About Us

Our Mission: Loving and restoring orphanage graduates toward life and community. Our Vision: The end of the generational orphanage cycle in Zhytomyr, Ukraine.

Core Values & Behaviors

1. Healing Relationship

    a. We build safe and secure attachments to promote the healing process of orphanage graduates.
    b. We provide long-term, consistent, and reparative mentoring and discipleship relationships to inspire long-term transformation.
    c. We love boldly and build relational capital to influence our youth towards a life in Christ.
    d. All of our youth hear the gospel of Jesus Christ clearly presented in all of our programs, and staff are daily examples of Christ’s love.

    *1 Corinthians 13:4-7

2. Holistic Orphan Care

    a. We practice the good news of Jesus by caring for the whole person, including advocacy for their spiritual, emotional, physical and relational needs.
    b. We inspire youth to give back to their community while they also travel down their own healing path.
    c. We prayerfully intercede and provide very practical life skills so our youth have opportunities to thrive.

    *Colossians 3:23-24

3. Dynamic Community

    a. We work in partnership with our supporters; we are committed to transparency and good communication about ministry operations, prayer needs, and the stewardship of funds.
    b. We engage in deeper friendships and partnerships within the larger orphan care community.
    c. We work within the body of Christ to respond to God’s command to the Church to care for and bring justice to orphans.

    *Ephesians 4:16

Our Team

  • Andrey & Oksana Pankyeyev

    Andrey & Oksana Pankyeyev

    Andre and Oksana joined the Last Bell staff in 2007. As the Executive Director of Ukrainian Operations, Andrey oversees the ministry. He advocates for orphanage graduates alongside the staff, and works closely with the US board of directors, volunteers, and donors. He manages day-to-day activities in Zhytomyr. Oksana is the coordinator for Stop the Cycle, Last Bell’s program for orphan mothers and their children, and oversees the Shelter Crisis Housing facility. She has training in Biblical counseling. Andrey and Oksana have two children.

    Lena Voznyuk

    Lena Voznyuk

    After two years of volunteering, Lena joined the staff in 2014. She’s Last Bell’s liaison with city trade schools, opening more doors for our Educational Outreach team to reach orphanage graduates in Zhytomyr. In 2016 Lena graduated with a seminary degree in teaching courses on Christianity. Lena also has a university degree in psychology.
    Sergei & Anna Cherniy

    Sergei & Anna Cherniy

    Anna Cherniy has been with Last Bell since 2009. She started in the very practical role of caring for the babies of youth and staff during Last Bell programs and meetings. She now oversees the childcare needs of Shelter Crisis Housing, and is helping develop Last Bell’s fledgling daycare co-op. In 2015, Sergei left work as a public school teacher to supervise Last Bell’s new Restoration Project. Sergei and Anna have two children.
    Vasya & Luba Yaroshuk

    Vasya & Luba Yaroshuk

    Vasya and Luba joined the Last Bell staff in 2009. They mentor youth in our Educational Outreach program and help with young moms in our Stop the Cycle program. They volunteered every week in the orphanages prior to joining our staff. They continue to mentor orphanage graduates they met during those years. Vasya is currently studying law at a local university so he can pursue legal justice for orphans in Ukraine. Vasya and Luba have two children.
    Lena Andrusenko

    Lena Andrusenko

    Lena Andrusenko has been with Last Bell since 2009. She’s deeply involved in our Educational Outreach program, mentoring many young orphanage graduates. She also mentor and help young moms in our Stop the Cycle program. Lena and her husband Vitya, a Last Bell volunteer, have two young daughters.
    Yulia Nesterenko

    Yulia Nesterenko

    Yulia began as a volunteer, joining the staff in 2010. She’s the administrator of the Day Center, mentoring the young people who drop in and offering English lessons and other activities. She also mentors older orphanage graduates. Yulia is a worship leader at her church, and her husband Sasha is a Last Bell volunteer.
    Yulia Sagaidachna

    Yulia Sagaidachna

    Yulia Sagaidachna joined the Last Bell staff in 2017. Yulia is an orphanage graduate, nurse, and mother who contributed to Last Bell’s blog and now works with our moms at Shelter Crisis Housing. Yulia has taken all of Last Bell’s parenting classes, and volunteered for many years prior to coming on staff. Yulia and her husband have one daughter.
    Alexander Terehov

    Alexander Terehov

    Alexander Terehov began volunteering with Educational Outreach in 2017, and joined our staff in 2018. Many years ago he made weekly visits to the city orphanage. Prior to Last Bell he worked as an electrician. Music is important to him, and he gives guitar lessons to Last Bell’s teens.
    Anya Hrobust

    Anya Hrobust

    Anya joined the staff in 2018. Anya is an orphanage graduate who grew up in Last Bell’s community. She graduated from medical school in 2015 and began practicing medicine in 2017. Anya works part-time at our Shelter Crisis Housing facility.
  • Joel Austin

