Back in 1992, two faithful ministers from abroad came to the Ukraine because they were keen to share the Good News about Jesus with the young people of Ukraine.
To do this, Jean-Jacques Weiler (then European director of Youth for Christ) and Bob Tanner, together with Pavlo Khrapak organized the first conference – a training event for 200 people who wanted to serve youth. A year later, they came back and had another conference for 180 participants. They carefully looked at the leaders and sought those chosen by God to start the movement of Youth for Christ in Ukraine.
The first leader selected for Youth for Christ ministry in Ukraine was an energetic young man from Khmelnytsky: Andriy Kostyshyn. Andriy graduated from the Christian College of St. James, and in 1995 registered the organisation “Youth for Christ” in Ukraine.
So, on 21 November 2015, Youth for Christ Ukraine gathered friends to celebrate its 20th anniversary. And there is much to celebrate. Over the years, Youth for Christ brought up a whole generation of youth ministers in the Ukraine, and equipped them with a good variety of resources. More than a hundred camps were run by the Youth for Christ team. YFC has been working with more than a thousand churches. Projects have involved hundreds of thousands of young people. Around 200 Day Care Centres have been established.
The celebration gathered former employees and volunteers of YFC Ukraine, many friends and partners from YFC around the world: amazing long-standing ministry partners from Northern Ireland John Duncan, John Campbell, Malcolm Jonhston, Paul Gilmore, coordinator of YFC ministry in Eastern Europe Mikhail Kornev and Vladimir Zuev, director for YFC Moscow. It was a great honor to receive video greetings from the president of YFC International Geordon Randle and Edward de Kam, director for YFC EMENA region.
The evening ended with a prayer of consecration of the new director of Youth for Christ in Ukraine, and the transfer of position from Andriy Kostyshyn to Oleksandr Dubinin, who will lead the organisation forward.