And Were Off On A Mission To Ukraine!

Dear Friends & Family,

As you know reaching out to the forgotten, neglected or lost youth is near and dear to our hearts.  We love serving with the youth here at the local skatepark and reaching and ministering to them but we also know God has called us much further out and that is to serve and love the orphans of Ukraine.

We are so so blessed that our son, Kolya would want to take this awesome leap of faith and return to the country he left to start a new life and go back into what was once his life and minister to these children.  He is chomping at the bit to go back to Ukraine to help the orphaned children with me, so it time!

Kolya and I will be heading to Yevpatoriya in Crimea to be joining a ministry team with NLM (New Life Ministries) July 30th to August 14th, 2012.  On this mission trip we will be working with orphans and local children that live with their families in the poorer villages.  The age group we will be working with is 10 to 14 years old.  Remember the good old days of CHRISTIAN CAMP?  This is what we will be doing!  We will be digging into the word of God with these children at a deeper level, explaining it more thoroughly.  We will work with the children on memory verses and even homework.  Yes we will do homework.  We will have skits (drama) to give the children a deeper physical understanding of bible stories.  The team will lead small groups to get to know the children better individually.  And free time to have more one on one time with these children in hopes they will feel free to open up more.  And of course LOVE ON THEM, LOVE ON THEM and LOVE ON THEM!

We ask that you would pray for Kolya and I, the staff (leadership) and the children on this mission trip.  Our prayers for this trip is that God would use Kolya and I in any way he needs us.  That he would put us specifically where he needs us at any given time.  That we would be a light and reflection of him in everything we do.  That Kolya returning to his home country his heart would be protected and he would continue to have the same drive and passion he has now to return there so badly to share Christ with these children.  That God would grow both of us spiritually and have a deeper more intimate relationship with Christ.  For the wisdom and guidance of the leaders of the camp that Christ will speak through them to reach into these childrens and our lives.  For the children that they be willing to come with open hearts to learn Gods word and be loved on.  For the stubborn ones that are closed that God will use whomever he calls to help reach into their closed hearts and minds so that they may find him.  For the protection of our "Camp".  Serving with orphans I have seen Satan at work more then ever.  We have recently experienced this by Sergiy not returning home with us that there is nothing Satan will not do to destroy and orphans chance of hope, life, love and knowing Christ.   I ask for your prayer in our "Camp" meaning the whole entire camp and ministry that we are all protected under Gods umbrella to reach into these childrens lives.  Prayer that there is no division with any families serving together on this mission trip, division with the leadership, division with the kids, staff and volunteers.  THAT THERE IS NO DIVISION PERIOD!  Prayer for the heath and safety travels of the team.  All of these children have a different story, but there is one fact that remains......they are Gods precious chosen children.  They are His! 

We are in need of raising $5150.00 for both of us to go to Ukraine on this mission trip.  We have seen God make the impossible seem possible and we are excited for Kolya to witness this as we put our trust in the Lord to not only meet our financial needs but the needs of this specific mission.  Oh how I love seeing God at work!  

All donations are tax deductible.  If you would prayerfully consider helping support us financially all checks can be made out to NLM (New Life Ministries).  I have been asked to have all checks mailed to my home address so when all funds are raised I can send it all in at one time to the ministry.  Please see below my home address.  Or you can donate through paypal to my email at diveshark@yahoo.com.  Please know that should you donate through paypal it will go directly to Kolya and I and not through the ministry for tax purposes.

If you would like to read and learn more about NLM the ministry we will be serving with please visit:

http://www.nlminfo.org/

There is nothing more precious to me as a mother to be able serve my Lord and Savior with my awesome son, Kolya he has blessed us with. Amen to that!

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1:27

In Jesus,

Nicole & Kolya

DONATION Thank You's!

Brian and Melissa Macy

Can You Help Us Launch "Camp Friendship" In Order To Reach The Orphans From Kolya's Hometown?

We are so excited as a family because this is going to be a Ukraine summer!  Kolya and Nicole are in prayer about serving in Ukraine with orphans and children from the poorer villages with one of two different ministries we are looking at.  Then Nicole will be heading out in August/September with NHFC on the team trip to interview the kiddos!  Can't wait!  Then yes another then.....I know I love it, a Ukraine summer.  Then a friend of our that runs a local orphan hosting ministry Kolya and I this year will help out again in any way we can with the kiddos while they are here.  Total blessing!  Love it!  

No matter which camp the Lord leads us to we want to we want to get the word out to help our dear friend, Anton Marchenko that is trying to launch "Camp Friendship" again.  Camp Friendship is near and dear to our families heart.  Not only because it was held in the region in which Kolya was raised but because he went there yearly and accepted the Lord in to his life at the camp.  This camp is so near and dear to him.  We have met many folks that have served at the camp and heard and saw all the fruitful photos of our son and all the kids and their experiences.  While in Ukraine adopting Kolya, Joe and I walked the old campus of Camp Friendship with Anton and it tugged at our hearts to see it closed.  You could feel the memories there.  Camp Friendship closed last summer and Anton is on the move to get it back up and running again.  He is almost more then 1/2 there to getting the supplies and funds needed to launch this camp this summer.  I am so excited!  So please take a look at all the work he has done and time he has poured into building this website and all the details of the camp, mission and the needs to launch this puppy this summer for a month. 

Please visit:  http://friendship.lg.ua/project_camp/camp_needs/

Here are videos of Camp Friendship and the impact it had:

Here are some pictures of Kolya at Camp Friendship so you can see what how awesome it was for our boy!

Yup that my boy biting his lip zoning out!  (:

Kolya at the bottom right

John Grimes his teacher hugging on the boys!

Poor little guy!

After 2 years of LeAnn founder of New Horizons For Children going to Kolya's boarding school and always seeing him smiling at her in the background but never interviewed she knew she had to to ask his director for an interview with him.  THANK HEAVENS SHE DID!  We will forever be grateful to LeAnn to taking the chance on asking his director and on Kolya.  This one mattered and matters! 

Changing "And This One Matters" Purpose

As I sit here and re-vamp the entire blog I made for Sergiy I am going through our hosting photos of Sergiy.  It is a bitter loss but I feel joy when I see the smile on his face knowing he got to experience love, Christ and I can only pray hope for his future.  Oh how I love and miss him and to know God loves him even more.  I know in my heart we did all we could for him so I cannot and I don't live in the "what if".  I try to live my life in such a way that "what if" is never a factor.  That is why we returned for him.  With all this "And this one matters" does not end with us not adopting Sergiy it is only the beginning of what is to come.  Do I know what is to come, have no clue but my God does so I rest in that.  The title in itself reminds me of all the little ones I interviewed while in Ukraine for Sergiy that asked for me to find them a family, would yell at me "I want to go to America", would cry during the interview, would grin ear to ear at me, that are surviving and hoping for a better tomorrow or don't even know there is a "better".  This is for all the ones I met on my trips to Ukraine, each and every one of them matter to God.  They matter to me.  They are the star fish on the shore and just need someone to care enough to show them hope and love.  So this website is now being dedicated to all the orphans that matter to God.  This blog will now be our NHFC adventures, our missions trips to Ukraine, stories of the children and folks we meet, hostings we do, any future adoptions the Lord may lead us to.  It will just be an open blog of what all God will lay before us with these children he calls "His"! 

May God bless you all and thank you so much for all your support and prayers!