“When we founded Orphan Outreach, we really had one goal,” shares Tiffany Taylor Wines, Director of Marketing. “That was to have a ministry that glorified Jesus Christ, a ministry that was rooted in God’s heart for the orphan, a ministry that would live that out in the way we cared for children around the world.”

Firmly Rooted

(Image courtesy of Orphan Outreach)

When Wines looks back at the past decade of ministry, she’s humbled. When the first conversations took place in a single-room office with a card table and folding chairs, the team never thought about the number of children that might be served. What mattered was quality care was being provided.

Wines says, “Right now, we’re serving 5,000 children annually through orphan care, through family preservation programs, through foster care, [and] through funding adoptions. All of our programs are firmly rooted in the Word, they are poised to make a huge impact in these children’s lives.”

Orphan Outreach began its work in 2007 in Guatemala and Russia. Soon, ministry efforts had expanded to Latvia, Kenya, Honduras, and India. In 2016, Ukraine was added to the list of countries supported by the Texas-based ministry. Each year, new opportunities arise to expand support to other countries, yet Orphan Outreach stays focused on slow growth and deep investment.

“The needs are overwhelming, all over the world,” reflects Wines. “One huge role Orphan Outreach is playing in the orphan care movement is lending our voice to advocate for the children and also to come alongside people, to help them with their projects because we can’t be everywhere all the time. So advocacy and sharing our knowledge with other ministries is huge for us.”

Growing Deeper

(Image courtesy of Orphan Outreach)

The theme for the 10^th anniversary year is ‘Firmly Rooted, Growing Deeper’. Wines says, “Our whole goal of reaching out is to make a real difference. And for us, making a real difference is focusing our efforts to be both grateful for the roots we’ve planted over the past 10 years, but also to continue to invest fully in the ministries we partner with, while looking for ways to expand those ministries. And we want to continue to lend our voice to serve the needs of children all over the world, not just in the countries where we are working.”

Ministry partnerships take time to establish, and the roads aren’t always smooth. Orphan Outreach has maintained its focus on what defines quality partnership, and continues to use the same measures it crafted when the ministry began.

“We always want to see people who want to go deeper, who want to improve their practices, always wanting to do really good orphan care, whatever that looks like — if it’s family preservation, or adoption funding, or foster care. Whatever it is, excellence is expected, transparency is expected, and a willingness to work together to solve the problem is expected. This is about ministries like ours working with churches, working with individuals — lots of individuals — to make a difference.”

National ministry partners range from children’s homes and transitional programs to schools and community care efforts.

Making a Real Difference

(Image courtesy of Orphan Outreach)

In the decade Orphan Outreach has been serving orphans and vulnerable children, the ministry has witnessed a wealth of information — and misinformation — shared in books, on websites, and through social media. Foster care and domestic adoptions are increasing in several countries they serve, which is cause for celebration. But efforts to empty orphanages without adequate screening and wraparound care have resulted in many children being returned to unsafe family situations.

“Looking over all the years I’ve been in orphan care — and I was involved even before Orphan Outreach — there are trends that come and go,” reflects Wines. “But I think for Orphan Outreach, it goes back to our mission statement. Everything we do has to be focused on glorifying Jesus Christ while we minister to these children in four different ways: their physical, emotional, spiritual, and educational needs. We have to keep our focus on what our mission statement is and not get off-track, because it’s hard work.

“Part of going deeper is you’ve got to dig, and that digging is hard work sometimes to get deeper in relationships, deeper in Christ. It’s not always easy, but we’ve found by sticking to the hard work, the Lord glorifies that. Like I said, when we started the ministry, we never thought about numbers — and there are huge numbers: 147 million orphans! We know the number is staggering, but what we’re trying to do is, with excellence, work on people’s relationship with Christ by making significant, long-term impact on the lives of children.”

The Need for Partners

(Image courtesy of Orphan Outreach)

As Orphan Outreach celebrates a decade of ministry, Wines is thankful for those who have come alongside in offering up their time, talent, and treasure to ensure quality care is provided around the world. But there is need for more individual and church partners.

