In the Footsteps of First-Gen Missionaries, Teens Minister in Eastern Europe
Photos by Tom Price unless otherwise indicated
Using a mobile translating app on his phone, CCOB youth co-leader Vinny Fernandez gives Vanya some pointers on the game of soccer.
Giovanna Spinosi typed the words she had heard so many times before–Jesus loves you–into the online translator. The 18-year-old, who has been attending Calvary Chapel Old Bridge (CCOB) in Old Bridge, NJ, all her life, had never been on a mission trip before. But by the end of July 2023, she found herself standing in a foster home in Ukraine, where CCOB’s youth group had traveled as part of a 10-day mission trip to Hungary and Ukraine.
It was at the foster home that Giovanna became friends with two sisters. As they were spending time together and making friendship bracelets, she began to share God’s Word with them using Google Translate, as she couldn’t communicate with them in English. “I was speaking to the older sister, and I [typed], ‘Jesus loves you.’ And she was like, ‘Yeah, Jesus loves me,’” Giovanna recalled. Shortly after, the younger sister began making bracelets that read: Jesus Loves You.
Two Ukrainian orphans, Eva (left) and Sonya (right), enjoy outdoor activities with youth from Calvary Chapel Old Bridge (CCOB) during their 10-day mission trip to Ukraine and Hungary. Using an online translator, the CCOB teens were able to communicate the Gospel to them.
“It was just so cool to see them recognize that, regardless of a language barrier,” Giovanna said. “You see the way God touches these people’s hearts.”
CCOB Pastor Lloyd Pulley’s grandson, Riley Panariello (left), and Elijah Irizarry (second from left) engage with Vanya, a young Ukrainian orphan, while Joseph Henry (back center) entertains Vanya’s younger brother. For many of the CCOB high schoolers, this was their first mission trip.
Along with Giovanna, 13 other youth group members and 7 adult chaperones went on CCOB’s trip to Eastern Europe, which ran from July 23 through August 1. The trip itinerary was jam-packed with opportunities to minister: volunteering at a Christian summer camp run by a Calvary Chapel in downtown Budapest, evangelizing on the streets of Hungary, bringing food to Hungary’s Ukrainian refugees, and visiting the foster home in Ukraine. As the first mission trip for many of the teenagers, the trip was a unique opportunity for them to share with children on the other side of the world—and to see how God would use each traveler’s specific gifts to minister to others.
Vinny Fernandez (center) plays Frisbee with Vanya. George Markey, Jr., (left), pastor and missionary to Ukraine and Hungary, and CCOB youth Olivia Martine (second from left) oversee activities for the other children of the orphanage.
“I love talking to people, especially kids. I feel like I connect really well,” Giovanna described. Not only did she establish many friendships with those in Hungary and Ukraine, but she also still keeps in touch with one of the girls she met and ministered to in Hungary. “We text at least once a week. She’ll tell me what she’s reading in her Bible, and I’ll do the same.”
Excited Vanya holds tightly onto Riley after enjoying some outdoor activities. Conversing in the background are George Markey, Jr., and Sarah Walker, a U.S. missionary residing in Ukraine and serving at the orphanage. Despite the language barriers, the Ukrainian children understood the love of Jesus through the joyful hearts of the CCOB teens.
Elijah Irizarry, 18, who also went on the trip, likewise reflected on the way God worked through each member of the group. “I saw God using us for different scenarios,” he said. “I actually got to share the Gospel with one of the kids because I had taken Russian for school last year. So I was able to communicate bits and pieces with him, and he understood me, and he was just so happy. And I was like, ‘This is why God called me to go on this trip.’”
George Jr., with his wife, Sharon (left), shares his experience as a missionary to Ukraine over the past 30 years with the CCOB high school team. Sharon has served alongside her husband for the past 19 years before the Markeys evacuated to Hungary at the start of the Russian invasion into Ukraine.
A New Generation Joins the Work
The July mission trip was a continuation of Calvary Old Bridge’s ongoing support of Eastern Europe, and for Hungary specifically, explained Senior Pastor Lloyd Pulley. “We've had a long relationship with Hungary. Speaking at the church last year in Budapest, I ran into people I knew from 30 years ago who are out there doing ministry and remember our coming,” he said. “It just felt like family to us, so I want to keep that relationship going with many of our brothers and sisters in Hungary.”
