“Even If I Die, Let It Be In Ministry.”
Artem grew up in a Christian home, preaching by age 12, but living a double life. It wasn’t until he was 15, after a night out and a quiet rebuke from his father, that the Holy Spirit pierced his heart. That night, he repented. “All the pieces fell into place,” he says. A year later, he was baptized, and by 18, he was leading youth ministry. He married Alla at 19, and they now have two children, with a third on the way.
When war broke out, Alla and the kids fled to Germany. Artem stayed behind. “I thought, if I die, let it be in ministry,” he recalls. At the time, he had a secure job and a tempting offer for advancement. But a seminary invitation and a challenge to plant a new church shifted his path. “I felt the Lord calling me to something more,” he says. “It was a choice to chase stability or follow Christ.” With his wife’s blessing, he chose the latter.
What began as a small gathering of “10 grandmas and two young guys” grew into a steady Gospel outpost. They opened their doors to teens with board games, electricity, and honest conversations.
Soon, people like Vlad, a questioning teen whose father serves in the military and Olya, a displaced woman from Melitopol, were being baptized. A skeptical 17-year-old from Kherson, brought by his mother, now wants to follow Christ too.
“People ask where God is in this war. But I know He’s here,” Artem says.
“Even in discouragement, even when church attendance drops, even when I wake up anxious from the sound of explosions, He meets me in the Word, in the quiet, in my weakness.”
The church Artem planted during war is slowly growing, not because of strategy, but because of faithfulness. “We are doing what we should be doing, even if it’s just washing toilets for God’s glory,” he says.
For Artem, every sleepless night, every small group, every soul saved, is worth it. Because the truth is unshakable: Christ is with us. And He is building His Church.
Odesa, Ukraine
Missionary Pastor Ministry