People of faith share God’s goodness

BELARUS — Among the large congregation at the Pentecostal church which founded the children’s centre in Baranovichi (see previous article) are many people who have stories to tell about how God’s Word has directly touched their lives at a time of great difficulty.

Members of the congregation at a service at the Pentecostal church in Baranovichi, Belarus. Photo: UBS/Dag Smemo (BYE05DJ-166.JPG)

Lidiya Paulauna, 65, for example, came to faith during the Soviet era when the Bible was banned.

“I was living in Murmansk at the time,” she says, “but on one occasion I visited my parents here in Baranovichi. They asked me if I wanted to join them at a meeting of what was at that time a small Pentecostal congregation. That very day my mother was cured of cancer. It made a powerful impression on me. When I returned home, I told my daughter what had happened. After a while we both became Christians and began to experience God’s love and care in our daily lives.

“Later God helped me to find a new job in Baranovichi and I was able to join the congregation where my mother had been cured. I had a great spiritual hunger at the time and I so much wanted my own Bible, but I couldn’t simply go into a bookshop and buy one. One of my acquaintances took a risk and smuggled me one from Poland. When my husband found out that I had a Bible in the house he was furious and wanted to burn it. I begged him not to do it. He had a change of heart and I was allowed to keep it.”

As a family, Yuri, 41, Irina, 32, and their nine-year-old son Maxim are also keen to express their gratitude to God for bringing them through very challenging experiences.

“We began attending meetings here in 2002,” says Irina. “At that time Yuri and I were both working in a textile factory. A colleague there talked to us about God and told us that, for him, nothing is impossible. I was deeply moved by what she said and could not forget it. Later, our son became seriously ill with a virus that attacked his bones. We believe that God cured him. The doctor, who was not a Christian, said, ‘I have done my work as a doctor, but it seems as though God has done most of the work here!’ For me, this was the start of a new life and I was baptised.”

Yuri was an alcoholic for many years and tried to commit suicide several times.

“One day I was invited to a meeting here at which an American evangelist was going to speak. He asked people to come forward to start a new life. I felt a need to go forward, but at the same time something held me back. I stood there, completely immobilised, but then it was as if something pushed me towards the speaker. I became a believer there and then. I suffer from epilepsy, and our son prays for me every time I have a seizure. We experience God’s presence in our lives every day.” (WR 401/4 - 04/05.06) [5 photos]