Melinda Cathey,
Co-Founder of The Harbor
and Executive Director

Since 1992, Melinda Cathey has resided in St. Petersburg, Russia with her husband, Mark, and their three children. Prior to Russia, Melinda practiced individual, family, and marriage counseling in a variety of settings, including a community counseling center, Willow Creek Community Church and a private practice. Her caseload included victims of incest, depression, adult children of alcoholics, addictions of all kinds and numerous family and marital issues.

Melinda's journey to The Harbor began in 1997 when she met Alex Krutov, a graduate orphan. Her first trip to an orphanage was with Alex to visit where he was raised. There, Melinda's heart was deeply moved by the children that she met…their stories, and their needs. This stirring launched Melinda into orphanage visitations, seeking ways in which to help.

Increasingly evident was the huge gap in the orphan-care system. Human and material resources were flooding in from the West, but statistics remained unchanged, or worsened. An orphan leaving the orphanage had a 90-95% chance of ending up in prostitution, drugs, crime, jail, joining the other 40,000 street-children, or dead within the first 5 years. Something was terribly wrong! Several orphanage directors tried to convince Melinda and Alex that nothing could be done to change this dire situation.

Moved by compassion, the Lord's mandate to love the orphan and a solid conviction impressed upon them to turn the tide, Melinda and Alex birthed the vision of The Harbor in St. Petersburg. Their desire was to create a family atmosphere, where graduate orphans could come to live and learn the skills necessary for successful integration into society. These skills include the life skills of cooking, sewing, house management, budgeting, banking, computer skills, time management, educational and vocational skills, family and parenting skills, social and relational skills. Counseling is given to work through the many scars and wounds that life has already dealt these children. Medical and hygiene issues are also addressed. Biblical teaching on a daily basis rounds out their education.

All of these skills are modeled and taught by loving Christian caretakers who believe in the dignity, worth, and potential of these orphans and who pass this belief on to the kids in both word and deed. Thus, their dream becomes a reality. Come and be a part!