Ukraine: This is part two of the Mercy Projects story about a young man named Zhenya and his journey from a homeless “street child” to raising his own family today for the Lord. Here is Zhenya in his own words:
“One day, a man named Mr. Bitulski invited my brother Sasha and I to move in with their family. We felt safe there. We learned about Jesus and found God in our lives. The amazing thing was that I wasn’t in an orphanage. I was in a family. I was born again, was baptized, and God really worked on my heart. I went back to school. What we dreamed about in the basement, what we would sing about, really did come true. God did it!
Eventually we moved in with another Christian family who had more space. From there, another Christian foster family, the Startsevs, took us in. Both of those families were in the Mercy Projects program. My brother and I were happy to just have someplace safe to live, to go to school, and to have a family. I loved reading letters from our sponsors, and I still have them!”
Years later, Zhenya was married and had kids of his own. He continues:
“We have had many difficulties in this life, but God has never left us. Our house does not have a toilet. It does not belong to us, but God is taking care of us. A case worker from Mercy Projects visited us when our daughter was only two weeks old. The Startsev family told her about us. She brought us gifts, they found sponsors for us, and she also invited our older kids to go to a summer camp.
When I went to summer camp I was 11 years old and had no idea who the organization was. When I went to pick up our kids after their summer camp, I started talking with Yana, your camp director, and we realized that this was the same camp I had attended 16 years ago. And now, you guys are helping me to raise my children to follow the Lord.”
Read the full story at MercyProjects.org.
