In this Next Door Gospel podcast, host Peggy Griffith speaks with Cassie, a missionary and Bible teacher who shares the remarkable journey she and her husband Garrett embarked on. The couple met through their work with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) and later moved to Ukraine to serve as Bible teachers. Cassie recounts their dedication to developing a Bible curriculum for pastors in Eastern Europe, their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the unprecedented challenges they faced during the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Cassie details the emotional and physical struggles of their evacuation and reflects on how these events have deepened her faith. The episode is part one of a two-part series, with the second part focusing on their life back in the United States and their continued mission work.
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Peggy Griffith (00:14):
Hello, and welcome to Next Door Gospel.
I am your host, Peggy GriffithToday, I'd like to give a warm
welcome to my friend Cassie, whojoins us from the beautiful
state of Montana.
I am honored that Cassie hasagreed to join us on the podcast
today and to share an incrediblejourney that she and her family
(00:34):
have been on.
She and her husband have devotedtheir lives to mission work, and
And served as Bible teachers,continue to serve as Bible
teachers.
And that eventually led them toservice in Ukraine.
This is actually part one of atwo part series where we will
talk about her experiencesleading up to Ukraine and their
(00:55):
journey of evacuation as Russiainvaded the country in 2022.
And then in part two, we'll talkabout their lives back in the
United States and how they'vecontinued to experience God's
presence in their work.
Here.
So welcome, Cassie.
cassandraspeck (01:10):
Thank you for having me.
I'm so glad to be here to chatabout this.
Peggy Griffith (01:14):
Well, Cassie, I'd like to start by setting the
scene at the beginning.
You and your husband Garrett metthrough work in missions.
So you've literally been acouple on a mission from the day
you met, Tell us a little bitabout your work with the Titus
project and how the two of youmet and decided to devote your
lives to this type of work.
cassandraspeck (01:33):
Sure.
So I met Garrett exactly.
It's 2025.
So exactly 12 years ago,yesterday He came to Montana to
do a missionary training schoolwith our organization.
We work with Youth With AMission known as YWAM and
Garrett came to do his trainingschool and I was his staff.
And he just immediately wassomeone who loved and cared
(01:56):
about every person he wasaround.
And we went on a two monthmission to Brazil together with
53 other young missionaries andshortly after getting back,
because I was his staff and hewas my student, we were not
dating until about 15 minutesafter he graduated.
And we've been together since.
Peggy Griffith (02:17):
I love it.
Tell us a little bit about theTitus project.
cassandraspeck (02:22):
Yes, so that was back in 2013 and over the course
of our training and our endingup getting married through our
dating engagement in marriage.
We really sought the Lord onwhat we what would it look like
to use both of our gift sets forthe kingdom of God?
We both wanted to be inmissions.
(02:43):
We both wanted to be inministry.
And so actually in our premarriage counseling part of that
was we had to come up with afamily mission statement, which
was our combined individualstatements, which became to
bring hope and restoration toall people through the teaching
of God's word.
And as we knew we wanted to moveinto overseas missions instead
(03:04):
of domestic and training.
We wanted to get moretheological education because we
really felt that pull to thelocal church globally.
And so we sought out differentseminaries and different
trainings because we are giftedso differently.
We ended up both attendingGordon Conwell Theological
(03:25):
Seminary, At their main campusin South Hamilton,
Massachusetts, which is justnorth of Boston, where Garrett
obtained two master's degreesone in biblical languages, one
in Old Testament, and I got amaster's in social ethics.
And so, while we were there, wehad our 2 oldest children, Levi
(03:46):
and Nora.
And when Nora was 10 weeks old,we took all of this training,
all of this experience, and wemoved to Kiev, Ukraine.
And what we did was twofold.
We worked with a Bible teachingteam that focused on the local
church.
So part of that was TitusProject, which is actually what
(04:07):
we're doing now in the state.
So it's kind of cool to see thisfull circle moment.
But the other part and the mainreason we went was Garrett and I
wrote a Bible curriculum thatwould take three years to work
through multiple classes, anydenomination, any person could
access this.
And what it does is it.
Explores every book of the Bibleinductively.
(04:30):
So that's meaning we're lookingat the text in its original
context, the original audience.
It was written to.
Why did it need to be written?
What was the author's intent?
What is the, what is going on atthe time it's written because we
firmly believe that the Biblewas not written to us, but it is
written for us and.
He wrote a Bible curriculum totrain pastors in Eastern Europe
(04:53):
and Central Asia, how to accesswhat the word of God says for
themselves, because one, it'sreally hard to find sound
doctrine in the Russianlanguage, but two, it's a post
communist post USSR where truthwas relative.
And we firmly believe that truthis Jesus and so we developed it
(05:15):
in English as well as Russianand we built workbooks and so we
used Titus project as an avenueto walk out this training for
pastors and lay leaders in thechurch in Eastern Europe and
Central Asia.
Peggy Griffith (05:31):
That is so amazing.
And to think that need is thereto build that biblical
understanding and knowledge inthe context of the author's
intent.
The context of what washappening at that time.
That is really important becauseso often I think a lot of people
(05:56):
stray away from the teachings ofthe Bible because of human
interpretation of words that aresometimes taken out of context.
So, yeah, I love that.
Just makes so much sense.
Tell me a little bit about Thethree years that you spent in
(06:19):
Ukraine and the things that youdid there.
cassandraspeck (06:23):
So I have loved Ukraine since 2013 I did a
leadership training course andthere was a married couple.
He was Ukrainian.
She was American, but they werepioneering this work in
Southeastern Ukraine and since2013, which was the year Garrett
and I started dating.
I was like, I have to go toUkraine.
And Garrett knew early on whenwe were dating that I was a
(06:44):
woman on a mission.
And if we were going to makethis happen, that he was going
to become a man on a mission andwe were going to do it together.
And so Ukraine was always in theback of our minds.
And then when we had Levi atseminary, we knew we needed to
start looking for where we weregoing.
And so we looked at differentplaces, but Ukraine was exactly
(07:05):
what we were looking for in thatit allowed both of us to use our
gifts for the kingdom of God inthe fullness of them.
And to go with an alreadyestablished Bible team, but also
to start this new thing.
And so we moved to Ukraine inAugust of 2019.
And as you know, world history,you know what happened.
(07:27):
We moved the end of summer 2019,which meant we moved almost
exactly six months before COVIDstarted.
And so we were full of hope.