    Joel Austin

    Joel is a Business Analysis and Real Estate entrepreneur. He is passionate about the convergence of faith, economics, and technology. He has traveled the world with leaders from World Without Orphans, YWAM, and The 4-14 Movement to promote sustainable mission strategies like mission enterprising, local fundraising, and government partnerships, as well as social capital metrics and smart marketing practices. He is a husband and new father.
    Ed Gordon

    Ed Gordon

    Ed has been involved with Last Bell for over seven years. He served as a missionary in Vinnitsya, Ukraine, through YWAM, and is still involved with several churches and ministries in the country. His ministry focus is orphans and people with disabilities. Ed now resides in Colorado and operates a carpet and tile cleaning business that supports his ministry efforts.
    Ellen Jackson

    Ellen Jackson

    Ellen was formerly Last Bell’s Interim Executive Director, providing vision and direction while supervising both our American and our Ukrainian leadership. She first went to Ukraine in 1998 as a photographer. Over the years she went back to Ukraine several times and kept up with Last Bell Ministries as it developed. Ellen lives in Indianapolis with her husband and son.
    Don Lawton

    Don Lawton

    Don practices dentistry in Indianapolis and pastors a Russian-speaking church. He has served as Director of the organization Mission to Ukraine, and has been traveling to Ukraine since 1997.
    Irene Millikan

    Irene Millikan

    Irene spent 30 years in the corporate world at Boeing Airlines. In the mid 90’s she took her first missions trip to work in a camp ministry. She has been actively involved in camp ministry since then. She was a founding member of Last Bell and has been on the board since its inception. She lives in Seattle, WA.
    Dave Richter

    Dave Richter

    Dave has served on a number of boards in both ministry and in the private sector. His first trip to Ukraine included a tour of Last Bell’s Shelter facility. He has been working as a structural engineer in Indianapolis for the past 33 years. He brings his administrative and organizational experience to Last Bell’s board.
    Cari Alt

    Cari Alt

    We welcomed Cari Alt to the board in 2018. Cari has a deep passion for orphans, those in the adoption process, and families who have dealt with infertility and loss. Early childhood and family experiences, as well as the unique process of building a family with her husband Phil, have led her to volunteer for many organizations, including Crisis Pregnancy Centers and Wheeler Mission. She now brings this passion and enthusiasm to serve Last Bell’s vulnerable young people.
  • Megan Hershey

    Megan Hershey

    Megan became the Last Bell Director of US Operations in mid-2015, and transitioned to the role of Executive Director in 2018. She is the key conduit between the organization and its US friends. In her role as project manager, she develops relationships with partners, volunteers, and donors. In the ten years prior to joining Last Bell, she worked for Outreach, Inc., serving homeless youth in Indianapolis, IN. Her work experience includes social work case management, program design and implementation, and non-profit management. Megan lives in Indianapolis with her husband Nate and their two boys, Wesley and Joel.
    Emily Millikan

    Emily Millikan

    Emily is Last Bell’s Communications Liaison, writing and editing blogs and newsletters, and managing a variety of tasks involving communications, records, bookkeeping, and other administrative details. She began as a volunteer with Last Bell in 2006. Emily also works as a caregiver, writer, and freelance editor. She lives north of Boston.

  • Arkansas Valley Pregnancy Center

    The Ball Project

    Center for Family Connection, LLC

    Mission Increase Foundation

    Mission to Ukraine

    MOPS

    National Christian Foundation

    Voice Mail Value, Inc.

History

  • The founders of Last Bell Ministries began serving orphans in Ukraine in the mid 1990s as the Soviet Iron Curtain was lifting. They returned annually on short-term mission trips to conduct summer camps for orphanage kids. Relationships grew with the youth at Orphanage #4 in Zhytomyr, and a dream was born to provide long-term relationships and practical help to the vulnerable adolescents aging out of the orphanage system. Last Bell was incorporated in 2006.

  • In 2007, Last Bell’s original day center for orphans, The Shelter, was opened. The Haven followed in 2009. That same year, Last Bell became an official 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in the U.S.

  • In 2011, Last Bell opened the Support Center, which housed the many growing services for young people, including Stop the Cycle, Last Bell’s support program for orphan mothers, as well as counseling and legal services.

  • In 2012, Orphanage #4 closed, and the kids moved to institutions in the Zhytomyr region. As a result, Last Bell stepped up the timeline for the next phase of our vision: reaching out to trade schools in order to work with orphans in the whole Zhytomyr region.

  • In 2016, Last Bell introduced the Restoration Project, which combines renovated housing with job training. We also launched Educational Outreach, a program to reach and mentor Zhytomyr’s newest orphanage graduates at city trade schools.

  • Today, Last Bell serves over 350 young people through the work of fifteen Ukrainian staff, three U.S. staff, six board members, and hundreds of Last Bell friends!