V. Franchuk. Pentecostals in the Hour of War, 1939-1945
And they have not said in their heart:
Let us now fear the Lord our God,
Who gives rain, both the early and the late, in its season;
He reserves for us the appointed weeks of the harvest. Jer 5:24
The Hour of War
In May 1939, the Union of Christians of Evangelical Faith in Poland marked its 15th anniversary. The union had a well‑functioning working environment, a beautifully organized and well‑managed structural system of district associations of Evangelical Christian churches! The work of nurturing and spiritually educating believers had been sufficiently developed. In other words, it was a period of flourishing for this union; the prospects seemed wonderful and bright.
The day of September 1, 1939, entered world history as a black, ominous memory: the Second World War began. It lasted nearly six years and claimed over 50 million lives. The first victim of the Second World War was the almost defenseless Poland. Germany annexed the so‑called Polish Corridor, headed by the “free city” of Danzig, and the rest of Poland. The Red Army entered Western Ukraine, Western Byelorussia and Lithuania, and Soviet power was established.
The chairman of the Union of Evangelical Christians, Arthur Bergholtz, and a member of the Union Committee, Alfons Mittelstädt (both lived in Łódź), found themselves on territory occupied by the Germans; communications were disrupted, and the publication of magazines ceased. Everything fell into disarray as a result of these events. The Eastern European Mission also ceased its work.
In those difficult conditions, the leading ministers—the senior presbyters of the district associations of the former Union of Evangelical Christians in Poland, headed by the union’s deputy chairman, Ivan Kalinnikovich Panko—began to establish contact with one another and to seek ways for gospel work under the new circumstances. But not even two years had passed, and before they could somehow put the work in order, a new black calamity struck—at dawn on June 22, 1941, the German‑fascist armies invaded the territory of the Soviet Union.
War rolled like a fiery wave across Ukraine and Byelorussia. This great tragedy is well known. Less well known is the fact that many church ministers were shot and tortured by the retreating Soviet troops. Here is what can be read in Maria Panasyuk’s article “And the Bloody Trace Burns,” published under the heading “Tragedies of the Past” in the Ternopil region newspaper Vilne Zhyttia, issue no. 69 (13825), July 3, 1999:
“In the picturesque locality of Berdo, on the outskirts of Chortkiv, where the Seret quietly carries its waters and green branches of birch trees rustle, an old wild pear tree rises above the steep bank. Not far away, there is a symbolic grave. Old‑timers in our town remember one of the tragic pages of the history of Chortkiv in the summer of 1941.
The 1930s left a bloody trace of NKVD deeds: persecution of the intelligentsia, arrests, deportations to Siberia. The bitter lot did not pass over the clergy either: Greek Catholic priests were forced to hide, and Roman Catholic pastors suffered repression.
1941, late June – early July. The front line passed through Chortkiv. The Red Army hastily retreated, covering up its tracks.
On the night of July 1–2, NKVD men together with soldiers burst into the monastery attached to the church and drove out Father Ustin Spirlak, Father Jacek Misiuta, Father Anatoly Znamyrovsky, and Brother Andrey Buyakovsky. They chased them through the nighttime streets to the outskirts of old Chortkiv—to Berdo. And there, on the bank of the Seret, they shot them… The town awoke to the shots. The terrible news of the Dominicans’ death quickly spread through the town and its outskirts. A crowd of people gathered at the place where the tortured ones lay. They wept. Some of those present fell to their knees and, bowing their heads, dipped their handkerchiefs in the blood—the holy blood of the innocently slain. Someone took a handful of blood‑stained earth. People kissed the spot where the bodies lay cold.
The authorities forbade burying the dead in the cemetery according to Christian custom. Therefore, the place of their death became the burial place. Orders were given to bury them by 2 p.m. on July 2; otherwise, the bodies would simply be thrown into the river. Coffins were hastily knocked together, each for two persons; they were sprinkled with holy water, and, while singing ‘Salve Regina,’ lowered into the graves dug on the bank of the Seret.
About the priests who remained, it was impossible to find out anything, since the military forbade access to the church. However, despite the obstacles, a pupil from the town managed to get into the temple and the monastery. What he saw was shocking. Brothers Reginald Chervonka, Mefodiy Ivanishchuv, and Josyp Vyncentovych lay tortured in their beds. The fate of Father Geronym Lyongava remained unknown, for there was no access to his cell. The NKVD men desecrated the church, destroying cultic objects.