We were full of dreams and likethe rest of the world in March
of 2020, we kind of watchedeverything fade into the back as
(07:49):
everyone was trying to figureout what does the world look
like, but the coolest thing,like something I'm so grateful
for in the way I look back isbecause the whole world went
online at that point, our Bibleprogram that we were training
three to five leaders, our firstclass, once COVID had started
(08:09):
was 47 people
Peggy Griffith (08:12):
You get out of here.
cassandraspeck (08:14):
seven nations.
And so where we thought we weregoing to focus on Ukraine and
Central Asia, and we was goingto be this slow build, we were
seeing like five year visionpieces happen in the first six
months.
And so while everyone else wasfretting, we're like, this is
amazing.
Like our ministry is going,people are getting trained.
(08:34):
We had people from central Asia.
We had people from Canada.
We had people from all overEurope which ends in some really
cool God stories since,including an outreach we went to
Belfast, Ireland with this yearbecause of that COVID, that
first COVID year.
So where we thought we were justfocusing on training so small,
(08:55):
COVID opened the entire worldfor us from Ukraine and really
brought in people's focusing onwhat was happening in Ukraine
long before the full scaleinvasion happened in 2022.
So we started.
And what we do is we take theBible and we've broken it down
into nine modules and we do itthematically.
(09:16):
And we explore all of thesedifferent themes, what the text
is saying.
So that's what we did for threeyears.
And then we also led TitusOutreaches.
So we weren't just using thisBible curriculum, but we were
also taking internationalmissionaries as well as
Ukrainian missionaries intraining them how to be
effective communicators of thegospel through inductive
(09:38):
preaching, inductive teachinghow do you lead Bible studies?
How do you communicate crossculturally?
And so we really got to see thefullness of this vision that God
had given us in such a shortamount of time.
Where we saw incredible thingsin a short three years.
Peggy Griffith (09:55):
That is like unexpected grace, right?
Like you go thinking you'regoing to focus on this small
group of people in this, thissmall thing, and it ends up
exploding due to something thatbrought a lot of people grief.
And, you know, you were able tohave a reason to embrace it,
which is really, really neat.
(10:15):
How, how did the COVID epidemicimpact your time in, in Ukraine
or, or was it as big of an issuethere as it, as it was here in
the United States?
cassandraspeck (10:25):
I think it was bigger for different reasons.
I think a lot of Americans thinkUkraine is more developed than
it is.
The city, sure, very developed,very tech savvy, but that's like
Ukraine is predominantlyagriculture and there's a lot of
village.
And so life was weird for abouttwo weeks and then people can't
(10:47):
survive if they're not going towork.
People can't survive if theycan't come into the cities and
sell their, their produce thatthey're raising in their
gardens.
And so it was, it was definitelydifferent, but because we'd only
been there six months, like sixmonths, you're barely done with
culture shock.
And so it was kind of just, we,It just felt like another piece
(11:10):
of learning the culture.
And I think very early on, wewatched friends around the world
try and hurry home to get totheir home countries because no
one knew what was going tohappen.
But we made the decision inthose first few days, like, no,
God caught us to Ukraine.
This is home.
This is where we're staying.
And so.
(11:31):
You can imagine the grief thatcomes with then a short year and
a half later having to face andhave those same conversations,
but not because of a pandemic,because of a war.
And so I would say that Ukrainelooked nothing like what we
thought it would.
And and yeah, I would, I woulddo every single thing again.
I would move back tomorrow if wethought that was wisdom for our
(11:55):
kids.
Yeah.
Peggy Griffith (11:56):
That makes sense.
And I know I probably didn'tuntil I really started to read
into the conflict that's goingon between Russia and Ukraine.
And this is not something thatstarted in 2022.
There has been ongoing unrestfor quite some time and Tell us
a little bit of the back storythere.
(12:18):
And what the environment waslike in the Ukraine during that
unsettled conflict.
cassandraspeck (12:24):
I would say for anyone who's curious that this
is a century old story.
It even goes beyond back to 2014when you have people who are
trying to wipe out cultures andtrying to wipe out whole people
groups.
And so you can look.
Through even like the beginningof the 20th century with how the
USSR is established and postBolsheviks.
(12:47):
It's a pretty fascinating storyof humanity and how God does
things in the midst of itanyways.
But for the purposes of ourconversation the Maidan
revolution began in 2014, but itwas triggered by events at the
end of 2013.
So the Ukrainian president thattime was ushering in this new
(13:10):
season, this new hope forUkraine of joining the EU.
And in November of 2013, he wassupposed to sign the contract
that began that process forUkraine's entrance into the EU,
and instead he backs out lastminute and signs a document in
(13:30):
agreement with Russia because hewas pro Russian president.
And so the youth of the nation.
Had something to say about itand they showed up and so they
call it Maidan revolutionbecause the main square in Kiev
is the my it's called Maidan.
It's the main square and theyouth, it was the college
students.
It was the youth who knew theirfuture hung in the balance that
(13:53):
showed up and really took astand against a government that
wasn't working for them andwasn't doing what was in their
best interest.
And so what happens during thattime is in early to actually
February of 2014, Russia sendstroops into eastern Ukraine, as
(14:15):
well as into Crimea and annexesCrimea, which historically,
depending on who your historianis, has belonged to Ukraine the
actually the Crimean Tartars aretheir own people group, and they
have been there for centuries aswell.
But so Russia takes Crimea andsends troops into almost like a
(14:36):
proxy war in 2 states in theEast called Donetsk and Luhansk.
And so That happens in 2014, andit was barely a blip on the map
in the West, because it'sEastern Europe.
It's Russia.
No big deal.
So there has been active warfarehappening in the east of Ukraine
(14:57):
for 10 years.
And so in spring of 2021, I amnine months pregnant with Logan
and we start hearing this rumorof Russian troops building up on
the border.
And honestly, like none of ourUkrainian friends were concerned
(15:18):
or worried.
It's just a military likeoperation practice.
So that peaks upinternationally.
People start to take notice.
So they pull back.
So that's spring of 2021.
Thanksgiving of 2021.
So mid November, right beforeAmerican Thanksgiving the troops
start building up, but theydon't pull back this time.
And so we start gettingnotifications from the United
(15:41):
States Embassy in Kyiv, the citywe live in, in November of 2021,
saying, Hey, this is suspiciousbehavior.
We don't know what's going tohappen, but it seems as
something's going to happen.
Well, all of our friends, BothWesterners who have been in
Ukraine and Ukrainians are like,it's just saber rattling like
that's all we heard for months.
It's just saber rattling.
(16:01):
They're not going to doanything.
Okay.
No problem.
So Orthodox Christmas, which isJanuary 7th, we get a
notification from the embassythat they suspect that Russia is
going to do something andthey're advising people to start
evacuating the country.
