Finding Faith through a Miracle

1

Growing up in a Christian family, my grandfather, Fedor, always kept faith by his side. His faith was tested during the Second World War when all of Europe was in chaos. His choice was to fight for the Soviets or go to jail. Fedor’s religion prohibits him from using guns to kill other humans. He promised himself he would not kill another soul. One day, when my grandfather was at his house, a man came running with no breath to speak to his door knocking furiously, he was very frightened and pale as pure snow. Once he caught his breath he started screaming, “Run, run! They will come and kill you tonight!” My grandfather was very nervous and a little frightened at first. Later he simply decided to let his faith guide him and he went to his room on his knee’s to pray. He was praying with great passion in a small room hoping that his prayers would be answered. He was praying until he heard a very loud voice says, “My son, nothing will happen to you, I will protect you!” My grandfather said the voice was so loud he thought everyone heard it in the village, but when he asked his wife, Vasilisa, she said she did not hear a thing. Fedor decided that he would keep his faith stronger than what might happen to him, through this tough decision he was sentenced to ten years. With my grandfather being the head of the village, my grandmother never needed to work outside of the house. Things had changed.2

Growing up in a non religious family, my grandmother had no qualms about selling alcohol to support her daughters. This would have been strictly forbidden had my grandfather been around, but my grandmother did not keep faith by her side. Instead of cooking and taking care of her daughters, my grandmother was tending to the crops and animals. It was not easy for my grandmother running her life this way. She usually spent her days with her daughters and working for her was a job that a woman with a husband and a family never had to worry about. Someone had to keep things right so my grandmother took in the house work and the work outside in the barn all to herself with little help from her elderly mother. After a long grueling year like this, my grandmother lost her will to live and glimpse of faith.3

My grandmother’s first reach out to God was when my mother, Galina, her youngest daughter, was stricken with pneumonia. My mother was an infant when her lungs started to fill up with the deadly mucus. The mucus would fill her lungs and the doctor would drain out five hundred milligrams every day. They had to puncture a hole in her back to let it drain and soon doctors gave up hope. The doctor told Vasilisa that she was going to die, but they could attempt surgery and hope for a miracle. My grandmother woke up early the morning of the surgery to carry her daughter to the hospital. She carried my mother through a thick golden field. It was a beautiful summer day, the summer wind was warm with a smell of summer flowers the fresh scent of summer filled the air. The thick fields of wheat and the summer lilies filled the path like a colorful painting. My grandmother went to the top of the field and fell on her knees filling her4

heart with deep prayer as tears ran down her worried cheeks. For the first time my grandmother prayed to God from her heart to let her baby live. “God, if you are real, let my baby live or take her peacefully.” She got up from her long prayer and with faith she carried her child to the hospital. As soon as my grandmother had gotten to the hospital, they had one last check at my mother’s lungs before the surgery. The doctors noticed that most of the mucus was gone and that it was clearing up. The doctors kept Galina over night just to make sure the test results were not a coincidence. The next morning was the day of the surgery, my mother’s lungs were better than the night before and the surgery was cancelled. My grandmother at first thought it had really been a true healing of the Lord but after time she thought of it as just luck or a coincidence. Surely God answered this prayer, but this still wasn’t enough for Vasilisa to have faith.5

One hot, balmy summer day, when my now perfectly healthy mother was three, she was playing outside working up a thirst. While my grandmother started her day like a usual casual work day. Wishing she could play with her daughters that day. Vasilisa, unfortunately, had to carry out her daily chores. She woke up early in the morning and took the cows to get them water from the well. The well was nine meter deep with three meters of waters inside. When she finished giving the cow’s water she forgot to shut the door to the well and went to work on the crops. Galina was playing outside with her older sister and my great grandmother was in the house cooking. That day, all of the neighbors were at a funeral. The funeral was very close to my grandmother’s house, it was so close6

you could say it was in their back yard. My mother had on a new dress that my grandmother made for her it was very stylish and had a matching sun hat. She was very7

dressed up with her gold silky blonde hair up in a matching hat. The dress was considered a very expensive outfit for the family and it was only to be worn on special occasions. While playing her activities outside, like tag and petting the cat, my mother became thirsty and went to the well. She was hoping to get a drink out of the bucket like she always watched her mother do, instead ,the bucket pulled her into the dark, dank well and she fell to her doom.8

Thinking that Galina was outside running around the village with all of the other children, no one had noticed the child’s disappearance right away. After an hour had passed, Vasalina heard that her youngest daughter was missing so she started searching for her. After searching the whole village door to door and asking everyone at the funeral if they had seen Galina, they all said “No.” After about an hour, my grandmother walked up to the well and saw that the door was open. She than realized right away that her child had fallen into the well and she screamed, “She is in the well!” Everyone left the funeral and their daily duties and ran to the well. They picked out the strongest, youngest, tallest man out of the crowd and put him down into the well with a rope. They sent him nine feet deep into the well. Everyone kept their prayers and hopes up until they heard the man shout “I think I found something!” He caught my mother’s dress with his foot and started to pull her up. The audience all started helping pull the man out of the well. As soon as he got my mother into his arms, she was talking with him like nothing had9

happened. She was begging him not to tell her mother when they got out of the well that she had lost her hat and her dress was ruined. Everyone was so surprised that she was talking that they could not believe she was still alive. It was a Miracle. When they got the wet man and soaking Galina out of the well, Galina started turning blue from hypothermia. The neighbors went running for something to rub on the frozen child and came running back with some vodka. Since the doctor was not there yet, they rubbed it on her small, frozen body. When the doctor arrived, he could not believe that he could not find water in Galena’s lungs. He said that he would never believe it, that the child had been in the water for such a long time, but the crowd of people around him reassured him of the Miracle that had happened. That sunny balmy hot depressing day my grandmother promised God she will serve him for rest of her life. 10

To this day my family is keeping this promise for my grandmother. This miracle has made a large impact in my life. It has changed the way I live my life. The way I think, the things I believe in and the people I trust. It has picked the religion I have decided to follow and it has molded my heart for me. If my grandmother had never witnessed this Miracle, and was not to become a Christian than I would probably never become to know the word of God. The faith in my life is now strong and I am happy to have proof to my fellow friends that God is real and that things in life happen as God plans them to and we have to go with his plans and pray for his wisdom. My mother lived and thank God she is still living. She has not had any mucus problems or any11

problems with her health since that day. Ever since that occurred, my family has been keeping God and our religion in our hearts. My grandmother just passed away in 2003, after living a very happy, thankful life, never a disappointed woman with the strongest faith I have ever seen in my life. That is the biggest Miracle that my family has experienced and we continue to pass on this amazing story to our children and friends, even to strangers that we meet hoping that they too can see the true love of God. As I, always do and I know I always will see God loving me and my family. 12