In 2010, Emmanuel (CBN) in partnership with several Christian organizations, including OneHope, Father's House, and the International Leadership Development Center, helped organize the first ever national adoption conference in Ukraine for adoptive and foster families. At the 2012 conference, we expect to have about 100 couples from throughout Ukraine who have adopted or are currently fostering children. The goals of this conference are to provide resources (books and film), present workshops on various parenting topics and concerns, facilitate networking among adoptive parents for support and encouragement, build up......December 20, 2011

This summer, the Christian organization You Will Be Found will be putting on an 18-day summer camp for adoptive and foster children. The camp will address questions and issues that adoptive/foster kids normally face and help children to work through these important issues. Most of the children come from very poor families who could never afford to send their children to a summer camp. Pray that funds would be provided to enable 35 adopted/fostered Ukrainian children to have not only an incredible vacation experience, but to also get to spend time with experienced counselors who could help them work through their issues. In addition, it would provide a much-needed break for adoptive and foster parents....December 06, 2011

Please pray for the Zeleyev Family. Five children between the ages of 5 and 12 live in a small house in Krivoy Rog, Ukraine with their father, Juliy (their mother is deceased). A few months ago, Children Service claimed that the house was too small and in too poor a condition for the family to be living there. When the Service disclosed its intent of placing the children into an orphanage, Juliy became so distressed that he was hospitalized with a suspected heart attack. Please pray -- True Hope, a local Christian organization, has temporarily placed the family in a larger house. But within a few months our partners in Ukraine need to help this family find a way to make their own house better and livable....November 22, 2011

We are so excited to report that International Leadership and Development Center (ILDC) has been invited to Kyrgyzstan to train workers of the Ministry of Social Security! For the past 2 years, ILDC has been a part of developing the Case Worker Core program. This program consists of workshops that include sessions on understanding a family-centered model of child protective services, family-caseworker relationships, legal issues, assessment, investigative processes, case planning, child development, and separation, placement and reunification of families. Once the program is completed, case workers are qualified to train......November 14, 2011

Please pray for Oleander (a teenager in the Ukrainian Christian orphanage Father’s House). Oleander is a kind, sociable boy, emotionally mature for his age. He is a good student and does well in sports. He loves to play soccer, is competitive and enjoys playing board games. He takes pride in caring for his pet hamster. Please pray that a loving, Christian family will adopt him before he "ages out" (see 10/25 post for more information about "aging out" of the system)....November 01, 2011

Russian orphans "age out" of orphanages between 16-18 years of age, most of them with few, if any, life skills. Within a year of aging out, roughly 10% of these teens will commit suicide, 40% of the girls will succumb to a life of prostitution, 40% will abuse drugs and another 40% will get involved in crime to varying degrees. Pray that these at-risk teens will be reached with the hope that only Christ can give them....October 25, 2011

The final key step is support. ILDC believes that in order for adoptions to truly be successful, families need help and support not only pre-adoption, but also post-adoption. Therefore they help provide follow-up support and training to families throughout the course of their time as adoptive and foster families. An alarming statistic came out of Russia this past year—30,000 foster children were returned to orphanages by their foster families. Thankfully, none of the children placed through the work of Orphan Nation partners were returned to orphanages. This shows the critical value of having proper support......October 18, 2011

Another key aspect of the work ILDC does is vetting foster and adoptive families. ILDC has worked with some of the top social work experts in the US to identify the best resource materials (books and booklets) on adoption and foster care. Then they translated these materials and have made them available to adoptive and foster families. The booklets in particular are an important part of post-adoption support for families because they address issues that tend to arise once children are already in the home. Pray that ILDC would be able to get these resources to as many foster & adoptive families as possible. Four......October 11, 2011

Once families are motivated, they then require training. Children who have grown up in orphanages or on the streets often come with intense baggage—everything from past sexual abuse to alcohol and drug addictions. Families need to be prepared and taught how to deal with the issues they will likely face. ILDC focuses on training prospective adoptive and foster parents and then providing much-needed follow up support for families once they have adopted. Please pray that ILDC would be able to provide many Christian foster & adoptive families with training before and after they have taken orphans into their homes....October 04, 2011

