Olena Lahovska is a graduate of the UETS Social Ministry Workshop Program. She is a wife, mother, and an English translator by profession, but for more than 12 years, she has been a mentor for women. She is a founder of “Fly Mama” company, which provides education services for women. She’s been a Christian for 20+ years, is the wife of a church pastor, and one of the co-founders of the “SUPER STARist” Club ministry for older adults in Zhytomyr. Olena is a member of the Christian Youth Church in Zhytomyr city.
How did you come up with an idea for a “SUPER STARist” social project?
When the full-scale war started, our church went through many transformations. Many people went abroad, including our pastor. We started asking ourselves what we, as a church, with those who stayed, could do for our society and city. And then, we learned about the Social Ministry Workshop at UETS, gathered our initiative team, and came to study at the seminary.
The first insight that struck us during the Program was that social ministry doesn’t only include families in crisis or people with addictions, or orphans. Social ministry means serving society, and there are many groups of people for whom you can build your ministry. At once, our team understood that we always paid special attention to elderly people in our city. So we started thinking about what we, as a church, could do for them.
After the first session, we knew that we wanted to create a space for these people where they would come to communicate, discover new talents in themselves or remind themselves of the old ones, relax, play chess, play some board games, chat, and find new friends. Many of them are very lonely, and they think that they are of no interest to other people, abandoned by all. So our club is a way for their resocialization, for them to feel that they are once again seen and heard. Our ministry’s motto now is to do all for them to feel: “I see you, you are here, and you deserve to be loved.”
Could you describe how you usually organize your meetings? What is your typical club meeting like?
When we were planning our first meeting, we expected about 100 people to come. We started at 11 a.m., but there were already people gathering at 10 a.m. They were saying: “I couldn’t wait to come here and have some tea with you.” At 11 a.m., we had about 150 people who came – we’ve never seen so many people in our church at once.
Every club meeting is different, actually. For example, we divided all into teams and played contests with them at one meeting. Another time we watched the Agata Christie movie adaptation. At one meeting, we played the lotto just like in foreign movies. Every time we do something creative, something new, but in any case, we always have a warm welcome for them, and then we treat them to something. Also, our team usually picks 2-3 people who come to a meeting, and we try to arrange a personal meeting with them during the week just to get together and chat over some tea.
How do you see the future of this project? What will its impact be?
If thinking big, really big, it would be great to have a big center, where lonely older people could come every day, and those who can’t take care of themselves anymore could even stay and live there, and feel human till the very end.
We have plans to expand so that such meetings are held in different parts of our city every day. We would still hold bigger events at our church, but we really want that more events are held for older people every day across the city so that they don’t just come for free meals but can live a full life.
What helps you in your ministry? What kind of questions do you ask yourselves to be more effective?
UETS Social Ministry Workshop gave us a truly great start. It was very helpful to come study with the whole team and just be able to stay for two weeks without work and kids and to get deeply into planning, researching, and debating – we could stay up talking till 3:00 a.m. or 4:00 a.m. We really needed that to get going with our idea.
Of course, we always ask God where He wants to see us. We always ask ourselves if there’s anything that we are doing our own way without leaving room for God. And we also ask ourselves what is now relevant for the people whom we serve, and based on that, we search for some additional knowledge, materials, and instruments that can help us cover that particular need.
Why did you decide to study at UETS?
One of our values is to be professional with anything that we do. We want to be God’s witnesses through our ministry, and we don’t want to do it as amateurs. Of course, we understand that 100% of what we do is only through God, but we want to improve in the areas where we can improve. I really want the church to have a voice and an impact in our city, to be a real “city on a hill.”
How did studying at UETS influence you and your ministry?
It helped us to formulate our strategy, understand our team’s values, and form a budget. It was very important for us to get a clear understanding of how much our ministry will cost us. You know, as a rule, we deliver our ministries at our own expense, but here we realized that we could actually apply for grants! We would have never even thought to apply for a grant for a church ministry! At UETS, we actually learned how to write grant applications. And we saw an ocean of opportunities that opened before us!
We also wrote a list of patrons and various organizations which provide grants in our city, in Ukraine, and worldwide. And then we were given one hour during which we actually had to call them! And so we did it. I talked to three people from our city, and we agreed to meet the following week. And I was amazed at them being so open to helping us and so genuinely interested in our project. It really helped to get over that fear of asking for financial support.
Could you tell a story of someone whose life was influenced by your ministry?
You know, all of those who come to our meetings have something unique, and I could be talking about them for hours.
There is one woman of 73 y.o.– she is a musician, and now we are recording her album. Her hands are now very weak due to her age, and she can’t play her piano longer than 30 min. But she has a dream of listening to a recording of herself playing and of having something to leave as a memory about herself when she passes away. So we come to visit her and make a video of her playing, then we convert it into audio. We are making a kind of album which she can give as a present to others and listen to herself.
There’s also a man whose name is Yevhenii Makarovych, a widower. When he just started coming to our meetings, oftentimes, he would allow himself to flirt with our girls. Of course, we always set clear boundaries in response to that, but at the same time, we still tried to build relationships with him. And one time at a meeting when we were watching a movie, he asked me to step out with him for a moment. And he apologized. He said he now felt very embarrassed by his behavior, and he really wanted to become true friends with us.
I asked him if we could help him with anything – because being friends means caring for each other. He asked us to help him clean his apartment because he couldn’t do it properly any longer due to his age. So our team went to help him. And when we were there at his place talking to him, he learned that I was the wife of a pastor. And he said: “Wait a minute, so this is a church?” I replied: “Well, of course, didn’t you see a cross at the building?” He said that he did, but we didn’t look like people at other churches. Later he told us that he had some unpleasant experiences with a couple of other churches before. When we said that we didn’t want anything from him but just wanted to help him, he started crying. Since then, he has changed his behavior so drastically that he has become a totally different person! We now see so much respect and so much warmth in him! He is now more like a team member to us!
At this time, I understand that through this ministry, I have acquired so many new people in my life, people whom I love, people for whom my heart aches, and people for whom I pray, and I genuinely hope that they will be alright.
