We’d love to see you at the GRAND OPENING of our NEW Day Center on August 29th. But a trip to Ukraine probably isn’t in your plans for the summer. Instead, we invite you to help prepare the space for orphaned youth!
Why is the Day Center so important?
Ukrainian orphans age out of state care as young as fifteen. Often, their health has been neglected. They struggle in school and in relationships. Many carry emotional and psychological trauma from childhood.
But at the Day Center, orphan teens feel safe. Their needs are met. They learn that they’re deeply loved by God. This message of hope is especially important during the anxieties of wartime.
Our current Day Center, overflowing with orphaned youth
What’s needed at the Day Center?
The war has increased costs across the board, so the funds we set aside for the Day Center will only cover renovations – not appliances or furniture. We need your help to purchase washers and dryers, a refrigerator, stove, and oven, dishwashers, chairs, and other items so we can open August 29th. We’ll begin making purchases by August 1st.
Last Bell could serve up to 1000 youth and their family members at the new Day Center in the next three years. Just $35 can make it ready for one person! Or your family, church group, or business could cover the cost of one of the items below:
Auditorium/gathering area
Chairs: $75 x 80
Full wall storage unit: $2500
Speakers: $4,000
Laundry room
Washer: $600 x2
Dryer: $600 x2
Offices & game room
Sound Mixer: $600
Play Station: $700
65″ TV for offices: $750 x2
55″ TV for game room: $750 x2
Full wall storage unit: $2,500
Kitchen
Kitchen hood: $300
Induction stove: $400
Large microwave: $400
Electric oven: $500
Food processor: $500
Dishwasher: $600 x2
Refrigerator: $1,200
Cabinets and island: $6,200
Café Area
Café-style coffee maker: $600 x2
75″ TV: $1,500
We know you care about orphaned youth. You want them to feel loved, learn about Jesus, and stop the cycle of orphanhood in their own families. Will you help us make the Day Center ready for all the orphaned youth we serve now, plus those we’ll meet in the fall?
The kitchen:The kitchen is mostly covered! In the Day Center’s kitchen, our youth learn food safety, healthy eating habits, and skills for independence. Plus it’s a place of belonging. Here our youth connect with their Ukrainian culture – and with the staff as they cook together. You can give our youth the gift of a warm, bustling kitchen!
The offices: The Day Center will house our offices, including a room furnished for mentorship. And new storage spaces will hold supplies like groceries, clothes, and hygiene kits.
The game room: Orphan teens often find unhealthy ways to cope with their trauma and fear. But at Last Bell, they can safely relax and have fun. Video games, board games, and tabletop games like foosball draw youth into our caring community.
The laundry room:The laundry room has been covered! Many orphaned youth don’t have easy access to a washer and dryer. But they need to dress neatly for classes, job interviews, church, and more. The Day Center is a convenient place to do laundry, freeing up time for study and work. Plus, looking nice boosts their self-respect and confidence.
The auditorium: Last year’s Christmas parties included 61 youth at the party for students and 175 moms, dads, and kids at the family party! Partner churches have generously hosted our biggest gatherings for years, but now we can invite our youth to a familiar place.
Nina was new to Last Bell last year. She had trouble trusting our staff. She wouldn’t share her heart or her needs.
But after camp, everything changed.
Nina began to open up. She started coming to Stop the Cycle meetings to learn about parenting. She appreciates and wants mentorship from our staff, and asks for help when she needs it.
Nina at family camp in 2024Nina talking with a staff member
Camp is the most effective way to launch orphan-led families on a path of healing. And a whole family can go to a week of camp for just $1000.
One of our moms shared these thoughts about camp last year:
“Nobody loved me when I was a child. That’s why I didn’t know what ‘loving your child’ was at all. When I gave birth to my daughter, I did everything automatically. Only a month later, the understanding came to me that I am now a mother. It is extremely important for me to hear all this about family and love for children.“
Anya, Sasha, and Alina
Orphaned teens often feel unloved and unwanted. After an abrupt transition out of state care, they enter a world that seems totally indifferent to their needs.
Their isolation can turn into chronic unemployment, addiction, abusive and exploitative living situations, even suicide.
But Last Bell’s youth have a different experience. At camp, they discover they’re not alone. Just one loving adult can change everything, and our youth have a whole team!
Even with wartime inflation, just $400 sends an orphaned student to summer camp for a week. There, our youth learn about the Father of the Fatherless, who created them and loved them from the beginning.
Orphaned student Alina T. wrote, “Camp was filled with love and warmth from the leaders, and I had the opportunity to talk to a leader about personal matters. After camp, I wanted to go to church even more.”
