Sponsor a Child -- Meet Ella

We are excited to unveil a new way to support one of the missions at The Orphan Mission.  As you may already know we have been working on raising money for a transition home we operate in Donetsk, Ukraine.  This transition home is for girls that have aged out of the orphanage, typically these girls will enter a dormitory where there is rampant drinking, drugs, and sexual activity.  The transition home houses these girls instead and share the gospel with them, giving them a chance to become the women god has planned them to be.

The transition home comes at a price, the rent on the home is $500/month.  Since we are planning on housing 3 girls this year this breaks down to a little over $150 a month for each girl.  We are looking for people to come alongside these girls and show the love of Christ to them.  We would like to get 5 sponsors for each girl, each committing to $30/month.   

On top of a monatary benefit, we are asking that our sponsors become involved in these girls lives.  Become pen pals, send birthday gift, be facebook friends, etc.  Show thes girls the love of Christ.  To many times we hear about problems on the other side of the world and think that it is not our problem.  Don't just skip this opportunity, becaome involved in the life of one person on the other side of the world, show her love, make it personal.  It will change you as you realize the love Christ has for you.  

I would like to introduce you to Ella.  Ella is the first girl we have invited into the transition home this year.  She is a sweet young lady that loves the Lord.  But don't take our word for it, read Ella's version.

My name is Elmira. My friends call me Ella. I was born in Gorlovka on May, 28th 1996. I had been living with my grandmother since I was three because my mother drank hard and I had never known my father. When I turned 9 my grandmother had to send me to an orphanage because of health. It was a small family-type orphanage where we were cared about. I loved it! In my last year of middle school I was moved to a bigger orphanage, a boarding school, where I saw what "real life" was about - survival mode, standing on your rights, no one cares about you since there are so many of you ... It is not even physically possible.. 

During this time I met Anya. She would come and spend time with us and talk about God. She found me a "big sister" Vika who was her friend and a good Christian girl. I could call her anytime, go to her church and meet her friends. I was amazed with the atmosphere of open and sincere relationships between people. One did not have to pretend, he could be himself to be accepted. I opened my heart for God in the summer. My life is being changed. I am starting to love doing what I did not love before and I do not do what I did before.  

In September I was accepted into Donetsk school of arts. I am studying to be an interior designer. I am grateful to God that He gave me this ability to draw.  

My first month in the school was hard. There were many new things for me I needed to adjust to learn to be an adult. I did not even had money for food the first month since I received my first stipend at the end of the month. Thank you for your support during that month. It is great to feel the support of the "family".  

In my dorm there is a lot of noise and drinking going on and living conditions are not very good - there is no a refrigerator and no washing machine. And it is rather far from my school. I was very excited when I was offered to stay in the apartment. But I could not believe that it was real in the beginning. But I decided to use this opportunity immediately. I like the girls I am staying with very much. Living conditions are wonderful for life and studies. During my time in the apartment I met a lot of interesting people, good Christians. We have Bible studies on Tuesdays and English classes on Wednesdays. A lot of children visit us during the week. I am learning to cook and to be disciplined. I am taking classes in order to be baptized in January. I think God for this apartment as a great opportunity in my life and for so many Christian brothers around the world who care about me. Thank you for your care and support!

God has blessed Ella with the ability to draw.  She has shared some of her work with us as well which can be viewed at the bottom of this post.  If you are interested in being one of Ella's sponsors please email Matthew VanderMeer at matthew@theorphanmission.org.

The Keehn Family

We are Brian and Heather Keehn. We have been married for seven years and have two boys, Cale (age 4), and Quinn (age 2).  Before we were married we talked about adoption. Heather, had known from a young age that adoption would be part of her family. After Quinn was born adoption came up again. Our church, where we were living at the time, had a huge heart and burden for foster care and adoption. The theology of adoption was something we had not thought of a lot before. Because of the examples of our church family, we gained a deeper grasp for what it really means to be adopted into God's family. Understanding our adoption only made our desire to adopt even greater. Knowing there are children without families was too much to bear. We began our adoption journey in May of 2011. In August we accepted the referral of a sweet 10 month old little girl in Ethiopia who happens to have special needs. We continue to be amazed by what Lord is teaching us about adoption both vertically and horizontally. He has grown our faith in Him and we are in awe of His redemptive plan for our daughter! 

What an Awesome God!!

We all had had them.  Those situations that happen that when you stand back and look at it you realize that what just happened was not a coincidence.  That there is a God orchestrating everything under the sun and every once in a while you get a glimpse of what he is doing and you can only stand back and say WOW!  But I am getting ahead of myself, lets go back a few days.

We have been officially recognized as a Nonprofit Organization for a little over a month.  We knew the initial start up was going to be hard as there are a number of things that we need to get in place before we can really pushing on towards our mission.  One item that was high on our priority list was getting funding going for the transition home in Donetsk.  We had posted a blog and on Facebook about the need and we decided to let God work.  While we were thinking financially, God had another idea.

A women from Northwest Indiana had messaged me (Matthew) about how she can help.  She was not able to support us financially but wanted to use her gifts to help where she could.  After a few emails back and forth about how she can help the conversation took a different direction.  Here is that portion of the email.

Also, there's a girl that I really have had on my mind. She is listed on Reeces Rainbow (Karen) and is Donetsk (sp), Ukraine. She has no special need but has a younger sister that does which is why she is listed. She has turned 16 and is in danger of aging out. I thought I read that you had contacts there. Is it possible to connect them somehow?. I really really hate to see this girl fall through the cracks. To top it off shes Roma so that seems that life will be doubly hard for her. If there's anything I can do, Id love to help. Thanks so much.

