Katya Celenina, National Director of Fund Nadezhda (“The Hope Fund”), uses a word that rings in my ears. I can’t shake this image. I can’t ignore the sound. She says that we work to “revive” children.

Do you see what this implies? The children are nearly dead. They are lying lifeless on the gurney. They need the hydration, fresh air, and good medicine of healthy relationships and generous resources. They need long-term and holistic care to be revived, to survive. And when a child is revived, Celenina says we receive the reward of a saved life.

A New Sister in Christ

I first met Nadya when she was 13 and I was on a mission trip with my wife and several others from Children’s HopeChest, including the founder and CEO, George Steiner. When Steinter saw Nadya, he looked at me and said, “You could be brother and sister.” We did indeed look alike; I felt an immediate bond. Now she calls me brother. She refers to my son as her nephew.

This summer, I was able to spend more time with my “sister.” Nadya has been a part of the ministry programs of Children’s HopeChest for the past few years, being sponsored in her orphanage, living in a Family Center, and then participating in the programs for orphanage graduates at HopeChest’s Ministry Center in Kostroma. She has just graduated from hairdresser’s school. She’s renting an apartment with her sister.

She has healthy friendships and a growing faith. She’s studying in order to enter university.

I got a great reward when we visited this summer. She cut my hair. She used the skills of her new vocation and gave me a hip, European cut. Instead, she easily could have been homeless, a prostitute, an addict, or worse. This is the portrait of a life revived.

Ministering to Christ

Revive. Reward. This is the mission that sent 75 young people to Moscow and then northeast by bus last June and July. Through drama, crafts, games, family groups and sharing chores, amazing relationships were formed. I guarantee you that the high school and college-age volunteers with us will never see the world in the same way again. They have looked into the eyes of orphaned children and have there found Christ.

The message is clear: “I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me a drink, I was homeless and you gave me a room, I was shivering and you gave me clothes, I was sick and you stopped to visit, I was in prison and you came to me” (Matthew 25:35-36).

Their lives have been revived. Their reward is a contagious compassion that will mark their faith and their lifestyle forever.

The gospel preaches the need for a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It is by grace through faith that we are saved. And the gospel also preaches of the need for our whole lives, our whole communities, and our whole world to be transformed by this relationship. As orphaned children around the world are revived, we will all receive a priceless reward.