To wipe away the traces, they set the monastery on fire. The fire destroyed its old part; the new part was partially scorched. The next day they set it on fire again; the roof of the church was burning.
On Sunday morning, July 6, German troops entered Chortkiv. On that day, the tortured monks were buried, and a funeral divine service was held. Before the burial of the victims, the door of the cell where Father Geronym Lyongava had lived was forced open. Everything testified that he had perished at the same time as the brothers. The burned‑down bed had been consumed along with the body. People gathered the charred remains of the body…
Into the last journey the regular clergy were accompanied by Father Pavlo Bochar and Father Wacław Szetelnicki from Dzhurynska Slobidka. For the first time since the war began, the bells rang out.
On July 8 a divine service for the departed was served. And on Sunday, July 13, after the liturgy, a procession to the priests’ grave took place. Parishioners carried a crown of thorns with dark red flowers — a symbol of their tragic death.
…Fifty years later, a reburial of the tortured Dominican fathers took place at the town cemetery. And on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the consecration of St. Stanislaus Church, a monument was consecrated at the site of the priests’ death; the design was made by architect M. Bilyk.
At that place, a spring gushes from the earth, a brook runs among the thick grasses, as if washing away the traces of inhuman cruelty. And from the tombstone, the names of the fallen cry out to the living to be humane, to love one’s neighbor, to warn descendants against the most terrible things—hostility and murder. Let us listen!”
Grigory Fedyshin, a member of the Union Committee, co-editor and administrator of the magazine “Evangelical Voice,” also perished without a trace in the dungeons of the Soviet secret services at that time, like many other people.
As already mentioned, in the pre-war period, especially at the end of the 1930s, a massive wave of emigration took place from the western part of Ukraine and Belarus to South America: to Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, but mostly to Argentina. Among those who left was a fairly large number of Evangelical Christian believers.
As early as August 1930 in Buenos Aires, Pentecostal emigrants convened the 1st Congress of Slavic Pentecostals living in Argentina. In August 1935, a congress of representatives of the Pentecostal communities of Argentina was again convened, which took place in the province of Misiones. At this congress, the name “Evangelical Christians of the Holy Pentecost” was adopted. In 1936, a congress of Slavic communities of Argentina was again convened, which took place in the colony of Chaco in the month of August.
Then one of the most well-known ministers of the fellowship of Evangelical Christians, Ivan Semenovich Zub-Zolotarev, moved to Argentina for permanent residence. In his memoirs, he later recounted: “It was a great surprise for many of my brothers and co-workers in Poland to learn of my departure, that leaving such a great field of God’s work in Poland, I was going to South America, a desert and wild country, as South America was spoken of there. On June 4, 1937, a farewell meeting was held, attended by a multitude of brothers and sisters, as well as the chairman of the union, Brother A. Berkholtz, and secretary G. Fedyshin. In August 1937, I arrived with my family in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, where in that same month we had the first united congress of Pentecostal brothers, to which representatives came from the republics of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Here the foundation was laid for the Union of the Assemblies of God in South America (Slavic), and, in order to enter the worldwide movement of Pentecostal brothers, adopted this name at the same congress. (Assemblies of God – V.F.) The chairmanship of this union was entrusted to me. At this same congress, it was decided to publish the magazine ‘Christian Herald’ as the organ of our union, entrusting the editorship to me.”
The local community in Buenos Aires elected Zub-Zolotarev as the presbyter of the community. The community was not very large, but they managed to build a church building in a short time. Soon the house of prayer began to fill up, so much so that there was soon little space, and they had to urgently build a gallery. Before the arrival of I. Zub-Zolotarev, there were no ordained ministers in the Slavic fellowship, with the exception of Brazil. Visiting communities that were thousands of kilometers apart, Zub-Zolotarev succeeded in uniting them into a strong union of churches. Reading the issues of the ‘Christian Herald,’ it is easy to imagine the life of the churches in Argentina. Here is what Zub-Zolotarev later wrote in 1944 in the article ’The Seventh Anniversary of the Founding of the Union of Assemblies of God in South America and the Publication of the Magazine ‘Christian Herald’’:
“Sensing that calamity was approaching in Europe, I advised the brothers and sisters living in Europe to come here. Many began to come. Transport after transport brought our brothers and sisters. Thus the number of believers increased.
In 1939, a general congress of our union was again held in the province of Misiones. In 1940, we again had our general congress in Buenos Aires. So many were present at the congress that the house of prayer was far from able to accommodate them, and therefore we were forced to fill a large hall. In the same year, the Lord helped my wife and me to visit the communities in Brazil, where we experienced blessings from the Lord. These blessed meetings and the brothers and sisters, full of love, remain in our memory to this day. The number of members in our union grew to approximately 2,000.
