Russian Renewal

During a ministry/training trip to Norway in 1988 a two colleagues had visions about ministry in the East. We later discovered that God meant the former USSR and events soon took us into Moscow and Saint Petersburg.

Fast forward to a retreat with about 40 men and women from various ministries. They all had some things in common.

1. They were all new in the faith. Some had come to Christ within the past two years and were now pastoring or leading healing/counseling/ recovery groups for addicts. Talk about the blind leading the blind!

2. They were strongly motivated to grow.

3. They knew nothing about how to minister to others.

The watchword for such a group is, "help them work on themselves while teaching about ministry to others." One situation was particularly interesting. A woman in her fifties, Nina, with a daughter about thirty, Galina, and her daughter of seven, Sharina, all came to the retreat center at Saltikovka, just outside Moscow. I taught on the "Laws of Generations" and asked everyone to draw a genogram showing patterns of blessings and curses. Nina and Galina compared notes and made a horrific discovery.

Their ancestors on all sides had been stable Christians until about 1920. After that, every single couple had been divorced as a result of the same pattern of behavior. The men drank, became violent and abandoned their wives and children. The women became bitter, angry with their men and nagged them incessantly. (These patterns developed concurrently.)

What happened in 1920 that was different from before? It was simple. Their families had been Christians until the Bolsheviks took over in 1917. Shortly thereafter, they recanted and joined the Communist Party. They committed idolatry. The had failed to receive the grace of God.

Nina's husband was like all the rest and she emulated her female mothers. He drank and she nagged. He was violent with his fists and she was violent with her tongue. He abandoned Nina and Galina and had not been heard from in years.

Galina followed the example of Nina and her husband obliged the family pattern until he ran off from Galina and Sharina. History was repeating itself in a vicious manner until they came to faith in Christ. Now Nina was serving as a Deaconess in a Pentecostal Church and Galina was enrolled in a Bible school. However, she needed 10,000 Russian Rubles to pay the fees. The first night of the retreat we prayed that God would provide those Rubles.

After learning about generational transmission of curses through idolatry, Nina gathered Galina and a group and went to the chapel to pray. After three hours of prayer, they went to bed exhausted, but satisfied that God had heard their petitions.

At about 11:00 PM the common telephone outside my room rang and a housekeeper ran to get Galina out of bed. Her father, from whom neither she nor her mother had heard from for several years, was on the line from Siberia. (How he found us tucked away in a retreat center is a miracle in itself.)

"I have a message for my only daughter. I apologize for abandoning you as a child and I want to make it up to you. I have been working in the oil fields in Siberia and am getting paid. I want to give you a gift of 10,000.00 Russian Rubles out of my salary."

Galina left on the trainthe next morning for Siberia to meet her father and collect the exact amount to pay for a year in Bible school. A Miracle? You bet!