For the next four days, join us in praying for national Russian and Ukrainian adoptive and foster families. Providing national families for Russian and Ukrainian orphans is a long process with four key steps—motivation, training, vetting and support. The first step is motivation. In Russia and Ukraine there is a lot of stigma against orphans and many people are afraid to bring them into their homes. Please pray as UWO and ILDC work with key national leaders (a) to try to change the national mentality towards orphans in Russia and Ukraine and (b) to motivate Christian believers to consider adoption.......September 27, 2011

Although Christians in Russia and Ukraine are exemplary in helping orphans by bringing gifts, organizing camps and many other wonderful activities, the idea of foster care and adoption is not widely accepted in Christian circles. It is of utmost importance that the next generation of Christians think differently about adoption and foster care. Pray that evangelicals in Russia and Ukraine will more deeply understand God's heart toward orphans and love them as He loves them....September 20, 2011

In Russia, there are more orphans than people in the entire Russian military (1,245,000 military personnel per 2008 statistics). With the new international adoption restrictions, most of these orphans have little hope for a family and a future. Pray that attitudes toward adoption in Russia will continue to improve and that many orphan children will also discover how much God loves them....September 13, 2011

In November 2010, 500 Christians (many of whom have either already adopted or are considering adoption) met in Kiev at a three-day conference to launch the Alliance for a Ukraine Without Orphans (UWO). This Alliance has the vision that, by the year 2015, Ukraine could be the first country without orphans. Given the ever-expanding network of advocates and the prayer-bathed initiatives that are going forward, this vision is achievable. Pray that as many Ukrainian and international organizations work together, this dream might become a reality....September 06, 2011

Please remember the International Leadership Development Center (ILDC) in your prayers. Based in Kiev, Ukraine, ILDC's primary emphasis is to provide training and orientation for actual & prospective adoptive and foster care parents and orphan caregivers through conferences, literature and other activities....August 30, 2011

Please pray for unity and greater cooperation among the many Christian leaders and organizations involved in orphan ministry....August 23, 2011

Kateryna is a teenager in the Ukrainian Christian orphanage Father’s House. She loves to laugh and has a good sense of humor. She enjoys learning English, playing the piano and singing. She attends a music school and is also a member of the musical band and worship group, The Singing Hearts. Her dream is to become a famous stylist and hairdresser. Join her in praying that a loving Christian family from Ukraine would adopt her before she "ages out."...August 19, 2011

Please join us in praying for Christian families in Russia and Ukraine who are taking the bold step of bringing orphans into their homes. In so doing, they are going against all cultural norms. In addition, they must often battle local government officials who are against adoption and foster care and can make the actual legal process quite a challenge. Pray for godly wisdom and patience for these families....August 08, 2011

Over this past year, believers in Belorussia have been taking big strides in caring for their own orphans. Last week, Home For Every Orphan Partners from Ukraine and Russia were able to travel to Belarus and encourage believers there to care for orphans, particularly through national adoption and foster care. Our national partner Janna Danilova (Project Coordinator for Risknetwork) sent us the following report on the conference in Belorus. Please be encouraged through reading her report, and join us in praying that God would expand this exciting movement in Belarus! Update from Belarus: The conferences......July 20, 2011

Starting this week, the Ukrainian Christian organization You Will Be Found will be putting on an 18-day summer camp for adoptive and foster children. The camp will address questions and issues that adoptive/foster kids normally face and help children to work through these important issues. Most of the children come from very poor families who could never afford to send their children to a summer camp. Pray that funds would be provided to enable 35 adopted/fostered Ukrainian children to have not only an incredible vacation experience, but to also get to spend time with experienced counselors who could help them......July 12, 2011

The Ukraine without Orphans bike tour started on June 11th, 2011. More than 30 kids from foster and adoptive homes and orphanages are biking across Ukraine for over 1000 kilometers to advocate for the cause of orphans in Ukraine. Join us in praying that God would give them strength and energy, and use them to encourage Christians across Ukraine to care for orphans! Follow these orphans on facebook as they bike across Ukraine!...June 14, 2011

