Katya is about to finish a certificate program at the local seminary called “Beyond Suffering”, which is designed to help students know how to minister to and communicate with veterans that have experienced trauma and / or are amputees. In this post are several pictures from the last class that she took with Oleksandr Tereschenko, a double amputee that lost his arms while throwing a grenade away from himself and his friends while defending the Donetsk Airport from Russian invaders and their confederates.
Oleksandr is an example not only of heroism in the face of death but of persistence and steadfastness as a human being after loss. Regardless of his disability, he not only teaches and travels around Ukraine by himself without aid, but also worked as the Assistant Secretary of Veterans Affairs for the Ukrainian government from 2019 to 2021. He also wrote a book called “Life after 4:30pm”.
We also have a friend in church named Sashko that lost a leg from a land mine recently—he and David hang out regularly. He sent us a documentary about the center where he received his prosthetic and did rehab. Here is the video on YouTube:
Please pray for us as we look for ways to serve people that have lost arms or legs in this terrible conflict. Right now we are looking for a new job and place to live for Sashko after he finishes his stay at the local military hospital.
I’m honestly not sure if this is good news or bad news because of the war. However, Ukraine won an Oscar for best documentary feature film this year. The film is called “20 Days in Mariupol” and chronicles the time some journalists spent there under Russian occupation. I have friends that went through that personally, so it’s a little hard for me to watch. Others that we know are from there but got out in time to miss the invasion. Please pray for Ukraine to be able to free that city. If you would like to contribute direction to what’s going on in Ukraine, please go to our giving page and become a regular supporter.
One of the things that we’ve been working on recently in our long–term strategy as missionaries is to try to connect with our friends “back home” more often and in a more personal way. Folks have suggested different things (btw, we’re open to that!), and the two biggest are: (1) creating a texting group for our financial supporters and (2) coming back to the States more often to meet folks face–to–face. When David first became a missionary, the cycle was a trip back every 2-3 years, but we don’t think that’s enough now. We’re not sure what the normal temp will be now, but we definitely want to visit more often than that.
Here are the places he’s going to visit this time:
Texas
Florida
Tennessee
North Carolina
Washington
Georgia
With plane tickets already bought, there’s not much flexibility in his itinerary; however, if you are close to one of those places and would like to see him, reply to this email or contact us.
If you would like to support the trip, please click here to go to our giving page.
I’m actually really excited about 2024—God is growing us and changing us in many different ways. There has been so much shift and change in the past 365 days that I know He is doing something good, new, and possibly big. However, this year started out already pretty rough for us. Russia began the new year celebrations by bombing all of Ukraine constantly from about December 29th until yesterday (January 3rd). Moreover, that’s just what we experienced in Western Ukraine—Eastern Ukraine, closer to the front, has had no break whatsoever, regardless of the holidays. Here are a couple of pictures I took or friends took from an explosion that happened in the neighborhood of our old church in southern Lviv:
A view of the blast crater from aboveI took a selfie from a distance, showing how far away the blast affected other buildings—I’m standing right next to the kindergarten where we replaced windows.This apartment building was most affected by the blast. Other organizations were helping with the cleanup there, and our church was advised to help with other affected areas.Inside a classroom in a school that was hurt by the blast
As you can imagine, explosions from rocket attacks in Lviv are not the fireworks we wanted for New Years. However, God used even this! Just a few hours after the attacks, when the coast was clear, our new church, Ukrainian Bible Church, jumped right in with the cleanup. One of the buildings that was damaged by this explosion was a kindergarten where a girl from our church works—we went there and helped to repair windows, clean up glass, and make the place ready to serve kids in the neighborhood again.
I’m really proud to be a part of a church that’s ready in a moment’s notice on a weekday in the middle of the workday to just drop everything and help the community. Katya and I live on the other side of town (we drove more than an hour to get to the neighborhood where the cleanup was happening), and by the time we got there, the work was basically finished! Ukrainians are amazing—please keep praying for them, for their spirits to be high, and for God to bring revival here.
Our church has organized a round–the–clock, year–long fast in 2024 for a “just peace” and for Ukraine in general. For this to happen, each of our church members has agreed to fast for two full days out of the year. However, anyone can take part in the fasting and praying for Ukraine—if you would like to, please contact us, and I (David) will get you more information.
