Mission Statement
Reaching out to the broken orphans of Ukraine with Open Arms by providing loving, stable support through which they can begin new lives of hope, dreams, and healing in their Heavenly Father.Overview of Ministry Activity
THE PRAVDA ORPHANAGEOpen Arms has the privilege of ministering to the children at the Pravda orphanage in Eastern Ukraine. Pravda is a small, rural village in the Sumy region of Ukraine near the Russian border. Inside the orphanage walls reside 200 beautiful children ranging in ages between 6 and 17.
Open Arms has been involved in running several camps at the Pravda orphanage in both winter and summer. Through Bible lessons, crafts, games, dance parties and swimming in the river priceless relationships have been built and God’s love has been shared.
Our future hopes for Pravda are long-term; we will continue to build relationships with the children, director, and teachers in hopes that God may transform the Pravda orphanage. We will build summer teams for camps at the orphanage in order to show God’s love in tangible ways to the children there. After the completion of our first cargo container of clothing, blankets, and jackets for the orphans, we recognize the critical need these children have for the basic essentials in life and will continue to ship donations to the orphanage to help with the difficult life these children face. The Open Arms team will be making weekly visits to the orphanage to continue to show the love of God to these beautiful children and in order to continue to build the unbelievable relationships we have developed there.
GRADUATE MINISTRY
Alongside the continuation of our orphanage ministry, moving to Sumy is a critical aspect to the ministry we will accomplish with the children who are facing life on the streets after they finish the 9th grade and are thrown out of the Pravda orphanage. We will be working on purchasing a home that will act as the central location for the majority of our ministry. This home will be a continual place of shelter for these children who would otherwise have no where else to go; we will provide warm meals to fill their stomachs as they struggle from the hunger of the streets. Our goal is to see this house become a safe haven for these children we have grown to love so deeply; a place they can consider a home. We see our ministry with these children in threefold – physical, emotional and spiritual. With this, the house is a key element in providing for the essential physical needs these forgotten children will face daily. Within the home we desire to provide opportunities and programming that will help their broken hearts begin a process of healing.
As we continue relationships with them and provide for them physically Open Arms will work towards furthering their education so that they may have the hope of a future and a chance to make it in life. While doing so, Open Arms will also seek to reunite siblings who have been separated due to the cruelty of the orphanage system with the goal that they will find emotional healing in Christ.
CAMPS
Our future hopes for Pravda are long-term; we will continue to build relationships with the children, director, and teachers there in hopes that God may transform the Pravda orphanage.
Summer and winter camps have been a pivotal part of the ministry of Open Arms. The camps provide the opportunity for the children of Pravda to be kids and tangibly experience God’s love through the camp teams. We will continue to build summer teams for camps at the orphanage in order to show God\'s love in tangible ways to the children there. If you are interested in applying to be a part of a camp team, please contact us for more information.
