As some of you may know (it’s actually reached the American news sites), Russia attacked Kyiv and ended up blowing up a children’s hospital in the capitol city. Please pray for the families that either lost their children or were injured in this attack. Attacks like this happen all too often throughout Ukraine, and it makes it harder to both live and work here.
One of the ways that Lviv has been most affected by these attacks has been power outages. The main thing that Russia targets around our city is power stations, and our apartment has been without power for most of the day—often half or more of a 24–hour period. That makes it much harder to work, cook food, etc. We are looking for a way to power our apartment regardless of all of that—we would like to purchase an EcoFlow solar system for ourselves (€2539) and a smaller backup for Katya’s mom and sister (€998). All together, that would be €3537.
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).
David & Katya 