The house of a pastor in the Donetsk region of Eastern Ukraine was destroyed by a February 15 rocket strike, but the church building attached to the house remained intact and the pastor and his family are safe and eager to continue their ministry, reports Voice of the Martyrs Korea.

According to Voice of the Martyrs Korea Representative Dr. Hyun Sook Foley, the home of the pastor of the ECB (Registered Baptist) church in Selidovo, Vladimir Semenov, was destroyed on the night of February 15 as a result of a rocket attack by the Russian Armed Forces. “Pastor Semenov and his family were spending the night away from home that night, so they were unharmed, though they lost all of their worldly goods,” says Representative Foley. “The church building—or house of prayer, as they call it—which is separated from the pastor’s home by a long, thick brick wall, remained intact except for a few broken windows and a burned-out electrical meter and wiring. The windows were covered with boards by members of the congregation, and the church’s meetings have continued on as normal.”

“February 15 is my next birthday,” Pastor Semenov told the ECB Telegram Channel. “I thought of staying in the house, the whole family went to the [daughter’s] apartment. But my grandson, 4 years old, came up and said: ‘Grandfather, I won’t go without you.’ Well, looking at him I said: ‘I’ll go with you.’ At night we heard explosions. Then at 2 am they called me and said that our home was hit by a shell, and it was burning. I quickly arrived. Our concrete house, 150 square meters, was completely destroyed. If we had been there, no chance to survive.”

Pastor Semenov and his brother remained in their home region, the Pokrovsk district of the Donetsk region where Selidovo is located, despite the outbreak of hostilities there. After relocating for a brief time to the Chernivtsi region last year to stay with relatives, Pastor Semenov and his family returned to the Pokrovsk district to resume their ministry there.  “The city administration warned us that we were also ‘marked’,” Pastor Semenov told the ECB Telegram Channel. “We lived under such fear that one day a shell could fly.”

“Despite being warned by the city administration that they were targeted, they have continued to serve in the front-line zone—leading the church, doing a rehabilitation center, visiting places where small groups of Christians gather, evangelizing, delivering humanitarian aid, and generally serving wherever needed,” says Representative Foley, whose Voice of the Martyrs Korea ministry supports Semenov with funds for fuel and repairs. “They have to drive on broken roads strewn with shell fragments.”

Now Voice of the Martyrs is sending funds to help Pastor Semenov’s family to recover from the rocket that hit their own home and for Pastor Semenov to continue with his outreach ministry. “All their clothes and household belongings were destroyed in the fire, so all Pastor Semenov has is the track suit he was wearing when he spent the night outside of his home,” says Representative Foley. She says the church does not intend to do major repairs because of the ongoing war, though funds are needed to replace the electrical box and some of the wiring, as well as the windows.

Pastor Semenov and his wife are now staying with their daughter, with no plans to leave Selidovo or to curtail their ministry, according to Representative Foley.

“I am not a large-scale person, I do not see the whole world,” Pastor Semenov told the ECB Telegram channel. “But I see the patch that Christ gave me. This is Selidovo. Today, our main task is not to lose a single day in order to preach the gospel.”

Those who are interested in helping Pastor Semenov and other Christians in Ukraine who are continuing their gospel ministries despite the war can donate to Voice of the Martyrs Korea’s Ukraine emergency fund at www.vomkorea.com/en/donation or via electronic transfer to:

국민은행 (KB Bank) 463501-01-243303

예금주 (Account Holder): (사)순교자의소리

Please include the word “Ukraine” with the donation.