(16:21):
This is early 2022.
And all the other missionsorganizations in Kiev at this
point have pulled theirmissionaries either out of
country or move them to theWest.
But our missions organization,our base directors were saying.
Hey, we trust that you hear theLord.
So however the Lord leads, we'regoing to support you.
If you feel what's best is togo, then you're not going to be
(16:41):
penalized, we honor that.
And so we prayed and it's like,well, God's not asking us to go.
And if they're not making us go,then we're going to stay and run
Titus project.
So that's what we were alsodoing in Ukraine.
So we had four Bible teachers,two Ukrainians, two Americans,
and we started Titus project.
(17:03):
And.
Within that month, by the end ofJanuary, we went to an
international church in Kiev.
We were the only internationalsleft.
And so we walked into church theend of January and there were
like 15 people in there and wewere the only foreigners and
we're like, this is interesting.
But again, Our friends aren'tconcerned.
We're not concerned.
This is where God has called us.
(17:24):
We're training these Bibleteachers like ministry is
normal.
And so as that starts toprogress, we get this random
donation from this little redbrick church in Northern
Illinois.
Never supported us.
And so we tried giving it awaybecause at this point, older
Ukrainians who needed healthcareand things like that, their
(17:46):
families were starting toevacuate them.
We had some foreign friends whohad left and so we offered it to
our Ukrainian friend and she waslike, Hey, actually my sister
paid for it.
She, my mom's going to Germany.
No big deal.
And we're like, okay, so I guesswe just hold onto it.
And Garrett was like, well,let's pray.
And so we did.
And as we prayed, we were like,it doesn't hurt to move our
(18:07):
family a little further Westbecause we are in the capital of
the country.
Like if anything was going tohappen,
Peggy Griffith (18:13):
It would be there.
cassandraspeck (18:14):
Yeah, it's going to be there.
And so we're like, okay, likewe're on outreach anyways,
because that's what we do, Titusproject is going and actually
doing the teaching crossculturally.
So we take our two UkrainiansWest to a city called Ternopil,
not Chernobyl, Ternopil,different places.
Chernobyl sits above Kiev, about63 kilometers.
(18:38):
Ternopil where we were is eighthours West.
So a couple of hours from thePolish border.
So
Peggy Griffith (18:42):
Wow.
cassandraspeck (18:43):
we're there.
We're teaching we are having themost fruitful season of
Ukrainian Bible teaching like weare working with churches
morning, noon and night.
We're, we're hitting all of ourteaching hours like thriving and
Valentine's Day, they shut downthe airports in Ukraine and
we're like, Oh, that'sinteresting.
Like, something seems to beactually happening if they're
(19:05):
shutting airports down.
And so the things we were toldto look for is if Russia was
actually going to invade, thefirst sign would be the troop
buildups, which at this point,it was assumed there were 95,
000 Russian troops on theRussian Ukrainian border.
And the 2nd thing was, if Russiadeclares that states have what
(19:26):
Americans would call seceded,like, they've become like their
own states, their own
Peggy Griffith (19:30):
nation.
Okay.
cassandraspeck (19:31):
Oh, that's kind of what we were looking for.
So we're teaching we'repreaching.
We're doing all these things andthen Monday, which would have
been either the 20th or 21st, wewake up.
It's a Monday morning andLuhansk and Donetsk have
announced themselves asindependent states and we're
like.
Peggy Griffith (19:50):
Oh,
cassandraspeck (19:51):
And by the end of the day, Russian troops had
crossed the border into these 2states because they're now
sovereign nations.
They're not Ukraine, which theydon't actually declare that
Russian media is declaring thatso that they can come in without
starting a global anything.
So that was on Monday and beforewe went, we made wills because
we knew that this was always apossibility, but never dreamed
(20:13):
it would happen.
So we had our living wills, Wehad a game plan.
We always had a backpack just incase with passports, birth
certificates, our wills, likeall of the important things.
And so we had that with us onoutreach.
And when they cross, we're like,okay, this is actually
happening.
We should, start praying aboutleaving.
(20:34):
So we plan to leave March 1st,which is a week later.
Because at this point, we stilldon't think anything is
happening.
We just know it possibly couldso we're praying on Tuesday.
And as we pray, we just feltlike God say, look, I've made a
way forward and that was what Ineeded to be able to leave
because I was the one who washesitant to go.
(20:55):
And I was adamant that until Godsaid to go, I was not leaving
the country, because that iswhat God had asked us to do.
And so,
Peggy Griffith (21:03):
heart was there.
cassandraspeck (21:04):
oh yeah, it, it was home.
Like, we moved there becausethat's where I got, I mean, I
had a baby there.
I, delivering cross culturallyis not for the faint of heart.
Especially in a post Sovietnation.
10 10, don't recommend.
It was not great.
Peggy Griffith (21:18):
Yeah.
cassandraspeck (21:19):
But so we, we get tickets for a week later and
that was a Tuesday night,Wednesday morning, we were like,
we can't pay rent in America andin Ukraine.
So we Garrett drives seven hoursback to Kiev to pack up our
house.
We put it at a friend's house atour offices in Kiev and he
(21:40):
drives the eight hours back.
So like the most insane
Peggy Griffith (21:43):
All in a day.
cassandraspeck (21:44):
All in a day.
Gets back to Ternopil in theWest at 3 48 a.
m.
on Thursday, February 24th.
And at 5 a.
m.
My phone is blowing up withphone calls from America that is
watching Ukraine be invaded ontheir nightly news, but it's the
middle of the night for us.
So all of Ukraine is asleep.
(22:05):
And then my phone, I startgetting all these phone calls
from my friend Ruslan, and hewas like, Cassie.
Kiev is being bombed.
They're bombing all of thecities.
You guys have Americanpassports.
You have to get your kids andget out of the country right
now.
And we were like, Oh, okay.
So Garrett had one hour and 12minutes of sleep after driving
and packing a house.
(22:25):
And I go wake him up and say,honey, the war has started.
We have to go.
And.
That was unimaginable.
Like, even now I say it outloud, and it is definitely from
a place of detachment of, I knowthat that's what that happened,
but the chaos and the fear andthe unexpectedness and all of it
(22:51):
was just like, Is this reallyhappening?
And so he's unpacking the car.
He's doing all these things.
I'm trying to pack up becausewe're on outreach, right?
We're not at home.
So I'm trying to pack up whatlittle I have of the kids
because we were only supposed tobe gone 3 weeks and I get our
emergency bag together.
We get in the car.
And Garrett comes in afterpacking up the car and he's
(23:13):
like, did you hear that?
And I was like, hear what?
