Passion 2012: Volunteer experience

So, this year, again, by the grace of God and generous help of one of our very good friends in the States we were able to attend Passion 2012 conference in Atlanta. It was an answer to our prayers and prayers of many friends in Ukraine, the States and around the world. In this post I wanted to write a bit more about the conference and what we've experiences there.


Well, this year was different then all previous years we were in Atlanta (2010 and 2011), because we decided to be volunteers. For those of you, who don't know Passion conferences usually use many volunteers to help with different aspects of the conference, but mainly to have the most important people there - students - to fully experience what the Lord has for them during those days. For this reason volunteers at Passion are usually called "doorholders" - the ones that open and hold the door for stundets, so they can easily enter and have an encounter with Christ in a special way and have their lives changed.

This Passion conference was unique in many, many ways. First of all because there were so many (to be exact 45,000) people there this year, so many things were done differently: sessions schedule and content, kneel area, "Do Something Now" area, just moving around in general:-)... Secondly, there was only one cause to which everyone were encouraged to donate towards - FREEDOM FROM SLAVERY, and many things at the conference revolved around that (but I will write a separate post about that). Thirdly, and most importantly, for us this conference was very much "under the flag" of meeting, serving and being around wonderful people and hearing many stories about God's work in their lives.

For us this conference was very much "under the flag" of meeting, serving and being around wonderful people and hearing many stories about God's work in their lives.

We have got assigned to the International students volunteers team. Our purpose was to help, serve and be around those, who came to Atlanta from abroad. Out of 45,000 people that were at the conference - around 450 were from abroad. We wanted to experience what it means to be a volunteer and help conference organizers (which usually involves being assigned a certain area of responsibility, to which you stick and do not much other stuff), but at the same time were hoping that we can see at least some of the sessions and worship together with everyone... But in fact, we happened to be assigned (by Cinara - our team lead) a very particular role - to help and escourt Passion international guests (mostly from Africa) around the conference. For that we got to be with them at the Georgia Dome and got to see everything. It was a very unexpected blessing!!! But another proof to us of how glorious our God is and how He always knows the desires of our hearts... We praise Him for that unique and unbelievable opportunity - to experience Passion conference to the fullest - even being a volunteer. Our God can do ANYTHING!!

Here are the names of just some of those people:
Cinara - our International Volunteers team lead. Brazilian and a great of ours for couple of years now. She and her husband Michael live in Atlanta. Wonderful people - wonderful family.

William - from Africa Renewal Ministries in Uganda, whom we hang out with and escourted around at Passion 2012. Really funny and outgoing guy. Very passionate about ministry to orphans (and Internet:-). Loved every minute of speking with him.

Joel, Rokundo and James - from churches, Passion is partnering with in Rwanda. Really interesting people with amazing stories of repentance and service to God.

Patrik and Jordan - guys from Chuck's small group in Pinelake, Starkville, Mississippi. Truly beautiful hearts and are very passionate about serving the Lord all around the world.

Steve and Brenda Chan - friends, whom we've known since Passion 2010 and communicated through Facebook, but never met:-) Well, we finally got to spend some time together with them and share our lives.

Tim Smith - absolutely unexpected encounter! We met Tim in Kyiv, back in 2007, when he came here with Passion team (for the VERY first time) and then spent time together again, when he came for Passion Kyiv WT in 2008. Turns out he is a Seniour Executive Pastor at Pinelake church in Mississippi.

And special mentioning and thanks goes to all in our wonderful International volunteers team: Laura, Amanda, Valerie, Mauricio, Rafael, Sharon, Isabele, Victoria, Lin and Jonathan. It was so great to meet all of you and serve alongside with you.

Passion 2012 International students volunteers team (well part of it anyway:-)

MORE PICTURES from PASSION 2012 (click here)