Category: David’s Posts

Some musings about theology and working with other denominations I had at lunch today…

I used to lead children on canoeing trips down a small river in America. There were times when an island could separate two canoes, but they would still be in the same river. If the canoes are the church and the River is the Gospel, then we can have small theological islands that temporary separate us. However, we are still all believing in the same Christ, participating in the same salvation, and taking part in the same Living Water. We are still in the same river.

A problem can be when we make a big deal out of the islands, dragging our canoes onto them and getting stuck – we can even lose touch with the One True Gospel – by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone (not in Luther, Calvin, Wesley, Arminius, Piper, McArthur, or whomever else).

This is one of the reasons why I’ve been so open (especially lately with Ukraine at war) to work with Pentecostals, Baptists, Charismatics, Lutherans, and others that proclaim the True Gospel. I don’t want to get stuck on, “Well, we don’t take communion like that,” or “Sorry, we don’t baptize like that,” resulting in the Gospel being LESS EFFECTIVE in this dire time. Those are islands, not the River.

The Gospel is what unifies us, pushing us along to a common destiny – with Christ in Heaven. Yes, it is important to know where you stand theologically – parts of the river may have rocks that, otherwise easily avoided by sticking to the Word as a compass, will smash a canoe and force its passengers to seek safety in another fellowship. Some of those whose churches have been smashed or sunk may choose to leave the River entirely, forsaking the Gospel. This is a tragedy that SHOULD be avoided. However, I’m responsible for my canoe – if I try too hard to dictate someone else’s course, I may miss my own rocks ahead of me.

It is also unwise to float down the river without a canoe, as is life without a church. You are MUCH more likely to get stuck on the bank, to drift into stagnant water, or to be crushed in the rapids if all you have is a life-vest. Find a strong church that is faithful to the Word as its guide and stay afloat.

Lastly, beware of other rivers that, though they claim to have the same Christ, lead not to His Havens, but to the great waterfalls of humanism, relativism, liberalism, religiosity, moralism (often connected with conservatism), or agnosticism – all of which lead to the end of those unfortunate enough to go there and fall to their deaths.

Anything y’all would add?

(English below…)

Один з улюблених моментів у перекладі, особливо художньому — це пошук “смачних” слів. З 24 лютого у словах з’явився присмак гіркоти, а часто їх просто недостатньо, щоб сказати і описати те, що відчуваєш. Потрібні слова шукаю дуже довго. А сьогодні звичне слово відкрилося по-новому.

Є у ньому:

• Буква Д — як у слові допомога, бо вона зараз необхідна: різна і багато.
• Буква Я — як у слові сім’я, бо осібно це слово слабеньке.
• Буква К — як у моєму імені, нагадуючи про мою відповідальність у сьогоденні.
• Рідна У — як у слові Україна — яка була, є і буде.
• І буква Ю — як у слові лЮбов, бо лише вона перемагає зло.

А разом вони — ДЯКУЮ!

Дякую Богу за незаслужену милість. Дякую людям за доброту, допомогу і відкриті серця. Дякую країнам за небайдужість до чужого горя. І ще одна подяка трохи із запізненням базі H2O і команді (Mark Meland and Olga Meland, Juliana Law , Christy Owen, Tymofiy Stupak and Tamara Stupak, Kim Burkett and Herb Burkett and many many others), яка майже два місяці турбувалися про переселенців. Ми сім’єю провели там не багато часу й наче приїздили допомагати, але завдяки спілкуванню, молитві і прославленню Бог показував наскільки ми зараз об’єднані одними переживаннями і болем. Служіння там завершилося вже, але спогади і вплив залишається.

ENGLISH:

One of my favorite parts of being a translator, especially of fiction, is the search for “tasty” words. Ever since the 24th of February, most words have had a sour note to them or just seem unable to express what you feel inside. It usually takes a long time to find the words that I need these days; however, today an everyday word took on new meaning.

• Д – “Help” (Ukrainian “Допомога”) – help is needed right now, from all different kinds and places.
• Я – “I” (Ukrainian “Я”) vs. “Family” (Ukrainian “сім’Я”) – the letter “I” by itself is much stronger when it’s in the word “fam-i-ly”.
• К – “Katya” (Ukrainian “Катя”) reminds me of my personal responsibility today.
• У – Beloved “Ukraine” (Ukrainian “Україна”) was there yesterday, is still there, still standing, and will be there tomorrow.
• Ю – “Love” (Ukrinian “любов”) – only love can conquer evil.

Together they make “Thank you!” (Ukrainian “ДЯКУЮ!”)

I’m thankful to God for His undeserved grace. I’m thankful to others – for their goodness, help, and hearts that have been open to us. I’m thankful for the countries that have been empathetic towards the tragedy that others are facing. And I’m thankful for H2O and the team that was there; they served there for almost two months, caring for the needs of refugees. Our family didn’t spend much time there. We came to help the team; however, the fellowship, prayer, and worship there were used by God to show us how deeply we are united in our fears and pain. The ministry there has already wrapped up, but the memories we have and impact on our hearts remain.