And he goes, go out on theporch.
So I opened the bedroom door toour porch and the air raid
sirens are going off and it wasthe kind of fear where your
bottom drop like the stomach,your stomach drops out, but you
also think you might throw upand all of a sudden, nothing in
the world makes sense.
Like, it was the most haunting,sickening, terrifying thing I've
(23:37):
ever heard in my life.
But we got in the car and we hadfriends who were in the same
city as us.
So we packed up and we evacuatedtogether.
Peggy Griffith (23:47):
Right.
Oh my goodness.
And you took your car and youhad plans where most people were
evacuating through Poland.
You chose to go another way.
cassandraspeck (24:01):
Yeah, so the embassy at that point had said,
American military will not comeinto Ukraine to help you.
You're on your own, but we'llhave troops at the border in
Poland.
And so that's what everyone onall the message boards all the
messaging apps go to Poland, goto Poland, go to Poland.
But we didn't, we had friends inBudapest and Hungary, and they
happened to be in the States.
(24:22):
And so I was messaging with herand she's like, Cassie, like go
to our apartment.
You guys can stay at our houselike for however long you need.
And we're like, okay, we'regoing to, we're going to
Hungary, but it put us in thecountry for longer because it
was eight hours to the borderinstead of the two to Poland.
The miracle of it is because therest of the country was
(24:43):
evacuating to Poland.
We only sat at the border crossfor five hours instead of three
to five days, which was the waittime.
Peggy Griffith (24:55):
Unbelievable.
And you had initially had a planto ditch your car and hitchhike
across, or to walk across andhitchhike, but something
changed.
cassandraspeck (25:04):
So, in Ukraine, you can't own property unless
you have a tax ID number, whichwe did not because we are
foreigners.
And so we had bought our car,but because ukraine's not a part
of the EU.
We could not drive our car intocentral Europe without special
documents that said we wereallowed to do that and a special
insurance.
And so we get to the border andwe have neither of those things
(25:28):
and we're like, okay.
Our friend in the city we hadevacuated from was like, okay,
if they don't let you cross, youpark your car on the side of the
road, throw your keys into thewoods, send me a picture where
they are.
We will come get your car and wewill find someone to come pick
you up on the Polish border.
And we're like, okay, so we getto the border cross and we hand
them all five of our Americanpassports.
(25:50):
And I kid you not, as soon as wehand them all forth, it's the
middle of the night.
Like our kids have been asleepfor hours.
All three of our kids who are atthis point, they are four, two
and eight months old, wake upscreaming, like blood curdling,
top of your lungs screaming thatthese kids can do.
And the border guard just looksat us and like gets really big.
(26:12):
Looks at our passports, looks atthe car passport, doesn't say
anything, and just sends usthrough, like, sends us right on
and as soon as we cross the kidsgo right back to sleep.
So, yep.
So little miracles like thatbecause Garrett got home close
to 4 a.
m.
He did not put gas in the carbecause he's like, I'll just do
it tomorrow.
(26:33):
So by the time we got on theroad at 8 a.
m.
on February 24th, the gasstation lines were kilometers
long and we're like, we'll justkeep driving.
We should have made it.
45 minutes to an hour.
We drove six hours before we hadto pull over and our car was not
going to function.
We pulled into a gas station sixhours later when we shouldn't
(26:55):
have been able to drive morethan one.
We didn't look at the the newsonce we got to Hungary and
looked at the map where bombshad been dropped.
It like hit.
All of the different sides ofthe road that we were taking to
Hungary, but we never sawanything.
The kids never heard anything.
It was a beautiful blue day.
And I think it was just thekindness of the Lord that just
(27:17):
shielded and protected not onlyour physical bodies, but our
minds and our spirits as wellthat.
He was trustworthy.
Peggy Griffith (27:25):
Wow, that's amazing how your plans versus
reality turn out and, you'regoing, God, I'm not sure how
this is going to work out.
But yeah.
Looking back on this experience.
Has this changed the way you seehow God works in your life at
all.
cassandraspeck (27:45):
Well, oh, yes, very much for lots of different
reasons, but I was not raised ina church.
I wasn't churched as a kidgrowing up.
And so I had this radicalencounter with the Lord at 22
and have kind of been in fulltime ministry since.
And I think that this reallyforced me to reconcile my
(28:05):
experiences with my theologywith the Word of God.
And
Peggy Griffith (28:09):
wow.
cassandraspeck (28:11):
beautiful passage in Exodus 34 that talks
about the Lord's steadfast loveand it's when he's revealing
himself after the golden calfand that his love is steadfast
and just who he is and thefullness of his nature and
character.
And You know, the goodness ofGod, that worship song had come
(28:33):
out at about that time.
And it took me years to be ableto sing the words to that song
that would come on.
And I would be stone cold.
Like you're not good.
You're not kind.
I also really value truth.
So I wasn't going to saysomething that I didn't mean.
And so even worship.
And I think.
During especially that 1st, yearand a half, if I didn't have the
(28:56):
liturgy of church history, and Ididn't have the liturgy of the
congregational church.
I don't know if I would be whereI am at, not just with my faith,
but with in my journey withJesus, because when I couldn't
pray, it was the prayer of thesaints of the centuries before
us that carried me when Icouldn't even go to bed when I
(29:16):
couldn't find the words and Icouldn't sing the songs.
It was the liturgy of the churchin all of her history that
really carried me through thedarkest season of my life.
Peggy Griffith (29:29):
Is there anything that just surprised you
the most out of this wholething?
cassandraspeck (29:34):
Probably that as a missionary, I was a terrible
Christian.
As a Bible teacher, did Iactually believe what I taught?
So again, this reckoning of myfaith with my theology and the
way I lead my life.
Peggy Griffith (29:50):
Yeah.
And now you're kind of lookingat, okay, this is how I'm
supposed to show up.
Not, not just talk it, but walkit.
cassandraspeck (29:58):
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
Nothing like a good old globalwar to get you ready and be
like, Do I actually believethis?
Like, do I actually trust thatJesus is with me?
And a beautiful piece that Ican't wait to share in the next
part is how that came about withmy five year old daughter in our
return to Ukraine.
Peggy Griffith (30:18):
Absolutely.
Well, hey, I want to thank you,Cassie, for sharing your story
with us.
Next week we will talk about thepart two of your story and we'll
talk about your journey back tothe United States and what that
was like coming back after threeyears and some of the challenges
that were associated with thatand, the formation that came
along with that.
So tune in everyone.
(30:40):
And if you haven't done soalready, click that subscribe
button.
So you won't miss a minute ofCassie's gospel story.
