Misha Vakhtomin, Managing Director and Pastor at Camp Maximum, holds a degree in theology with youth specialization from Kiev Theological Seminary, and for several years led youth groups and taught others how to do youth ministry. Then he returned to his hometown of Uman in central Ukraine with plans to plant a church, but through unfolding global events, God unexpectedly led him in a very different direction.

‍“When I moved back to Uman, we had a team with the vision to build a new church and we began the process. But then there was Covid, which was quite destructive to our work, and then there was the invasion, which stopped everything completely.

The day the war started, there was a direct missile hit to the military base in Uman, which caused a fire. The missiles stored there were exploding and flying everywhere, so we were woken up at 5 a.m. hearing the explosions.

From church planting to
children’s camps: Misha’s story