Mark Makhynia and Daniela Mireles

We are serving in Poland with a focus on discipleship and as part of the worship team as well as the youth leadership team in our region.   Our work allows us to reach children and youth, and we also are point persons for Ukrainian refugees.

Daniela is from Dallas, Texas while Mark is from Nowa Kakhovka, Ukraine. Together we understand and speak five languages.  While in Texas, I read that less than 1% of the population in Poland know or have a relationship with Jesus.  I pointed at the book and said, “I have to go to Poland!”  But when it was time to pack and leave everything, including my loved ones and a solid financially stable career, I began to have hesitations.  I had to ask, “Whom am I trusting?”

I arrived in Poland in 2020, three weeks before the lockdown, and remained.  But I experienced an unexplainable joy.  Then the conflict between Russian and Ukraine began, and Mark, my boyfriend at that time, was still in Ukraine.  Eventually, Mark was able to join me, and we were married.  Getting married with an officiant over a video call to the sound of air raid sirens made me believe this: God has a plan for our lives and ministry beyond what our eyes can see and our minds can imagine.