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Mina Podgaisky helped start a foster care facility for children who have been orphaned. CBF photo
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ATLANTA – When Mina Podgaisky first arrived in Ukraine in winter 2002, she couldn’t see them. She couldn’t recognize the more than 17,000 street children that live in Kiev because they sleep in underground tunnels and basements of high-rise apartment buildings where it’s warm, only coming up to find food. Now she knows they wear shoes with holes and too-big jackets that hide the glue they often sniff "to not feel cold, to not feel the hunger, to not feel the loneliness," Mina said. "It’s what everybody [here] does on the streets."
In the five years since Cooperative Baptist Fellowship field personnel Gennady and Mina Podgaisky have lived in Kiev, they have learned how to recognize the street children and how to help transform the lives of these orphans and runaways.
"Being there and just hugging them and answering their questions – that makes a big difference," said Gennady, who is Russian. "It makes a big difference when you talk with them in their own language. [We] bring them something they don’t have and it’s not just food or clothes."
The Podgaiskys form relationships with street children, assist in providing them with basic necessities, and help those who want to move off the streets. That’s why they helped start Village of Hope, a foster care facility operated by the Ukrainian Center for Christian Cooperative, an affiliate of the Ukrainian Baptist Union. Now housing two foster families, the Podgaiskys hope the village will eventually hold up to 10 foster families and up to 100 children, as well as Christian camps for at-risk children, and retreats and conferences. Proceeds from the camp will offset some of the cost of supporting foster families. All these efforts stem from a passion for sharing the love of Christ.
"When I feed the hungry, when I feed the children in the street, when I give clothes to the children in the street, and give them medicine – it’s all in the love of Christ," Mina said.
They also work with a coalition of ministries and individuals, networking and partnering to do more strategic ministry than they could do alone. They lead a Bible study for new or non-Christians, which often lasts for nearly four hours. They are "maturing Christians that are in turn able to bring other people to Christ and to be light and salt in places that they live," Gennady said.
And lives have been changed through their ministry. Because of Village of Hope, two little girls, whose abusive father killed their mother in front of them, now have a loving foster father, mother and brothers. Because of the Podgaisky’s ministry on the streets, one boy accepted Christ and decided to return home – not because he needed to go back but because "he wanted to go back and witness about the one who changed his life," Mina said.
To learn about partnership opportunities with the Podgaiskys, call (800) 352-8741. To financially support their ministry, give to the Offering for Global Missions. To give, go to www.thefellowship.info/involved/give.
CBF is a fellowship of Baptist Christians and churches who share a passion for the Great Commission and a commitment to Baptist principles of faith and practice. The Fellowship’s mission is to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.