“We are looking for people that want to make that same personal commitment of having an impact in a child’s life, so sponsorship is a huge way people can continue to come alongside us. Sponsorship provides the critical funds for us to make a difference in the lives of children. We’re looking for people who want to get involved, go on mission trips, sponsor a child, make a long-term commitment to the programs we have so we can go deeper and make a deeper connection to these children.”

When it comes to the most basic of needs, Wines says nutrition is essential. “You can’t educate and provide programs for a child without them eating, and we feed 1,311 children nutritious meals. In order for them to even function, they have to be fed first. It’s like Christ, meeting their needs first. He would heal them or feed them, and then He would explain why He was there. We do a snack in our program in Chimaltenango, and to feed a healthy snack to 42 children is $450 a month. That money has got to come from somewhere, so we are always in urgent need for money for just the basics like that. The governments are not providing any funds.”

And the need doesn’t stop when an orphan ages out of traditional care. Wines’ voice shakes as she recounts the story of one of the orphan graduates Orphan Outreach supports in Russia.

“I can also think about the girl in Russia who has had to leave the orphanage system because now she’s 18-years-old. She has no family, and she’s facing a living condition which is horrendous, like a dump. And if she doesn’t get the $5,000 to renovate her apartment , she’s most likely going to be the statistic — living on the street and dead within a few years of graduating the orphanage. The needs are dramatic on both ends of the scale.

“Every dollar is precious to us. We do everything to operate with the highest integrity, to make sure those funds are used exactly how the donor has designated. The money is going to ministry programs. Our whole focus is on making a difference for these children, so when we say that’s where the money’s going, that’s where it’s going. We try to do as much as we can with as few people as possible. You know, we really can only do that work because God is there with us.”

In addition to partnering with Orphan Outreach through the use of time, talent, and treasure, Wines says the prayers of faithful friends are Orphan Outreach’s lifeblood. As the ministry moves into its next decade of service, she asks that those prayers be focused on the heart of service.

“Pray that we continue to be rooted in Him, that our faith is strengthened, that we grow deeper in relationship with the children, deeper in the communities we’re working in so we’re making a deeper difference in the lives of these children.”

Join Orphan Outreach and serve orphans and vulnerable children by sponsoring a child, joining a mission trip, or partnering with one of their ministry programs.

(Image courtesy of Andre Arana)

The Comprehensive Community Center is more than a building in the city wrought with violence, drug wars, and prostitution. It is a ministry that offers holistic support for families struggling to survive.

Rey Diaz is the Executive Director for Orphan Outreach, and he celebrated with the families as a new tutoring program was launched for students in elementary school.

A similar program for middle- and high school students was piloted during the summer, and the results have been promising. “The energy and the excitement in the room was, like, palpable,” he beams. “It was just really exciting to be there on opening day for all these families.”

Education is a significant challenge for the indigent poor in Chimaltenango. Though schools are free, children are not allowed to attend if they don’t have supplies. And helping the family with basic necessities often means school is abandoned.

Diaz shares, “Middle school and high schools are impossibilities for most of these kids, especially young girls. We were looking at some schools we work with outside of the city. At elementary, it’s about a fifty-fifty split. Afterwards, in middle school and high school, girls just drop out at a staggering rate. “

(Image courtesy of Andre Arana)

Orphan Outreach mission teams met the families of the Ravine years ago — with shelf-stable groceries and prayer.

The first year, they stood outside the fence. The next year, the families welcomed them inside their lives, and friendships were established between the people who dug through refuse to find sustenance and the people willing to give time, talent, and resources to help.

Today, family preservation is at the heart of Orphan Outreach’s work in Chimaltenango. Needs are addressed, hopes are held high, and dignity is restored. Clean stoves, drip water filtration systems, and home repairs improve living conditions. Medical assistance strengthens bodies and spirits. Diaz says the impact of holistic care for a few families brings hope to an entire community.

“They’re wonderful parents. They love their kids, they’d do anything for their kids – in fact, they’ll work in a garbage dump for their kids. So the fact that they’re able to receive all these blessings – the stove and the clothes and the education and the spiritual development – it just means so much to them. And we believe it’s going to change the cycle that these families have lived in for generations.”