In this one-minute video, staff member Christi and students Anya and Sasha share how camp opens hearts to God:
With a gift to camp, you can share the good news about Jesus with orphaned youth. It may be the very first time they hear that God created them and loves them.
Youth camp is in August, but the funds for housing and other costs are needed now. Dad Camps are in May, and family camp is in June. Will you make a gift toward camp today?
Here in the USA, Last Bell spent the third anniversary of the war with our friends at Mission to Ukraine, praying and worshiping together. Many of you prayed at home.
In observance of this occasion, we’ve put together this Q&A with directors Andrey, Oksana, and Yulia about the ministry team’s current experience with the war.
Q.
What has changed in the experience of war over the last couple of years?
Andrey: Our experience of war only truly began after the full-scale invasion. We learned how to hide in bomb shelters, plan food and fuel supplies, and later, how to provide our families and orphans with heat or electricity.
It was a heavy blow when we learned friends had died in the war. We found ourselves in constant worry and prayer. It was mentally exhausting.
In the first weeks and months of war, we helped many in the Last Bell community who left Ukraine and became refugees. Eight staff members also left.
damage from early in the war
Oksana: Now in our Stop the Cycle community there are already two widows. One husband lost his leg in the war, and some brothers have died. The moms are very anxious, especially when soldiers are out of touch. Out of guilt, some moms won’t attend meetings or even camps. Family relationships also suffer due to soldiers’ trauma. We’ve already seen a few divorces.
Andrey: More than 30 boys in the Educational Outreach program are fighting, and five of them have already fallen.
To summarize, the terrible war shattered our reality, shocked us, pushed us to adapt to a new normal, and eventually brought us to a place of exhaustion.
Yulia: We’ve learned to live with air raid alerts, bad news, and power outages.
Oksana: This is a normal, habitual part of life.
Andrey: But thanks to God’s support, we live and help others. Mutual support is crucial.
Yulia: We continue to seek joy and create meaningful events for students, young moms, and their children no matter what. We value each day.
Andrey: 80% of the refugees from our community came back, though eight million Ukrainians remain abroad. But God was faithful and increased our staff with 11 new people. Now we have 19 committed servants!
Q.
What has changed in Last Bell’s ministry since the war began?
Yulia: New members have joined the team, bringing new ideas and opportunities. New orphaned students have appeared with new problems and challenges, and displaced people who survived the horrors of war in eastern Ukraine. There are more students with constant anxiety.
Living conditions have worsened, and more people need both material and emotional help.
Andrey: Ministry has become even more important. Many people have left, and the burden has fallen on the shoulders of those who remained. We all feel fatigue, pain, stress, and sometimes even fear.
Oksana: We miss our American friends coming. This is by no means a reproach, but it was extremely joyful to carry out projects with American teams. We miss that.
Andrey: One of our staff who evacuated was returned to us for ministry – Katya, who is now doing incredible work. More orphans were drafted, more people from our churches were drafted, a few people were buried already because of the fighting.
Compared to peacetime, there is a greater need to serve those who serve. If we lose our ministers, we lose the hands and hearts that do God’s work. These people bear many responsibilities under the difficult conditions of war. For example, men are often harassed by military enlistment officers. Pressure from the news, economic pressure, power outages – all disrupt plans. But we’re constantly learning to serve effectively in this reality!
aid to soldiers
Q.
What are the biggest events of the last couple of years?
Andrey: The biggest achievement is that we still exist, and we’re growing and developing. God is faithful, and His will is being fulfilled. God is guiding the ministry and providing resources; this is a great testimony of His support.
Yulia: We were given a large country house for retreats, camps, and meetings. We’d dreamed about such a place.
Andrey: A great miracle! We named it Cozy Ranch.
Yulia: We also purchased a new Day Center.
Andrey: The team has grown, and the scope of our work has expanded. We keep holding team retreats, regardless of circumstances, because it’s crucial for our team to be together and grow in relationships.
Yulia: For the first time in the history of the organization, we held a winter camp.
Andrey: In 2024, we organized five camps for youth, mothers, and children. Large celebration events with students, mothers, and their children took place, gathering hundreds of visitors who belong to the Last Bell Community.
God added Andriy B. to our team as the Operations Director, a position we’d prayed about for over five years.
Oksana: And after six months of prayer, Marguerite joined the American team as our new Executive Director.
Andrey: Oksana and I were able to visit the USA after four years of separation due to Covid and the war. This was a miracle from God, because I was supposed to be mobilized to the front. But Oksana’s disability—a source of suffering before the war—freed me from the obligation to serve in the military.