Part of the CCOB youth team—(left to right) Giovanna Spinosi, Ella Maltese, Abigail Manaquis, Phoebe Orsag, and Madisson Garcia—listen attentively as the Markeys encourage the next generation of missionaries.
The trip would be the youth group’s first since the pandemic hit. Youth leader Vinny Fernandez, who led the trip, knew that the high schoolers would be excited when he first announced the trip and that applicants would be chosen on a first-come, first-served basis. But he hadn’t quite anticipated just how much enthusiasm there would be.
Giovanna and Olivia affectionately caress Sonya’s furry companion—a canine icebreaker that overcomes barriers to connections and smiles.
“The Sunday when all the kids had to bring in their applications, [they] were waiting outside,” Vinny recounted. “The church doesn’t open until 6:00 a.m. We had four or five boys waiting outside the door at 5:30. They’ve got the lawn chairs, waiting outside the door to put their applications in. So, the kids were really excited.” Because of that, he expanded the trip from what originally would have been 16 people to 21, he added.
Madisson participates in a lively volleyball game with Vanya (center) and Eva (right).
Months after applications were submitted and approved, the group members found themselves arriving in Hungary, where they got to work the very day they arrived. The trip primarily consisted of evangelism, outreach opportunities, and Sunday and midweek service at the Calvary Chapel in Budapest. In addition to the church services, the group regularly met for devotionals and worship in a room at the hostel they were staying at, Elijah recalled.
Eva practices her face painting skills, applying the blue and gold colors of Ukraine on Giovanna’s cheek.
“Every morning, we would go into this one room and just worship, and no one would stop us,” he said. “We even had another person come to us who wasn’t part of our group, and they came and just sat with us and worshipped with us. It was so encouraging to see that.”
Not to be left out, Madisson steps up next to test Eva’s newfound artistic skills.
Reaching the Children of War-Torn Ukraine
Those on the trip met some of the missionaries whom the church is connected to, including George Markey, Jr., and Sarah Walker, who have been serving in Hungary and Ukraine, respectively. With George, some of the teenagers evangelized and provided food for those in Hungary, while those who worked with Sarah spent two days at the foster home in Ukraine.
Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. James 1:27
Olivia shows Sonya how to make “Jesus Loves Me” friendship bracelets.
These experiences, said Vinny, were an opportunity for the teenagers to learn from the missionaries while also learning how they can support them. “Sarah asked us to go out to breakfast with her, and all she wanted to do was pray and sit down with some Americans she felt, really, a relation to,” Vinny said. “The kids were just so impacted by her heart for ministry. The Word of God says that true religion is to take care of orphans and take care of widows. And she was living that out, day by day.”
Madisson Garcia (top left) and three CCOB teens: Joseph Henry (top right), Riley Panariello (middle right), and Olivia Martin (front right) play volleyball with Ukrainian orphans. Madisson co-led the CCOB youth team while in Ukraine.
Looking back on the experiences in Hungary and Ukraine—from sharing the Word with others over lunch to playing lively soccer games with the kids—Elijah said he is reminded of a passage, 1 Timothy 4:12, he read before leaving for the trip. Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.
“I was reading in First Timothy, where Paul’s telling Timothy that the Lord can use you, no matter what your age is,” Elijah remembered. “That was kind of my mentality I had going through the trip, and I saw God move through me. A few of the kids came from struggling homes. [At] the adoption center over in Ukraine, the kids were split up from their families because of the war. Their faces lit up because they had someone to play with. We made that our goal, to communicate through our actions how Jesus changed us.”
The CCOB Hungary mission team stands on Liberty Bridge, which spans the Danube River in Budapest, Hungary, connecting Buda, the western part of the capital, to Pest on the eastern side. [ Photo by Danny Ortega ]
Giovanna agreed, “God used our youth, in a sense, to reach these people. We were able to connect with these kids and through that, connect with their parents. It was just so unique to reach people that age.”
Learn more about Calvary Chapel Old Bridge at ccob.org
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