(Image courtesy of Andre Arana)

Diaz says the CCC ministry’s primary focus is living out the hope of the Gospel in word and deed.

“Our staff is going to every single home, they visit every home. They’re sharing the Gospel, being a shoulder to cry on, just telling these people they matter, they are created in the image of God. And because of that, that means they have value, they’re important, that Jesus died for them just as much as He died for us.”

There are many ways to join Orphan Outreach in their efforts to care for the families of the Ravine in Chimaltenango.

Mission teams help the families install new stoves, deliver food, and help teachers with lesson plans. Sponsorship of the children is essential to the success of the program as it ensures resources are available.

And Diaz says prayer is key as well. “These are real people, these are kids with names that matter, and if you can take time to pray a few minutes a day for these kids, who knows what God’s going to do through these kids – in their lives and in the families.”

Learn more about Orphan Outreach’s family preservation program at the Comprehensive Care Center, and join the ministry by sponsoring a child.

Tiffany Taylor Wines, Director of Marketing for Orphan Outreach, says a single question was the catalyst in that change.

“When we returned, our daughters asked, ‘What are we going to do now? How are we going to help the kids we saw?’”

Women for Orphans Worldwide (WOW), an auxiliary organization, was created to help Orphan Outreach’s ministry efforts through both volunteer and financial support.

(Image courtesy of Orphan Outreach)

Enthusiasm around the concept was high; in fact, the first WOW chapter was launched within months after the mission trip that sparked the idea.

“The WOW chapters have been focused on helping Orphan Outreach make a difference in the countries they’re serving,” shares Wines.

“Most chapters meet either monthly or quarterly to come together, pray for the country they’ve selected, and find out about the needs of that country. We have WOW chapters that usually go on a mission trip every year to invest continued time with the children they serve, and that’s very powerful because the kids in the orphanages know these people care about them – they’re coming back year after year, they’re invested in making a long-term difference in the lives of those children.

“The financial support is important, but it’s the spiritual support of being matched with projects in the countries we serve and being able to make a deep, long-term difference in those areas that is at the heart of WOW.”

While Women for Orphans Worldwide began its efforts supporting ministry work in Guatemala, chapters now also help in India, Kenya, and Honduras.

“We’re still looking for chapters to help with Latvia and Russia, and we can always have chapters helping in multiple countries and more than one chapter supporting a specific country because the needs are overwhelming in these countries. We’re looking for people who are excited about a way to get together with like-minded people in their community to support orphans.”

Wines says WOW chapters provide a unique opportunity for communities to work together in living out God’s calling to serve orphans.

“Most of the WOW chapters members represent lots of different churches, lots of different schools the children attend – and they all come together to make a difference for one country.”

In addition to more traditional fundraising activities, WOW chapters often raise support for the children by collecting supplies.

“We’ll have chapters collecting backpacks, school supplies, undies for orphans – things that are urgently needed. It’s a way these chapters can get together to let other people know about the needs of orphans, and to help raise support – financial support but also prayer support,” Wines continues.

(Image courtesy of Orphan Outreach)

WOW chapters have done dramatic things to change the lives of children. In addition to raising urgently needed funds to provide children with quality education, chapters have also created libraries and computer labs in several different locations throughout the world.

And most recently a WOW chapter designed and equipped a crisis relief room in the town of Chimaltenango, Guatemala. Wines explains, “There is a community outreach to people living in the town, and they were able to set up a complete room with clothing, diapers, medicines – all the supplies to really make a dramatic impact in the lives of these families living in extreme poverty.”

While the name Women for Orphans Worldwide was created based on women and their daughters who attended the initial mission trip in 2009, Wines says the current chapters look quite different.

“We have families, and men, and young boys of all ages [who] have gotten involved with WOW. Sometimes we joke that it could also stand for WORKING for Orphans Worldwide, because that’s what we’re all doing together – working to make a difference.”

