Hi my name is Vlad and I would like to share with you a little bit about myself and my family. ☺️ My official name is Volodymyr but friends call me Vlad (so you can call me Vlad, as we are friends now 😁). I am married to a wonderful woman named Angélica. We are both originally from Ukraine, but moved to Portugal during our teenage years. We met each other at a Christian event and then married in 2014.

Vlad’s Testimony: I came from a non-Christian family, and grew up as an atheist. My worldview was very similar to what most teenagers are taught in school; that God is an old idea, and science is the ultimate truth that can answer anything. That was my life throughout all my teenage years until 18 when I was invited to church and was exposed to the true Gospel about Jesus Christ. It didn’t take long for me and I made a life changing decision to accept Jesus Christ.

Ministry Calling: I was a new believer and so happy to be walking with Jesus. I had no idea about other churches and denominations, or about any missionary organization. I just knew God himself. On one of my normal walks from home to church, as I was passing through a secondary school, I saw a crowd of kids leaving school after classes. God spoke to me for the first time so clearly with 3 questions:

“How many of these kids do you think have heard the Gospel, like you have heard?”

“How many of them know Jesus?”

“How many by the end of their lives, will hear the Gospel and know Jesus personally?”

I knew that the chances of them hearing the Gospel were very low, because Christians represent less than 1% of the Portuguese population.

At that moment God said to my heart “You will be the one who I will send to the schools to preach the Gospel.”

That doesn’t happen everyday to me, and to be honest, I was scared because I didn’t know what God wanted me to do, and I didn’t think I was the right person for that. But after some time of resistance I said to the Lord, “God, I have literally no idea what you want me to do, or how, when, and where… but here I am. Use me how you want and let your will be done in me.”

And after some months of silence I finally heard about the High School ministry of Cru in Porto. I was really happy and started to get involved as a student, then as a volunteer. In 2015 I joined full-time staff to work with high school students. Angélica had a calling in 2017 and left her well paid full- time job to join full- time ministry in 2018. In 2020 our family received a great gift from God, our sweet daughter Emma.

We are excited to be serving God as He called us, and by God’s grace and provision, the ministry is growing and bringing non-believing students into a relationship with Jesus!

MINISTRY