V. Franchuk. Restoration of Pentecostal Church Activities in Western Ukraine and Belarus

August 21, 2011 · Adam Bondaruk, Baptists, Victor Belykh, AUCECB, Persecution, Interview, KGB, Books, Unregistered Pentecostals, Nikolay Kotyakov, On Emigration, United Church of Evangelical Christians, Vestibule, Petr Saenko, Pentecostals, Religious Mafia, Slavik Radchuk, Contemporary Persecution, Security Services

Under the German occupation, for obvious reasons, it was very difficult to travel from one city to another. Ivan Kalinnikovich Panko left his apartment in Vilna and moved to his native village (not far from Baranovichi) to be closer to the churches of the Christians of Evangelical Faith (CEF), which were especially numerous in the Brest and Grodno regions of Belorussia. From that time, Baranovichi became the center of the Pentecostal brotherhood of the CEF during the German occupation. Maintaining regular contact with the district CEF presbyters in Ukraine was extremely challenging, and I. K. Panko’s activities during that period were largely confined to the territory of Western Belorussia.

Naturally, in Western Ukraine as well, leading CEF ministers sought ways, despite the war, to continue their gospel service to the churches. Afanasy Teslyuk, Daniil Byts, Grigory Goroshko, Mikhail Kit, Iosafat Makar, Daniil Adamek, and Mikhail Verbitsky kept working in Galicia. In some places they even managed to open prayer houses and hold meetings, but on the whole their work was local—each one carried out his ministry where he lived and in the surrounding area, at his own risk. In Volhynia and the Rivne region during the war, Porfiry Ilchuk, Trofim Nagorny, and Luka Stolyarchuk continued the work of evangelism. In Polesie, amid dense forests and impassable swamps where German troops preferred not to appear unless absolutely necessary, Efim Strelka labored in the work of the Gospel during the occupation, supported by the effective help of Xenofont Shirko, Vladimir Melnik, Gerasim Rashchet-Vakulich, and Moisey Murza.

E. Strelka even managed to convene a congress of leading ministers from Polesie and part of Volhynia in 1942, at which the organizational differences between the congregations of Evangelical Faith Christians and the congregations of the Church of God (the “spiritual ones”) were finally eliminated. Shared misfortune drew them together; there was no time for disputes—both human souls and human lives were perishing all around.

Western Ukraine was ravaged by yet another disaster—armed formations of Ukrainian nationalist Bandera followers, who fiercely hated communists, Jews, Poles, and evangelical preachers. This organization and its ominous executive body—the security service—repeatedly passed death sentences on the Evangelical Christian worker Moisey Murza, and only a miracle of God turned away the hands of the murderers. Luka Stolyarchuk was killed on the sentence of the Banderites. Many Christians suffered threats and repression, and many were killed for the name of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ by this bandit horde. Yet even in these most difficult conditions, the CEF workers, sacrificing themselves and their families, fulfilled their gospel duty before God and men.

As for Belorussia, working contacts between leading ministers were gradually established there, a church leadership was formed, at the head of which Ivan Kalinnikovich Panko was recognized. Sergey Iosifovich Vashkevich was elected secretary. Gathered around the leadership were Daniil Komsa, Pavel Tur, Grigory Selyuzhitsky, and Stanislav Nedvetsky, who by that time had returned to his native Radashkovichi. (In 1938 the Polish authorities had expelled him from Radashkovichi, which lay near the border zone, and forbade him to live within 100 kilometers of the USSR border. From 1938 to 1941 Stanislav Nedvetsky lived in the city of Vilna.) Other ministers also labored together with them.

The brethren understood that the work of the Gospel must go on. But how?

It was known that the fascists did not recognize Pentecostal teaching or Pentecostal churches; it was known that in Germany the prayer houses of Pentecostals had been closed, and many ministers had been shot by the fascists for their faithfulness to their doctrine, or were in concentration camps. It was also known that in Germany many Pentecostals had transferred to Baptist churches, against whose activities the fascists had no objections. There was some hope that in the territory of Belorussia too, it might be possible to obtain from the occupation authorities some kind of permission to legalize the churches, either under the guise of Baptist ones or as Pentecostal congregations.

With great difficulty, Panko, Vashkevich, and Nedvetsky established contact with Gustav Schmidt, to whom they wrote about their situation. At that time Schmidt had just been released from a German concentration camp.

His stay in the camp was later reported in the pages of the “Evangelical Herald”:

“In October 1940 he visited our Pentecostal brethren in Poland; when he returned from the visit, he was arrested by the German authorities. Over the course of three days, from morning until late at night—about 60 hours—he was asked various questions in order to incriminate him as a spy, bringing false accusations against him. For two months he had no news from his family. During six and a half months in confinement, he could see his wife only four or five times.

The prison cell was very small, with little windows that let in little light, so the cell was semi-dark. As a result, he developed ringing in his head, his hearing and eyesight became dull, so that he has to wear glasses.

The food was poor, so that in 10 weeks he lost 20 kg.

When he felt his strength failing altogether, he began to cry out to God, and the Lord heard his prayer. The authorities gave permission for a meal to be brought from a restaurant every day. Brother G. Schmidt writes: ‘While in confinement, I never before felt such a presence of the Lord, which was so sweet. In my sleep I heard as if an orchestra, thousands of heavenly harps were playing and singing words that I could clearly understand: words of heavenly glory. This encouraged me. When I awoke, I began to sing psalms in the Spirit myself, and the glory of the Lord filled my heart.’”