God is working in Ukraine; we can feel it and see it around us. He is opening up opportunities to talk with neighbors and build relationships with unbelievers, He is growing our local churches, and He is bringing outsiders into His flock. Please pray for us to have the boldness and the words we need to share with our friends and neighbors the great news of the hope we have in Christ (Ephesians 6:19).
This year has been a good year, though with a lot of transition. From moving back to Lviv from Czechia at the end of last year, to moving our family from there in late–summer this year, to joining a new church in Lviv, to Katya starting a new study program at the seminary–backed school of leadership, to myself (David) switching seminary programs—saying that there have been a few changes in 2023 is an understatement. However, this past month has been a good one, and we are thankful to feel at home with friends in our new church.
Thanksgiving and Christmas
Thanksgiving meal with familyTurkey!
Katya and I had a wonderful time celebrating Thanksgiving with family here in Lviv. We went all–out on American traditions from my childhood, even though I was the only American in the group! We had turkey, mashed potatoes, homemade pumpkin pie, homemade egg nog, and a few other family favorites.
One of the coolest parts was something my family did at the beginning of every Thanksgiving meal in Texas: we would take five corn kernels and separate them, remembering the famine that the pilgrims endured at the beginning of their time in America (Ukrainians had their own famine caused by the USSR in the 1930’s, so the tradition carries over well) and thanked God for the abundance He has given since then. After that, we went around the table and shared what we are thankful for over the past year while everyone was getting their food. Lastly, we sang Christmas carols, as Thanksgiving was always the official start of the Christmas season for my family back in the USA.
It was really cool to feel connected to my roots and to share these American Christian traditions with my family here. We will do a completely Ukrainian Christmas celebration on the 25th, having twelve different dishes for our “Holy Night” dinner the evening before. (If you would like to learn more about Ukrainian Christmas traditions, you can click here to check out my book about that.)
Katya and the Leadership Course “Beyond Suffering”
Katya began studying this year at a local leadership school. The course she is taking is called “Beyond Suffering” and teaches how to serve wounded and disabled veterans coming back from the war. It has been interesting to get to know the teachers, as some of them are former SF operatives from the United States.
One of the more recent teachers is a Paralympic athlete that has the Ukrainian record for lifting the most weight with one arm. He and his wife have ten foster children, and they are a living example that disabilities do not have to stop your development as a person.
The Paralympic athlete and teacher answering questions in class
David’s Seminary Studies
I (David) am in the process of moving from one seminary program to another, switching from a masters in local church growth to a masters in theological studies. This will better equip me to teach local, indigenous ministers, giving them the tools they need to serve in a wartime and postbellum context. They need teachers that can both speak their language and be in their context, but most of the materials needed to teach those things are in English—very little is written or translated into Ukrainian. This means that Katya and I are uniquely placed to help them and to be a bridge between the English–speaking world (where are the materials are) and everyday Ukrainian life (where we live, work, go to church, etc.). If you would like to see more about how we serve indigenous ministers here in Ukraine, please click here to read our vision statement.
David leading worship at the seminary
The main reason I’m switching programs is because I’m seeing my calling as a teacher more and more—in the spring, I’m going to teach a class at seminary about worship. I’ll be talking about four different types of worship in that class…
Please pray for my students, as they prepare for the class (they actually do most of the homework before coming to Lviv and listening to my lectures). Please also pray for me as their teacher—that I could truly lead them to worship from the heart in a way that honors God and glorifies Him, both inwardly and outwardly.
David’s previous class where he taught about worship
Even though I’m really excited about moving on to a new masters degree program, I’m still really going to miss my old seminary group (see the picture below). Several of those men have been with me in the same classes since 2018—we’ve been through a lot together, and I will continue to pray for them, their ministries, and their families.
David’s M23 seminary group
Conclusion
Thank you all again for praying for us and being there for us as we continue this adventure in Lviv, Ukraine. If any of you would like to connect with us more often, we try to send out a newsletter about every 1-2 months, and you can sign up for that here. Also, you can become a regular supporter or do a special gift for the end of the year on this page. However, please be sure to send us a message once you get that set up, as we like to send out weekly iMessage and SMS updates with pictures and prayer requests to our regular supporters.
God bless you all! Have a merry Christmas and a happy new year!
David & Katya 