Hundreds of thousands of Russian children have been abandoned by their families, the church, and society and placed in orphanages. Millions more live on the streets of Russia's cities, without hope of a future. God has sent us, Tim and Carre Gardner, to the city of Krasnodar, Russia to bring these children help and hope, though the good news of Jesus Christ.

Our Heart

An Armful of Orphans. Pavel and Vika were my constant companions in this room. It was hard to leave them behind when it was time to go. Three years later, I still think of them often, wondering what became of them since the day we played together at the orphanage in Moscow.

Our heart is for the millions of parentless Russian children. Many live in orphanages while others try to survive on the streets. Their lives are dangerous and uncertain.

• Orphans live loveless and hopeless lives. By age 18, 1 in 10 will commit suicide.
• Street children beg, steal, and prostitute themselves every day, just to stay alive.
• The life expectancy of a street child is 15 years.
• Street children and orphans are easy marks for the sex-slave trade. Russia is one of the largest suppliers of child pornography available on the internet today.

Our Vision

To reach Russian orphans and street children with the Gospel of hope in Jesus Christ by:

• Discipling the children into mature saints by teaching them Biblical truths on a weekly basis. Working with local evangelical churches to provide this teaching.
• Providing for their material needs: food, clothing, basic medical care.
• Teaching them life skills necessary to live honest productive lives. They need training in hygiene, nutrition, cooking, money management, decision making, and job skills, in order to succeed when they leave the orphanage. Often orphanages do not teach these basic skills.

Who We Are

We are ordinary people, who came from families and churches that loved and supported missions. We met in 1992, during a missions prayer meeting at Cedarville College. The Iron Curtain had just come down and for the first time in decades, missionaries were being allowed into Russia.

If God allowed it, we decided we would take the Gospel to Russia someday. Carre finished her BSN in nursing at Cedarville College in 1993. Tim graduated in 1995 with a BS in mathematics. In 1993, we married and now have three children: Sarah, Miles, and Mark. Before becoming full-time missionaries, Tim worked as police detective and Carre as a nurse.

In 2003, it became clear that God was calling us to the mission field to work with orphans and children at risk. In April 2004, WorldVenture facilitated a vision trip to Moscow for us. We wanted to see firsthand the needs of Russian orphans and to find out what potential there was for us to serve there. We came home certain that God was calling us to work in Russia.Since World Venture does not presently work with children at risk in Russia, we will be building our ministry from the ground up. We will need your prayers as we train for and learn more about how we can best help Russian children.

Our Partners

• World Venture, a mission agency characterized by integrity and longevity.

• Our sending church, First Baptist Church in Portland, Maine.

• Currently, 22 additional churches and more than 85 individuals and families share our heart and vision by joining us as financial partners.

• We are in communication with a network of ministries and organizations to see how we might work together to accomplish our common goals.