After some time, a grim reply from Schmidt reached Belorussia.

Schmidt’s Letter
Danzig, Litzmannstadt

October 4, 1942

To the brothers: Panko, Vashkevich, Nedvetsky, and others.

Dear brothers in the Lord!

After two and a half years, I have again been permitted for the first time to be in Litzmannstadt and to have fellowship with the children of God—something my heart has long desired.

I am writing this letter in the house of Brother Bergholz, who, unfortunately, was not at home at the time of my arrival, but thanks to God’s wonderful guidance, he unexpectedly received leave and came home last week. Here I received news of your life and sincerely thanked my Lord that by His grace He helped you to withstand the storms of all this time. However, a certain number of brothers have departed into eternity and are in the Lord’s dwelling, where there is no suffering, no tears, and no more separation.

You have, of course, already heard about the sorrow I had to endure for the sake of the Gospel, but I have also experienced the faithfulness of my Lord, when the wonderful and blessed presence of God became dearer and more real to me with each passing day, and now I love my Savior more than before. Hallelujah!

Unfortunately, the German government does not recognize the movement of Evangelical Christians-Pentecostals, and all the congregations that it recognized as Pentecostal have been closed. Those congregations that joined the Baptist Union in time can continue to work unhindered. At the same time, however, certain restrictions have been imposed, to which all these congregations must submit, namely:

So-called choral prayers.
Unknown tongues, forbidden in open public meetings.

Regarding these two points, having become acquainted with the Pentecostal movement in many countries, I can say that in all Christian congregations not all or many pray aloud and simultaneously, and as I also emphasized at the Bible courses—one after another.

As for unknown tongues, in the hundreds of meetings in which I participated together with the Belarusian, Ukrainian believers of the former Poland, in the general meetings unknown tongues were spoken very rarely, i.e., they acted as is customary throughout the world, namely: they do not speak in unknown tongues in general meetings, but pray in them in closed rooms reverently, as the apostle Paul indicates in 1 Corinthians 14:12-15; in members’ meetings they speak in unknown tongues only when the Spirit gives direction, wherein, however, what is spoken must be made fully intelligible through interpretation.

Thus, blessing can be brought forth by ministry of the gifts only from those children of God who in their sanctification have reached the highest degree. Otherwise, there will be, unfortunately, no blessed effect of the gifts, but on the contrary, as often happens, only great offense and doubts regarding spiritual gifts will be caused.

In light of the fact that these two points are not a fundamental pillar of the Christian faith, and since the Pentecostal movement in general has long acted in accordance with these conditions and in keeping with them, I advise you to join the Baptist Union while there is still opportunity, so that your congregations may thus stand further and so that you may continue to bring souls to Christ. Otherwise, your congregations and meetings will be closed, and the sheep will remain without shepherds and without food and will be scattered, as has already happened in many cases in Germany.

We are now entering a period of time when no one may contend and argue about secondary points of doctrine, but when we all must unite along the line of salvation given by our Lord, pointing us to spiritual regeneration, sanctification, holy living, the salvation of souls, and the near coming of the Lord.

Our congregation in Danzig joined the Baptist Union three years ago, and our meetings are blessed by the Lord. In connection with our activity we have no oppressions, so join the same union as well, work for the Master while it is day, for behold, night is coming when no one can work.

I do not know whether I will ever again have the joy in life of seeing you face to face, and therefore I continually ask and beseech the Lord to give us strength to follow Him, so that we may yet meet at the throne of God.

I commend you to the grace of God, greet you heartily, and all the brothers and sisters with me greet you heartily.

Gustav Schmidt

However, Schmidt felt that the Gestapo was not letting him out of their sight and decided to flee from Danzig to neutral Sweden. On the night of January 1, 1943, he miraculously managed to sneak aboard a Swedish steamer bound for Sweden and hide in one of its cabins, where no one had been for a long time. When the steamer entered Swedish territorial waters, Schmidt went to the captain of the ship and made a statement of asylum. By the captain’s order, he was arrested and handed over to the local police in Stockholm. Thanks to the intercession of Pastor Levi Petrus, he was soon released. Schmidt’s wife and his children—8‑year‑old Ruth and 4‑year‑old Karin—remained in Danzig. The father found his children only after the war. Schmidt’s wife did not live to see this—leaving two little girls, she died on May 1, 1944.

The magazine “Evangelical Herald” carried a reprint from the English‑language Assemblies of God magazine “Pentecostal Evangel,” where Schmidt’s letter was published, containing the following lines:

“My great desire is to now bring my children from Danzig to Sweden. It is a great trial for me to have my children there, not knowing anything about their health and unable to help them. Though little hope is given me, I believe that the Lord will find a way to bring them here this same summer. I ask you, tell all the saints and ask them to pray that the Lord may help me in this need…”

The Lord granted His servant many more years of life, filled with responsible ministry of preaching the Gospel. G. Schmidt died in May 1958. He quietly passed away at the age of 66 to his Lord, for whom he labored faithfully until the last days of his life. He died in Germany, where he had gone to preach, imploring the believers with tears to serve the Lord with all their hearts, as Ivan Zub‑Zolotarev wrote in his obituary.

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