Roman (RO-man) Matviyiv is a member of New Hope's Ukrainian Ministry.
At 16, Roman had begun his last year of high school and began looking to the future. Three years earlier, he had accepted Christ as his personal Savior at a Christian summer camp. Officially, the Communistic system Roman had been born and raised under, had been dissolved for just one year. Freedoms had come, but no one knew how long the new freedom would last. Roman took advantage of being able to legally attend a Christian camp. "During one evening fellowship, I heard the message that each person is responsible before the Lord. I knew then that just because I grew up in a family of believers, or I had good actions or church attendance, this would not bring me salvation. That is only given by grace through faith in the blood of Christ. From that moment on, Jesus has been my Lord and Savior."
Roman had a very sensitive discernment as to the needs of spiritual leaders in his country. There were many needs and few answers. He had an unswerving desire to attend seminary so he could help the spiritual needs. So, as Roman was in his first semester of senior year of high school, he began applying to seminaries. At 16, the responses kept coming back the same: "too young." Still he kept researching and applied at the seminary in Kiev, the capital city of Ukraine. They agreed to accept him into their program -which started in January. So Roman simultaneously took his final high school term (and all the difficult final exams) and completed his first semester at seminary. He commuted weekly between L'viv and Kiev (about 8 hours by train). During these years, he also taught himself English.
At 20, Roman graduated with a Masters of Divinity Degree. His thesis topic was "Servant Leadership," a subject totally unresearched (and little practiced) in Ukraine. Before he came to New Hope Ukraine to serve as our Field Director, Roman was a discussion leader/counselor at a transition orphanage for 18 and 19 year olds. He also had preached at a start up church three to four times a month for a season, and had helped to organize, administrate and interpret at six different Christian conferences in Ukraine with Western speakers.
As to his earlier years, Roman was born in 1979. He has a younger sister, Oksana, and his parents are Stepan and Nadja. They have always been a committed Christian family. In fact, Stepan (who now serves as country Director for New Hope Ukraine) had a music ministry with Roman and Oksana singing and playing instruments in evangelistic street concerts and churches. This evolved into the New Hope Orchestra that was active for about five years in outreach ministry.
Roman serves as Field Director, overseeing 60 full-time and about 60 volunteer New Hope workers in most of the 25 region-states of Ukraine. He is newly married to Ira (Irene), who is also working for the New Hope L'viv office as a translator and editor. Roman's sister, Oksana, heads New Hope's Foster Care program in Ukraine. His mother, Nadja, is the L'viv office administrator; and his father, Stepan, is Country Director.