David & Katya

I’m finally heading home—as I’m writing this on August 1st, I’m on a flight from Seattle, WA to Helsinki (Finland). From there, I’ll take another plane to Prague, take a train from Prague to Przemysł, and possibly take a bus from there to Lviv. Planes, trains, and automobiles!

It’s been a great trip to see friends and family and to visit with supporters and churches that partner with us in our ministry and mission in Ukraine. I was in seven different states and multiple cities in between.

Florida (July 1–9)

Stop 1: Sarasota

Unfortunately, I don’t have pictures from my trip to Sarasota. I was there for only a couple of days and visited with some friends of ours that have been supporters of mine since before Katya and I got married. That was a lot of fun, but I was still jet–lagging pretty hard.

Stop 2: Belleview

I got to speak at a Wednesday night service at Calvary Chapel Belleview in central Florida, which was a lot of fun. They were the first church that I made a presentation for on this trip, and they were very hospitable. The atmosphere at the service was very intimate, and we were able to have a question–and–answer session, both about the ministry and about the general situation in Ukraine right now.

Stop 3: St. Augustine

My uncle and aunt live in St. Augustine, and it was wonderful to be able to visit with them. I’ve been wanting to see them for several years, but the last time I visited their home was shortly after graduating high school. It was wonderful to reconnect with them and to visit their church that Sunday.

Tennessee (July 9–16)

Most of my time in Tennessee was spent with my dad and stepmom there, but I also preached at Calvary Knoxville, which is a huge church there. If you would like to hear the message that I preached, you can do so here:

We also just had fun with my parents there—we went to see a couple of live shows (the Comedy Barn and the Dixie Stampede in Pigeon Forge). I basically just had a great time in Tennessee.

Georgia (July 16–18)

Georgia was a wonderful time to reconnect with a church that has sent team after team to Ukraine to help with our mission there—Clayton Baptist Church in Raybun County. The folks there are some of the nicest, sweetest, and most hospitable in the States. Here’s a picture of them throwing a birthday party for me (my birthday was that week):

South Carolina (July 18–19)

I forgot to take pictures while I was in SC, but it was still fun to connect with a few folks that either support us or have been to Ukraine. I was only there for an evening and morning, but I’m so thankful to you all for being SO hospitable to me!

North Carolina (July 19–22)

In North Carolina, I had the honor of staying with Dr. Steven Livengood (pronounced “LIVE–en–good”) and his wife Kim. They are also some of the coolest, most hospitable folks you would ever meet. The Livengoods have been to Ukraine several times, and they actually have known Katya about as long as I have. Here are several pictures that Steve sent me from their trips to Ukraine when Katya used to translate for them:

Dr. Livengood used to be a seminary professor that graded exegetical sermons, so it was an insane honor when he actually invited me to preach at his church the Sunday while I was there. I preached the same message that I had in Knoxville (I was actually preparing it for this church when Knoxville asked me to preach), and you can watch it here:

I really hope that Katya and I can visit there together someday. Please pray for our support team to grow so that we can come to the States more often.

Texas (July 23–29)

As with Tennessee, my time in Texas was mostly spent with family—I visited with my mom, stepdad, sister, and stepsister in the San Antonio area. I also got to see a local pastor of a church that translated a Ukrainian song from English into Spanish (I had earlier translated the song from Ukrainian into English). Here is an old recording of the song:

Here are the words:

All Glory
Lyrics and music by Oles Dmytrentko and Yulia Shutenko
Translation into English by David Snead

Verse 1:
Capo 3 – Am, F, G, Em

All glory, all honor, You left forsaken,
And came to earth to suffer death
Though holy, and righteous, and truly perfect
You took my sin upon Yourself

Chorus:
Halleluyah!

Verse 2:
All glory, all honor, to You forever
You rose and reign, eternal God
The Lamb Who took my sins,
We shout Your praises!
To You we sing this from our hearts!

This is one of my favorite songs in Ukrainian, and I think it works in English as well.

In addition to all of that, I also got to see my great–aunt, who is a retired nun in San Antonio. She is 94 years old and still very sharp and healthy. Here is a picture that we took together in the convent:

I try to visit her every time that I come to San Antonio, as I don’t know how many visits like that she and I have left.

Seattle, Washington (July 29–August 1)

My last stop, which was the furthest out from all of the others, was to visit Calvary Chapel Mt. Si in the Seattle area. That was so cool—the church was amazing, and the scenery around there is breathtaking. Here are a few pictures:

John, the guy in the last picture, will soon be a missionary to Japan with his wife and children. Please pray for them and for Japan in general—that is very hard ground to plant in.

As I’ve said many times throughout this post, the trip was amazing. I am so thankful for all of the people that gave me places to stay, food to eat, and helped me along the way. I really do hope to do this again soon, though I am not sure I will visit all of the same sates on the next time around.

If you would like to be one of the places where I (and hopefully we) will visit next time, please contact us and let us know where you are, what church you’re from, if you would like a presentation about our ministry (or one of the seminars that we do), and any other details.

God bless you all and, Lord willing, see you again soon!

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