And if you or someone, you know,would like to share your story
on the show, please send me anemail at
nextdoorgospel@gmail.Com.
And until then, may the Lordbless you and keep you.
May the Lord make his face toshine upon you and be gracious
(31:03):
to you.
The Lord turn his face towardsyou and give you peace.
Amen.
Hello, and welcome to Next Door Gospel.
I am your host, Peggy GriffithToday, I'd like to give a warm
welcome to my friend Cassie, whojoins us from the beautiful
state of Montana.
I am honored that Cassie hasagreed to join us on the podcast
today and to share an incrediblejourney that she and her family
(00:34):
have been on.
She and her husband have devotedtheir lives to mission work, and
And served as Bible teachers,continue to serve as Bible
teachers.
And that eventually led them toservice in Ukraine.
This is actually part one of atwo part series where we will
talk about her experiencesleading up to Ukraine and their
(00:55):
journey of evacuation as Russiainvaded the country in 2022.
And then in part two, we'll talkabout their lives back in the
United States and how they'vecontinued to experience God's
presence in their work.
Here.
So welcome, Cassie.
cassandraspeck (01:10):
Thank you for having me.
I'm so glad to be here to chatabout this.
Peggy Griffith (01:14):
Well, Cassie, I'd like to start by setting the
scene at the beginning.
You and your husband Garrett metthrough work in missions.
So you've literally been acouple on a mission from the day
you met, Tell us a little bitabout your work with the Titus
project and how the two of youmet and decided to devote your
lives to this type of work.
cassandraspeck (01:33):
Sure.
So I met Garrett exactly.
It's 2025.
So exactly 12 years ago,yesterday He came to Montana to
do a missionary training schoolwith our organization.
We work with Youth With AMission known as YWAM and
Garrett came to do his trainingschool and I was his staff.
And he just immediately wassomeone who loved and cared
(01:56):
about every person he wasaround.
And we went on a two monthmission to Brazil together with
53 other young missionaries andshortly after getting back,
because I was his staff and hewas my student, we were not
dating until about 15 minutesafter he graduated.
And we've been together since.
Peggy Griffith (02:17):
I love it.
Tell us a little bit about theTitus project.
cassandraspeck (02:22):
Yes, so that was back in 2013 and over the course
of our training and our endingup getting married through our
dating engagement in marriage.
We really sought the Lord onwhat we what would it look like
to use both of our gift sets forthe kingdom of God?
We both wanted to be inmissions.
(02:43):
We both wanted to be inministry.
And so actually in our premarriage counseling part of that
was we had to come up with afamily mission statement, which
was our combined individualstatements, which became to
bring hope and restoration toall people through the teaching
of God's word.
And as we knew we wanted to moveinto overseas missions instead
(03:04):
of domestic and training.
We wanted to get moretheological education because we
really felt that pull to thelocal church globally.
And so we sought out differentseminaries and different
trainings because we are giftedso differently.
We ended up both attendingGordon Conwell Theological
(03:25):
Seminary, At their main campusin South Hamilton,
Massachusetts, which is justnorth of Boston, where Garrett
obtained two master's degreesone in biblical languages, one
in Old Testament, and I got amaster's in social ethics.
And so, while we were there, wehad our 2 oldest children, Levi
(03:46):
and Nora.
And when Nora was 10 weeks old,we took all of this training,
all of this experience, and wemoved to Kiev, Ukraine.
And what we did was twofold.
We worked with a Bible teachingteam that focused on the local
church.
So part of that was TitusProject, which is actually what
(04:07):
we're doing now in the state.
So it's kind of cool to see thisfull circle moment.
But the other part and the mainreason we went was Garrett and I
wrote a Bible curriculum thatwould take three years to work
through multiple classes, anydenomination, any person could
access this.
And what it does is it.
Explores every book of the Bibleinductively.
(04:30):
So that's meaning we're lookingat the text in its original
context, the original audience.
It was written to.
Why did it need to be written?
What was the author's intent?
What is the, what is going on atthe time it's written because we
firmly believe that the Biblewas not written to us, but it is
written for us and.
He wrote a Bible curriculum totrain pastors in Eastern Europe
(04:53):
and Central Asia, how to accesswhat the word of God says for
themselves, because one, it'sreally hard to find sound
doctrine in the Russianlanguage, but two, it's a post
communist post USSR where truthwas relative.
And we firmly believe that truthis Jesus and so we developed it
(05:15):
in English as well as Russianand we built workbooks and so we
used Titus project as an avenueto walk out this training for
pastors and lay leaders in thechurch in Eastern Europe and
Central Asia.
Peggy Griffith (05:31):
That is so amazing.
And to think that need is thereto build that biblical
understanding and knowledge inthe context of the author's
intent.
The context of what washappening at that time.
That is really important becauseso often I think a lot of people
(05:56):
stray away from the teachings ofthe Bible because of human
interpretation of words that aresometimes taken out of context.
So, yeah, I love that.
Just makes so much sense.
Tell me a little bit about Thethree years that you spent in
(06:19):
Ukraine and the things that youdid there.
cassandraspeck (06:23):
So I have loved Ukraine since 2013 I did a
leadership training course andthere was a married couple.
He was Ukrainian.
She was American, but they werepioneering this work in
Southeastern Ukraine and since2013, which was the year Garrett
and I started dating.
I was like, I have to go toUkraine.
And Garrett knew early on whenwe were dating that I was a
(06:44):
woman on a mission.
And if we were going to makethis happen, that he was going
to become a man on a mission andwe were going to do it together.
And so Ukraine was always in theback of our minds.
And then when we had Levi atseminary, we knew we needed to
start looking for where we weregoing.
And so we looked at differentplaces, but Ukraine was exactly
(07:05):
what we were looking for in thatit allowed both of us to use our
gifts for the kingdom of God inthe fullness of them.
And to go with an alreadyestablished Bible team, but also
to start this new thing.
And so we moved to Ukraine inAugust of 2019.
And as you know, world history,you know what happened.
(07:27):
We moved the end of summer 2019,which meant we moved almost
exactly six months before COVIDstarted.
And so we were full of hope.
We were full of dreams and likethe rest of the world in March
of 2020, we kind of watchedeverything fade into the back as
(07:49):
everyone was trying to figureout what does the world look
like, but the coolest thing,like something I'm so grateful
for in the way I look back isbecause the whole world went
online at that point, our Bibleprogram that we were training
three to five leaders, our firstclass, once COVID had started
(08:09):
was 47 people
Peggy Griffith (08:12):
You get out of here.
cassandraspeck (08:14):
seven nations.
