TRANSFORMATION STORIES · UZHHOROD, UKRAINE

Healing Travels Far When Jesus Is the One Sending It

A family fled Bucha with their lives and nothing else. Through the faithfulness of your prayers and generosity, what they carried out of that city is now reaching displaced families across western Ukraine — fifty leaders at a time.

No one chooses refuge. Marina and Sasha Masiuk left Bucha ahead of the advancing Russian troops in February 2022, carrying what they could and trusting God with everything they couldn’t. They had no idea that Jesus was not just leading them to safety — He was positioning them for one of the most unexpected chapters of their ministry.

More than a decade earlier, our team had the privilege of walking alongside their church’s youth leadership. Sasha became one of our Eagle Leaders — a coach of coaches in youth ministry. That investment of time and relationship was ordinary at the time. Only God could see what it would mean in 2022, when our Transform Uzhhorod Alliance partners at Nehemiah received this family with open arms, giving them a ministry to serve others.

“It was a privilege to provide them a safe haven in those early days of the war — and Jesus, in His generosity, gave them to us as a gift.”

While in Uzhhorod, Sasha preached and Marina led worship at our Alliance partner Church of the Living God. Two faithful servants, far from their home and their congregation, still pouring out — because that is who Jesus had made them. Nehemiah hired Marina through a UN trauma counseling program, placing her skills exactly where they were needed most: alongside displaced families carrying wounds the eye cannot see.

Sasha joined the Ukrainian army and was assigned to protect critical infrastructure in our region. When his service ended and Bucha was liberated, they returned home. One Collective had connected their church with a sister congregation in America to walk with them through rebuilding. Piece by piece, God put things back together.

And Marina kept going further. She began traveling across Ukraine, training churches in trauma counseling for war victims — equipping the body of Christ to be the first responders to broken hearts. When she held a conference at Church of the Living God, the impact was so visible, so clearly anointed, that we knew it needed to reach more people.

What Your Prayers and Giving Made Possible

50 ministry leaders equipped to bring trauma counseling to displaced families

10+ years of relationship that made this moment possible

1 God who wastes nothing — not even war, not even grief

So, Marina came back. Fifty ministry leaders from across our Transform Uzhhorod Alliance gathered — pastors, counselors, church workers who are already on the front lines with displaced families. They came not merely to learn, but to be equipped as multipliers. Every skill Marina placed in their hands will now travel with them into the homes, shelters, and meeting rooms where wounded people are waiting. The room held fifty. The reach is far greater.

None of this happened because of us. It happened because you prayed. Because you gave. Because a decade ago someone discipled a young couple in Kyiv, and because God, who sees the end from the beginning, was quietly weaving a story none of us could have written. Bucha was not the end of Marina and Sasha’s story. It was the doorway Jesus used to multiply their calling.

To every prayer partner who has held Ukraine before the throne — this is an answer to your prayers. To every financial donor who has trusted us with your resources — you were in that room. And your investment didn’t stop there. Those fifty leaders walked out the door and back into the lives of displaced families who are still living in the wreckage of war. The healing you helped fund is still moving. All glory belongs to Jesus, the one who redeems, restores, and sends — and who multiplies every loaf and fish we place in His hands.

He makes all things beautiful in their time. Even the things that break our hearts first.