In 1942, we built a new prayer house in Buenos Aires, which was larger than the previous one. In 1943, we built a house of prayer in Paraguay, which can no longer accommodate all those gathering.
This year, the house of prayer in Misiones, in the colony of Campo Ramón, was completed. Another building is still under construction in the colony of Concepción de la Sierra. The Lord continues to baptize with the Holy Spirit and save sinners. Water baptisms have been and continue to be performed.
The magazine ‘Christian Herald’ has acquired many subscribers, who zealously help in its expansion.
This year, the 7th blessed congress took place. Communities in various parts of South America were visited.
With the help of the brothers and sisters of our union in North America, we have several free workers who dedicate their time to labor in God’s Field. We are trying to work also among the natives, where the Lord helped to learn their language and to witness to them in their language. We also have many young people, to whom we try to bring the Holy Gospel, and therefore we arrange meetings especially for youth and children.“
What was happening in the life of the churches in Ukraine and Belarus can be felt when rereading old letters that arrived, by some miracle, in Argentina, in Buenos Aires, at the editorial office of the magazine ‘Christian Herald.’ Here are some excerpts from these bitter letters, preserving the style of their authors.
“Brother Skobey from Vilna reported in a letter to Brother I. Vinnichek that they had lived through hard times. After the departure of the Polish authorities, Soviet troops arrived, and a few days later the city of Vilna passed under Lithuania. Meetings are now arranged in a different place and have a smaller hall for the meeting. Fewer visitors come to the meetings. Some of the believers wavered, but others stand firm and the Lord baptizes them with the Holy Spirit.
Brother I. Panko, the presbyter of their community and assistant to the chairman of the Union of Pentecostals in Poland, was taken away by Polish troops and it is unknown where he is. The community prays for him. His wife and children left Vilna for their place of residence in the Stolptsy district. Sister Olya Lemeshchuk also left Vilna for her parents in Volhynia, Kovel district. These localities are currently under Soviet rule. Brother Tsishuk with his wife is in Vilna. In conclusion, they ask to pray for them.“
“According to the English magazine ‘The Call of the Gospel’, Brother Arthur Berkholtz and his family are alive in the city of Lodz.
He was arrested and taken from his home. The house was surrounded by soldiers and a crowd who shouted that they should be killed, but the Lord preserved them. Some falsely accused the brother, presenting him as a German spy, but after a search he was released.
Sister Elsa Fahr from Pabianice, — Lodz, who was a cook at the Bible Institute in Danzig in 1935–1936, and also at the Bible courses in Podrizhye in 1934, — was tortured to death, along with her parents. When her body was found, it was difficult to recognize her: her face was disfigured, her eyes had been gouged out, and her teeth lay on her chest. This was done by an armed mob of Polish fanatics. Brother Alish, one of the students of the Bible Institute in Danzig, was also killed. An armed mob of Poles came to the house of his father-in-law. When his wife met the mob at the door, they said they wanted to see her husband. When she did not hurry to call him quickly, they began to beat her with rifle butts. Then her husband, father, and brother came to them. The armed mob forced these brothers to go with them. The poor woman ran into the house to get her three-week-old child. With the child in her arms, she followed her husband, father, and brother to the forest, but the mob stopped her. She begged that they would take her too, for she wanted to die with her husband. But again she was beaten, and they forced her to return home. These three men were taken and led into the forest, and soon shots were heard. The mob of Polish fanatics forced her to return home.
At night she went back to the forest, looking for her husband’s body, but she could not find it, because there were so many killed and the dead bodies lay one on top of another. When she came in the morning, she found her husband’s dead body and took it home. Her brother was still alive, but his fingers had been cut off and he was lying on the corpse of his father. The father’s eyes had been gouged out. We know that these brothers are already with the Lord, but the poor widows and orphans need prayers and help.”
