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!
Posted on February 2, 2024
by Nathan
It's official! The Day Family is returning to Ukraine! We are planning to fly from Houston to Krakow, Poland on February 28, and then continue our journey to Lviv, Ukraine by car. (We can't fly directly into Lviv because Ukrainian airspace is still closed.) Thanks to that final leg by car, this trip is going to be even more of a marathon than the trip usually is!
Marathons notwithstanding, the different components of our return are falling into place. We recently found a buyer for our van, found an apartment to rent in Lviv, and were issued Ukrainian visas. (Because we weren't able to renew our old residency permits, due to not being in the country, we are having to start over from scratch.) Our last few weeks in the States will be full of selling/giving away/packing up our stuff, wrapping up our affairs, and saying our goodbyes.
Please do keep our family in prayer as we return to Ukraine. While most of the big puzzle pieces have fallen into place, there is still a mountain of little things that have to be taken care of. I know everything will come together, but the road is going to feel a bit bumpy at times.
Safety Concerns
One of the main concerns regarding our return to Ukraine, both for us and others, is for our safety. After all, there's a war going on in Ukraine. And while that is true, the war has not affected all areas of Ukraine equally. There are some parts of Ukraine that are very dangerous. But there are other parts where life continues on almost unchanged as it did before the war, with the exception of the occasional missile strike. But to put things in perspective, in the part of Ukraine that we will be living in, you are about 10 times more likely to die in a car accident than in a missile strike. So while we will be exposing ourselves to a level of risk, we don't feel like it is an unreasonable level of risk.
Catching Up
Since it as been a long time since our last update (again!), there is a lot to catch up on.
Carpathian Mountain Outreach
Carpathian Mountain Outreach (CMO) took place in August. Some parts of the project were different, in part because of a smaller team, and in part because the war had affected some of the ministry we usually do. Overall however, things went well and it was good for me to get a boots-on-the-ground view of life in Ukraine. If you'd like more details, you can read the updates from CMO on the ETO blog. (Currently they are the most recent three posts.)
The 2023 CMO Team. From the left: Hosanna Steele, Bill Thompson, Nathan Day, Joshua Steele, and Abigail Steele.
Kiera Joy
By far the biggest event of October was when Kiera Joy joined our family! Her birth went off without a hitch and Kiera has been a (mostly) happy, healthy, and easygoing baby. She has recently started to "talk" to us, and everyone loves her!
Christmas in Colorado
In December, our family traveled to Colorado to spend some time with my side of the family. It was also my first time in five years to be "home for Christmas". After getting in lots of quality time with family, we headed back to Texas for the final push.
Health Update
I recently had some testing done which showed that I've made significant progress in reducing the levels of toxins in my body. There's still some work to be done, but I've talked with my functional medicine provider, and I'll be able to keep working on things while I'm in Ukraine. The best part is that I'm starting to have more days where I feel good! There is light at the end of the tunnel!
Family
People often wonder what the kids' thoughts are regarding returning to Ukraine. While there are people and things they will be sad to leave behind, everyone agrees that they want to go back to Ukraine. In the mean time, however, life continues on. The kids are still working on school, and soaking up the beautiful weather in our backyard.
Be sure to pop over to the About Us page to snag a copy of our newest prayer card!
Posted on July 23, 2023
by Nathan
As of late, I seem to start each update by commenting on how long it's been since the last update, and this is no exception. I'm not sure if it's the pace of life in America, having five children, or all the things I have on my plate, but I just don't seem to be able to get updates out as regularly as I used to.
Ministry
Lord-willing, Carpathian Mountain Outreach is finally returning after several years of being sidelined due to Covid and the war in Ukraine! There are multiple factors that will make this year's project more challenging than usual, one of which is that I will be flying in for CMO, instead of already being located in Ukraine and prepared ahead of time. I will be leaving for Ukraine here in a couple weeks, and will be there until the end of August.
Several things to pray for:
- Preparations for CMO
- CMO to run well
- Open doors to share the Gospel
- My family, as this will be our first time to be on opposite sides of the globe
Most of the team from the last time we did CMO, in 2019.