And so where we thought we weregoing to focus on Ukraine and
Central Asia, and we was goingto be this slow build, we were
seeing like five year visionpieces happen in the first six
months.
And so while everyone else wasfretting, we're like, this is
amazing.
Like our ministry is going,people are getting trained.
(08:34):
We had people from central Asia.
We had people from Canada.
We had people from all overEurope which ends in some really
cool God stories since,including an outreach we went to
Belfast, Ireland with this yearbecause of that COVID, that
first COVID year.
So where we thought we were justfocusing on training so small,
(08:55):
COVID opened the entire worldfor us from Ukraine and really
brought in people's focusing onwhat was happening in Ukraine
long before the full scaleinvasion happened in 2022.
So we started.
And what we do is we take theBible and we've broken it down
into nine modules and we do itthematically.
(09:16):
And we explore all of thesedifferent themes, what the text
is saying.
So that's what we did for threeyears.
And then we also led TitusOutreaches.
So we weren't just using thisBible curriculum, but we were
also taking internationalmissionaries as well as
Ukrainian missionaries intraining them how to be
effective communicators of thegospel through inductive
(09:38):
preaching, inductive teachinghow do you lead Bible studies?
How do you communicate crossculturally?
And so we really got to see thefullness of this vision that God
had given us in such a shortamount of time.
Where we saw incredible thingsin a short three years.
Peggy Griffith (09:55):
That is like unexpected grace, right?
Like you go thinking you'regoing to focus on this small
group of people in this, thissmall thing, and it ends up
exploding due to something thatbrought a lot of people grief.
And, you know, you were able tohave a reason to embrace it,
which is really, really neat.
(10:15):
How, how did the COVID epidemicimpact your time in, in Ukraine
or, or was it as big of an issuethere as it, as it was here in
the United States?
cassandraspeck (10:25):
I think it was bigger for different reasons.
I think a lot of Americans thinkUkraine is more developed than
it is.
The city, sure, very developed,very tech savvy, but that's like
Ukraine is predominantlyagriculture and there's a lot of
village.
And so life was weird for abouttwo weeks and then people can't
(10:47):
survive if they're not going towork.
People can't survive if theycan't come into the cities and
sell their, their produce thatthey're raising in their
gardens.
And so it was, it was definitelydifferent, but because we'd only
been there six months, like sixmonths, you're barely done with
culture shock.
And so it was kind of just, we,It just felt like another piece
(11:10):
of learning the culture.
And I think very early on, wewatched friends around the world
try and hurry home to get totheir home countries because no
one knew what was going tohappen.
But we made the decision inthose first few days, like, no,
God caught us to Ukraine.
This is home.
This is where we're staying.
And so.
(11:31):
You can imagine the grief thatcomes with then a short year and
a half later having to face andhave those same conversations,
but not because of a pandemic,because of a war.
And so I would say that Ukrainelooked nothing like what we
thought it would.
And and yeah, I would, I woulddo every single thing again.
I would move back tomorrow if wethought that was wisdom for our
(11:55):
kids.
Yeah.
Peggy Griffith (11:56):
That makes sense.
And I know I probably didn'tuntil I really started to read
into the conflict that's goingon between Russia and Ukraine.
And this is not something thatstarted in 2022.
There has been ongoing unrestfor quite some time and Tell us
a little bit of the back storythere.
(12:18):
And what the environment waslike in the Ukraine during that
unsettled conflict.
cassandraspeck (12:24):
I would say for anyone who's curious that this
is a century old story.
It even goes beyond back to 2014when you have people who are
trying to wipe out cultures andtrying to wipe out whole people
groups.
And so you can look.
Through even like the beginningof the 20th century with how the
USSR is established and postBolsheviks.
(12:47):
It's a pretty fascinating storyof humanity and how God does
things in the midst of itanyways.
But for the purposes of ourconversation the Maidan
revolution began in 2014, but itwas triggered by events at the
end of 2013.
So the Ukrainian president thattime was ushering in this new
(13:10):
season, this new hope forUkraine of joining the EU.
And in November of 2013, he wassupposed to sign the contract
that began that process forUkraine's entrance into the EU,
and instead he backs out lastminute and signs a document in
(13:30):
agreement with Russia because hewas pro Russian president.
And so the youth of the nation.
Had something to say about itand they showed up and so they
call it Maidan revolutionbecause the main square in Kiev
is the my it's called Maidan.
It's the main square and theyouth, it was the college
students.
It was the youth who knew theirfuture hung in the balance that
(13:53):
showed up and really took astand against a government that
wasn't working for them andwasn't doing what was in their
best interest.
And so what happens during thattime is in early to actually
February of 2014, Russia sendstroops into eastern Ukraine, as
(14:15):
well as into Crimea and annexesCrimea, which historically,
depending on who your historianis, has belonged to Ukraine the
actually the Crimean Tartars aretheir own people group, and they
have been there for centuries aswell.
But so Russia takes Crimea andsends troops into almost like a
(14:36):
proxy war in 2 states in theEast called Donetsk and Luhansk.
And so That happens in 2014, andit was barely a blip on the map
in the West, because it'sEastern Europe.
It's Russia.
No big deal.
So there has been active warfarehappening in the east of Ukraine
(14:57):
for 10 years.
And so in spring of 2021, I amnine months pregnant with Logan
and we start hearing this rumorof Russian troops building up on
the border.
And honestly, like none of ourUkrainian friends were concerned
(15:18):
or worried.
It's just a military likeoperation practice.
So that peaks upinternationally.
People start to take notice.
So they pull back.
So that's spring of 2021.
Thanksgiving of 2021.
So mid November, right beforeAmerican Thanksgiving the troops
start building up, but theydon't pull back this time.
And so we start gettingnotifications from the United
(15:41):
States Embassy in Kyiv, the citywe live in, in November of 2021,
saying, Hey, this is suspiciousbehavior.
We don't know what's going tohappen, but it seems as
something's going to happen.
Well, all of our friends, BothWesterners who have been in
Ukraine and Ukrainians are like,it's just saber rattling like
that's all we heard for months.
It's just saber rattling.
(16:01):
They're not going to doanything.
Okay.
No problem.
So Orthodox Christmas, which isJanuary 7th, we get a
notification from the embassythat they suspect that Russia is
going to do something andthey're advising people to start
evacuating the country.
(16:21):
This is early 2022.
And all the other missionsorganizations in Kiev at this
point have pulled theirmissionaries either out of
country or move them to theWest.
But our missions organization,our base directors were saying.
Hey, we trust that you hear theLord.
So however the Lord leads, we'regoing to support you.