“Your father and son Sasha were taken and were to be shot at Demidovka, while others were deported to Siberia…
…Krikovsky was tied to a post by German troops, doused with gasoline; when his wife tried to save him, she too was seized and together with her husband they were tied up and burned; the son of Nikolai, who lived near Grabovets, said something, then one soldier turned around and shot him in the head, killing him on the spot. Marinka, his mother, began to weep over him, then that soldier struck her so that she fell, and other women carried her away…
B… was shot. Dedukh received a letter reporting that his father, mother, brothers, and sisters had been shot, and he escaped and is in Italy… All the Czechs were taken to Czechia, and all their property was seized…
Pavel Dedukhov writes about the terrible calamities they experienced during the war. In the largest village few people remained; children were separated from their fathers and mothers… and all the violence against women is difficult to describe, horrible and horrible. Thousands of girls have several children, and the children do not know their fathers… Many girls found death in wells and in the Styr River, where they drowned… the youth suffered most from the soldiers… soldiers demanded wives from husbands, and if they did not agree, they killed them on the spot…
If one did not see it personally, they would not believe what was done. When the German troops retreated, they burned many villages. In the village of Malin (a Czech village), two men and one woman survived, and the rest were burned. Beyond Malin, in the woods, there were partisans, and they came to Malin for bread. When the Germans found out about it, many airplanes flew in and surrounded the village, and all the people – men, women, and children – in that village were doused with gasoline from the airplanes and burned alive, and thus they tortured everyone; there the Beshtov family also perished…”
“…I, my wife Anna, and mother are all alive and well… Vera and her husband are alive, only husband Demid is wounded and is lying in the hospital in Lvov. We are all Evangelicals, Adventists: Vera, Demid, I—Grigor, my wife Anna, but mother is not. Our father died two and a half years ago. Our Simeon Gladun was killed, Gladun Alexander was killed and his daughter Lyuba killed. Gladun Andrei killed. But God preserved us.
Our Dunya and her husband and the girls Valya, Marysya and her husband and son Ivan – all were taken by the Germans with them to Germany.
Villages: Knyazhe, Fusev, Shikolosy were completely burned. I also remind about Soyka Nikita: Nikita died, and Alexander stepped on a mine and was blown apart. Alyosha is at work for the Germans, and Ulyana with a small child has been left alone in old age. Dukhnyuk Stepan killed, Fotiy Naumov killed and thrown into the fire. Kasiyon Vaschuk is in prison in Lvov because he did not take up arms. He has sat for two years, with still 10 years left to sit.
I am your relative, G. Gladun.”
Beloved Brother Z. Zolotarev!
After a long time I am again able to write something to you. In these past years we have experienced so much that it is impossible to describe everything…
Although the war has taken many victims, I can still joyfully report that more brothers have remained alive than I could have thought.
I have information that the following brothers are alive: A. Berkholtz, I. Rotenbuch, Reinhold Hildenbrandt, A. Friedrich, A. Davidiuk, Fritz, Gerhard Krieger, Jung from Danzig, G. G. Schmidt, E. Bechter. Brother V. Tober was killed, his wife is in Berlin. Leop. Shefler is also in Berlin.
Here there is great missionary opportunity, but the poverty is even greater.
J. Kramer
Dear brother in the Lord, Zub-Zolotarev! Peace be to you from the Lord!
I want to describe, albeit briefly, the experience of the believers in Volyn during the war in 1944.
It was a trial for our Pentecostal brothers, who were refined like gold in the furnace.
During the war, partisans appeared who forcibly began to take young brothers with them to fight. Our brothers did not want to, so they forcibly took them, led them outside the village, and beat them so severely that their bodies were black, and in addition they stabbed them with bayonets.
They forced the young sisters to become orderlies, and one night they forcibly took seven young sisters, mocked them, and stabbed them to death. One young sister, sixteen years old, had very beautiful long hair. They tied her hands, poured gasoline over her hair, and set it on fire. The sister suffered the whole day, and no one was allowed to come near her.
This is how our brothers and sisters died for the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
As for us, the Germans took us on the night of the Easter feast. While the Orthodox were blessing the Easter, the Germans surrounded three villages. When the people saw them, they threw everything down—banners, crosses, icons—and began to flee. The Germans shot many of them, and those who remained they drove together like cattle and burned.
“The Germans took us and drove us just as the Tatars once drove their captives.”
“Regarding brother Fedyshin, we can only provide the following information: at the time of the arrival of the Russian army in western Ukraine in 1939, he was arrested and sentenced to 7 years, and he was imprisoned in Zolochiv. When the Russians retreated, his wife went to the prison, where there were many beaten corpses, but her husband was not among them, so his fate is unknown. His wife remained in the same place.”
Here is an excerpt from the magazine “Evangelical Pilgrim,” published in the United States of America under the leadership of I. Matolin. This publication speaks about a church in Zhabokruky near Drohobych. This church was founded in 1932, when a sister from New York came to visit her relatives, whose entire family turned to God through her preaching. Brother N. Makhniy was the first to convert.
