John and Evelyn Wiens came to Ukraine as missionaries after he retired as a Canadian Mennonite Brethren Pastor. John grew up as a Saskatchewan farm boy with his brothers, who still farm there.
 
    They settled in the city of Zaporizhzhia.  There he founded a church called New Hope and started working with orphans through New Hope Center. He had a real heart for the disenfranchised members of society, the orphans, the alcoholics on the edge of society. One night he woke up from a vivid dream of a trade school for aged-out orphans (those who leave the orphanages at 16 to attend a trade school or university)  where they would learn life skills and live in family settings instead of staying in dormitories like those in state schools along with a productive trade. There would be a farm to support the school that the students could do work-study at.  John could even describe the buildings and a pond in the village where the school was in the dream.

     John and Ev met  missionaries and Manitoba dairy farmers Garry and Teresa Verhoog in the village of Nikolipolia in the fall of 2009 and he talked to Garry about the school and asked him to help set up and manage the dairy farm he saw as the center of this program. When the original site didn’t work out, Nikoliapolia (Mikoli-Polye in Ukrainian) became the site for the trade school. After a few years of fundraising (and founding CRMF) and going through Ukrainian government channels, the trade school opened to the first class of nine students in the fall of 2012, with official government status as a school, two group homes, and a large staff, supervised by New Hope Center.

     Opening day was a big deal that year, with government officials attending. The following June, we graduated seven students with official government certificates as cattle herders. Some of the students became Christians and John baptized one of the girls in July 2013. After a one-year break to retool the program, the second class of orphans began class in September 2014.

     That November, John was diagnosed with cancer while home in BC. Our dear friend and founder of New Hope Center, John Wiens, entered into glory in early January 2014 to join the celebration that was being prepared for him in heaven.

    Over the next four years, with the help of donors and missionaries, we were able to build and fully equip a dairy farm when students can gain practical skills and earn some money. Therefore, the program slowly became self- sustainable.

    In 2019 the founders of CRMF reflected back on what has taken place in eight years of the existence of the organization and were standing amazed at what God has accomplished. A vision received from the Lord has materialized before their eyes. The Lord has brought many people from different churches and denominations together to offer their resources of time, money, gifting, and wisdom to contribute to that project; this brings life and hopes to a few of the many disadvantaged youths in Ukraine.

     A monument to God’s faithfulness exists in the brick, concrete, and steel in NikolaiPole, but more importantly in the lives of the young people in Ukraine, who are now followers of Jesus, and reflect that life and hope in their eyes.    Later that year Helmut Wiens, founder and current chair of the Board of Directors of Multi-nation Missions Foundation, took over the leadership of the foundation to provide administration resources and financial accountability to agencies at home or abroad, who teach and further the Christian Gospel.