Mykola & Anna Semenov

Sophia, Arina

Mykola came to Christ at age 14 in eastern Ukraine. He started to serve his church in the children's ministry and that developed into doing youth ministry. Later, he became a deacon in his church and also led the family ministry with his wife Anna. Until 2014, Mykola and Anna, with their two daughters, lived and served in the east; however, everything changed when war invaded Ukraine. Their family was forced to leave because of Russian occupation of their city. Until March 2015, their family remained as far east as possible, ministering in the war zone by helping people who were suffering from the eastern Ukraine conflict. Later, they moved to western Ukraine, where they joined a team that was organizing a new church. Nonetheless, their hearts were still breaking over all that had happened in their homeland. They decided to begin a ministry in the west that serves internal refugees who had moved west. They also continued traveling back to eastern Ukraine, supporting churches and individuals who have stayed there.

In 2015, Mykola was introduced to the ministry of Josiah Venture (JV), and began to get a vision for youth ministry in the east. At the beginning of 2018, he was invited to join JV and develop a model of youth ministry in the very needy zone of far eastern Ukraine. Anna leads the women’s ministry in their local church. Together, Anna and Mykola also conduct premarital counseling for couples who want to get married. Since the first days of the war, they have actively been serving refugees in their city of Ternopil. Their family’s experience of fleeing the war in 2014 helped them to quickly find their way in February 2022. Along with a team from their church, they helped organize a shelter for refugees. Everyday they feed refugees, give them a place to stay, and distribute grocery bags—around 2,500 grocery bags per month. During the first five months of the war, they were able to help more than 10,000 refugees in Ternopil! Praise God for this!