Dear Prayer Warriors,

    Some urgent needs have cropped up for Russian orphans.  In Russia, 
children who have grown up in state orphanages have no-where to go once they reach 
17 or 18.  In fact, on their 'graduation" day, the take the few belongings they 
might have and go out into the streets.  There is no structure to receive 
them, no mentor or parental figure to help them find a job, nothing.........  
They are cast out into the street like dogs, having to figure out how to find 
food and where to sleep.  Plase pray for these children, and read the following 
email from Pam in Almaty, RUSSIA.

"Dear Janey and Friends at Orphans First,

We just spent the week before Easter distributing over 700 shoeboxes from 
Samaritan's Purse. We were able to return to one of the orphanages we visited 
during the Christmas Project (sponsored by ORPHANS FIRST) and God led us to two 
new ones. Both directors of these two institutions are very open to our 
continuing to minister with them. We plan to have the youth leader start a sport 
ministry in one of them. The director almost begged us to send godly men to be 
role models for her boys. This place, called Orphanage #1, Almaty Region, has 256 
children and about 150 of them are teenagers. The other place is Internat 
(residential school) #4. They have over 400 special needs children here. 

Both directors seem to really care about the welfare of the children. The 
places were clean, the children were well dressed, but they are seriously lacking 
attention. And many will soon find themselves ON THE STREETS.

I asked both of the director to honestly share their needs with me.  These 
were their priorities:
Both places operate as children's homes and schools. Both directors were very 
concerned about their graduates. At the end of May this year, Orphanage #1 
will have 40 children leaving to the street with no place to live. Internat #4 
has almost 80. This was their biggest request, to pray about someone in the 
Church giving them places to live. I am overwhelmed by this request, but promised 
to pray. Please join me in this prayer. Also, the directors asked for new 
clothes and shoes for these 17 or 18 year olds that will be leaving. They really 
want to send them out as equipped as possible for life. I though clothes and 
shoes to be a very humble request. As I think on this.... Wouldn't it be fun to 
have members from the church take one or two of these young people for a day 
and go shopping for this new "graduation" outfit. It would be a great 
opportunity for personal fellowship and has great potential for developing into a 
discipleship relationship. Most people in our church barely support themselves or 
their families, so without your (or other) outside help, this is only a 
vision. Please pray about this need. I estimate $50 for an outfit or $80 - $100 if 
we include the shoes.
Note: People from former Soviet countries are very proud about their clothing 
and do not appreciate second hand clothes. Also, the cost of shipping clothes 
from the US would be prohibitive, so it really needs to be cash assistance to 
buy new clothes.

Another need that the director of Orphanage #1 shared is to take the children 
out of the orphanage on short day trips. They have a large building and a 
good gym, but almost no land for playing outside. Many of the smaller children 
have never been off the orphanage grounds. ( I have a friend who took a 4 year 
old girl out for a day and she threw up 3 times from carsickness because she 
had never been in a car before.) We could take them on picnics, to the zoo, or 
the circus, or whatever God leads. The cost of a bus for a day is $120. We 
could rent one or two buses and then take 20-30 people from the church with about 
40-60 kids and go on a trip to the zoo or the mountains, etc. I would like to 
plan to do this once a month. The cost would be around $300 for the buses and 
admission costs or a small treat like a coke or ice cream for everyone. Let me 
know what you think of this idea. I also plan to encourage people, especially 
families from the church to go and take children for a day, just to a park or 
bring them to church, etc. Pastor Bob and Lisa have already done it twice, 
they are such a beautiful example for the church.

God has opened these two doors into the lives of over 750 children. I pray 
that we would use the opportunity for the best advantage for His glory. Please 
pray about these requests, share them with others and let me know if you have 
any questions.
In Him,
Pam Greaves
Almaty, Kazakhstan" 

SACHA & other children needing ADOPTION
    A young boy, Sacha, was supposed to have been adopted by an American 
couple. Recently, distant relatives of Sacha signed a paper to claim their 
kinship.  However, they will not rescue him from the orphanage, so their doing this 
actually means he cannot be adopted, and will never have a real home.  Please 
pray for a divine intervention for Sacha.  Pray also for the adopting parents.  
Pray that many, many children would be adopted by Christians all over the 
world.  And continue praying also for Christian foster parents----specifically 
for God to raise up many more.

HAITI
    We just send some money to Haiti for a precious work there with Pastor 
Destine who has a feeding program to poor children.  Pray for him, and this 
work, and pray we could help more in  the future.

INDIA
    Pray for Grace Home in Guntur, for future expansion.

MEXICO
    The children's camp with 40 poor children went well.  Pray we can provide 
more solutions for these kids in the future.      

FRANCE
    Continue praying for our work (and multiple works) in France during our 
absence.
Janey L. DeMeo
President/founder of ORPHANS FIRST; freelance writer.
Website: http://www.orphansfirst.org/
E mail: Janey@...

Subscribe to the weekly prayer chain: 
http://associate.com/groups/orphansfirst/

--
Browse years of Orphans First Prayer Requests:
http://welovegod.org/groups/orphansfirst/

To unsubscribe, send ANY message to: orphansfirst-unsubscribe@...