For the last four years, we have believed that God has called us to this part of Ukraine to serve orphans and at-risk youth .  We have also felt that God had our ministry team here to begin laying the foundation for what one day, we pray, would become a movement of churches being planted and rising up to reach the lost of this part of the nation.

In September of 2011, after three years of prayer and ‘planting the seed,” a partnership was formed to begin realizing the latter dream.  Jeremiah’s Hope, Ukraine Mission Outreach and the Obolon Church of Christ (Kiev, Ukraine) began to plant a church in the village of Kolentsi.

On average, there are over a dozen who gather for worship each Sunday evening in the main lodge of the camp. Worship & lessons are led by 4 evangelists from the Obolon congregation, three of whom are former prison inmates who have been converted and are now being trained in ministry.  Additionally, each Thursday evening, there is a Bible study in the home of some of our neighbors.

We praise God for this little church and pray for His blessing as it grows.

To learn how you can join with us in supporting this new church plant through prayer and financial support, contact Andrew Kelly at akellyukraine@gmail.com

The Ivankiv region is comprised of over 20 villages with more than 600 children listed with social services as living in abusive or neglectful homes or extreme poverty. In the past, children would be removed from these situations and placed in the orphanage while the regional officials removed the parents rights and worked to either place the child with another relative, place the child in foster care or put the child up for adoption.

This past fall, the orphanage in the Ivankiv region of Ukraine was closed by the national government due to a lack of government funding.  At that time, the regional government asked Jeremiah’s Hope to take over the orphanage (including facilities, the 5 remaining orphans and taking on new children).  However, due to a lack of resources (both financial and man-power), Jeremiah’s Hope declined the invitation.

With the orphanage now closed, the regional authorities have no where to place the children on a temporary basis.  At the current time, there are children who desperately need to be removed from their parents care, but are “stuck” living with them because there is no temporary holding facility in our region.  Therefore, Jeremiah’s Hope will be opening a Rescue Shelter on the camp property this spring.

Under our contract with the Ivankiv regional government, the new facility will be able to accommodate up to 12 children at any given time. Our ministry team & the regional authorities have been working to formalize a plan of operation that would allow for then children to be removed from their homes, for a period of up to 3 months, while the government and Jeremiah’s Hope ministry team will work together to try to rehabilitate and restore the family. If that cannot be accomplished, we will work together to place the children in Christian homes or foster families. We praise God for this ministry opportunity & hope to be able to share Christ’s love with many families in the hopes of restoring their families!

If you would like to learn more about our Rescue Shelter or how you can support this new aspect of our ministry, please contact us at info@jeremiahshope.org for more information

Andrew Kelly, missionary and director of Jeremiah’s Hope, will be leading a mission trip to Ivankiv, Ukraine to visit the 80+ children who are a part of our “Sasha Project.” These children are some of “the least of these” and live in some very difficult circumstances. Many of their parents are alcoholics and the hardships of finances and neglect make huge impacts on the daily lives of these precious children.

The team will leave from Dallas/Fort Worth on December 28th and travel to Ukraine. During the first week of January, the team will visit each of the children and deliver a small Christmas gift and remind the kids that God loves them! The team will then return to Dallas/Fort Worth on January 7th.

Trip cost will be $1,350 per person and includes airfare (from Dallas/Fort Worth) as well as food, housing and ground transportation in Ukraine.

For more information, contact us at info@jeremiahshope.org

This summer, we will be hosting 7 weeks of camp and are expecting over 300 children to spend part or all of their summer with us!  To be able to host them, WE NEED YOU!

Are you interested in a two or three week summer mission opportunity?  Do you love children?  Do you love to share your faith and tell others about how God has transformed your life?  Then come join us this summer!

To learn more about the opportunities this summer, open this PDF.

As this is a matching grant, Jeremiah’s Hope will not receive the $12,500 until we have raised an additional $12,500 to match the foundation’s gift. The foundation has told us that the grant is open to be matched with “gifts or pledges” anytime from January 1 to May 31. Obviously, this is a big match to meet, but we believe that God will provide!

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A typical home of the children we serve.

A few months ago, we were once again reminded why Jenny and I feel strongly called to our ministry among the orphans and at-risk youth of Ukraine…

During July, we were blessed to host a week of camp for children served by our local Department of Social Services. Many of these children are from homes ravaged by alcohol, abuse, neglect and poverty. Many of the kids were hard to work with because their social situations had hardened them so much. However, these kids were probably the most receptive to the lessons we were trying to teach about a “loving Father.”

When camp was over, Jenny and a few of our short term mission team members decided to drive out to some of the villages where the kids were from and do some follow-up.  They went to one home where the father was belligerent and mom just cowered and would not speak, she was terrified of him. There were 5 kids in the home. An 11 year old boy had serious burns on his palms. Later it was also learned that his upper legs were also burned. Neighbors had shared that the father had put the boy on the gas stove it to teach him a lesson.

Jenny and the social worker tried to take the child, but the father threatened them and threw the boy in the house. So, when they left, the social worker spent almost 8 hours calling police until they finally answered the phone at nearly 2 AM. The next day, the father was in jail and the boy was hospitalized.

Sasha

In Ukraine, the hospital care is limited and patients are served one basic meal daily of broth.  Because the boys family was over 40 kilometers away, there was no one to care for him.  Jeremiah’s Hope was able to meet the need and we provided him with yogurt, cheese, bread, sausage, cookies, chips, fruit, juice and water.  We also bought him a few books and took him a teddy bear.  We were able to do this for 10 days.

We have watched this family for months.  The boy, Sasha, is the namesake for our “Sasha Project” and we visit his family, along with other families, every month.  We have seen his father’s heart soften slightly and we have seen his mother attend church a few times.  The family still has its problems, but our goal is to continue to reach out to this family.

Please continue to pray for our ministry as we “touch families in order to transform lives!”