Teaching, Serving, Standing

January 16, 2026 — 8:50 am.

We were seated in our blue Ford van, headed once again to the Polish border. Rebekah would soon turn 18, and so it was time to visit the Ukrainian consulate in Krakow to get her a visa. Anya, a Ukrainian friend, had come along for the ride. The morning was crisp; the roads, thankfully, clear. As the three of us sped toward the border, conversation lulled, and my mind began to wander. I’d driven this route so often I could almost do it in my sleep. Almost. No sleep now, though — stay awake. Eyes on the road. We clipped along at a comfortable 100 kph (62 mph).

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Suddenly, I snapped alert: 8:56 am. Four minutes left. I couldn’t remember this ever happening on a highway. This was a newer road, and by Ukrainian standards, we were moving fast. I glanced in the rear-view mirror. A van rode close behind, clearly itching to pass. Had he noticed the time?

Oncoming traffic was steady. As usual on a weekday morning, everyone was in a hurry. I felt my heart rate climb. I knew what I needed to do, but we were on the highway. Cars were moving too fast. This could be dangerous.

8:58 am. The other van was still behind me, still moving full speed. Less than two minutes left. Does he know? Will he stop? Then I had an idea. I switched on my emergency flashers. Almost immediately, he slowed. Maybe he got the hint? Cars in the oncoming lane still whizzed by.

8:59 am. It didn’t matter. This was important. With less than 30 seconds to go, I applied the brakes — not suddenly, but deliberately. To my relief, the other van followed, slowing to match my pace. Seconds later, we were both at a complete stop. In the oncoming lane, a few cars turned on their flashers; all of them stopped.

9:00 am. I opened the driver’s door and stepped out into the road. Other drivers did the same. Cold though it was, I removed my stocking cap and stood motionless. All was silent. Right in the middle of a busy Ukrainian highway, on a Friday morning, with no accident in sight, the entire flow of traffic stood still.

Every day in Ukraine, at 9:00 am, life stops for one minute as the nation stands in silence to honor those who have perished because of russia’s aggression.

Anytime our family is out and about at 9:00 am, we stop too. We stand in silence and solidarity with our Ukrainian friends, honoring their sacrifices and praying for an end to this terrible war.

Romans Course

I still remember the first time I heard Mike Pearl teach from the book of Romans. I was twelve, and my parents had brought me to a small Bible study at the country house of one of the families in our church. Several of us sat around the living room in front of a big wood stove while Mike taught from a chair off to one side, working through Romans verse by verse. In the years that followed, as Mike discipled me in Bible study and evangelism, I learned not just the doctrinal framework of Romans but how to study the Scriptures for myself.

I’ve had the chance to teach Romans many times since — both to individuals I was discipling and to larger audiences. So when our church recently started a Bible school, I was glad to be asked to teach through the book for our congregation. We meet on the last Saturday of every month — our pastor teaches through Genesis, and I teach through Romans.

What makes this round exciting is how much further I can take the course with the tools now available to me. I’m filming in high-resolution video with clear audio, and every lecture comes with engaging handouts to help students remember the highlights. I’m also writing a multiple-choice quiz for each lecture, with an eye toward eventually adapting the whole course for our Bible First Online platform.

The turnout from our church has been really encouraging, and I’m just as excited about the reach this course could have down the road. The teaching is all in Ukrainian, of course, but if you’d like to listen in, YouTube now offers translated subtitles. You can find the videos and all the accompanying materials at my new Discovering Romans website.

Check out my new Discovering Romans course website!

Discovering Romans

UGO — 2025 Recap and 2026 Plans

In mid-October of last year, we carried out our second major project under our new Ukraine Gospel Outreach (UGO) initiative — and it was a runaway success. Here’s a quick recap of what the team accomplished over those seven days:

• We visited 11 villages in southern Ukraine, mostly in the Mykolaiv region.
• After returning to north-central Ukraine, we held an outreach in a 12th village and a final meeting in the city of Zhytomyr.
• Attendance was strong throughout — an average of 50–100 people per meeting, and around 250 at that final gathering in Zhytomyr.
• We shipped 1,000 copies of the Good and Evil book, most of which we distributed across these villages.
• We handed out roughly 1,000 boxes of humanitarian aid, along with extras like bags of rice.
• On more than one occasion, we used our van to carry hundreds of kilograms of freshly baked bread to people along our route.

One thing we heard repeatedly from locals this time: many of the larger aid organizations have stopped visiting in these later years of the war. Yet the needs remain dire, and russia has not let up on its attacks against the Ukrainian people.

This year, we’re once again planning to take a team into the de-occupied zones of southern Ukraine for evangelism and humanitarian aid. We don’t have exact dates yet, but our target window is late October or early November. We’ll share more details as we firm up our plans.