All of this happened against the backdrop of the terrible events of the war, when we cried from the loss of our boys, and from the pain in our hearts that many couldn’t spend time with us, but instead communicated when they needed military aid.
Andrey serving orphaned youth (and their kids!) in wartime
Q.
What are we celebrating now?
Oksana: We’re celebrating the baptism of orphans we serve, despite the difficult circumstances.
Yulia: We celebrate that we’re alive, that ministry hasn’t stopped but has instead expanded, with the arrival of new leaders and volunteers. We celebrate the involvement of new educational institutions in the program. The number of students has increased. We’ve built strong new relationships with social services. We’re grateful for material support from our donors.
Andrey: We’re joyful seeing how God helps orphans through our ministry—a significant contribution to both their present and their future. This love and support is extended to them through the basic necessities of life. We celebrate how they transform and grow. We experience the greatest happiness when they reconcile with God and attend church.
Sometimes, we celebrate simply being alive. That there were no alarms during the night. That our loved ones and friends are alive. We’re just happy to be awake in the morning. We rejoice that God is with us, that we have family, friends, and church. We rejoice to still feel love.
Oksana: And we celebrate the birth of every new baby! This is so important for our country.
Oksana serving orphan-led families in wartime
Q.
What are we looking forward to in the coming years?
Andrey: Above all, we are waiting for victory and a just peace. For our people to stop dying at the front and for civilians to stop suffering. We eagerly await and dream that the restoration of Ukraine will begin.
Additionally, we’re looking forward to developing better strategies to reach orphans in our region for Christ—engaging youth in Young Life clubs and Zhytomyr churches to help them grow spiritually. To that end we’re planning to open the new Day Center in the summer of 2025. This is vital this year, because we anticipate an even greater number of new students. We’ll be ready to mentor them and ultimately tell them how much God loves them. Our churches wait for them. We look forward to seeing positive changes in them, especially baptisms.
Oksana: During the war, we see God’s work very clearly.
Yulia: We look forward to expanding the ministry to more trade schools and colleges, and attracting new team members. We look forward to broadening our reach.
Yulia serving orphaned youth in wartime
As the war increases the cost of living and the numbers of people coming to us, we’re truly in need of your help. Your generosity provides vital services for orphaned youth and displaced persons, and allows us to “serve those who serve.” You can give online here.
Thank you, friends, for praying with us through these difficult three years. We hope you’ll keep our directors’ words in mind as you pray over the next weeks and months.
“Thank you for helping teenagers like me,” Pasha said, “because now is such a difficult period of war. It’s difficult to find someone to talk to, to find friends.” But at the Day Center, Pasha said, “you can talk and get practical help. Thank you for doing so much for us!”
$35 can pay for vision and medical exams $350 can help with housing paperwork and other legal documents $1000 can cover major surgeries or home repairs
Because of the war, the cost of living has dramatically increased in Ukraine. Our need this year is bigger than ever. Will you make a gift before the 31st?
PS: Staff member Ilya shared that Pasha “has a strong personality… If he hadn’t met Last Bell, I don’t know if something terrible would have happened to him.” Will you make sure the next headstrong orphan teen meets a mentor who will invest in his life? lastbell.org/undaunted
We’re pleased to introduce our new Executive Director, Marguerite Havard!
The Executive Director wears many hats: management, strategic planning, fundraising, and building strong relationships within Last Bell.
Marguerite brings years of experience to the role, most recently with Life Centers as the director of the Hamilton County location. She also has experience with church administration, and she’s been to Ukraine!
“During my first visit to Ukraine in 2015,” Marguerite writes, “I met the staff and young people of Last Bell Ministries. I was struck by the quality of the staff’s work as they answered God’s call to care for the fatherless. We’ve supported Last Bell ever since. Serving alongside this devoted staff is my privilege and joy!”
Marguerite and her husband live in Carmel, IN. They have three grown daughters and two grandsons. Marguerite enjoys photography, hiking in the mountains, and teaching Bible studies at church.
Marguerite is “an exceptional leader,” writes our treasurer, Dave Richter. “She has the experience and administrative gifts that are critical to keep our ministry moving forward and growing. More importantly, she’ll blend all these skills with a heart that genuinely seeks to Glorify God.”
Thanks to some providential timing, Marguerite will be able to join me on a trip to Ukraine this month. She’ll get to know our staff and youth more deeply and witness the current work firsthand.
We’re confident that as you get to know Marguerite, you’ll be encouraged by her experience and her hope-filled vision for our youth in Ukraine!
