Posted on May 30, 2025
by Nathan
Giving is not something I talk much about here. That said, our family has a giving budget, and we are always on the lookout for worthy causes and individuals to give to. For kindred spirits out there, I would like to make you aware of a couple opportunities for giving that have recently become available.
The first concerns the Chepara family. Serhii Chepara is someone I have known for two decades, and before he was drafted into Ukraine's armed forces, he served alongside us in ministry. In all likelihood, Serhii was killed in action last year while defending his country. Our ministry recently launched a fundraiser to support people like the Chepara family. To learn more, click here.
The second opportunity relates to Good and Evil. Good and Evil is a comic-book-style Bible story book that we have used in ministry over the past 15+ years. I wrote back in October about the fact that we were nearing the end of our supplies, and we would like to print more. About a month ago, the ministry that publishes Good and Evil launched a fundraiser that would help us do just that. To learn more, click here.
Back in the fall of 2024, Briana, Jonathan, David Steele, and I unload boxes of Good and Evil out of the Steeles' van for shipping to our network of distributors
Ministry
We recently had a student complete our entire Bible First course in just under a month! At the end, he was disappointed that we didn't have any more courses, but I was able to point him in the direction of some other Bible teaching materials (in audio and video format) that we have produced over the years.
Speaking of Bible First, one of my projects lately has been to work on some long-overdue updates to the Bible First website that will make it easier for coaches to grade their students' lessons.
Family
I'm happy to report that Lydia continues to make progress on recovering from Lyme! Little by little, she is easing back into doing things that, just a few months ago, would have zapped all her energy for the rest of the day!
As to my health, I finally finished the four-month protocol that I mentioned in our last update. It was a bit rough at times, and I'm currently taking a break from additional treatments to give myself the opportunity to rest and recover.
Just last week, we celebrated the end of our school year! Everyone worked hard, and it's nice for us all to be able to take a break. Unfortunately, the weather has been unusually cool and rainy, so we've been more cooped up at home. Hopefully all this May rain will bring June flowers, and we'll be able to get out and enjoy our summer vacation!
Celebrating the end of a unit study on the American pioneers with a treat at a local restaurant.
Posted on February 15, 2025
by Nathan
Back in November, I took part in a missions trip. That, in and of itself, is not that unusual. I have taken part in many missions trips over the years. But this one was different. Usually, I have a pretty good idea of what to expect, because I am one of the organizers of the missions trip. But not this time. I knew that Joshua Steele, Ben Sargent, and I would be meeting up with Oleksandr Ilchenko (whom I had never met) in Zhytomyr (located in northern central Ukraine), that we would be heading to southern central Ukraine to areas that had been occupied by the Russians, that we would be distributing humanitarian aid and preaching the Gospel, and that Oleksandr had a plan. But what that plan was, I had no idea.
What happened next was a testament to Oleksandr's organizational skills, and to the Body of Christ's ability to come together for service. Prior to our arrival in Zhytomyr, Oleksandr's church had been assembling hundreds of aid packages and shipping them ahead to the target area. The packages were then received by another church and stored until our arrival. A group of believers stayed up all night baking bread for us to distribute. All throughout our trip, Christians were hosting us, feeding us, and helping to gather crowds of needy people for us to share aid with, both physical and spiritual.
This crew baked hundreds of loaves of bread for distribution, and the lady in the glasses also fed us several times!
Over the course of about a week, we visited 11 different locations, distributing aid and sharing Christ. As a rule, we would pull into a town, and there would already be crowd waiting for us, usually gathered by the town leadership, but sometimes by local Christians. We would then introduce ourselves, share the Gospel, distribute aid and literature, and then spend some time with the locals before moving on to our next destination. As we trundled along the roads, Oleksandr would often be on his phone, coordinating future stops.
Sharing the Gospel.
As you might imagine, all along the way, we saw evidence of the war's devastation. Some villages were almost completely reduced to rubble, while others had escaped relatively unscathed. But even in the villages that seemed to be in good shape, a closer look would often reveal abandoned homes, shrapnel and bullet holes, blast craters, or piles of spent Russian ordnance. Signs, or sometimes just ribbons tied on bushes would warn us to the danger of mines if we were to venture off the road, and sometimes we would pass a demining crew painstakingly working their way through a field. All along the way, we heard stories of battles that were fought, civilians fleeing for their lives, and atrocities committed by the Russians.