What is the "Orphan Nation"? At the present time, 163 million children in our world are orphans. If these children were counted as a single nation, they would compose the seventh largest nation on earth. The sad truth is that many of these children are not provided with role models of moral excellence. Instead, they fall prey to exploitation, drug abuse, crime, violence, disease and poverty, thus starting the vicious cycle over again. Every nation in the world shares a piece of this tragedy, and so it is up to all of us to find a solution together. While a number of US organizations......May 05, 2011

A few weeks ago, I heard about a band of street children who discovered an abandoned infant at a railroad station, where the street children often hung out in winter to stay warm. That is how they discovered the baby. Maybe they were the first one to see him or maybe they were the first ones to care. But they took the baby and were raising him, until social services removed the baby. The children--abandoned themselves--had been caring for the abandoned baby as well as they could. Stories like this make me pray and hope all the harder that that many, many more orphans in Russia...Anita Deyneka...April 17, 2011

I have just returned from a Colorado conference called 'Empowered to Connect,' where I had the huge gift of learning from Dr. Karyn Purvis, Director of the Institute for Child Development at Texas Christian University, from her 12 years of developmental research on the needs and approaches to healing adopted and foster children. It was so striking to me to learn that often as parents we have our priorities flipped upside down: we spend 80% of our time on correction (the red!), 10% on empowerment (meals/school/chores the yellow!), and 10% of connection (the green). It is like a triangle trying......April 12, 2011

A few years ago, some Russian friends shared the story of how their friends, Nikolay and Katya, had adopted an abandoned baby girl. A passing motorist discovered a baby by the side of a busy road. A police officer was called and he took the abandoned baby to a local "baby house orphanage." As Nikolay and Katya watched the drama unfold on the news, they called the police station and were permitted to adopt the one-month-old baby girl, whom they named Masha. Nikolay and Katya have big hearts. They already had five children in their small home. Often as they wondered how...Anita Deyneka...March 30, 2011

Today I've been thinking about the juxtaposition of two emails I recently received. One is from Ukraine, from Our Father's Home, a nationally led charity providing orphans with loving care in a Christian orphanage in Kiev and a network of other programs for children-at-risk. In addition to the orphanage Our Father's Home sponsors, they are also trying to place children with families in Ukraine. I can't stop studying a recently flyer with photos and descriptions of 17 of the children who could be placed in a family--if homes could be found. There is Stasik, five years, who is smart and clever...Anita Deyneka...March 25, 2011

The staggering statistics from Japan of the horror of the earthquake and tsunami are, of course, not just numbers. They represent thousands of dying, injured, hurting men, women and children. Some of the survivors are still sorting through body bags for lost loved ones. There are going to be many orphans in Japan--sadly adding to the number of orphans worldwide, 163 million children, who if they were all in one place would be the seventh largest nation in the world. Statistics do tell a story. In Russia, for example, it is an ongoing and tragic tale. There are approximately 650,000 orphans...Anita Deyneka...March 21, 2011

A few days ago, my friend–who was born in the Soviet Union and now directs a large Christian media ministry there–shared with me some of his thoughts about adoption and foster care of orphans in Russia and Ukraine. “I remember seeing a slogan recently in the Moscow subway,” he said. “The slogan said , ‘Every Child Needs a Family.’ It is very true and according to God’s design. Actually, it is also much better stewardship of the resources…I am very much in favor of such a movement of homes for orphans, rather than orphanages.” With...Anita Deyneka...March 09, 2011

Although Russia is once again a superpower—and one of the rising “BRIC” nations, its orphan population continues to expand and is larger than the Russian military. Our Home for Every Orphan (HFEO) partnership of Russians/Ukrainians/Americans is helping find homes for orphans inside their own countries, and often in their own communities. Unless there are massive adoptions and foster care placements inside the countries where the orphans are found, hundreds of thousands of children are never likely to have a family and a home. What a difference when orphans who have mostly never had a home,...Anita Deyneka...March 03, 2011

My two children were once in orphanages in Colombia, before they came to our home. And over the years, I have worked to help support summer camps and send Christmas gifts to orphans in the former Soviet Union. But it is only in the past year that I have been on another orphan journey—sad to realize that there are at least 163 million orphans in the world. There are so many orphans that if they were all located in one place, they would be the seventh largest nation in the world, almost the size of the population of Pakistan. This “Orphan Nation” is one of the saddest places in...Anita Deyneka...February 07, 2011