Someone asked me what it was like to live in a car for 62 hours… Here’s what I (Katya Snead) wrote:

“You know, when I think about that experience now, I do it with a smile. We saw so much love and care from people – folks from the villages around the border brought out sandwiches and tea for us, helping in different ways. We met some believing women from a city in northern Ukraine that were very discouraged, and David was able to encourage them and pray with them. He also helped them find contacts for where to go in the EU, as they were just driving out of the country without a place to stay. We cried and prayed together when we saw how families were saying goodbye to their husbands and fathers.* We saw the kindness of the Poles, who came up to us at the parking lot of our hotel, asking us if we needed anything. I’m glad I experienced this – it was worth it.

We got our one-year visas today in the EU. It was a very interesting process, as we don’t plan to stay that long** and don’t want to be official refugees. However, we are required to register and are automatically given visas. The refugees at the center that helped us get registered are mostly women with kids that live here only temporarily. You can feel the fear, the lostness in the atmosphere there, but the workers there are amazing – they explain everything and calm everyone very well.

We even got to help an older woman call her daughter in Ukraine, give her information on where to drive to, and refill her phone balance so that she could call without using our phones. I sat there asking God, ‘Why am I here? I don’t need all of this help – I want to help others!‘

There were other, less pleasant events in our coming here. One time, when we went to the store, an older man tried to cut between our family members in line at the cashier. He cussed and yelled at us, even throwing our groceries on the ground.”

*Ukraine has banned the exit of any man between the ages of 18-60, so that they can be drafted into the military.

**David wasn’t given a 1-year visa, as he is an American and can only stay for 90 days maximum.

The journey here has not been easy, but we see God’s hand in it. Please keep praying for our family as we try to minister to Ukraine and Ukrainians while “in exile.”

Here are some pictures from our journey:

At about 5:00am Ukraine time today (Feb 24, 2022), Russia started shelling all of the strategic targets throughout Ukraine – military bases, airports, etc. As far as I can tell, there is direct fighting on the borders – Ukraine has reported that it shot down several Russian planes and has killed some of their soldiers. The Russians are obviously denying that… and there’s no way to tell what’s really going on without being there.

If you would like to stay up-to-date with the global situation, you can check out these news sources. They’re the best we can offer, as we ourselves are not going to try to give a play-by-play. We are busy staying safe.

BBC YouTube channel – https://www.youtube.com/c/BBCNews
BBC live updates – https://www.bbc.com/news/topics/cx1m7zg0gzdt/ukraine
KyivPost – https://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics

Please don’t try to call us or write to us – we will update y’all if anything big happens to us. We are very thankful that God led us to prepare for this long beforehand. Our car is gassed up, we have food, we have water, we have a way to leave, etc. We haven’t left yet because of the initial chaos – most of Lviv was choked with CRAZY traffic from the time of the attack to about noon today. People were panicking, which is a terrible atmosphere to drive in. Things have calmed down much more now, though after a trip to the store and talking with our neighbors, we can say that things are tense.

• Please pray for our local church.
• Please pray for us – we need wisdom and God’s direct guidance.
• Please pray for Ukraine… and for Russia.

We love you all. I hope to write again in a few days.

Happy new year, everyone! 2021 was a crazy year for us, including the last “hurrah” of a surgery a few days after Christmas! Thank God, the surgery went well, and I’m already back home recovering. It seems like the surgeon did a very good job, especially compared to what I’ve heard about other surgeons here in Ukraine – praise the Lord that we found a good one! We also have received all of the money that we needed for the surgery – thank you to all of you that both prayed for us and gave towards our medical needs!

Warning: The rest of this blog post contains medical details that may make folks a little squeamish. I’m comfortable putting this information out there, as I want y’all to know how to be praying for us. However, if you have trouble with that kind of thing, feel free to skip to “The Road Ahead” at the end.

My surgery adventure

Why I needed surgery

I have had IBS-D since getting COVID-19 in August of 2020. That means I’ve spent a lot of time on the toilet with abdominal pain and cramps, ingesting a lot more imodium than most people see in five years. With all of that time and pressure going to my “undercarriage”, I started to get hemorrhoids, which began to bleed several weeks ago. It was then that I sought the help of my doctor, who was already working with me on controlling the IBS. She recommended that I get in touch with a general surgeon that is a part of her network of doctors.

The surgeon that we found seemed to be a good doctor that we could trust. I got checked out by him and started to follow his recommendations, preparing for surgery on the Wednesday before Christmas. However, I talked to a friend who has had the exact same surgery with the same doctor, and we decided to call it off. That friend of mine has had incredible complications and has had to repeat the surgery four times – he’s scheduled for a fifth soon. This is because of how the doctor botched the operation, leading to several infections and other nastiness that I really don’t want to get into. Please pray for my friend. His name is Ruslan.

All of that to say, we refused to continue treatment and surgery with that doctor, and we found another one, Ruslan’s new doctor in Kyiv. Kyiv is an 8-hour train ride away – it’s the capital city and the largest megalopolis in Ukraine. The equipment that this new doctor has is much more modern and much more expensive than anything you would find in Lviv. The new doctor found two more hemorrhoids that the previous one missed and recommended that I have them removed and have a colonoscopy to confirm my IBS-D diagnosis.

