Operation Free SP

Over the course of the past 3 years, we have had the amazing privilege of traveling across the country of Ukraine once a month to visit a young man named Sasha Pevniv. He has been serving his sentence in the Sambir Juvenile Colony in western Ukraine for most of that time. He is the reason that we began our prison ministry there, and now it's hard to imagine life in Ukraine without it. Once a month we take a 20 hour trip, a train-bus-taxi combo, from Sumy to Sambir to spend about 3 or 4 hours with this kid, just to turn around and go back from Sambir to Sumy. Those 40+ hours of travel are what bring our team to our favorite time of each month - our visit with SP.




We often skip using his full name and just call him SP. He liked the initials thing and started calling us MS, the initials for "moya simya," Ukrainian for "my family." We are truly privileged to be Sasha's family and to have watched him grow in these last 3 years. No one would deny the fact that he made bad choices that lead to his time in a juvenile prison, but this now 20-year-old young man is not the same kid that we knew back then. Sasha reads his Bible and regularly asks questions about God and shares with us the things that God is teaching him. He has a passion for life that is unlike anyone else we know and it's clear that God is doing great things in his heart. In our visits with him, Sasha often talks about the things he wants to change when he's out, how he wants to be better, what he'll do differently.

In the next couple of weeks we will have our last visit with our Sasha, because in about a month he will be free. Dates are a little uncertain because of the way the Ukrainian system works, but on March 26th he will have served 3 years and pending his court hearing to officially allow his release, he will be out within the first couple weeks of April!! At some point, we started calling this whole process "Operation Free SP." A this is a day we've been waiting years for. There really aren't words to describe our excitement.

Please be in prayer with us as we count down these last days till SP is out and home with us again in Sumy. There are some legal documents that need to be filled out, and a court date somewhere around March 26th to officially approve his release. Pray that things go smoothly with the paperwork and in our dealings with the prison officials. Once he's back in Sumy, we will be working to help him transition back to "normal" life and continuing to process everything he's been learning the past 3 years. Pray that God continues to work in Sasha's heart and gives him the strength he needs to make changes and keep becoming a better man. Pray that God would give us the wisdom we need to help Sasha transition and that we'll be able to support him in the best way we can.

There will be hard days without a doubt, but we are so excited to see what God is going to continue doing in Sasha's life and in the lives of those around him! As much as we've challenged and taught him, he has equally challenged and taught us as well. We know that there will be more mistakes in the future, but we are so excited to walk along side him through whatever ups and downs the future holds. We are thankful to be family and can't wait to have our brother home.

Update from Our Trip to the South

If you've been following our updates on Facebook/Twitter lately you've probably seen that we did some traveling last week. From the 4th till the 12th we [Annie, Melissa and Anika] were in 3 different states sharing about Open Arms, visiting family, seeing old friends and making some new friends. We were so very thankful to have been sponsored on this trip by the Koester family! They made it all possible by flying us out, loaning us their car, housing us a few nights. [How we forgot to ever take a picture with you guys, I don't know!] They also helped us get connected in the Atlanta area where we started everything off. We were pretty busy all week... We made stops in Asheville and Charlotte, NC. We also went to Richmond, VA. Back down to NC and then out of Atlanta, GA!

On the 5th, we were able to meet up with the Dowd, Samstag, McAlpin and [a part of] the Shanks families for a few hours. We had a great time talking about the kids, our ministry, struggles and triumphs, and plans for this next year. We got to see Jenson, Losha and Natasha, who were all adopted from the Pravdinska orphanage over the course of this past year and are now at home in Georgia. It was so great to seem them all again! Thanks to all of you who drove all the way to see us, we had so much fun!

On Monday morning we drove to North Carolina and stayed at the Pheil home [Anika's aunt and uncle] in Asheville. We got to share with a group of their friends that evening and had a nice time talking over dinner after. It was great to meet some new people and get to share our story with them for the first time. Thanks Carlyn and David for opening your home to us and for letting us share with your friends!


After Asheville we made a stop in Charlotte to pick up Alona Kosenko! She is a Pravdinska graduate who is studying in NC on a student visa. We were all so excited to see each other again after over a year! We drove with Alona from Charlotte to the Barner family's home [Annie's aunt and uncle] just outside of Richmond, VA. Wednesday night we were able to share in a church out there. The church took a special offering for us to help with our trip and we were blessed by their generosity and kindness. Thanks to the Barner family for all your hospitality!

After Virginia the four of us took a quick trip to the coast of North Carolina on our way back out and had so much fun spending time with Alona and getting to catch up with her! Saturday we drove back to the Koester house and Kara dropped us off at the airport.

We were blessed in so many ways on this trip! Southern hospitality treated us well. :) We got to go places we hadn't been before and had so much fun being shown around! Thanks to all the families who let us stay in their homes, fed us, introduced us to friends, drove out out to meet us, spoiled us, let us share, gave us support, and showed us love. We really had a great time and were so blessed personally and as a ministry. Thank you!

P.S. If you want to see a few more pictures they're here on Facebook

Atlanta-Area Visit Info

Alrighty friends near Atlanta [or elsewhere if you feel like driving to see us]! We've got some locations for this Saturday. We decided to go casual since we know its hard to get time on a Saturday kinda late notice. :) We've got a good chunk of time we'll be around to talk though so please feel free to come and meet us when it works best for you! If you do know when and where works best for you, let us know so we can be looking for you [openarmsministry@gmail.com]!

From 1-4ish, we will be at Starbucks in Cummings, just pass Alpharetta. The address is 435 Peachtree Parkway, Cummings, GA 30041.

If you can't make it in that time frame or don't like coffee, we'll be at CiCis Pizza in Roswell from about 5-7:30. Family friendly, buffet style pizza, so bring the kids if you want! CiCi's is at 10516 Alpharetta Hwy, Roswell, GA 30076.

And if you don't like pizza but missed the earlier coffee time, you have one last chance! I love coffee so why not once more? :) Back at the same Starbucks in Cummings from 8-10ish.

If you have any questions or can't find us on Saturday you can call me, Anika, on my cell 562) 285-8632. We really hope to see as many of you all as we can! We've got a lot of exciting things planned for Open Arms this year and would love to be able to share them with you. We'll have prayer cards and some basic info for you to take home if you're interested. Looking forward to seeing you soon!

January Fundraising Results

You probably know by now that Open Arms received a generous matching gift of $5000 for our fundraiser dinner on January 15th. The matching donation offer was extended to include donations for the whole month, giving us a chance to meet our full goal.

Our total donations from and after the LA Dinner - $5,422! Which will be matched with another $5000, total $10,422! Thank you so much to the 38 people who gave! And to all of your who prayed and shared with friends and helped us reach our goal! We're so thankful to have such an awesome support base!