New Belts for Teen Orphan Girls

Last month we had the opportunity of going to a Humanitarian Aid conference in the capital city of Kiev. We were able to meet a very tender-hearted lady by the name of Nicole who works for the U.S. State Department. When she heard that our teen orphan girls were in need of some belts for an end-of-the-school-year parade, she reached into her pocket and gave us everything that she had in Ukrainian currency. The orphan girls sewed their own costumes for this parade, and we were able to take the money Nicole gave us and buy each of them the belts they needed. Here are some pictures of David and some of our Sunday-school teachers delivering the belts:

Next week, we will be purchasing about $20 worth of groceries at the market for the teen orphan girls to take some cooking lessons. I am pleased that the orphanage is taking care of teaching these girls to sew and cook. My greatest heart's desire is for our church to one day be able to get our Bible college to a full-time position, complete with a dormitory, so that the kids who desire to serve God in some way or another will have a place to go once they are too old to be taken care of at the orphanage. At the age of 17 or 18, they leave the orphanage to begin life on their own. Sadly, it is estimated that 35% of the Ukrainian orphan boys become criminals; 30% of girls become prosititues; and 15% of the orphans commit suicide. We so desire to give these kids Christ and teach them how to make a good life for themselves! How we hope to make a difference in their lives and see these statistics lowered!