Born Behind the Iron Curtain

Christina was born in the shipbuilding city of Mykolaiv, Ukraine, during the final decades of the Soviet Union. Life in the 1980s USSR was tightly controlled—freedom of speech, religion, and travel were all restricted.

Her early childhood was spent in a small three-room apartment crammed with seven family members: her parents, grandparents, great-grandmother, and uncle. “It wasn’t three bedrooms,” she laughs, “it was three rooms total.” Privacy was nonexistent, but love and resourcefulness filled the space.

When her grandmother inherited a small house in central Ukraine, Christina moved there as a toddler. Life in Cherkasy was simpler but far from easy. There was no running water, no indoor plumbing, and no central heat. In the winter, water froze in the kitchen, and the outhouse sat at the far end of the garden.

Yet Christina remembers those days fondly. “When you’re a child, it’s a carefree time,” she says. “The acacias were blooming, and summers in the south of Ukraine were beautiful.”

A Soviet Education and a Forbidden Faith

Growing up in the Soviet Union meant growing up in a culture that officially denied God’s existence. Schools taught atheism as fact, and churches were either tightly monitored or shut down completely.

Christina’s first memory of religion came from her grandmother, who secretly took her to an Orthodox church and had her baptized—without telling her parents. “If my parents had known,” Christina explains, “they could have gotten in trouble at work.”

Her father, however, was always curious about the Bible. He had been raised by a Communist school principal and an elementary teacher—devoted party members who discouraged religion. But the very act of forbidding the Bible made him all the more interested.

For years, he searched for a copy until finally, an uncle found one—purchased through the underground black market. The family couldn’t openly own such a book, but that didn’t stop him. “He began reading it aloud to my brother and me every night before bed,” Christina recalls with a smile. “But he started in the book of Job! So that was my first introduction to the Bible—Job scraping his wounds with pottery. It put us to sleep pretty fast.”

Even if Christina didn’t understand much then, something began stirring in her father’s heart. The more he read, the more questions arose—questions that would eventually lead the family toward faith.

A Neighbor’s Invitation and the Birth of Hope

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the iron walls of fear began to crack. Suddenly, it was freedom to attend church and Bibles became available.

One day, Christina’s family discovered that their neighbors—who lived right across the stairwell—had secretly been believers all along. These neighbors invited the family to a Christmas outreach at a local Baptist church.

“At the end of that outreach,” Christina remembers, “the leaders invited everyone to come back the next Sunday for a Bible study. That was when my father realized—maybe this is where his questions could finally be answered.”

That simple invitation led the entire family to faith in Christ. Christina’s parents both repented on March 8, 1991—a day remembered in Ukraine as International Women’s Day, but for them, it became the day of new spiritual life. Christina followed soon after and was baptized in 1993.

Their church became what is now known as House of Gospel, a congregation still active today in Cherkasy. “When we visit, there are still a few people there who remember those early days,” Christina says. “That’s where our story of hope began.”

Learning English and a New Direction

As Ukraine opened to the West, foreign mission teams began visiting. Christina, eager to communicate with them, began learning English in school.

But formal classes only went so far. Her parents, though struggling financially, hired a private tutor—paying her $10 per month, the same amount her mother earned from babysitting a foreign student’s child. “That’s how poor we were,” Christina says. “But that investment changed my life.”

In just six months, her tutor gave her the equivalent of two years of university-level English. Soon Christina was translating for American mission teams. One summer, a visiting pastor invited her to study at a Christian college in Fiji. “I thought I’d be studying the Bible under coconut trees,” she laughs.

But visa complications rerouted her plans to the United States. After some confusion and an unexpected letter, she found herself enrolled at Shasta Bible College in Redding, California.

Meeting Caleb and Beginning a Ministry Together

At a student picnic before classes began, Christina met a friendly man who was interested in her story. “He told me he’d been to Ukraine twice with his son,” she recalls. That man was Mark Suko—and his son, Caleb, was a fellow student at the college.

Caleb jokes that his dad returned from the picnic and said, “Caleb, I met this nice Ukrainian girl. You should marry her.”
A few days later, they met in person. “I remember her red shoes,” Caleb laughs. “And her kindness. She was easy to talk to.”

They married and eventually returned to Ukraine, where they’ve now served in gospel ministry for over two decades. Together, they founded The Gospel Today, a ministry dedicated to equipping churches, training leaders, and sharing Christ throughout Ukraine and beyond.

Serving Christ in Wartime Ukraine

Today, Christina continues to live and serve in Odesa—a coastal city that has faced repeated missile and drone attacks since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.

When asked why she stays, her answer is simple:

“It’s important to be by the side of the person who is suffering. You can send letters or make phone calls, but nothing replaces being there in person.”

Christina volunteers at a Women’s Center that offers free pregnancy tests, prenatal classes, and counseling for women in crisis—especially those displaced by war. Many face the temptation of abortion due to fear and poverty. Through compassionate care and Bible-based conversations, Christina and her team point these women to lasting hope in God.

“We walk with them until their children are two years old,” she explains. “Often longer. We study The Story of Hope with them. We want them to see that their life, and their child’s life, has purpose.”

In addition, Christina helps coordinate a volunteer sewing brigade that creates adaptive clothing for wounded soldiers. Hospitals in Ukraine lack specialized garments for amputees or patients with metal pins and external fixators. The team sews custom-made shirts and pants that open easily around injuries—always provided free of charge.

“My sewing room is our dining room,” Christina says. “When twenty shirts come in at once, the table disappears for a while!”

Faith Stronger Than Fear

Life in Odesa continues under the shadow of war. “During the day, everything looks normal,” Christina says. “Cafés are open, people go to work. But at night, you hear the air raid sirens and the drones overhead. Then you realize—yes, this is war.”

Still, she chooses hope. “Ukraine is fighting for survival, for independence. We try to support local businesses, buy Ukrainian-made goods, and keep life going. And through it all, we keep pointing people to the One who gives true hope.”

A Message to the World

When asked what she wants people in North America to know, Christina answers with quiet conviction:

“You might think Ukraine is just a distant country in conflict. But God is working here. The Gospel is shining in the darkness. And every prayer, every act of generosity, every person who listens to our story—you are part of what God is doing.”

Christina’s story reminds us that faith can flourish in the most unlikely places—from a Soviet apartment with no running water to a war-torn nation longing for peace.

No system, no government, and no war can stop the power of God’s Word.

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