Pedro and Begoña, missionaries with their 12 children in Ukraine: death does not exist because it is already defeated

The Spanish family formed by Pedro Sánchez Sáez and María Begoña Ballester Zapata, a marriage with 30 years of married and 12 children, no longer knows what it is to live without the rumble of the bombs, without the transfer of combat cars or without the fear that a missile can reach his house.

As surprising as it may seem, they moved to Ukraine 15 years ago and, despite the invasion that the Russian army perpetrated in 2022, they decided to stay there as missionaries.

“When the bombings began, we asked our children if they wanted to leave Ukraine, they had to be free. They all said they stayed, that they also were part of this mission,” explains Pedro. The mission he speaks of is his firm decision to leave the comfortable life they were leading in Spain to go “to the place God sent them.”

They belong to the Neocatecumenal road and felt the so -called missionary during the meeting of families with Pope Benedict XVI in Valencia (Spain) in 2006. Four years later, in 2010, they were sent by the Church to Donetsk, in the Donbás region.

After two years in that city, the family moved to kyiv, where every day they try to make the presence of God.

“The Lord also protects us economically, many people have turned to help us,” he says in statements to Ewtn News.

The family is a solid testimony of how, in the midst of suffering, “we experience their peace, and we see every day that God is faithful.”

And that war has shown them all their cruelty. In these years of war they have lost several known people. However, in spite of everything, they feel that “the Lord is present in the toughest moments” and that “death does not exist because it is already defeated.”

“Our help is to show that faith is necessary for a situation like this of great difficulty, of suffering, as is the case of Ukrainians, who are suffering a lot,” explains Pedro.

“There are many people who need a word of God, of love, of hope,” he adds.

For this family behind the injustice that brings with it an armed conflict “is the love of money and attachment to pride.”

“No one is willing to step back. No one is willing to admit that he has made a mistake. This is a slavery of the demon that does not let you change, that does not let you look elsewhere,” slides without going to value who is more blame in the contest. What is clear is that “without God there is no true reconciliation.”

Despite the uncertainty and pain surrounding their daily life in Ukraine, the family testifies that “in the midst of suffering, we experience their peace, and we see every day that God is faithful.” Of their twelve children, seven continue to live with them in kyiv. The three older ones have married and the next two have recently entered the seminar.

This weekend participated with another 70,000 pilgrimsin the jubilee of movements, associations and new communities, one of the most significant citations of the Holy Year of Hope 2025. His testimony was heard by Pope Leo XIV in the vigil of Pentecost that filled the Plaza de San Pedro with joy.

There, they explained that being a large family was not a preconceived desire, but an answer confident to the plan that heaven had for them: “We did not want to have many children, but God has given us this wealth to stay together.”

They also shared honestly that conjugal life has not been exempt from difficulties. “We have gone through rebellions in youth, by marriage crises … we even think about separating,” they confessed. However, they affirmed that “the Lord, through the sacraments and the community” has always sustained them in all areas.