I really wasn't sure how we could help, but it was worth at least looking into.  I decided to email her back to get more details, I also carbon copied Shane on the email as he was the one with the connections in Donetsk.

I have attached Shane Lewis in this email.  He has the connections in Donetsk, and is going to the Ukraine later this month.  What do you have in mind as far as trying to help this girl out?  We love it that you have a heart for orphans and would love to try to assist you in whatever way you might want to help this girl.  Please share with us what God has put on your heart.

And she replied.

Well.... I'm not sure what is feasible. Obviously the most ideal thing would be if someone adopted her and her sister (They have to be adopted together at this point) but I know that's realistically probably not going to happen. If you have the contacts in Donetsk could there be someway to connect her with them? Maybe some church there would be willing to help her with housing, school, a support system etc...I don't know if some type of student visa here to the states would be possible either. This girl has just broken my heart! Let me know what you think please!

This email was sent to me so I forwarded it over to Shane knowing he would have some ideas.  Shane has adopted 5 children from the Ukraine, first a set of 4 girls, and most recently his daughter Lakshmi joined the family a few months back.  Shane and his wife Diana are going back later this month two adopt two more daughters.   Shane has the connections in Donetsk, if there was someone that had a chance of looking into Karen while in Donetsk it would be Shane.  It was long shot, but I figured it was a chance.  Imagine mt surprise when I read his email.

The girl she is talking about was Lakshmi's best friend when they were 5. She was also good friends with Ella, the girl that we just took into our transition home. The orphanage they were in together closed and they were separated  Lakshmi was super excited when I showed her the picture today.
 We do have an opening in our transition home. I'm not making any promises. If you'd like I could go and visit her when we are in Donetsk.
 There is a possibility of bringing her here on a student visa, but it is very difficult before the age of 18. If she were to stay with us for two years, then we could file the paperwork to bring her here to study, if that is what you wanted to do at that time.

Now I cannot be the only one with goose bumps after reading that.  There are estimated 147 million orphans worldwide.  This is not a coincidence.  We don't know how this story is going to play out.  But this small glimpse of the way that God is working all things to his good was humbling to say the least.

I think it is time to quit looking at 147 million orphans and not seeing 147 million faces.  We need to start this journey by looking at one orphan, it we can change the life of just one orphan any amount of effort will be worthwhile.  Maybe this is the one.  Say hello to Karen.

The Petersen Family

Introducing our family on a website about orphans, adoption, grace, and love is answered prayer for us! We are on a journey that we can't truly believe we are really on and yet I think we knew we would be here one day! Being adopted at 2 1/2 from the foster care system in Kentucky, I have always had a heart for adoption!! Though, by God's grace, we never had trouble getting pregnant and have three wonderful children. After deciding if we were gong to have more children or not, we got pregnant and weeks later I had a miscarriage! It was very difficult, as any miscarriage is! But I believe God put something in our hearts after that, we knew our family wasn't complete. We just didn't know what that meant! Years later of prayers, talking, and unbelievable and undeniable guidance we began the process of adopting from the foster care system! We started in May this year and today we were hoping to sign our home study, but you all know the expectations and reality of adoption does not match sometimes! So, I pray next week we will sign our home study for foster care and go up for approval for SNAP this month! We know our daughter is already picked for us, as all your children are picked for yours! We ask for your prayers for faith as we wait for His timing to bring her home! God bless you all, you all have a special place in our hearts and prayers! I love watching and reading your stories of God's plan unfolding for each of us for His kingdom and His glory!!

Mark, Sandi, Elizabeth, Noah, and Luke

Orphan Mission in Ukraine - The Next Step!

By God's provision and Grace we are starting our second year of operating a transition home in Donetsk, Ukraine. Each year we are able to take in 2 to 3 girls and help them by keeping them out of a bad environment, teach them life skills and introduce them to our Saviour Jesus Christ. We are also able to offer Bible study, English classes and cooking classes to many more orphans each week. Thanks to the volunteer work on our staff Anya Bilyo and Olya Mandrika we are able to do all of this on a budget of just $6000 a year! We are looking to raise the finances to fund this operation for the next year.

Meet Vova! Vova is an amazing young man that started volunteering with us this past year. He is the son of a Pastor, a musician and has a HUGE heart for God. He toured several different orphanage with us this summer and we saw right away his great ability to connect with the children. This year we hope to add Vova to our staff working daily in the largest Orphanage in Donetsk. He currently volunteers in his free time, but can only do so much because he has to also work full time.

We want you all to understand why this is a much needed next step. It hit us this year while were reflecting on our work in the region that we spend so much of our time making little progress with the older orphans. We realized the reason for this is because they have so many self- taught destructive behaviours that are so deep seeded. It was then that it became obvious that if we could reach these children on a daily basis at a younger age, we could make a real difference in their lives! We have an opportunity to do this now and put Vova to work full time for only $4200. which covers his wage and allows him a small budget to purchase supplies!

We ask that you consider partnering with us? For such a small investment the impact on the lives of orphans could be huge.

Shane Lewis and his wife Diana will be traveling to Ukraine in 2 weeks, we are praying for the financial support to be able to implement this outreach program when they are there.

In Him! The Orphan Mission!

The Orphan Mission
1529 Hickory St SW
DeMotte, IN 46310