In early June I was able to visit and encourage our staff in Zhytomyr. We have a great team working in Ukraine! Some highlights from my trip:
1: The wedding of staff member Christina. It was a beautiful day of celebration.
2: A great testimony from a staff member who was recently drafted.
One of our staff members is studying to be a military chaplain. He asked his commanding officer, an atheist, if he could read the Bible to the other men. His captain granted permission. Now the staff member reads the Bible to the men every night. They don’t want him to stop! Just like in his work with our youth, this staff member wants to shine God’s light and share the good news with his fellow soldiers. Praise God!
Please keep praying for the men on our staff who are eligible to be drafted. Drafting is often sudden; men can be taken by the military without a chance to say goodbye to their family.
3: A special moment with one of our youth.
This trip was primarily about spending time with our staff. But after a church service I saw Nadia, an orphan mom I’ve known for years.
She showed me an old photo of me and her daughter. She wanted an updated photo. This really showed me the power of relationships. If seeing me once a year is important to her, how much more important are lasting friendships with our staff!
Thank you for praying for our staff and the orphaned young people they serve. Thank you for your generosity that brings them hope.
Don Lawton, Board Chair
Your monthly gift can provide long-term mentorship and help for orphaned youth in Ukraine. Learn more about joining Druzi (friends), our program for recurring donors!
Can you put yourself in the shoes of orphaned students, waiting for camp to start in August?
With their new freedom after graduation, some may misuse alcohol to fill the long empty months. Independence can mean spiraling mental health. Years of neglect have left some with medical problems and few resources.
Without support, one in ten orphaned youth commit suicide before age 18.
But you can disrupt this hopelessness with a week of hope.
Summer camp gives orphaned youth experiences of being wanted and included. They hear about their Creator’s love for them. They build trusting relationships with staff who invite them to the Day Center for help with their most desperate needs.
For orphaned teens, camp is the most important week of the year.
One day of camp costs just $47. Could that be the day an orphaned teen shares a medical need? Or hears about Jesus for the first time? Or trusts someone with her life story?
We’ve seen so many transformations at camp. One young man decided he didn’t want “a purposeless life” and got help with school. A young woman broke through her anger at her mom to a place of forgiveness. Camp has brought many youth to church in the fall.
Family Camp (30 parents and kids): June 3-8 Youth Camp (40 orphaned students): August 19-24
Will you give today? Could you provide a day of camp for $47, a week of camp for $285, or even a week for a whole orphan-led family for just $1140?
“I rethought half my life while I was here. I became very attached to these people.”
–Serhiy (right) about youth camp
Friends, we’re so grateful for your caring hearts. This most important week of the year is only possible because of you!
Together in hope for our youth,
Don Lawton Board Chair, Last Bell Ministries
PS: Some orphaned teens are only 15 or 16 when they age out of state care. Camp brings them into our community where they receive help. Will you make a gift toward camp today? You can give toward camp year-round! lastbell.org/donate
As we approach two full years of war, we wanted to update you on our refugees, especially in the Netherlands. Many returned to Ukraine, but some are still there. With missiles continuing to kill and injure people two hours from Zhytomyr, these families don’t feel safe at home yet.
The year Last Bell opened, we met Angela K. Our staff offered her mentorship and help, and Angela has often given back. She’s now the leader of our group in Vriezenveen. The kids are all happy there, and everyone is beginning to speak a little Dutch! Volunteers arrange activities for them.
A rare snow day; Angela baking with one of the kids
Angela’s car serves the whole group – for school pickups, or trips to another city for Ukrainian food. They miss Ukraine when they cook! Your donations helped Last Bell cover recent car repairs, plus Angela’s gas for all these trips.
Angela and the other moms have joined a community of Ukrainian Christians where a pastor preaches in Ukrainian and they pray together for their country. This year they also celebrated a big Ukrainian Christmas.
We’re so thankful for Dutch Christian friends who provide for many of our refugees’ needs and fold them into a caring community.
In the Netherlands, some people are questioning whether Ukrainian refugees should still receive support. Please pray for favor with the Dutch officials!
In those early years, many of you were deeply involved the lives of Angela and other orphaned moms through your gifts and prayers. Your support still reaches them. We’re thankful for Angela’s strength and endurance in the incredible challenge of this war, and we’re thankful for your role supporting her and our whole community.
You might have seen photos of our youth spending time at a new facility. But we haven’t properly introduced it yet!
The war brought about a disappointment for some ministry friends, which they turned into a gift. They’d just finished building a beautiful ministry house in a village near Zhytomyr. But the war prevented them from using it. So they gave it to Last Bell! The legal transfer is almost complete.
