Our Past Interns

Pastor Fedor Minakov

I was born in 1986 in Donetsk city on the East of Ukraine. When I was about 18 the Christ drove me to himself through one minister who was working with me at the construction side. After my regeneration and conversion the Lord took away some of my bad habits, like smoking, alcohol abuse, swear language and drug abuse. Instead he gave me passionate desire to learn. I wanted to know everything there is to know about God and his world. That brought me to the seminary. First I applied to the Donetsk Christian University. Sometime during my studies there I have realized that the Lord is calling me to become a teacher. This caused me to apply to Reformed Seminary in Donetsk where I got my second bachelor in theology.

Then in 2014 Russians invade my city and we had to flee from my hometown. We have escaped from the war zone together with my pregnant wife Liubov, my two year old daughter Sophia and my stepson Daniel, who was 14 by that time. We had nothing with us but a backpack and a small purse. We moved to the south of Ukraine where after few months my second daughter Angelina was born.

Having lost our home and everything we had in Donetsk I did not give up on the Lord’s calling and continued to pursue further education. With my wife’s encouragement I applied to Westminster Seminary California and by the Lord’s mercy and his provision I got my Master’s degree in Theology there. After this our family spent one year of internship in Anchorage, where we met our church family that is called Redeemer URC. It was a great pleasure and honor to serve in this congregation. After the internship we came back to Ukraine to serve ukrainian congregations. I am currently working for the Evangelical Reformed Seminary of Ukraine leading the project of “Christian Education” and study at Westminster Theological Seminary (Th.M. Old Testament). To summarize in one sentence, I am a war refuge that study in the seminary to be able to teach ukrainian ministers deeper understanding of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Pastor Kirby Figueras

Kirby O. Figueras was the Intern Pastor of Redeemer United Reformed Church from 2018 to 2019. Born and raised in Manila, Kirby went back to the Philippines in 2019 to plant and pastor a Reformed church. Kirby longs to see more ministers to be trained and Reformed churches to be planted all over the Philippines. He received his Master of Divinity from Westminster Seminary California last May 26, 2018. He is married to Ms. Jaziel C. Yamugan, his classmate in the bible college in the Philippines. Kirby now serves at Field of Grace Church