“During the war this congregation was persecuted by bandits sent by the priests. They forced the believers to baptize their children, hang icons, and attend the Catholic church. If they refused—death. Brother Makhniy faced death many times, but God saved him. Once he was severely beaten, but God raised him up again. Some from this congregation were burned alive in their homes. The bandits did the same to a sister who burned together with her child; her husband had been killed on the road a week earlier. Many there were condemned to death, and some, not being rooted in the Word of God, fell away from God. They still have no prayer house: they are unable to build one and meet in the home of one sister.”
Perhaps the terrible events of that most brutal war of mankind will never be fully erased from human memory—echoes of those horrors sometimes still resound, making themselves felt even today. In a recent issue of the well-known newspaper “Holos Nadii,” I recently found a sorrowful note recalling the events of those times.
“In December 1942, during the temporary Nazi occupation, a Polish partisan detachment named after T. Kosciuszko operated near Staroye Selo (Rivne Oblast). It is still unknown who gave information to the German administration in Stolin that the people had helped them. Then a punitive battalion (16 vehicles) arrived from Sarny. They did not go to the farmsteads as the information indicated but surrounded the entire village. The people knew nothing, so they were in their homes. Everyone—women, old people, children—was herded into the church and other buildings and then shot. Dead and alive alike were thrown into the fire. In all, 685 people were destroyed, including seven brothers who were the first in the village to believe in the Lord in the late 1920s and 1930s. This tragedy occurred on December 14, 1942. Today Staroye Selo is a large and populated place. The secondary school has 850 students, seventy percent of whom are children of believing parents. In the village there is a large and vibrant Evangelical Christians-Baptists (ECB) church of about 400 souls. A modern building for a Bible school is being constructed next to the church.”
After 1939, when the western part of Belarus was taken by Soviet troops from Polish control, persecution of Christians began there as well. Grigory Selyuzhitsky was working on the telegraph at that time. One February evening in 1941 he left work but did not make it home—he was arrested on his way. His inconsolable wife began appealing to various authorities, but received no answer from any of them. Only a month later a woman who worked in the city prison and knew the Selyuzhitsky family told Maria that she had seen her husband in a cell when she was delivering food. She did this secretly, because NKVD workers were on duty across the street, watching the Selyuzhitsky house.
Grigory Selyuzhitsky was accused of being an Anglo-American spy. It is hard to say how events would have developed further for Grigory and his family—the family of an “enemy of the people”—but the war began. The prison was urgently evacuated somewhere beyond the Urals.
Some time later, deep in the Soviet rear, the Polish army—Armia Ludowa—began to be organized. Many Poles, including those in custody, were mobilized into this army; among them was Grigory. Subsequently he was sent to Lyubertsy, where he completed a drivers’ course, and from there he was sent to the front. As a military truck driver, Grigory transported shells: he had to drive at night without lights, over a marsh on a causeway made of logs. At the appointed place he was already expected; they unloaded the ammunition and he returned.
One day, when Grigory was on his way back, a German shell hit the truck bed. The vehicle simply flew apart, and Grigory himself was thrown by the force of the explosion onto a tree and hung there. A sharp branch pierced his chest, just above the heart, below the collarbone. There, hanging on the tree, he was later found by orderlies. By God’s mercy, his life was saved.
Olga Morozovskaya, in her article in the newspaper “Holos Nadii,” writes with deep feeling the following:
“Another forty years lay ahead of him, though at that time he would not have believed it. From then on, for Grigory Selyuzhitsky, the war was over, and so was a full physical life — he became disabled. Due to his health, he could no longer carry out pastoral ministry, but still, love for Jesus Christ — the Good Shepherd — did not fade in his heart. Brother Grigory Selyuzhitsky did not abandon the Lord’s work — until the end of his life he continued to fulfill Christ’s Great Commission to His followers: to go and preach the Gospel to all people. In many towns and surrounding villages of Pinsk, brother’s fiery sermons are still remembered to this day.”
Quite differently, yet also not easily, was the fate of his own brother Yakov. In 1964, the journal Christian Herald published his autobiographical testimony, in which he wrote in particular the following.