Ben poses with one of many spent rockets that once contained cluster munitions that were dropped on and around this particular village.
Not surprisingly, the war has left a lot of needy, hurting people in its wake. While we couldn't undo what had been done, and there was very little we could do to fix what was broken, we were grateful for the opportunity to do what we could, and shine a light of hope in a dark place.
To see pictures and a video from our trip, click here.
War News
In part due to record-breaking warm weather this winter, power blackouts have essentially been a non-issue, for which we are very thankful. I believe the last outages we've had were in early December, after a large Russian attack on Ukraine's energy infrastructure.
Speaking of air attacks, while Russia's launching of drones and missiles against Ukraine is an almost daily occurrence, things have been relatively quiet on our end of the country.
Family
As far as my health goes, I'm a little over halfway through a four-month herbal protocol, which has been bumpy at times. I'm looking forward to whatever is next, which will likely be decided in April or May once I get some more testing done.
On the other hand, Lydia does seem to be feeling a bit better in her battle with Lyme. She still can't walk very far before she feels like she's run a marathon, but it does seem like things are slowly trending in the right direction.
Just when we were starting to hope that the "real" winter would never arrive, it did! Despite the colder temperatures, Katelin still makes it a point to get most of the kids outside every day. Everyone is working hard on school, and Katelin and the kids recently finished a big unit study on the pioneers. Sometimes life feels hard, but if we compare ourselves to the pioneers or especially to the folks whose villages were occupied by the Russians, we really have a lot to be thankful for!
Posted on October 23, 2024
by Nathan
In 2022, not long after Russia attacked Ukraine, 15,000 missionaries arrived in Lviv. No, not the flesh-and-blood variety, but the paper-and-ink variety. More specifically, we are talking about 15,000 copies of Good and Evil, which shares the Gospel through a comic-book style presentation. There was no way we could distribute that quantity of literature ourselves, so we set up a program whereby individuals and organizations could request copies for their own ministries. Over the past two years, those books have slowly filtered out all across Ukraine into the hands of people that we never would have been able to reach ourselves.
Fast-forward two years, and we recently went to the shipping depot to send out the last batch of Good and Evils to our distributors. Pray for these paper-and-ink missionaries, that their message would be heard clearly. Also be praying for more of these missionaries. If God provides, we would love to do another printing.
Briana, Jonathan, David Steele, and I unload boxes of Good and Evil out of the Steeles' van at the shipping depot
Speaking of Good and Evil, about 200 copies were sent out, not to individuals, but to libraries. While 200 copies may not be that many, the fact that they are in libraries means they have the potential to be read by many more people. Be praying for these copies of Good and Evil, that they would be checked out and read by many!
Quantities of Good and Evil come and go, but one thing that has remained a constant through our years of ministry is our correspondence course, Bible First. I thought I would pass along a couple comments from people recently requesting enrollment. Here is the first: "I found the course through Google and I would like to study but I don't have the ability to travel places. I'm a mom of a big family, but in my free time, I would love to work through the course." And the second: "I found this course on the internet, because I have a desire to learn more about God's Word, so I will be able to live according to God's will."
In addition, our friend and fellow ETO board member, Ben Sargent, will be arriving in Lviv for a two-week visit at the beginning of November. While he is here, we plan to do some outreach with a fellow believer, Oleksandr Illchenko. Oleksandr has been one of our more active Good and Evil distributors, and has a lot of experience working with people that have been affected by the war, so it will be interesting to see how that goes.
War News
I'm happy to report that not long after our last report in early July, the power situation began to improve, to the point that we have been mostly outage-free for the months of August, September, and October. Unfortunately, even without additional Russian missile attacks on Ukraine's power infrastructure, as the temperatures drop, demand for power goes up, increasing the chances of future outages.
Speaking of Russian missile attacks, thankfully, things have been quieter on that front as of late, with the notable exception of the missile attack on Lviv on September 4, with a couple of the missiles striking our old neighborhood, killing several, and damaging buildings we used to walk by every day.
The aftermath of the September 4th Russian missile strike on an apartment building (left side of the photo) on the street we used to live on. One of our favorite grocery stores is right across the street (short dark gray building).
But striking even closer to home was the news that our good friend and former ETO staff member, is missing (likely killed) in action. Be praying for Serhii's wife, Natallia, and his children, Francishka and Julian, as they process not only the grief, but also the uncertainty of what really happened to their husband and father.
