Our plans are not always God’s plans. He sees the greater story! He crafts a story that displays His plans and purposes. SGA Storyteller Dominika tells us of a pastor who thought his ministry in Ukraine was the fulfillment of a pastor’s dreams. However, God saw more. His ways are higher than ours. When we are able to trust in His plan completely and follow in His ways, He gives us the amazing privilege of being part of His greater plan.
Mykola followed God’s leading. He allowed God to prepare his heart by ministering in small ways as he planted a new church in a new country. He had no idea what was to come, but God knew his future and the way that Mykola’s life would be a great testimony of His love and mercy. Being faithful in the small things—and the theological and pastoral training he received—brought Mykola to a place where he was able to show God’s love and compassion to many immigrants caught up in the horror of war. Today, Mykola is active in ministry and God’s glory is being revealed in the church that was planted with great purpose. Here is Mykola’s story as shared by Dominika .
I want to introduce you to the story of a missionary who leaves his secure life and a well-functioning ministry to move to a completely new place to preach the Gospel to people who have never heard it. You might think this is the story of someone who moved from the Western world to the countries of the Far-East or Africa. Nothing could be further from the truth. This is the story of a pastor who moved from Ukraine to Poland!
Mykola (Kola) is 58 years old, has been married to Oksana for over 34 years, and is the father of four sons—Bogdan, Philipp, Andrew, and Elijah. In 1990, Mykola and his newlywed wife came to Poland to study at one of the theological colleges. Their two oldest sons were born here, and after completing their education, the family returned to Ukraine.
Mykola became a youth pastor in a church in Kyiv, and after a few years, he became the senior pastor of a church with about 250 members in the country’s capital. For 20 years, Mykola and Oksana served this church, meanwhile founding other churches and training leaders, and Mykola even became the rector of a Bible school. It might seem like the fulfillment of any pastor’s dreams, but God had other plans for them.
In 2018, former colleagues from Mykola’s study days, Polish pastors, contacted him and invited him to start a church planting ministry in Bydgoszcz. Mykola, along with his wife and two younger sons, after a time of prayer and being convinced of God’s guidance, handed over their ministry in Ukraine to others and moved to another country and an unfamiliar city where they started a church planting ministry. Besides them, the founding group consisted of two women over 80 years old, a couple in their 50s, and two students. They began renting a place for services, preached the Gospel on the streets, and were faithful to God in the situation where they found themselves.
In the following months and years, more and more immigrants from Ukraine began to gather around Mykola. Although it was not a large group, about 20 people attended the services, God had His plan and was preparing them for something big in the future.
No one expected what came in 2022. On February 24, Russia invaded Ukraine. Millions of people, primarily women, and children, fled west to escape the war. Within a year of the war’s onset, about 12 million Ukrainian citizens crossed the Polish-Ukrainian border. Many moved on to other countries, but a few million remained in Poland. They were refugees who did not know the Polish culture or language. Many sought contact with evangelical churches and Ukrainian missionaries who could understand and help them. I am convinced that it was for this time that God brought to Poland this family, who are experienced in pastoral care and concern for other’s needs.
The fellowship led by Mykola began gathering about 100 Ukrainians at each service within a few weeks and helping another 100 people in various ways. The Poles whom Mykola had befriended in Bydgoszcz over the previous few years opened their homes to refugees and took them into their families.
More than two years have passed since then. From the work Mykola was involved in, a Polish church was established, in which he is now one of the elders, and the Ukrainian fellowship now gathers about 80 people every Sunday, has three Sunday school groups, and people regularly convert and are baptized. If it weren’t for the move a few years earlier and all the preparation that took place over the first four years, none of these things could have happened.
Isn’t God’s guidance and preparation for ministry in His Kingdom remarkable? Sometimes it takes years to understand why He leads us in such a way, but it is worth trusting Him. His ways are always the best!
