Tag: Jesus

Testimony: Why it’s important to talk to your friends about missionaries

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Katya and I support a local missionary named Oleksandra Andriyashyna, who is pretty well-known among Calvary folks that have been to Ukraine or have some connection with missions in Eastern Europe (she’s the one on the left in the photo). She often writes to us to let us know when she has some kind of need; however, we cannot always meet that need, because we have been having some financial difficulties ourselves—some of our supporters have had to either cut back or stop giving in the past few months, and we have had unexpected or emergency expenses (please pray for those).

One of the cool things, though, is that, when we cannot support and give to her ourselves, we will take the request to our small group Bible study (the picture above), and they have often raised money for her to be able to travel to the front lines in Ukraine to minister from town to town and on military bases. It’s really cool to be the bridge, to see God use someone else to meet a friend’s need and to be the one that He used to connect those two dots.

I say that because we have a need—like I said, we have had some financial difficulties these past few months, and, at least at the time of my writing this post, things are getting worse. Over the past fifteen years as a missionary, I’ve never been in debt for an any extended period of time—we try to be as fiscally responsible as we possibly can; however, there are things outside of our control.

If you would like to help, there are four different ways you can do that:

  • Praying for us—please always do this first!
  • A fast, friendly gift via PayPal (contact us for info on that)
  • Giving online (this will get to us about a month later)
  • Telling others about us (“Testimony”)

If you would like to get my (David’s) personal contact info to pass on to someone else, please click here and send me a quick message—I’ll give you an intro letter and other information that you can pass on very easily.

God bless y’all!

Apartment Repairs update video

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Hey, everyone! Thank you all for praying for our different ministries over the summer. One of the things that we haven’t talked about much that also affects ministry a lot is where we live—for the past several months, Katya and I have been renting an apartment, because our home is under MAJOR repairs (basically a full remodel). The apartment is in a solid building, but it needs major work, as the place was built in the 80’s at the end of the Soviet Union. We started the process at the end of last year, and we’d hoped to be moved in by this month; however, because of delays and lack of funds, we have been set back several months. Here’s a video about where we are now:

Please pray for us, as this process will give us a better place to work, minister, live, record worship songs, have guests over, create ministry materials, etc. Every decision we made about where to put this or that thing had all of that in mind. Please also consider becoming a regular supporter to help us finish, as we have lost some support recently. Here are a couple of links, just in case you’re considering that:

P.S. – We also have a private Telegram group specifically for supporters that we will add you to once you become a regular supporter, so that you can be updated with prayer requests weekly—we try to keep in close contact with everyone that is on our Support Team.

Thank you guys for watching and for praying for us!

Ministries to Pray For

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Recently a friend of mine that’s on the missions committee of a church that supports us asked for a basic rundown of the ministries we are involved in to pray for and understand what we’re doing right now. Sometimes I don’t think I do enough to keep you guys informed on what we do everyday! Here’s the list that I gave to her:

  1. Katya is translating curriculum for biblical counseling.
  2. I am adapting a book called “The Whole Story of the Bible in 16 Verses” by Chris Bruno for our small group at church—it’s a great tool for a group like ours, which has unbelievers, new believers, and strong believers all at the same time.
  3. We are both studying at the local seminary, which takes up a lot of our time—right now we are studying Hebrew Exegesis via Ruth, Koine Greek, and Philosophy in Theology. All of those subjects are challenging and exciting in one way or another.
  4. I’m working on witnessing to local JW’s, as they are very prevalent in Ukraine (there are more JW’s than Baptists and Pentecostals combined in Ukraine).
  5. The worship team I lead is growing by leaps and bounds—we are playing our own arrangements of worship songs, and I’m hoping to start writing our own worship songs with them soon (something VERY needed in the Ukrainian context).
  6. We have a worship retreat coming up in June where we may have an opportunity to try to write a new song—I will be one of the leaders at that retreat.
  7. I am part of the preaching team at church, though I only preach a few times a year (not including invitations to preach or teach at other churches from time to time).
  8. I am teaching a class on prayer and worship this month at the local seminary.

I recently read Deuteronomy 6 in my devotions and was reminded about the importance of passing on our faith well to the next generation—most of what we do is involved in that somehow. Please pray for these ministries, that God would help us to be good ministers of the Gospel and His truth!

– David

P.S. Here is the last livestream from our worship team…

Men, we need to…

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Men, we need to stand up for our families and lead them to the King.
There is nothing un-manly about following Jesus Christ; in fact, it’s
the biggest challenge you’ll ever face. Too many men are staying home
while their wives take the kids to church, taking a nap while their
wives read their Bibles to the kids, and turning the TV on while their
wives pray for their souls. #standup – Your example will either pull
your kids closer to God or push them away.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about being a man, what it takes to be a good father, and stuff like that. Somewhat out of frustration and somewhat out of just a desire to encourage others to do and be all they can be, this was my Facebook status a week ago. One of my prayers is just to be a better husband and eventually a good father. (No – Katya is not pregnant! You can stop asking now! We’ll let you know if that happens – we’re “waiting” right now! 😀 😀 😀 )

You may have had a good dad, you may have had an absent dad – either way, if you’re a Christian, God is your dad. When you feel like being absent, going to the TV instead of interacting with your wife, etc., God can and will give you the strength to be a good husband and Father. That’s a fact, if you ask Him for the strength. He is your ultimate example.

We are in a very unique time in America. More kids are growing up without a dad than with one, and we can see the impact on our culture. Let’s take our God-given responsibility seriously and #standup. Be men.

Today’s Sermon: A Citizen’s Responsibility

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davidbibleHere is the sermon I taught today! It’s both in English and Ukrainian – Katya was right by my side translating the whole thing! I really enjoy working together with her (she’s been translating for me since long before we were even dating). Unfortunately we didn’t get any pictures!!! We forgot to hand the camera off to someone else before I got up to preach.

The sermon is called “A Citizen’s Responsibility”. In light of the current events in Ukraine, I thought it would be a good topic to go over. If you like it, you can share it with your friends.

Click here to listen to the sermon.