Every day, orphaned teenagers in Zhytomyr, Ukraine struggle with school, housing, and health because they don’t have family support.
Last Bell is stepping into the gap for these young people—but not alone!
In March, Andrey and Oksana Pankyeyev represented Last Bell at the World Without Orphans conference in Thailand. After some concerns about the border crossing, they made it safely to Poland where Megan Hershey joined them for two days of ministry planning. Then they flew to Chiang Mai.
Andrey’s vivid experiences at WWO included “sharing our own expertise with different people, building friendships with passionate servants from all over the world, and observing God’s work in other countries.”
Andrey and Oksana made friends with two attendees. Bruno (Uganda) manages a large Christian school serving many poor families. Samson (India) is a pastor, an adoptive father, and a teacher of pastors.
They all committed to praying for each other. After a time of mutual learning and growing, each one returned to their own community with a renewed focus on the unique needs of orphans at home.
After their return, Andrey heard that Zhytomyr needed more foster families. He put that new energy to work right away, inviting many pastors and church members to participate in an informational meeting hosted by social services.
At the meeting, social workers explained the foster care system, everyone laughed and cried when a foster mom told her story, and Andrey closed in prayer. Three new families had already expressed the desire to foster. A big step toward more children and teens in healthy families!
When our team gathers with others in the global and local orphan care community, they come home with a new vision for walking alongside orphaned youth. That vision flows back to our youth as help with education, housing, parenting, and so much more.
Our work is better because of WWO, Zhytomyr’s social services agency, and all our partners. Many of you are foster or adoptive parents, or supporting vulnerable youth in other ways. We’re thankful for all of you!
If you haven’t joined our circle of compassionate people supporting orphaned youth in Zhytomyr, would you make a gift today?