 IT ALL STARTED IN 2005
It all started in 2005 on seemingly innocent three-week missions trip to Siberia. Gary & Pam Amstutz visited a series of orphanages in two regions of Russia, and they began to hear the statistics of the children. No longer were the statistics just sad pictures in a magazine or on television...the statistics were real children, with real faces, real pain, and real stories to tell. Little did they know at the time, but God was using the story of one 14 year old girl named Yana to completely change their lives forever. Yana was a beautiful blond headed girl who had been discarded by her family after her mother died just months earlier in '05. She was one of the many stories that would just not leave Gary & Pam alone after they returned to America. This became the birthing ground for Reflections of Hope...the hope of reflecting the love of Jesus Christ to the abandoned, hurting, and forgotten children of Russia. Less than one year after their first trip to Siberia,Reflections of Hope was founded to make a difference in the lives of the very children they visited.
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WHO WE ARE
 Reflections of Hope is an interdenominational missionary sending organization led by Gary and Pam Amstutz. Our primary focus is reaching the forgotten orphans of the Russian Federation with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are developing relationships in the orphanages with the children, counselors, and directors, and we are also connecting with the graduated orphans who currently live in the dormitories. Through these relationships, we are able to reach these children through a transitional home and outreach center, giving them the hope that can only be found in Jesus.
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The role and outreaches of Reflections of Hope are constantly growing. We have an expanding transitional home for girls established in Chita, Siberia, Russia, and we have a heart to enable the Russian people to reach their own children. We are working with orphaned children and young adults-sharing the love and precious Gospel of Jesus Christ with every tribe, tongue, people and nation.
CAN WE REALLY MAKE A DIFFERENCE?
OUR VISION
Our vision is to help every orphaned child who wants help by giving them a loving Christian-family environment. In these surroundings they will not only learn to know God, but they will develop leadership skills, self-confidence, and the skills they need for life. We want to provide a place to nurture their God-given desires and talents so that they may be equipped for a lifestyle of reaching out to others.
SHORT AND MID-RANGE VISION
To have a large transitional home in Chita, Siberia, Russia, that will allow us to take not only girls, but both boys and girls. To start working with younger kids, teaching them the above lessons BEFORE they are older and set in their ways. To have outreach ministries developed and run by the kids; multiplication. Our focus is on the kids while the kids' focus is on others. To work intimately with orphanage directors and care givers, teaching them to help the children beyond just providing for their practical physical needs, and through these relationships, the directors themselves will give us the children when they graduate the orphanage.
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The heart of Reflections of Hope is to impact the orphaned children of Russia with the love of Jesus. The term orphan refers to a broader group of children than just those who do not have parents; it also refers to the children who are a product of the governmental orphanage system. Many do indeed have parents or family alive, but they come from alcoholic, abusive, or drug-abusive families. Many have been in the orphanage system since they were very young, and they have been taught to have an orphan mentality-no love, no hope, no dreams, no aspirations.
What ever happened to Yana? Gary & Pam found her again in 2008, 17 years old and pregnant with her daughter, Marina, who was born early in 2009. Yana graduated an orphanage in Chita, Siberia, Russia in 2007. Of the 15 children who left the orphanage in Yana's graduating class, she is literally the only one who is not either in prison or involved in prostitution...statistics so dramatic that they are difficult to believe...14 of the 15 graduates are either in prison or in prostitution.
How does the story end? Whose story will be next? Without outside intervention, the next story will just be another statistic...but these statistics are no longer just statistics, these statistics have become real children, with real faces, real pain, and real stories to tell...but that real story that will never be told. Only Jesus can truly change the storyline, will you help us?
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