If you feel what's best is togo, then you're not going to be
(16:41):
penalized, we honor that.
And so we prayed and it's like,well, God's not asking us to go.
And if they're not making us go,then we're going to stay and run
Titus project.
So that's what we were alsodoing in Ukraine.
So we had four Bible teachers,two Ukrainians, two Americans,
and we started Titus project.
(17:03):
And.
Within that month, by the end ofJanuary, we went to an
international church in Kiev.
We were the only internationalsleft.
And so we walked into church theend of January and there were
like 15 people in there and wewere the only foreigners and
we're like, this is interesting.
But again, Our friends aren'tconcerned.
We're not concerned.
This is where God has called us.
(17:24):
We're training these Bibleteachers like ministry is
normal.
And so as that starts toprogress, we get this random
donation from this little redbrick church in Northern
Illinois.
Never supported us.
And so we tried giving it awaybecause at this point, older
Ukrainians who needed healthcareand things like that, their
(17:46):
families were starting toevacuate them.
We had some foreign friends whohad left and so we offered it to
our Ukrainian friend and she waslike, Hey, actually my sister
paid for it.
She, my mom's going to Germany.
No big deal.
And we're like, okay, so I guesswe just hold onto it.
And Garrett was like, well,let's pray.
And so we did.
And as we prayed, we were like,it doesn't hurt to move our
(18:07):
family a little further Westbecause we are in the capital of
the country.
Like if anything was going tohappen,
Peggy Griffith (18:13):
It would be there.
cassandraspeck (18:14):
Yeah, it's going to be there.
And so we're like, okay, likewe're on outreach anyways,
because that's what we do, Titusproject is going and actually
doing the teaching crossculturally.
So we take our two UkrainiansWest to a city called Ternopil,
not Chernobyl, Ternopil,different places.
Chernobyl sits above Kiev, about63 kilometers.
(18:38):
Ternopil where we were is eighthours West.
So a couple of hours from thePolish border.
So
Peggy Griffith (18:42):
Wow.
cassandraspeck (18:43):
we're there.
We're teaching we are having themost fruitful season of
Ukrainian Bible teaching like weare working with churches
morning, noon and night.
We're, we're hitting all of ourteaching hours like thriving and
Valentine's Day, they shut downthe airports in Ukraine and
we're like, Oh, that'sinteresting.
Like, something seems to beactually happening if they're
(19:05):
shutting airports down.
And so the things we were toldto look for is if Russia was
actually going to invade, thefirst sign would be the troop
buildups, which at this point,it was assumed there were 95,
000 Russian troops on theRussian Ukrainian border.
And the 2nd thing was, if Russiadeclares that states have what
(19:26):
Americans would call seceded,like, they've become like their
own states, their own
Peggy Griffith (19:30):
nation.
Okay.
cassandraspeck (19:31):
Oh, that's kind of what we were looking for.
So we're teaching we'repreaching.
We're doing all these things andthen Monday, which would have
been either the 20th or 21st, wewake up.
It's a Monday morning andLuhansk and Donetsk have
announced themselves asindependent states and we're
like.
Peggy Griffith (19:50):
Oh,
cassandraspeck (19:51):
And by the end of the day, Russian troops had
crossed the border into these 2states because they're now
sovereign nations.
They're not Ukraine, which theydon't actually declare that
Russian media is declaring thatso that they can come in without
starting a global anything.
So that was on Monday and beforewe went, we made wills because
we knew that this was always apossibility, but never dreamed
(20:13):
it would happen.
So we had our living wills, Wehad a game plan.
We always had a backpack just incase with passports, birth
certificates, our wills, likeall of the important things.
And so we had that with us onoutreach.
And when they cross, we're like,okay, this is actually
happening.
We should, start praying aboutleaving.
(20:34):
So we plan to leave March 1st,which is a week later.
Because at this point, we stilldon't think anything is
happening.
We just know it possibly couldso we're praying on Tuesday.
And as we pray, we just feltlike God say, look, I've made a
way forward and that was what Ineeded to be able to leave
because I was the one who washesitant to go.
(20:55):
And I was adamant that until Godsaid to go, I was not leaving
the country, because that iswhat God had asked us to do.
And so,
Peggy Griffith (21:03):
heart was there.
cassandraspeck (21:04):
oh yeah, it, it was home.
Like, we moved there becausethat's where I got, I mean, I
had a baby there.
I, delivering cross culturallyis not for the faint of heart.
Especially in a post Sovietnation.
10 10, don't recommend.
It was not great.
Peggy Griffith (21:18):
Yeah.
cassandraspeck (21:19):
But so we, we get tickets for a week later and
that was a Tuesday night,Wednesday morning, we were like,
we can't pay rent in America andin Ukraine.
So we Garrett drives seven hoursback to Kiev to pack up our
house.
We put it at a friend's house atour offices in Kiev and he
(21:40):
drives the eight hours back.
So like the most insane
Peggy Griffith (21:43):
All in a day.
cassandraspeck (21:44):
All in a day.
Gets back to Ternopil in theWest at 3 48 a.
m.
on Thursday, February 24th.
And at 5 a.
m.
My phone is blowing up withphone calls from America that is
watching Ukraine be invaded ontheir nightly news, but it's the
middle of the night for us.
So all of Ukraine is asleep.
(22:05):
And then my phone, I startgetting all these phone calls
from my friend Ruslan, and hewas like, Cassie.
Kiev is being bombed.
They're bombing all of thecities.
You guys have Americanpassports.
You have to get your kids andget out of the country right
now.
And we were like, Oh, okay.
So Garrett had one hour and 12minutes of sleep after driving
and packing a house.
(22:25):
And I go wake him up and say,honey, the war has started.
We have to go.
And.
That was unimaginable.
Like, even now I say it outloud, and it is definitely from
a place of detachment of, I knowthat that's what that happened,
but the chaos and the fear andthe unexpectedness and all of it
(22:51):
was just like, Is this reallyhappening?
And so he's unpacking the car.
He's doing all these things.
I'm trying to pack up becausewe're on outreach, right?
We're not at home.
So I'm trying to pack up whatlittle I have of the kids
because we were only supposed tobe gone 3 weeks and I get our
emergency bag together.
We get in the car.
And Garrett comes in afterpacking up the car and he's
(23:13):
like, did you hear that?
And I was like, hear what?
And he goes, go out on theporch.
So I opened the bedroom door toour porch and the air raid
sirens are going off and it wasthe kind of fear where your
bottom drop like the stomach,your stomach drops out, but you
also think you might throw upand all of a sudden, nothing in
the world makes sense.
