Last Christmas, something beautiful unfolded in Kazakhstan.

While many young people who age out of orphanages step into adulthood with little support and even less hope, a small group is discovering something different—new life in Christ and the love of a church family. 

Through the SGA-supported Orphans Reborn ministry, believers like Larissa Zatova, her son, and her daughter-in-law Diana are walking alongside orphanage graduates as they build lives, marriages, and families of their own.

For these young adults—many of whom never experienced a healthy home growing up—Christmas was not just a holiday. It was a testimony of restoration. It was a reminder that in Jesus Christ, they are no longer alone.

Below is the ministry report shared by Diana and the team serving these families in Kazakhstan:

For the second year in a row, we’ve been working with those who once grew up without parents and are now learning to be parents. These are graduates of various orphanages. They are now adults. Some are studying, some are working, and some have families and small children. Many of them are orphanage graduates who have started families with other orphanage graduates. Orphans marry orphans and, step by step, learn to build the home they themselves never had. And every time we look at them, we recall the words of Scripture: God makes a home for the lonely; He leads out the prisoners into prosperity, only the rebellious dwell in a parched land (Psalm 68:6). We see these words becoming a living reality.

Christmas is not a one-time event. It is the culmination of a great, profound work that continues throughout the year. A Christian psychologist, counselor, and mentor from our team—Diana’s mother—works with these families on a regular basis.

She teaches online courses on parenting and family relationships, teaches child rearing, supports mothers through postpartum depression, and personally supports graduates during times of crisis—when past traumas resurface, when emotions overwhelm them, when the fear of not being able to cope or even the thought of sending their child to an orphanage arises.

This is a significant and often unnoticed task—psychological, emotional, and spiritual. But it is precisely thanks to this constant support that we can be there not just occasionally, but live with them throughout the process, prevent crises, heal trauma, and instill biblical values of family, motherhood, and fatherhood.

We believe in God’s promise: Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26).

And it is precisely this new heart that we see when orphans become parents. Our main focus is to help them instill new DNA in their children. DNA of love, care, responsibility, and faith. Because, as Scripture says: Train a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6).

We are convinced: we love those we serve. And the more parents invest love and effort in their children, the less likely they are to abandon them in difficult times.

Therefore, when we celebrate holidays—including Christmas—we always ask parents to prepare the holiday for their children themselves. This time, the orphanage graduates themselves prepared the play, games, food, decorated the hall, and took photos and videos.

If you see adults in photographs dressed as Ded Moroz (Santa Claus) or Snegurochka, they are not actors. They are the children’s parents. The same orphans who today create Christmas for their sons and daughters. We were simply there—bringing gifts, helping with the organization, and supporting them. But the celebration itself was their own doing. And in this we see the fulfillment of the principle of discipleship: first we do it, and they watch, then we do it together, and now they do it themselves, and we are there, praying and instructing.

As it is written: The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also (2 Tim. 2:2).

We also want to share a few quotes from the graduates themselves. One graduate told us: “I’ve never organized a celebration for a child in my life. I always had it done—at the orphanage. But today I’m doing it myself. And for the first time, I feel like a mother.”

One young man shared: “When I learned that God is my Father, I realized I could be a father to my child.”

And we remembered the words: He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers (Mal. 4:6a).

Besides providing spiritual and emotional support, we also help these families learn trades, acquire skills, and earn income so they can provide for their children and avoid returning to the pattern of abandonment.

This ministry is special for us. Because these people could have lived differently. But they choose the path of responsibility, faith, and family. We believe: if an orphan comes to know their Heavenly Father, they can become a good earthly father or mother.

Please pray with us:

—that the children of these families will never become orphans
—that a new DNA of love and faith will take root in their homes
—that the faith accepted by the parents will be passed on to their children

Thank you for your prayers, support, and faithfulness! You are part of this story! Stories where God restores a family line, and orphans become a family. With deep gratitude from the entire ministry team! Blessed!