Family
Lydia is a little over two months into an herbal anti-Lyme protocol, and we are excited to report that she is finally starting to make some progress! She still suffers from aches and fatigue, but it's nice to see some glimpses of the old Lydia coming back!
As far as my health goes, over a year of detoxing has finally brought the levels of various toxins (heavy metals and toxic chemicals/molds) down to normal levels. The next step will involve optimizing some hormone levels, as well as some other things. Like Lydia, I am thankful to be feeling somewhat better, and am looking forward to more progress!
Thankfully, the rest of the family is doing well, and everyone is growing like weeds! The cooler fall weather has been a treat after a hot summer, and we are soaking it up as much as we can before winter sets in.
Kiera recently celebrated her first birthday!
Posted on July 11, 2024
by Nathan
It's hard to believe that we have been back in Ukraine for over four months now! While we have had our share of challenges (more on that in a minute), we have also we have also experienced many blessings and answers to prayer.
God's Faithfulness
For starters, our trip back to Ukraine went about as well as could be expected. None of our flights were delayed or cancelled, and all our bags arrived with us. Our teammate, Josh, and assistant pastor, Vladyslav, were able to pick us up from the airport in two minivans, and then drive us to Lviv the next day. Once we arrived, we were immediately able to settle into an apartment our teammates arranged for us to rent (which is working out nicely!). We began the process of applying for residency permits (which were granted in April). About a week after arriving in Lviv, we transfered our belongings from storage to our apartment, and 99% of our things were still in good shape, despite their two-year stay in a 20-foot metal shipping container. And lastly, the things that didn't fit in our suitcases, that had to be shipped separately, were delivered without any issues.
It's good to see friends again!
Challenges
We have also experienced our share of challenges. First off, I will just say that moving internationally is no joke. I'm sure there are a lot of factors, but these international trips don't seem to be getting any easier.
The first challenge, which we expected, is the air raids. They usually happen at night, and average around two per week, so we've had to find a balance between taking preventative measures, and getting the sleep we need. Thankfully, our side of Ukraine is pretty quiet, and our city is almost never targeted.
A challenge we didn't anticipate was the rolling blackouts. Russia has been targeting Ukraine's power plants of late (among other things, like a children's hospital), and with the increased summer demand, our electricity is off anywhere from 6-10 hours per day. Thankfully, we were recently able to buy a portable power station (basically a giant rechargeable battery with outlets), which can keep the lower-wattage things going when the power is out.
Another challenge we didn't anticipate was Lyme disease. Despite having almost no run-ins with ticks since I arrived in Ukraine 20 years ago, three of our kids were bitten by ticks shortly after we arrived. Two of them seem to be fine, but Lydia contracted Lyme. God has provided a small team of medical practioners and individuals that are helping with treatment and advice. Lydia herself is feeling better than she was when initially diagnosed, but she still struggles with various aches and lower energy. We would appreciate your prayers for a full recovery!
Ministry
On the ministry front, our correspondence course, Bible First, continues to tick along, with five new students signing up in the last month. We've also seen an uptick in requests for Good and Evil books recently, probably because people are wanting to use them in various summer ministry venues. We recently sent out a batch of 900 books to various distributers, and it's looking like we will need to print more soon.
Kids from a camp in the Kharkiv region show off their new Good and Evil books.
Another unexpected ministry project was dropped in our laps a few months ago. Our good friend Serhii, who used to run Bible First before he was drafted, posted in several Facebook groups for librarians. In those posts, our ministry offered to send a Good and Evil and some other books to any library that requested them, and about 200 librarians from all across Ukraine responded! We are currently coming down the home stretch on getting those books sent out.
Working together to pack books for the libraries.
Family
Home life continues on, although working with the ever-changing rolling blackout schedule adds an extra layer of complexity to our days, especially since our apartment is 100% electric. While our power station can run some things, about the only major appliance it can run is the refridgerator and freezer. In a pinch, we have a couple gas camping stoves that we can use to heat things up. A part of every day is checking the "power forecast" for the day, and planning our day appropriately.
While we miss our American family and friends, one unexpected blessing is that we are living in the same building as our teammates! Now that we are living so close, the Day kids are able to get together with the Steele kids on a regular basis.
In summary, while our return to Ukraine hasn't been all smooth sailing, we are glad to be back, and we would appreciate your continued prayers for our family and ministry!
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