It was nice to see a smile on his face and joy in his eyes!

December 2025

Dear friends, I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and you are now getting prepared and excited for this Christmas season. It is my hope that you will enjoy celebrating the birth of our Savior, while also being able to expres your love and Christ’s love to your family and friends this upcoming season. For me, you are my gift this Christmas – I am so blessed to have you as my friend and ministry partner. Thank you so much!!

Once again, Ukraine is in the news quite a bit since my November prayer letter. There have been several intense conversations between the White House and the warring parties - both Russia and Ukraine. US special envoy Steve Witkoff has been speaking to many people about Trump’s proposed 28-point peace plan. There have been discussions, revisions, and somewhat of a tepid openness to it. There were not a lot of new items within the body of the document that haven’t been conveyed in the past, but both Russia and Ukraine are more open than in previous encounters. It is said to have been revised to 19 points, which are more favorable toward Russia than Ukraine, but the reality is that Russia is continuing to win the war. Apparently, some western european nations are not favorable towards the plan and seem skeptical.

On December 1, 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his team met with Ukrainian officials in Florida. While being vague in their public comments, it was expressed that the discussions were “productive, delicate, and complicated, with more work to be done.” If I am understanding the situation correctly, Ukraine is running out of men and resources and doesn’t want to give up territory taken by the Russian military. And Russia doesn’t want Ukraine to ever join NATO, among other items too. What I don’t know is if this will proceed to peace or will the hostilities continue for longer than we all want to see. I do believe Zelensky is slowly losing power in Ukraine, so this is playing into the situation too. In my opinion, for this war to end, Ukraine will need to yield the land that was taken during this confict. Until we have an agreed upon peace agreement, the missiles, bombs and drones continue to hit Kharkiv and much of Ukraine.

As a recap, due to our area of Kharkiv being hit extremely hard by missiles, bombs and drones, the power plants are not functioning or functioning at a very low capacity. Therefore, we have sent your Christmas donations to Ukraine in advance so all seven churches we partner with can decide to either buy gifts for the kids or firewood for families with children (before the severe cold remains for the winter), or a combination of both gifts and firewood. We are believing that some of your donation will help with a Christmas program which includes the entire family and includes singing, entertainment for the kids, gift distribution, a sermon, and maybe food too. Please pray that we once again will be able to reach thousands of children with the gospel message of Jesus Christ and how much he loves them!

Below is a testimony that didn’t make it in on time for our Christmas update last January, so I am sharing it now to encourage you that everything you are doing is touching a child’s life:   

“Hello, my name is Evgeniy, and I have a son named David, who is nine-years-old son and lives in the village of Tsirkuny, near Kharkiv. From the very beginning of this war with Russia, my son has been  living in the middle of one of the conflict zones and I cannot express to you the horrors he has seen and experienced, and what he has had to endure. He had to live in a basement for a long time without heat or light. Food was scarce and very difficult to obtain. I am so proud that he has been able to survive and I can be reunited with him again. All these experiences have hurt my son deeply, but he is alive, thank God! Jesus was very kind and merciful to keep him alive.  

David now lives with his mother and grandmother, because my wife separated from me. Since leaving the home, I have become a Christian and I try to share about Jesus with my son. I was allowed to have him this Christmas and I brought him to church for the Christmas program. He enjoyed being with the other children. It was amazing to see the Christian love, the presents, and hear the gospel message and that Jesus loves all the children! It was nice to see a smile on his face and joy in his eyes. The event was very good; the entertainment team gave the children a great, interesting holiday. I think the children even forgot about the shelling, which had become more frequent during the Christmas season. Of course, it was special for my son, and he was delighted with the gifts. He received a large bag of candy and high-quality winter shoes, which he really needed. It was incredible. In these difficult times, it's rare for children to receive such gifts. I think my son felt God's love deeply. Thank you so much to everyone who participated in this event.” - Evgeniy

Dear friends, thank you for helping us this Christmas and continually throughout the year – you are making a huge difference, one child at at time. This year we should be able to help a couple thousands kids again through the seven churches. Merry Christmas, dear friends. I love you all!

In Jesus’ love,

 Ron