instructions.
Again and again I’m convinced of the importance of such trips. It is an incredible opportunity to become healthier, share our parenting experiences, be trained in the right ways to raise kids, go deep in studying God’s Word, and just enjoy being with family!