Our goals remain the same as before: to bring the gospel to people across Ukraine and to provide humanitarian aid to those in need. We’ll again pack and ship as many aid boxes as we can — each one costs around $20 to assemble. Many of you have reached out in the past wanting to help with these boxes, and if you’d like to be part of this work, you can donate through our nonprofit website at euroteamoutreach.org/donate. If you have questions about how the projects work or how to get involved, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Want to see the October 2025 project for yourself? Check out our YouTube playlist.

Good and Evil Distributor Network

A couple of months after last year’s UGO project wrapped up, we finally received the rest of our latest Good and Evil printing. Some of these books are going out as single copies to individual Ukrainians, as we’ve done for years, but we’ve set aside a large quantity for something bigger: the relaunch of our Good and Evil Distributor Network.

We first launched this program shortly after the start of russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. At the time, donations allowed us to print 15,000 copies of the Good and Evil book, and through a wide network of distributors, we placed every last one across the length and breadth of the country. Eventually, with our stock exhausted, we had to wind the program down. Now, with this latest shipment in hand, we’re laying the groundwork to bring it back.

The first time around, we ran everything through a Google Form and a tangle of spreadsheets. It worked in a pinch, but it was chaotic and hard to track. So this time we’ve built a proper network-management application — one that gives us far better visibility into where books are going and stronger accountability with our distributors. The app is built and currently in testing. We’re encouraged by how it’s coming together and eager to see what God will continue to do with the Good and Evil book here in Ukraine.

War and Safety

Over the past few months, I haven’t written about the war as often as I once did. It hasn’t been a deliberate choice so much as a result of fatigue and sadness. When you live with war day in and day out, it grows wearying and hard to talk about.

But the situation on the ground hasn’t changed. russia presses on with its invasion, bringing the full might of its military to bear against the Ukrainian people every single day. Nevertheless, Ukrainians are fighting valiantly for their freedom and independence — and, slowly but surely, we believe the tide is turning.

On a brighter note, we want to reassure you that our family is safe. Power outages have been a real struggle these past couple of years, but God has provided some in-home backup battery units that keep our lights on most of the time. The outages come and go, and the air raids too, but God is faithful. He has protected us, and we trust He will continue to do so.

If you love light and freedom, we urge you to stand with Ukraine and to reject the false narratives that would justify the evil perpetrated by Putin and those who follow him. And please keep praying for us as we strive to share the light of Christ with Ukrainians.

Abigail’s Engagement and Wedding

We are very excited to announce that our eldest daughter, Abigail, is now engaged to be married! Her fiancé, Axel Alvarenga, approached me about two years ago and expressed his desire to begin the relationship. It’s been quite a journey since then, and we’ve seen both Abbie and Axel grow in that time. We are convinced that God’s hand is in this, and Kelsie and I have given our full blessing for them to marry.

Very soon, our whole family will travel back to Texas to join Abbie and Axel for their wedding, which they’re planning for August 22. You can follow their updates at jsua.co/abbie-axel. We are thrilled to see what God has done in their lives, and we look forward to the days ahead as they begin a family of their own — serving the Lord and raising up a new generation to follow Christ.

Visit their wedding site!

Abbie and Axel

Kelsie’s Substack

For those who haven’t yet heard, Kelsie has launched her own Substack, where she’s writing monthly. Her goal is to share reflections from her Bible studies along with updates from our family life here in Ukraine. It’s written with the ladies especially in mind, though of course anyone is welcome to visit and have a look! We think you’ll enjoy the posts and photos, and Kelsie is excited to share more through this new channel in the months ahead.

Don’t miss Kelsie’s updates on her new Substack!

Be of Good Courage

A Special Request to Our Donors ❤️

To everyone who gives to support our ministry — thank you! Your generosity is a gift we never take for granted, and we wish we could thank each of you directly.

We can reach some of you via email or text message. But many of the donations we receive arrive as paper checks in the mail, leaving us with no practical way to reach you. In the past, we’ve tried sending handwritten cards, but postage rates from Ukraine have climbed, and we’re never quite sure our cards arrive.

So if you’re one of those faithful supporters who donates by check, we’d love to get your email so we can say “thank you.” If you’re willing, drop us a line through the contact form on our blog, and we’ll take it from there. And again, thank you so very much!

How You Can Pray

• Pray for wisdom and clarity as I continue to develop my Discovering Romans course for Ukrainians.
• Pray that God will bless and multiply our efforts with the relaunch of our Good and Evil Distributor Network.
• Pray for direction, provision, and safety as we plan our next UGO project this fall.
• Pray for Abbie and Axel as they prepare for their August wedding and their new life together.
• Pray for our family as we travel to the US this summer.
• Pray for health, safety, provision, and wisdom for our family as we continue to live and minister in the midst of war.
• Pray for peace and liberty in Ukraine.

Keep scrolling for more photos from our family and ministry!