Pray & Give - Day 3

Thanks to everybody for all your prayers for our team after yesterday's post.  Thank you to Emily and Jim and Karen for contributing towards to water heater yesterday! Still waiting to hear on a camp location. And still hoping to get another $100 towards the guitar we talked about on day 1, just in case you want to contribute to that. :) 

PRAY: KIDS COMING TO GRAD CAMP

We've been making phone calls to lots of kids inviting and reminding about camp next week. Today our prayer request is for all the kids that will come to camp exactly a week from today. A lot of things can contribute or distract from them coming, even if they're planning on it. Family dynamics play a lot into it, as a lot of them live with or near family members who strongly influence their decisions. A lot of different things can prevent them from coming. We're praying that Satan would have no opportunities to stop them from making their way to Sumy to get on the bus to camp. 

-Pray for all the kids that have said they'd come to be able to follow through with their decisions

-Pray that kids we maybe haven't even invited to come to mind or hear about it and be able to come

-Pray that no one and nothing would be able to keep them from coming next week

-Pray that God would be working in their hearts right now to prepare them for the things we'll be talking about at camp

GIVE: TRANSPORTATION $150

With all the praying for these kids to be able to come to camp, today we're asking for some financial help to actually get them there. We'll be renting a bus to take kids from Sumy to the camp and to get us all back home after. The cost will be somewhere right around $150 for both ways. Please consider giving towards our transportation costs by donating through PayPal with the link on the right side of the page. If you don't feel like giving is for you, add it to your prayer list and use the links below to share through Facebook, Twitter, email, etc. and get other people praying and giving! 

Pray & Give - Day 2

Thanks so much to Katy and Kari for giving towards the guitar yesterday! We'd still love to get another $100 to fully reach our guitar goal if you're interested in helping. :) Thank you all for all of the prayers for our camp location issues! Making some more phone calls today and will hopefully know more by tomorrow.

PRAY: ENCOURAGEMENT
Gonna be really honest today and let you guys know how we're feeling here, as the Sumy team. We've all felt recently that we're really coming under spiritual attack. Yesterday morning we were feeling it and had a good prayer time. But despite the extra prayer yesterday was rough. Our little cat fell out of the window [we live on the 10th floor]. She survived and while she's currently still hanging on [with a broken leg and one less tooth] she's not doing great and it adds a lot of emotional stress. Melissa has something that seems to be out in her back. She's been having problems with it for a while now but it seems to get progressively worse every day. The pain is really affecting everything she does, sleep included. There's a lot going on in our families at home which is always hard when you're on the other side of the globe.

Sumy team with 3 of the kids on Roman's birthday - Vova, Melissa, Roman, Anika, Sasha, Annie

Lots of ups and downs here throughout each day. One of our grad girls shared some really hard stuff she's going through. Then we've got Roman's graduation from his trade school tomorrow and we're all really excited for him. Feels like God is really working in the hearts of some of these kids we work closely with, but there is a lot of opposition. Plenty of things we need to get done in these last few days before our team arrives and with everything going on we're having a hard time staying focused, encouraged and productive.

-Pray for extra encouragement for our team here, Annie, Melissa and Anika
-Pray also for the kids we have staying at our apartment right now as the ups and downs are effecting all of us, them included
-Pray for healing in Melissa's back/neck
-Pray that we'd be able to focus and stay productive in our prep for the the plans in these coming, busy weeks

GIVE: WATER HEATER $60

Something kinda like this one

We'll be boiling a lot water for all the tea/coffee/cooking for as many kids and team members as we'll have at camp. And doing it all in a little "hot pot" makes it really hard to keep up with. We're hoping to be able to purchase a big water heater/percolator that does something more like 40 cups as opposed to 4 or 5 like we have now. This is a purchase that's been on our wish list for a while now... So nice to have when we have grad events, or even just when we have couple of kids over at the apartment. It would be a huge help to us to have at camp also because we have to purify the water before we give it to our Americans to drink it. :) If you'd like to give, in part or in total, towards a giant water heater you can donate through PayPal [link on the right].

