Ukrainian Evangelical Theological Seminary Update — NOvember 2025
Defiant Hope in Ukraine’s Third Winter of War
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, donors through The Outreach Foundation have given more than $2 million with sacrificial love. This will be our third winter partnering with the Ukrainian Evangelical Theological Seminary (UETS), holding fast for a just peace while bombs fall and power grids collapse. In a recent conversation with a partner who works with war-affected children and orphans, we heard grim words: “We would be willing to settle for peace now.” This signals weariness we’ve not heard before. Through this update, know hope continues to spread through our faithful partners whom we continue to support. We once again ask you to respond prayerfully and generously to this winter’s challenge.
Petro & Ilona Poleshchuk: Love on the Front Lines
“They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall walk and not faint” (Isa 40:31).
Thirty miles from the Kherson front, a young couple — UETS “Superstars” graduates — refuses to leave. Their home church shrank to 12 souls after a mass exodus, yet their gatherings draw 50–70 desperate neighbors. Each month, they travel 2,000 km (roughly 1,243 miles) through minefields and blackouts, hosting children’s programs, prayer circles, and aid drops in rural villages. “We gave up safety, comfort, our twenties,” Ilona says. “But watching a widow smile when her child laughs again? That’s our reward.”
Their story isn’t strategy — it’s sacrifice, proof that UETS equips warriors to heal in war zones.
Oksana Achkasova: Planting Churches, Healing Widows
“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction” (James 1:27).
In eastern Ukraine, Oksana — trained in UETS’s Women’s Leadership Program — plants churches with her husband while feeding 40 families weekly. With government resources diverted to the front, local congregations have become the primary source of relief. Because of The Outreach Foundation’s funding, UETS meets this need faithfully. Oksana counsels women whose husbands are fighting, missing, or buried, and widows cradling orphans, single moms singing lullabies over drone strikes. “My dream,” Oksana says, “is to baptize these women, see them rise as leaders, healed enough to heal others in a free Ukraine.”
Her vision is turning trauma into legacy.
The Brutal Winter Challenge
UETS president Dr. Ivan Rusyn sounds the alarm: Russia’s electrical grid attacks mean another winter without heat, light, or hope for millions. Firewood, blankets, wood-burning stoves, heaters, and generators aren’t luxuries – they’re lifelines. UETS buys and delivers them to leaders like Petro, Ilona, and Oksana, who reach families and widows unable to flee. The church remains relevant!
We’re called to step into the gap. Every kit delivered means a child sleeps warmly, a mother eats, a grandmother prays without shivering. In a land where darkness feels eternal, your gift becomes light. The Outreach Foundation will act again this winter to help UETS graduates keep hope alive. Their fight isn’t just survival — it’s a demand that love outlasts war. Please join us with your prayers and generosity.
THE OPPORTUNITY
The Outreach Foundation seeks gifts to support the people of Ukraine, through UETS, ahead of the winter weather.
You may make a gift by sending a check to the address below with the partner name “UETS” on the memo line or you can donate on our website: www.theoutreachfoundation.org.