Like, it was the most haunting,sickening, terrifying thing I've
(23:37):
ever heard in my life.
But we got in the car and we hadfriends who were in the same
city as us.
So we packed up and we evacuatedtogether.
Peggy Griffith (23:47):
Right.
Oh my goodness.
And you took your car and youhad plans where most people were
evacuating through Poland.
You chose to go another way.
cassandraspeck (24:01):
Yeah, so the embassy at that point had said,
American military will not comeinto Ukraine to help you.
You're on your own, but we'llhave troops at the border in
Poland.
And so that's what everyone onall the message boards all the
messaging apps go to Poland, goto Poland, go to Poland.
But we didn't, we had friends inBudapest and Hungary, and they
happened to be in the States.
(24:22):
And so I was messaging with herand she's like, Cassie, like go
to our apartment.
You guys can stay at our houselike for however long you need.
And we're like, okay, we'regoing to, we're going to
Hungary, but it put us in thecountry for longer because it
was eight hours to the borderinstead of the two to Poland.
The miracle of it is because therest of the country was
(24:43):
evacuating to Poland.
We only sat at the border crossfor five hours instead of three
to five days, which was the waittime.
Peggy Griffith (24:55):
Unbelievable.
And you had initially had a planto ditch your car and hitchhike
across, or to walk across andhitchhike, but something
changed.
cassandraspeck (25:04):
So, in Ukraine, you can't own property unless
you have a tax ID number, whichwe did not because we are
foreigners.
And so we had bought our car,but because ukraine's not a part
of the EU.
We could not drive our car intocentral Europe without special
documents that said we wereallowed to do that and a special
insurance.
And so we get to the border andwe have neither of those things
(25:28):
and we're like, okay.
Our friend in the city we hadevacuated from was like, okay,
if they don't let you cross, youpark your car on the side of the
road, throw your keys into thewoods, send me a picture where
they are.
We will come get your car and wewill find someone to come pick
you up on the Polish border.
And we're like, okay, so we getto the border cross and we hand
them all five of our Americanpassports.
(25:50):
And I kid you not, as soon as wehand them all forth, it's the
middle of the night.
Like our kids have been asleepfor hours.
All three of our kids who are atthis point, they are four, two
and eight months old, wake upscreaming, like blood curdling,
top of your lungs screaming thatthese kids can do.
And the border guard just looksat us and like gets really big.
(26:12):
Looks at our passports, looks atthe car passport, doesn't say
anything, and just sends usthrough, like, sends us right on
and as soon as we cross the kidsgo right back to sleep.
So, yep.
So little miracles like thatbecause Garrett got home close
to 4 a.
m.
He did not put gas in the carbecause he's like, I'll just do
it tomorrow.
(26:33):
So by the time we got on theroad at 8 a.
m.
on February 24th, the gasstation lines were kilometers
long and we're like, we'll justkeep driving.
We should have made it.
45 minutes to an hour.
We drove six hours before we hadto pull over and our car was not
going to function.
We pulled into a gas station sixhours later when we shouldn't
(26:55):
have been able to drive morethan one.
We didn't look at the the newsonce we got to Hungary and
looked at the map where bombshad been dropped.
It like hit.
All of the different sides ofthe road that we were taking to
Hungary, but we never sawanything.
The kids never heard anything.
It was a beautiful blue day.
And I think it was just thekindness of the Lord that just
(27:17):
shielded and protected not onlyour physical bodies, but our
minds and our spirits as wellthat.
He was trustworthy.
Peggy Griffith (27:25):
Wow, that's amazing how your plans versus
reality turn out and, you'regoing, God, I'm not sure how
this is going to work out.
But yeah.
Looking back on this experience.
Has this changed the way you seehow God works in your life at
all.
cassandraspeck (27:45):
Well, oh, yes, very much for lots of different
reasons, but I was not raised ina church.
I wasn't churched as a kidgrowing up.
And so I had this radicalencounter with the Lord at 22
and have kind of been in fulltime ministry since.
And I think that this reallyforced me to reconcile my
(28:05):
experiences with my theologywith the Word of God.
And
Peggy Griffith (28:09):
wow.
cassandraspeck (28:11):
beautiful passage in Exodus 34 that talks
about the Lord's steadfast loveand it's when he's revealing
himself after the golden calfand that his love is steadfast
and just who he is and thefullness of his nature and
character.
And You know, the goodness ofGod, that worship song had come
(28:33):
out at about that time.
And it took me years to be ableto sing the words to that song
that would come on.
And I would be stone cold.
Like you're not good.
You're not kind.
I also really value truth.
So I wasn't going to saysomething that I didn't mean.
And so even worship.
And I think.
During especially that 1st, yearand a half, if I didn't have the
(28:56):
liturgy of church history, and Ididn't have the liturgy of the
congregational church.
I don't know if I would be whereI am at, not just with my faith,
but with in my journey withJesus, because when I couldn't
pray, it was the prayer of thesaints of the centuries before
us that carried me when Icouldn't even go to bed when I
(29:16):
couldn't find the words and Icouldn't sing the songs.
It was the liturgy of the churchin all of her history that
really carried me through thedarkest season of my life.
Peggy Griffith (29:29):
Is there anything that just surprised you
the most out of this wholething?
cassandraspeck (29:34):
Probably that as a missionary, I was a terrible
Christian.
As a Bible teacher, did Iactually believe what I taught?
So again, this reckoning of myfaith with my theology and the
way I lead my life.
Peggy Griffith (29:50):
Yeah.
And now you're kind of lookingat, okay, this is how I'm
supposed to show up.
Not, not just talk it, but walkit.
cassandraspeck (29:58):
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
Nothing like a good old globalwar to get you ready and be
like, Do I actually believethis?
Like, do I actually trust thatJesus is with me?
And a beautiful piece that Ican't wait to share in the next
part is how that came about withmy five year old daughter in our
return to Ukraine.
Peggy Griffith (30:18):
Absolutely.
Well, hey, I want to thank you,Cassie, for sharing your story
with us.
Next week we will talk about thepart two of your story and we'll
talk about your journey back tothe United States and what that
was like coming back after threeyears and some of the challenges
that were associated with thatand, the formation that came
along with that.
So tune in everyone.
(30:40):
And if you haven't done soalready, click that subscribe
button.
So you won't miss a minute ofCassie's gospel story.
And if you or someone, you know,would like to share your story
on the show, please send me anemail at
nextdoorgospel@gmail.Com.
And until then, may the Lordbless you and keep you.
May the Lord make his face toshine upon you and be gracious
(31:03):
to you.
The Lord turn his face towardsyou and give you peace.
Amen.
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