She never knew her father.

Her mother was gone while she was still young, and the years that followed were marked by instability, four different foster homes, four different places to land, and no clear picture of what love was supposed to feel like.

So when Tanya became a mother herself, she wasn’t building from memory.

She was building from longing.

How do you give your children something you’ve never received?

Years ago, during a difficult season in her life, Tanya began attending gatherings for young mothers connected to Last Bell. She came because she needed support, needed someone to talk to, needed connection.

What she found was something different.

People who showed up.

People who noticed.

People who helped, even before she asked.

People who loved without expecting anything in return.

Later, when her life reached a breaking point, they welcomed her into the Shelter.

There, for the first time, she experienced consistency.

Care.

Presence.

For a young woman who had grown up without stable love, that kind of environment was not small.

It was transformative.

When Tanya describes Last Bell, she says they are people who serve others with God’s love, without expecting anything in return.

And that is where her story takes a deeper turn.

Because Tanya shared something that stopped me.

She said the reason she was finally able to open her heart to the love of Jesus was because she had already experienced that same kind of unconditional love for years through the people of Last Bell.

They didn’t just tell her about God.

They showed her what He is like.

Their consistency made it believable.

Their care made it real.

Their love opened her heart.

Then the war came.

Tanya was living in Zhytomyr when everything changed. With the help of Last Bell, she fled to Romania with her child. That decision also became her way out of an unhealthy relationship.

She describes that season simply.

“When there is too much stress, my emotions go to zero.”

There was no space to process.

Only space to survive.

But the story did not end there.

After returning and living in the Shelter, Tanya came to a moment she will never forget.

Not in a church.

Not in front of others.

Not in a public setting.

Alone.

At night.

In her room.

She cried for hours.

“It felt like I had carried something heavy for so long, and suddenly it was gone.”

The love she had seen in others became personal.

Not just something she observed.

Something she received.

That night, Tanya gave her life to Christ.

And everything began to change.

Today, she is raising her sons with love, communication, and intentional care, choosing to give them what she never had.

“I had a bad example,” she said. “So I chose to give my children what I never had.”

And now, she stands in a place she once never imagined.

Not as someone in need of help, but as someone leading.

Through the Young Moms ministry, she walks alongside women facing the same struggles she once lived through, offering them the same love that once opened her own heart.

Because sometimes the clearest picture of God’s love…

is not first something we hear.

It is something we experience.

About Last Bell Ministries

During my time in Zhytomyr, I didn’t just observe the work of Last Bell, I experienced it, in the laughter of young people gathered together, in quiet conversations filled with honesty, and in the steady presence of a community that feels like family.

During so many of the one to two hour interviews I conducted, I often asked a simple question, “If you could describe Last Bell in one word, what would it be?” After careful reflection, the most common answer was the same, family.

In Ukraine, the “Last Bell” marks a student’s transition into adult life. For orphanage graduates, it can be a moment of deep uncertainty. Last Bell Ministries meets them there, providing housing, mentorship, and community, helping turn a vulnerable ending into a hopeful new beginning.

I’ve seen firsthand how this kind of support changes lives, walking with young men and women through some of their hardest moments and helping them move from survival toward stability, healing, and belonging.

If you’d like to learn more about Last Bell or be part of this work, visit lastbell.org.

About Capturing Grace
Discover the story behind Capturing Grace and how my daughter Christina’s life continues to inspire this work at capturinggrace.org/about-us.