Thanks again for all of the support and love! We're so thankful to have such a great group of supporters to lean on for prayer, encouragement and pretty much anything else we ask for. You guys are the best.

Pray & Give - Day 1

Six days from today our American team will be coming to Ukraine for a 2-week trip to support ministry here in Sumy. We are so excited to have them coming and for what God will to do through them while they're here. In these days as our Sumy team is preparing for their arrival and putting together all the details of what we'll be doing, we'll be posting on the blog prayer and financial needs for some specific plans and things we're working towards while the American team is here.

Many of you gave to help sponsor kids to be able to come to our grad camp from July 7th-11th. Thank you so much for all of you who contributed!! We had so much fun last year and cannot wait to do it again! Our 2 needs we're asking for your help with today are both for our grad camp.

PRAY: CAMP LOCATION

As Americans who like schedules and planning ahead it always seems a little crazy. But Ukrainian time schedules don't always line up with what we might prefer. While we'd like to have already secured our reservation for our places at the camp, we're still working on getting all those details firmly in place. We're trusting that God will work it out and we'll be able to have it all nailed down this week, but we're asking for you to join us in prayer.

-Pray that the camp would confirm our reservation
-Pray that the mosquitos wouldn't eat us alive like last year :)
-Pray that God would use the seclusion of our little camp spot to work in the hearts of the kids coming.

GIVE: GUITAR $150
One of the things the kids loved last year was being able to sit and sing worship songs each night. The guitar that came last year won't be there this year and so we're hoping to be able to purchase one in the next week. One of our Ukrainian leaders that will be at camp would love to be able to teach some kids and lead worship for us, but we do need a guitar to do that. The cost will be about $150 for a guitar and case. If you're interested in giving, in part or the total amount, towards us purchasing a guitar to have for grad camp [and after] please use the PayPal button on the right and let us know you'd like to help with the guitar.

Thank you for your prayer and support! We are so grateful for all that you guys do as a part of this ministry! Please feel free to share the link and past the prayer request around to others! And check back often this week as we'll be posting more prayer and giving needs.

Furniture!

Been meaning to say this for a couple weeks now... Thank you so much to all of you who helped contribute to buying us some new furniture! We are so excited for the new things that we have and how much they've helped our comfort and organization in our little home here in Sumy. Wanna see what you all bought us?

Annie now sleeps on this real, live mattress, a great change compared to the "padded table" she used to have. She and her new mattress have been getting along great. :)

My and Melissa's room went from this embarrassing and scary mess...

To this! You can see our awesome new closet [complete with the first full length mirror we've had in 3+ years!] on the right.

And now when we have kids over, they get to sleep on this great new bunk bed instead of the old "orphanage" bed we used to have for them. 

We are so grateful for everyone that gave and allowed us to buy this furniture! I don't think I can express the way it's changed our apartment and how it feels to us. We are so blessed! Thanks again for each of you and how you're a part of our ministry and our lives.

Sponsor a Kid for Grad Camp 2011!

Last year, we were able to hold an amazing 3-day retreat in the woods for 16 orphanage graduates. Days were filled with swimming, games, worship, and fellowship. After such a great experience, we are so excited for round 2 to take place this July. Bigger, better, and more awesome than ever! A 5-day camp will be held by a beautiful river as Ukrainian and American leader join us to shower these kids with God's love and the message of His grace.

We are anticipating 25 graduates to join us and in order to pull it off, we need your help. It costs $80 to house, feed, transport, and care for one graduate for the 5 day, rock-solid camp. Games, lessons, crafts, and good times await. 

If you would like to help send a child to camp, whether by fully sponsoring or buy offering a $10 contribution, please let us know! Camp dates are July 7th-11th, but to help us be fully prepped by then, our goal is to have sponsors for 25 kids in the next 25 days. You can send donations to Open Arms Ukraine via PayPal or mail. [PayPal link on the top right. Mail to: PO Box 277, San Lorenzo, CA 94580]. If you can't help financially, help by spreading the word through Facebook, Twitter, email, etc! We can't wait to let you all know what your support and prayers made happen this year and see how God works!