“A new government appeared, which began to persecute and arrest all capable and zealous servants of the Lord and put them in prisons. One of those days I was also arrested. Together with me they took all my spiritual literature, and soon I found myself in a prison cell (a basement), with water poured on the cement floor. But thank God that I did not sit there long. They then transferred me to another basement, where sat several dozen people with pale faces, crushing the lice and bedbugs that were swarming there. God allowed me there to pray and testify, and the Lord broke some to tears, who promised to serve the Lord. Then I was transported to other prisons, which were overcrowded with people of various classes. In the last prison where I was sitting, in Belorussia, the war just broke out; our prison trembled from the bombs and shells falling all around. People in fear prayed to God. I also prayed quietly, kneeling down. Suddenly my prayer was replaced by singing in other tongues, which I did not understand. Just then, a Jew came up to me and exclaimed: ‘Oh, sir, you are singing in our ancient Hebrew language. These are very important and holy words!’ When the guards through the window saw the German troops on the street, they immediately began to knock down the prison doors. And in a few minutes the doors opened and we, thank God, were set free, hallelujah!
Having been set free, I still had to labor a little in Belorussia. Once again new souls were given to the Lord, and the fallen were restored, for which glory to the Lord! The time came when the front again began to approach us. And then one day, when the children of God were praying, there was a prophecy that we should leave that place. We were obedient to this revelation and in a few days we found ourselves in Poland. Here, in this new place, the Lord sent me several churches to serve them, with the Belorussian people. Here, among this people too, the Lord saved sinners, and those who believed in Him He baptized with His Holy Spirit — praise be to Him! Here God allowed me to preach the Gospel in Russian and Polish for about 11 years.
In Belorussia I was destined to sit about 5 months for the Word of God, in three prison buildings, and also in Poland I sat in three prisons. In one of them I spent only a few days. On the last night the Lord sent me a dream. Before me stood a poster with an inscription in Polish and Russian: ‘THE LORD’S DECISION,’ and below this inscription the number 10. This number meant the date of August 1948, when the Lord liberated me from the prison basement, for which glory to Him!
Two years later I again found myself in two prisons, in which I sat one year, one month, one week, and one day. What a coincidence! But what torture, torment, and suffering I was destined to endure there, I cannot describe here, because it would take too much space. But in difficult moments the Lord would speak to me both in a dream and give hope that He would soon free me, and that came true, praise to Him!
After I was set free, God still appointed me to have an evangelical ministry in Poland for about 7 years. Then the Lord opened doors for me, at which I had been knocking for about 10 years, for an exit to Sweden. Before my departure I received a letter from a brother in Belorussia with a message that there, through a brother, an old man, there was a revelation that I would go to the desired country of Sweden. And this revelation came true. Soon after that I received documentary permits from the Polish and Swedish authorities, and in July 1957, by Divine Providence, I arrived in the free Scandinavian country. In that very same year, on August 16, God enabled me to enter into marriage with a sister in the faith, a Swedish woman. Together with her we continually preach the Holy Gospel. My wife, besides Swedish, also knows other languages, including understanding Russian. And when I preach, my companion serves as my interpreter. Oh, how wondrous are the ways of God! May the Name of God and our Savior Jesus Christ be glorified and magnified forever!”
It is known that Yakov Selyuzhitsky often came from Sweden to minister in Germany. In 1958 he wrote to Zub-Zolotarev: “It is now about a year that I have been in Germany and laboring with my wife for the glory of God and for my neighbors, for which glory to the Lord! Here in Germany we preach in Russian and Polish, and my wife preaches in Russian and German. We had 2 meetings together with brother S. Sardachuk, who works here, visiting camps where believing Russians, Ukrainians, and Poles live. 5 sermons in Russian and 5 in Polish have been sent for broadcast on the radio. In addition to the Russian meetings we visit our Pentecostal brothers, where preaching is done in German. Thank you for the magazine ‘Christian Herald’ that you send me here.”
A year later another letter came from Yakov Selyuzhitsky, in which he told about the numerous Pentecostal meetings in Sweden, in which he took part. “My wife and I are again in Sweden and will return to God’s work in Hamburg, Germany, if God permits.”
I am sending you from a Swedish newspaper a photograph of our Pentecostal brothers’ gathering. These meetings took place in a tent where about 4,000 souls gathered, and the remaining 11,000 or so were around the tent. There were about 3,000 cars near the tent. Many souls dedicated themselves to serving the Lord, and believers were also baptized with the Holy Spirit. Hallelujah!
There was a revelation to one brother that in this gathering there were 2 people who had fallen away from the Lord God, who wanted to take their own lives, and one of them had already prepared a cord to hang himself, but God wanted to save them. These two people came out of the crowd, confessed this, and repented right there in the tent at the meeting, for which glory to the Lord!
There were prophecies reminding of the soon coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and of our preparation to meet Him».
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