Svyatoslav & Khrystya Garvas

Svyatoslav (Syava) has lived in Lviv, Ukraine all his life. He came to know Christ through a youth program at New Life church. Almost immediately after, he began to serve in the youth ministry, where he met his future wife. He has been a youth pastor since 2005. In 2018, New Life Church held a joint camp with Josiah Venture (JV). From that time on, he began serving with JV using outdoor camps to help churches reach youth. In 2014, Syava began serving by equipping youth pastors and their teams through discipleship training. Currently, Syava leads a one-year JV training program for youth pastors and their teams focused on the life and ministry of Jesus. There is no other program like this in Ukraine, where the whole team learns and forms a strategy for youth ministry together over the course of a year. Over the past three years, 18 churches from different parts of Ukraine have completed the program. It is already apparent how God is changing their ministry, and it is becoming more fruitful. At the moment, 14 churches are studying in this program.

At the beginning of the full-scale war, Khrystya and Syava were forced to serve in different countries. Khrystya, with their little daughter Kvitka, served with JV and partner churches in the Czech Republic and was involved in helping refugees from Ukraine who were forced to leave due to the war. Syava served in Ukraine helping with the distribution of humanitarian aid with their partner churches. Now they are together again in Ukraine and serve in the local church Ekklesia, which Syava became the pastor of in September 2022. Khrystya is involved in youth ministry, has personal discipleship meetings with girls and also helps with JV girls ministry.

We believe God is clearly working in Ukraine and it is a great privilege to be a part of his movement here.