Our staff and youth call this house “the Ranch.” Big bedrooms with many twin beds, as well as large gathering areas, make it perfect for group retreats. The Ranch is already hosting overnights for orphaned youth, staff meetings, and special day trips. Our Stop the Cycle families will use it too.
Our girls’ group baking in the spacious kitchen at the Ranch
We’re thankful for our friends’ generosity, and for God’s provision of this restful home outside the city. And we’re thankful for all of you who bless our youth with your gifts and prayers every day.
Because of your support, orphaned students are finding a place to belong. Young moms and dads are learning from role models and making a better life for their kids. Youth whose society discarded them are getting jobs and giving back.
God is taking care of orphaned youth in Zhytomyr through the compassion of His people. Take a look at what you helped accomplish in 2023!
Our Educational Outreach team befriends new orphaned students in Zhytomyr. Last year, they touched the lives of 179 youth! Many came to the Day Center for friendship and help. Eighteen students received advocacy for untreated illnesses or injuries. Your gifts made sure all our students were clothed and well-fed. For some students, sharing a need and receiving help was a new experience.
Our Restoration Project meets two needs: housing and marketable skills. The crew, all orphaned young people, learn the home renovation trade by repairing the homes of fellow orphans. Orphaned student Masha was one beneficiary this year. The crew fixed up her unlivable apartment so she won’t be homeless when she graduates from college.
Stop the Cycle helps orphaned parents break the cycle of abandonment and abuse in their families. In 2023, 44 moms and dads participated in the program, and 25 families came to our in-depth monthly parenting classes! Camp was a special week for our Stop the Cycle community, where our staff invested deeply in young families every day. Many camp families have stayed in touch.
As the two-year anniversary of the war draws nearer, our hearts are breaking for our country. But we’re thankful you keep investing in the future of Ukraine’s most vulnerable youth. God is always at work!
After collarbone surgery, Sasha had another problem. Because of the operations, he was too late to enroll in a state-run college.
Many orphan teens don’t know the next step for their education. They grew up on the margins of society. No one asked them, “What’s your dream for the future?” Without job skills, many can’t get work, and some end up on the street.
But because Sasha had found Last Bell, it wasn’t too late for him. We partner with a Christian IT academy, and they accepted Sasha mid-semester. He’ll learn computer skills and start on a path to independence.
We’re always seeking new vocational opportunities, because education gives an orphan the skills to break their family’s cycle of poverty. You can be part of that in 2024!
Your generosity transformed Sasha’s life. You gave him the medical care he needed, and new friends who helped him enroll in a school where he can thrive.
Those are all important, practical gifts! But you helped Sasha in one more important way: you invited him into God’s family.
At camp, Sasha was a student leader. Some of the students on his team struggled to participate. But Sasha united them and helped each student find their strengths. Sasha’s magnetic personality could have easily led his peers astray… or to a loving God.
We’re grateful to God that Sasha was interested in Christianity. He began soaking up our care and attention. After camp, he started attending church with us. Then he decided to follow Jesus!
We’ll meet many new orphaned youth in 2024. Will you give so these precious young people will hear how much God loves them?
During a time of national suffering, our Restoration Project crew has such an important job. They build in the midst of destruction. They restore stability to those in doubt.
Orphaned youth make up the crew, apprenticing in the home renovation trade with staff member Sergei. All their work benefits their fellow orphans.
In 2023, the crew kept showing up even as the air raid sirens sounded. These were their biggest projects from the past year:
The crew spent part of 2023 renovating the Shelter, our crisis housing facility for orphaned moms. They totally remodeled the kitchen, replaced the roof of the “gazebo” (an outdoor eating area), and renovated bedrooms. Thanks to their skills, the Shelter is even more warm and welcoming for moms who just need to be safe for a while.
Our crew worked alongside a contractor to renovate the Day Center. Now this hub of activity for our orphaned students has a full kitchen where staff and youth can cook together.
Like many orphaned students, Masha didn’t have a safe place to go after college. But she’d inherited an old apartment that needed many repairs. Our crew fixed her bathroom and kitchen, making her apartment a safe place to live after graduation.
Nothing goes to waste at the Restoration Project! Former Shelter resident Alina had a bare kitchen with no cupboards at all. So our crew hauled the Shelter’s old cupboards to her house and installed them. They added a stove a few months later.
At Last Bell, we believe everyone deserves a safe place to sleep at night. Your gifts make it happen for orphaned youth. Thank you!