Visiting the website is one way to learn more about WOW, but Wines believes there’s an even more powerful way to find out about the organization and its work.

“We would really encourage people considering a WOW chapter to come with us! We have a great trip already planned this fall. It will be to Honduras to see what Orphan Outreach is doing and to learn a little bit more about WOW at the same time.”

The Honduras trip takes place October 15-22, and details may be found on the ministry’s website. The deadline for registration is July 20.

(Image courtesy of Orphan Outreach)

Wines says one thing that makes WOW so unique is the simplicity of starting a chapter. “There are no costs associated with starting a chapter, and if you want to raise money for a particular country through your WOW chapter, 100% of those funds you raise come to Orphan Outreach and go to that country. We don’t take any percent from the money you’re raising for the orphans [who] Orphan Outreach supports.

“I want to encourage people who have tried to think about what they can do to make a difference in the world — that whatever they do, they can make a huge impact,” reflects Wines.

“Starting a WOW chapter is a very tangible way of joining together with like-minded Christians to really make a difference to those who are so close to God’s heart – the most vulnerable, the children who are living in extreme poverty, children who are orphaned and have no one to love.”

Learn more about Women for Orphans Worldwide and start a chapter by visiting their website. And join Orphan Outreach in praying for and serving orphans and vulnerable children in countries around the world.

While government-based institutional care is not optimal for those children, Natasha Votyakova of Orphan Outreach’s Russian NGO says they’ve been provided shelter, clothing, and food. What few of them have been provided is an understanding of connection and the resources needed to successfully navigate adulthood. That’s why Orphan Outreach focuses its attention to orphan graduates.

(Image courtesy of Orphan Outreach)

Aging out in Russia is not necessarily dependent on an age, but rather on the educational level the child has achieved. Once a child had completed nine years of school, they are eligible for basic vocational training. Should the child decide to stay to receive additional education, they will “graduate” from the orphanage after 11^th grade.

Natasha says it’s very difficult for orphans to survive in a world outside the four walls of the institution. “The statistics are not good at all. They say that, within the first five years after the graduation, 10% at least try to commit suicide.” And more than half of all orphan graduates will end up succumbing to drug abuse, alcoholism, prostitution, and organized crime.

Orphan Outreach’s ministry efforts begin before the orphan ages out. “We start at the orphanages so the kids can get to know us. In some places, we work with volunteer groups from local churches. And we also have mission trips that come and are able to minister to the kids while they’re still at the orphanage.

“Our goal, of course, is to change their lives, transform their lives, from the perspective of the love of God and giving them that hope. That the Heavenly Father is there for them, no matter how many abandonments they’ve experienced in their lives.”

The ministry team then talks to the orphan graduates about core values that will help them succeed in life. Local role models are also introduced to the children so they can talk to someone who has overcome the odds through faith and focus.

Russia provides free education at every level for orphans who have aged out, and provides accommodation for those who struggle educationally. But Natasha says even that can be too much for some of the children. And the benefits are only temporary.

“All the subsidies, or all the scholarships or pensions or whatever they were receiving from the government – at the age of 23, they don’t get anything anymore.” Many orphans will begin their journey at a vocational school, but most find they need additional education to survive. Benefits rarely provide for that education and for living expenses. Natasha remembers one young woman who had to face the choice between and education and survival. “We’ve been helping her with a part-time job and with expenses for her apartment.”

(Image courtesy of Orphan Outreach)

If the orphan has no home to return to, the government provides an apartment. Those children are more fortunate than the ones who have been left some sort of housing from family members. They receive no additional benefits from the state, and the living conditions are often less than livable. Updating those apartments is out of the question financially. “So we try to get them into other programs that will help improve their living conditions.”

Orphan Outreach’s Russian NGO also works to provide the orphan graduates with medical and dental assistance. Natasha continues, “Sometimes we literally are taking the orphans to the clinics to learn to make appointments with the doctors because they’ve never done it before.” Program directors teach the orphans how to pay bills and purchase food. “Just teach them whatever parents would teach regular kids in the family.”

The care for the orphan graduates goes beyond budgeting and basic life skills to relationships. Natasha says she and her team often help with counseling about love and family.