Under the Knife

After we had already celebrated Christmas with the family, Katya and I got on a train and came to Kyiv, where we stayed with a family friend. The train ride was fine, and the day went pretty well, despite me having to fast all day. However, the doctor had given me confusing instructions on how to prepare for the colonoscopy. If you’ve ever had one, you know what you’re supposed to do, but this was my “first rodeo” with this thing, so I had no idea. The doctor literally said, “You need to be in Kyiv by 6:00pm to prepare.” That was the end of it – he gave me no other instructions, and the receptionists forgot to give me the colonoscopy documentation that would’ve informed me about the night of prep ahead of me.

As I had understood about the 6:00pm “preparation”, I showed up with Katya on the doorstep of the clinic at 6:00pm on December 26th, the day after Christmas, which is a holiday. The clinic was closed, and the security guard there told us off with a flavor and color befitting of the “Kiev-city style” (if you’ve ever heard of the New York or Jersey stereotype of folks being mean, think of that times two). That was very discouraging. Even though we live in a big city here, Katya and I are used to the western-Ukrainian culture of civility, and that just made an already-stressful day much harder.

To make matters worse, the doctor wouldn’t answer his phone or texts. When I finally sent him a message saying that I wouldn’t be there for the colonoscopy in the morning, he answered. My reasoning was that I couldn’t come to a colonoscopy if I hadn’t “prepared”, whatever that meant, I didn’t know, and I wasn’t going to randomly go to a pharmacy and try to find the medicines I needed – that’s very dangerous to do here as a foreigner. We finally got our instructions, and I “prepared” (look it up if you’re curious – it’s brutal) that night, barely sleeping for more than 3-4 hours.

The surgery itself went better than could be expected. The staff was joyful and nice, the accommodations were immaculate, and the operation was quick. I had minimal pain that day, though my family says that the anesthesia played with my head a bit. However, there was a lot of confusion about how to pay. Katya had unfortunately slipped away for a little while to get lunch when they woke me up, and I had to deal with billing by myself. The trouble was that the doctor wanted to avoid taxes by having me just do a bank transfer instead of a credit card charge at the hospital cashier. That’s actually really common here – everyone does tax-evasion crap. I’m sorry to call it that on a missionary blog, but it gets SO frustrating! Once I finally had that all figured out, they released me to the waiting room, where Katya and her sister eventually picked me up.

Recovery

The first night of recovery was spent in Kyiv, as I had a checkup in the morning with the surgeon to see how my caboose was healing. It was far from uneventful… At about 1:00am I got up to go to the bathroom and fell, unconscious. Katya bolted up and ran to help me, hearing the crash as I fell. She got me up, I went to the bathroom, and, while standing over the toilet, lost consciousness again. This time she caught me, though, and helped me back to bed. We figured that there was a number of factors contributing to that…

• The pain of the surgery
• Stress (see the last few paragraphs of “under the knife”)
• Dehydration from the colonoscopy prep
• Weakness from not eating for two full days
• Not getting a good night sleep for at least three days
• The operation itself with all of the stress it puts on your body

Our family doctor confirmed our reasoning. She said to talk to her if that happens again, but it probably won’t now that I’m eating and sleeping (almost) normally.

The next day, we went to the checkup and headed back to Lviv for recovery at home. I’m now on a diet that is supposed to be very easy on my colon – nothing spicy, not a lot of grain, not a lot of fiber, no grease, etc. I wasn’t able to eat a lot of the traditional Ukrainian New Year celebration foods, so my family here made diet versions of them. We have such a cool family here – Katya’s mom and sister are the best!

I’m still feeling very bloated and uncomfortable, unfortunately. I was also prescribed a laxative, which is a very bad thing for someone that already has IBS-D. I didn’t take it the first day, as I already had diarrhea, but I took it the second day and had to go to the bathroom six times in one hour. The discomfort is expounded by the fact that, every time I go, I have to shower and change my dressings. Needless to say, I’m off of the laxative, regardless of what the doctors say. That was torture.

The Road Ahead

The doctors told me that I’m not really supposed to have any intense physical activity for the rest of January. I’m supposed to stay home (including church) for about the next two weeks. I’ll miss church, a seminary session, and going to the gym. I have a checkup that we need to schedule for mid-January in Kyiv (thank you for all that donated towards the travel costs!).

Thank you, thank you, thank you all that prayed, that wrote to us, and that gave funds. We really, really appreciate it. Sorry about all of the details… I know that folks aren’t used to this kind of openness about medical stuff, especially if it affects the colon.

Some other things y’all can pray for:

• My friend Ruslan and his surgeries
• Our church, which is still going through a lot of termoil
• Russia’s troop build up on our eastern border – for wisdom for all three presidents involved (Russia’s, Ukraine’s, and the USA’s), that there wouldn’t be open war

Thanks again. God bless you all!