JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Vitaliy Simolin was born in the Soviet Union, grew up in America, but moved to the Ukraine with his wife and daughter 13 years ago.
Now, all these years later, they have built a massive ministry, had two more daughters, and escaped a war-torn country they say they have every intention of returning to.
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In February of this year, Vitaliy was in the U.S. to recruit volunteers and secure funding when the Russians invaded.
“But I was a horrible feeling. I was hopeless. I couldn’t believe my wife and kids were there and there was nothing I could do about it,” Simolin says.
He says he spent all night trying to wake his family to get them to safety.
“It was just the most… it was unbelievable and I blame myself for leaving them. But I didn’t have a clue.”
Eventually, he got them to safety and got back to Ukraine. That’s when the family’s real work started.
“If the war continues, every time Russia invades more, bombs more, there’s a lot of people starting to flee and so it’s constantly a shuffle.”
Vitaliy says their ministry has helped at least 10,000 people, finding them shelter, even opening their own home to them. His wife, Natalia, says the same.
“It’s a shelter for volunteers and refugees, so we turned our home into our shelter. We turned our office into a shelter. We actually rented another home that turned into a shelter.” More and more people came, “so we actually, that’s when we rented the campsite and we started taking that.”
While many faced loss every day, “leaving their husbands, not knowing if they will be able to see them again, or even the children not knowing if they‘re gonna see their dad ever again. That’s really hard.”
But after a month and a half, Vitaliy took his family out of Ukraine.
“I didn’t wanna leave Ukraine. It’s not an option, but I‘ve been running for a month and a half on backup batteries and my health was deteriorating really fast,” he said.
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So much work, it was taking its toll.
“They said I need to start slowing down because it’s not a short-term thing. It’s a long-term thing and we need you.”
They decided to come to Florida to meet up with their 19-year-old daughter, Natamia, and leave their younger daughters with her.
“I just wanted my baby sisters to be with me so that they could be safe and they wouldn’t have to go through what other kids are going through,” Natamia said.
But now, Vitaliy and his wife say they don’t know what’s next. They just know that at the end of this month they will be returning to help, leaving their children behind.
“It’s hard to plan anything because it’s war. It’s very fluid, so we are pretty much putting fires out,” Vitaliy said.