To celebrate these several years, I thought I’d tell the story of that time as I remember it today… However, I need to warn you, I’m on a trip, and Katya isn’t here to help me with the details (her memory is MUCH better than mine), so I may have some of the timing or little stuff off.

On July 28, 2010, I arrived in Kyiv, Ukraine and began my life as a missionary. Mike Pratt met me in Kyiv and helped me to get on a train to Ternopil, which is a city not far from Lviv, where there was a worship conference being held. That’s where I got over jet lag, learned a lot about leading worship and songwriting, and reconnected with other Calvary folks in Ukraine. I still remember Aaron Pratt’s lecture about “work on your craft,” which is still challenging to me, as I don’t often make time to practice the guitar.

After a few days in Ternopil, I finally made my way to Lviv, where I settled in a guest room not far from Mike and Michelle Pratt’s house. At the time, they were leading a Bible study, as we were not ready strategically to plant a church; however, we did finally start services in their house around October that year, I think. I also started to host a youth group in my apartment at that time. It was also around that time when Katya and I met, but I don’t think either of us was very impressed or interested in the other at the time—Katya had bad experiences with missionaries and thought I was just one more immature kid from America coming to create problems for her at youth group.

The church we planted grew pretty quickly, and pretty soon we started meeting in a location in downtown Lviv. Katya and I became closer friends as we worked together more. Other things progressed as well—I built relationships with more Ukrainians within and outside of Calvary, and I began to be proficient in Ukrainian at a pretty high level. The youth ministry, worship ministry, and English club we had grew tremendously. There are several people that attended the English club during a summer when I was the main leader, and they still remind me of how cool English club was back then—praise the Lord. Unfortunately, I got pretty burnt out with English club at the end of that summer, but that’s another story.

Katya and I continued to get closer; however, my support started to wane. While we prayed and decided to start a more exclusive relationship, I needed to go to America and find more folks to join our support team. That was really stressful, as I wasn’t sure if I would have enough money every month to support a family—I didn’t want to start a relationship with someone without that. That anxiety led me to some pretty bad decisions with my relationship with Katya (which she eventually forgave me for)—I actually didn’t call or write for several weeks while in the States. During that time, I was having stress migraines and something close to panic attacks… I eventually raised the money and returned to Ukraine, where Katya forgave me and we resumed our relationship.

Katya and I got engaged in 2012 and were married in 2013. Shortly after that, we spent a short time in the States and then returned to Ukraine. It was during this time that Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2014. When we got back, my ministry transitioned from the worship, youth, and English ministry to a more supportive role with sound, social media, and the church website. However, the longer I was in that position, the less I felt equipped or called to it. When I was in the States before becoming a missionary, I went to Bible college and had a passion for preaching and worship leading, and I didn’t understand why God had me in a position where I didn’t get to do either one of those things.

God eventually blessed me with an answer to that question—He was moving us on. Unfortunately, the way He made that clear was by giving me a serious joint disease in 2015. While that progressed, I started to pass on all of my responsibilities to Ukrainians and prepared to move back to the States, at least temporarily, to be treated. Thankfully, a week before our departure, we found a new doctor and a new treatment, and I finally began to feel a little better.

Shortly after Katya and I arrived in the US, her dad fell on the stairs and died. Because we were short on money and I was sick, our family in Ukraine told us to stay in the States while they took care of the funeral and everything. It was hard to be in Indiana while they were suffering in Ukraine, and we still have scars from that time.

When we got back to Ukraine in 2016, as I had passed all of my ministries on to Ukrainians, there was really nothing left for me or Katya to do in Mike’s church, so we started to look for other opportunities. We had invitations to Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, and Ternopil, and we were considering planting a church in Ivano–Frankivsk; however, we felt that God wanted us to stay in Lviv to take care of Katya’s mom, as she was recently made a widow and also needed both of her hips to be replaced. We stayed to live with her and take care of her, which led us to join the church where I had met Katya in 2010. We joined God’s Love at that time, and I became the pastor’s “right hand man” (kind of like an assistant pastor) until the church closed in 2022.

We did everything in that church, as it was still basically in the “church plant” stage—we did English clubs, summer camps, youth group, and other events. I preached, led worship, and led Bible studies. We had trainings, seminars, concerts, outreaches, etc. Things went very well for a long time. However, even in 2016, when we joined the church, the pastor told me, “David, you guys can join, but I’m not sure how much longer we’ll be doing this.” His words became prophetic when he stepped down in 2020 and we closed the church in 2022 when Russia changed from only attacking a small part of Ukraine to trying to take the entire country.

2022 was a hard year. There were times that year and in the following two years when I felt like completely giving up, not just on being a missionary, but on life in general. However, God has been faithful to give me and my family the strength to keep going. If you would like to read about our experience evacuating from Ukraine to the Czech Republic in 2022, you can click here. However, God moved Katya and me back in 2023 (and the rest of the family in 2024), and we finally joined Ukrainian Bible Church at the end of 2023.

Scars. Lots of scars. Some more wounds than scars. That’s how I would describe 2020–2024… We are still getting over a lot of that. However, scars also tell a story—you can encourage and even laugh about a lot of them. That’s what I’m hoping for going forward. Katya and I are starting a Bible study soon, and we are hoping to invest in the lives of the young people that are joining our church, teaching the truths found in the Word of God and helping them to get ever closer to Jesus, to God’s Truth, and to one another. And we’ll use the experiences, the scars that we have, to help them and teach them and show them how God moves through pain, through suffering, and through dark times to give us joy, peace, and love for Him and for one another.

That was a run—together sentence that broke all kinds of grammar rules, but I hope it was understandable.

Thank you all for being a part of this journey with us, even if it’s a small one. Please keep praying for us—we really need it. There are some months, some weeks when I often want to quit. That’s not because I believe that God isn’t calling or giving me the strength, but just because I’m tired. It hurts.

But it’s good. God is moving. You should see our church full of young people, full of life. People are seeking God and turning to Him in ways that wasn’t happening before the war. He’s doing a new thing, and we want to be in Ukraine to join with Him in it.

Pray that we could stay strong in Him to keep fighting, keep going, keep serving, keep loving.

And thanks to all of you that supported us in prayer and financially for fourteen years.

Here’s to the next fourteen!

Soli Deo honor et gloria.

– David