“We have very often that two orphans will marry and start a family, but they are so inexperienced with relationships that we’re trying to teach them how people interact in a family.”

Abuse might be the only thing the orphans have seen or experienced, so wives won’t think to share when they are being abused because they believe it to be common. And a high percentage of the girls, upon leaving the orphanage, will get pregnant. Natasha shares, “And when they choose to come to us, we help them through that pregnancy, whether they are married or not, we try to help them and persuade them not to leave the baby and to start caring for the baby.”

Breaking the cycle of orphanhood is a priority for the ministry. Natasha’s eyes fill with tears as she reflects on the struggle. “They’ve been raised in an institution, they have a baby, and after a while it’s too hard – so they think, ‘I’ll give up the baby because well, that’s what happened to me.’ But with the program in place, we see those moms learn to love their babies and care for their babies and want better for them. And that’s a gift to see that the Lord is working in their souls and in their hearts and in their minds.

“We provide whatever help is needed – whether it’s relationships, whether it’s financial, whatever is needed the most. Medical. Whatever it takes. They do need a lot of education in just very simple things that seem everyday life for most people – but for them it’s all strange, it’s all different, it’s all that they have never experienced before.”

(Image courtesy of Orphan Outreach)

Natasha says it’s beautiful to see the transformation in lives over time – the way the orphan graduates learn to study and take care of responsibilities and love their families well. “They’re caring, they’re loving, their children are growing well. It’s such a big reward.”

Prayer is the first step in caring for orphan graduates in Russia, according to Natasha.

“Please pray for them, that they will be given the knowledge that they are not alone in this world, that there are people who pray for them, that there’s always hope in the love of God – that He will be there. He will not abandon them.”

The Orphan Graduate Sponsorship program helps those orphans receive the care and resources they need. The way the sponsorship program helps is different for every graduate, based on their unique story.

Natasha loves the personalized focus. “Sometimes the money is used to remodel an apartment so the graduate can live there, or sometimes the money is used to repair teeth or pay for school books. Our goal is to provide wrap-around support for those kids.”

She also encourages people to visit Russia and spend time with the graduates. “They love it when mission teams come to visit. Just one visit from one person can change the life of a child. The orphan graduates will have photos of their new friends on their walls, and they pray for them.

“Everything matters in the lives of these kids. Every act of kindness and attention, of care and love.”

(Image from India Partners)

Donna Glass of India Partners says the children who live at Little Lamps are filled with joy. “They tell stories about how sad they were and now how happy they are, and they have come to know of Jesus.” The Gospel is an essential part of every child’s day at the home, and its because of the care the children are being provided that more space is needed to accommodate those who need to live in the home due to the overwhelming poverty in the local communities. “The children love having a place that they are cared for, where they have plenty of food, they have a safe place to sleep, they are nurtured, they are going to school, they are learning about Jesus. But, they very crowded, so the children are very excited about the expansion of the home.”

(Image courtesy of India Partners)

As the ministry did their due diligence in planning the expansion of Little Lamps, they learned that the Indian government requires now for girls and boys to be housed in completely separate facilities. Even areas considered to be common to all, like kitchens and dining rooms, cannot be shared. Land has been purchased for a new boys’ home, and now the ministry prayerfully waits for funding to come to build. Until then, alternative housing will be found for the boys who are fully orphaned, while those who can stay with family members will do so, with the help of sponsorship support.

Learn more about India Partners and their complete list of ministries, and prayerfully consider contributing to the Little Lamps expansion efforts so the boys will have a home to call their own. Glass says every donation — whether it’s $5 or $500 — will make a difference to India Partners and Little Lamps.

“If people can’t donate…they can pray that everything continues to move forward smoothly.” Today is a reminder of God’s provision to Glass and the rest of the India Partners team as the girls’ dormitory expansion becomes a reality. “It’s been years of visions and dreams, and it’s coming to fruition. So we’re so excited that this additional floor is being completed and will be ready for these girls to rejoice, rejoice that God has provided and has answered their prayers.”