The Steele Family
Our ministry parters, The Steeles, have recently returned to Ukraine, and the only reason we are able to do CMO this year is because they are there on the ground making the necessary preparations. You can read more about their family's return to Ukraine here.
Bible First Online - French
You may remember from our last update that we were hoping to have the French translation of Bible First ready for use by March. Well, that goal turned out to be extremely over-optimistic. I am currently coming down the home stretch on the last few critical pieces that will allow Bible First to be used in French. There will be some final polishing to do, but that can wait until after CMO.
Family
First off, the most exciting news: we are expecting another baby girl! The beginning of the pregnancy was a bit bumpy, but things have been going well for a while now. Katelin recently entered the third trimester, and we are looking forward to the baby's arrival in October.
The kids made Katelin a nice breakfast-in-bed for her birthday!
We are in the thick of a Houston summer, which means lots of time in the neighborhood pool! We recently wrapped up our school year, but there won't be much rest for the weary. We are planning to start next year's school year early so we can take some time off when the baby is born.
My Health
Since our last update, I've been working with a functional medicine provider, which has uncovered several latent health issues. Progress has been slow, but it's nice to feel like I'm finally moving in the right direction.
Our Future
Right now, this is our tentative plan:
- Nathan goes to Ukraine for CMO (and scouts things out for a potential return to Ukraine)
- Baby arrives in October
- Spend the holidays with family
- Return to Ukraine after the New Year?
We definitely don't want to do anything rash, but we also want to be wherever God wants us to be, so we would appreciate your prayers for God's direction!
Posted on January 24, 2023
by Nathan
Once again, it's been a while since our last update. There's lots of ground to cover, so let's get started!
Connecting with Supporters
One of the highlights of the last several months was a trip we made to speak at a couple of churches. We started off by traveling to Bonham, TX, where our family enjoyed getting to know the Littrell family (Katelin and Mary are old friends) and the rest of the folks at their church. I also presented the ministry on Sunday.
We then headed to Northwest Arkansas, were we spent a few days with Katelin's sister, Katrina, and her family. It had been four years since we had seen each other, so there was a lot of catching up to do!
We then headed back to Texas, this time to Fairpark Baptist Church in Fort Worth for their mini family camp/missions conference. Once again, it had been four years since we were there last, so it was good to reconnect with old friends and make new ones. While there, I had the opportunity to preach a message and give an update on our ministry.
Our family enjoyed getting to know the Waller family! David is the new pastor at Fairpark, and Priscilla is another old friend of Katelin's.
Podcasts
Katelin was invited to appear on a friend's podcast, and the interview got broken into two episodes. In the first, Katelin shares about the things that prepared her for missionary life, and in the second, she reflects on her years on the mission field.
Bible First Online - Spanish
There is just a little translation that needs to be done before we can make Bible First in Spanish available online, and we are finally making some progress there! There is a lady at the church we are attending in Houston that is helping us, for which we are very thankful.
Bible First Online - French
We have a contact, J.D. Grimes, who arranged for Bible First to be translated into French. The translation was finished about two weeks ago, and now J.D. has a missionary that would like to use the French translation for a evangelism campaign in March. So as soon as I finish this update, it will be time to put my nose to the grindstone and convert the text into the necessary format.
Good and Evil
Last I heard, about 3,000 copies of Good and Evil have been distributed in Ukraine. 15,000 copies were printed this past summer, so we have about 12,000 copies left. If you'd like to read more, and see some pictures, just click here.
Family
One of the other highlights of the past few months was the vacation that we took to a family camp in northern Texas. I can't say it was very relaxing, because we were so busy, but it was a lot of fun nonetheless!
Hanging out with our little cowhands at the stick-horse rodeo at Family Camp.
For the past several years, I (Nathan) have been dealing with some unexplained fatigue, and while I am still functional, it does take its toll. I've tried various things over the years, and had different tests run, but I've never been able to get to the bottom of things. While we are in the States, we've decided to work with a specialist to try to figure out what is going on.
As to our future plans, we would like to return to Ukraine, but with the war and all, it's still too early to know if and when that return could happen. We would appreciate your continued prayers for God's direction!
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