Category: David’s Posts

Trying to summarize 2022

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I was thinking the other day about how to summarize this year. Every month has been some new adventure for our family. Here are a few highlights from each month:

  • In January we prepared for evacuation, while I recovered from surgery
  • In February Russia attacked, and we evacuated our family and a good friend to the EU (Katya Snead, Таня Стоколос, Irena Stokolos, and Olya Romanchak + two dogs and a cat)
  • In March we all got covid, and I did a humanitarian run into Ukraine with a friend
  • In April we served refugees, and I preached and led worship in refugee churches
  • In May we took in humanitarian aid and took refugees out to the EU
  • In June we bought a bigger car in Ukraine and flew to America
  • In July we were in America, visiting churches
  • In August we were in America, visiting family
  • In September Katya and I graduated from seminary and started spending more and more time in Ukraine
  • In October we translated for chaplains and prepared for an evangelical concert
  • In November we worked at the Ukrainian seminary—Katya translated for one class while I taught another—and I published a book about Ukrainian holidays
  • In December we prepared for winter (there’s often no power in Ukraine), I started my master’s degree, and Katya translated at the seminary

Some cool things we’ve learned this year:

  • Sitting in a line for 62 hours is not too bad if you’re with people you love
  • Pets are a wonderful stress reducer, especially if they’re well-trained and behaved
  • You can still get a lot of work done if the power is out and the internet doesn’t work, just make sure your computer is always charged
  • Always fill up your thermos with hot water before bed, because you don’t know if there’ll be electricity to make coffee in the morning
  • If the power goes out while you’re cooking, the electric stove is usually still hot enough to warm up leftovers from yesterday
  • Camping stoves are awesome, and so are sleeping bags and all the other camping equipment and experience we’ve had over the years
  • A balcony makes a great refrigerator during the winter
  • Jesus really is all you need, but you really do need Him every day!

For some reason, I feel like this year still has a few more months left in it. It’s hard to believe that 2023 is just around the corner. God, please make this war end quickly, so that by the end of next year, we’ll be able to praise You with all the rebuilding we’ve already done in Ukraine.

In Jesus’ Name we pray, amen.

David just published another book!

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David just published a new book about Ukrainian Christmas and holiday traditions! If you would like to check it out, you can order it on Amazon by clicking here or on the picture below:

David has also published two other books:

We graduated from Seminary!

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Both of us have graduated from the bachelor’s program at Ukrainian Baptist Theological Seminary! God’s faithfulness over these past four years has been AMAZING.

A video on Facebook commemorating the class of 2022 with the rector’s commencement speech (in Ukrainian).

The mentorship and effective ministry for women and girls faculty class of 2022. Katya is the third from the left.

It was so cool to graduate TOGETHER!

The pastoral ministry class of 2022. David is the third from the right, kneeling in the center.

David receiving his diploma from the rector of the seminary. David graduated with honors, as did most of his class.

Katya hugging her faculty head before receiving her diploma from the seminary rector. The seminary staff have shown us the love of Christ and become some of our best friends, especially in this time of turmoil and confusion.

David is already continuing his studies in the master’s program at UBTS, and Katya is waiting on her faculty to resolve some of the chaos of the war before she can get started again. Our desire is to use the things that we have learned to strengthen the local church here in Ukraine. The more practical needs we see here, the more our desire to study grows, so that we can meet those needs well.

Reflections on Gorbachev’s Death

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The following is text from my friend’s Facebook post. It will give you perspective on how many suffered under the last few years of the Soviet Union and definitely do not want to go back to those dark days. His name is Zmicer, and he’s from Belorus.

there lived a man. this man lived a long life. he lived in comfort, security and prosperity. and so, after all, now he’s dead.

nothing surprising. everyone dies.
for example, right now, because of the Russian shelling, or because of the wounds received from the Russians, perhaps right now, when you read this text, someone will die. maybe it will be an old man, or a soldier, or maybe someone’s child. and most likely, no one will name the deceased. his death will be just another unit entered into the statistics.

This is the harsh reality of today.
Mikhail Gorbachev died. and almost everyone gave at least a few lines in memory of the deceased. “an era is over” they say. “What a great man the deceased was.”

The Slavs have a tradition that one should say something good about the deceased or not say anything.

But I’m not one of those.

And reading all this, I tried to remember what good the deceased did.

And I didn’t find anything but three items:

  1. He let the Jews go.
  2. he gave up in the nuclear race.
  3. he gave up and left, stopping shedding the blood of people.

and that’s all he did well. everything else, it was blood, and suffering for people. it was under Gorbachev that the communists dealt with my almost 90-year-old grandfather. dealt with the feeble old man, for political reasons. under him and by his decision, in December 1986, the Russians staged a massacre in Alma-Ata. in January 1990, people were killed in Dushanbe. December 1990, blood and murder in Tbilisi.

1991 he shed much blood in Riga and Vilnius. and that’s not it. There were many more episodes.

google it. you will read many interesting bloody moments in the life of this named “peacemaker”.

and let’s not forget Gorbachev’s support for Russia’s current takeover of Crimea and his endorsement of Russia’s takeover policy.
my grandfather taught me: always bypass the snake side. but if you accidentally harm her, then never let her live. otherwise this snake will sit in its hole, restore its health and return to kill you. And so it happened.
when the USSR almost died, society took pity on it and did not finish what it started. did not conduct lustration. did not name the executioners. Did not rip off their awards. and now, the bloody empire has rested in its hole and now mercilessly kills those who took pity on it. the snake has become smarter and meaner. the snake came out to kill.

and on Gorbachev’s death today I have not words of regret, but a wish:
bloody man! Take your bloody empire with you to the underworld.

as visualization:
Good Bye Gorbachev, From the Patrick Chappatte’s archives, December 1991.

take care of yourself! Peace for everyone!