This week on Monday, May 10th, Open Arms is inviting you to join us in a day of prayer for our ministry and the kids we work with. We will be praying on the hour from 9am to 9pm for our kids, ministry, finances, direction, and other specifics. We are asking you to join us for a day of focused prayer for His ministry in Ukraine through Open Arms.
There are endless lists of children's names, ministry goals, dreams, and financial needs that need prayer. On Monday we will be focusing on camp and prison ministry.
In 3 short weeks, a team of 10 volunteers from the States will be flying out of California to Sumy to run a camp at the Pravdinska orphanage for 2 weeks. There is still a lot of work to be done, tasks to cross of the list, money to be raised and hurdles to be jumped. We believe that God has huge plans for our summer camp this year and it has been obvious to us that opposition in many forms has been trying to slow us down and stop us. As you join us for this day of prayer, we ask that you would especially be lifting up our camp. From May 31st through June 14th at the orphanage for about 120 kids, Christians from Ukraine and America will be sharing the love of Christ and how to live life "strong and courageous" in Him. These are some specific things you can be praying about for camp:
Official Permissions - We are required to receive approval from the Ministry of Education in Sumy to run our program at the orphanage every year. It hasn't been a problem in the past, but this year it has still yet to come through. Please pray that God would continue to keep this door open at the Pravdinska orphanage and that we would receive the official permission next week.
Orphanage Director, Nina - We have always considered ourselves blessed to have a good working relationship with the orphanage director, Nina. Recently she has been less willing to work with us and has been having us jump through hoops to be able to continue our ministry to the kids. Please pray that God will change her heart and that she'd again be open to us, and even more open to Him.
Unity of American and Ukrainian Teams - Please pray that our teams will be able to gel together quickly and work side by side to run this camp. Pray that we will be a worthy example of how the Body of Christ should function and be able to love on these kids without holding back.
Finances/Fundraising - Our team is working on raising $2300 each to help cover the cost of camp, travel, food, lodging, supplies and everything else that camp entails. We're currently still short $10,000/ only about half way of what our team needs to raise. Pray that God would open hearts to give and provide for all the needs of camp.
Our Interaction with Orphanage Staff - Pray that we will be able to work in cooperation with the teachers, cooks, coaches and other orphanage staff as we are there for 2 weeks. Pray that we would be able to share God's love with them as well and that we wouldn't have any issues working our camp schedule with their regular routine with the kids.
Safety and Health - Our team will be flying from the States and coming in on trains and buses from around Ukraine to the orphanage. Pray for safety in all the travels and that God would keep everyone healthy and overflowing with energy to spend nearly every waking moment with these kids.
Kids Coming to Know the Lord - Our ultimate goal in putting on this camp is that the kids would come to know the Lord as their Savior and Heavenly Father. Pray that His love, truth and grace would be clearly spoken and shown. Pray that every child would individually know that they are loved by Him and accept His grace in their lives.
In addition to praying for camp next month, we also ask that you pray for one specific young man in our prison ministry:
Sasha Pevniv - Sasha is currently in a juvenile prison in western Ukraine, with less than 11 months left to finish his sentence. We visit him monthly and believe that God has big plans for his life. Our desire is to help him rehabilitate into life after prison as he gets out and to encourage him to live his life differently than he did before prison. Sasha has asked us to pray for him to have strength to get through the rest of his time in prison. Thus far he has not only stayed out of trouble, but has been made a leader in his work and his group there. He wants to do better and change his life when he gets out, but it will be hard to resist the culture and friends that won't want to or know how to support that change. Pray for strength, now and when he gets out. Pray that God would get a hold of his heart and that Sasha would accept Jesus as his Savior. He's very open to God and its clear that God is working on him. If you are interested in learning more about Sasha or our prison ministry feel free to check out his profile at www.openarmsukraine.org in the "meet the children" section.
Thank you so much for all the prayers and support of this ministry! If you want more information on camp or Sasha or general ministry, please visit our website [www.openarmsukraine.org] or feel free to send us an email [openarmsministry@gmail.com].
We look forward to seeing how God moves in the coming weeks and reporting on the answers to prayer!
