by Victor Kubik and Maurice Frohn
August 8, 1997
On July 1 Maurice Frohn, local church elder and surgeon from Kent, England and I returned from a journey to Ukraine among other things has further the development and distribution of the Gospel in Eastern Europe. We were able to give the leadership of the Sabbatarians 19 articles translated into the Russian language edited by Darlene Reddaway in Palo Alto, California along with 24 sermon tapes dubbed into Russian language. A major step was to synchronize our software with our Sabbatarian friends in Khust, Ukraine so that we can now send computer files back and forth electronically. The Sabbatarians have begun two magazines, The Good News and The Road to Truth in which they will reproduce our translated articles.
- For a complete story with photos about this trip please CLICK here
On this trip we also visited the village of Kammeshani near the mouth of Dnieper River by the Black Sea where nearly 200 Sabbatarians from Tajikistan who are persecuted by Moslems are relocating. We were there on June 23 and visited with the 78 refugees who had already arrived after an arduous and uncomfortable six day 4000 mile train journey from Central Asia. The migration is moving at the rate of two to three families a week. As of today over half of the refugees have arrived.
In the last nine months we have shipped three containers of humanitarian aid weighing 50 tons for the Sabbatarians with the majority is going to the refugees. More containers with food, medicine and clothing are headed their way.
The refugee Sabbatarians are acquiring mostly broken down and abandoned homes in and around Kammeshani. We helping pay for putting in floors, repairing walls and providing for winter heating fuel. One of their greatest fears after moving from Tajikistan was freezing through a Ukrainian winter. They told us that their leaving Tajikistan would not have been possible without our aid. We work through Mission Nazareth in Transcarpathia with whom we've worked since 1992 to distribute the aid. We are preparing more shipments through this year.
An interesting note about the Sabbatarian church in Kammeshani. Since 1994 the entire congregation is keeping all the holy days. Some of the brethren saw the need to observe them and had done so for nearly 30 years. The entire congregation adopted the holy days after coming across the first booklet we had translated into Ukrainian and Russian in 1993. The booklet about the holy days was distributed in western Ukraine but also found its way to more central Ukraine. God's word does not return to him void.
While on this trip we also attended the first anniversary of the Centre for Rehabilitation of Handicapped Children forty miles east of the Chernobyl nuclear power station which exploded in 1986. Maurice and I have been working with the leading doctors in the area to help radiated children over the past year over the past year and a half. For them we have shipped two containers of aid and have given cash donations from lectures and fund raising drives in the United Kingdom and the US. This event was also attended by the British Ambassador, Mr. Roy Reeve to Ukraine with whom we've held our second meeting. He has been most gracious to Maurice Frohn and me and offered support for promotional lectures in the United Kingdom.
Maurice Frohn has kept a daily diary of our travels. I'd like to share his description of just two of our travel days:
Monday 23rd June 1997 -- Day 6
Visit to the Tajikistan Refugees
The Black Sea Express arrived at Kherson at 11.10 am.
Our taxi driver hurtled along the disintegrating roads most lined with beautiful cherry trees bearing fruit to the suburb village of Kammeshani 6 km west of Kherson. We bumped along potholed tracks to the home of Mikola Yakovlev, minister.
We met Michael Nadtochayil, a tall bearded builder and his wife Elena, daughter of the pastor, Mykola Yakovlev. Elena and another young woman place a large plate of chips and bowl of fine chopped cucumber, spring onions and lettuce on the table followed by large bowls of black and red cherries and wild yellow cherries, cherry conserve and May acacia honey. The men eat and talk while the women quietly watch and gently serve whenever necessary.
This is largely a Russian speaking area of Ukraine. The Tajikistan Sabbatarian refugees are settling in this area because house prices were reasonable and they have received police permission, even thought this is not an official refugee resettlement area such as Vinnitsi, Cherkasy or Ternopil. What was most important is that they found brethren who could help them get settled in and give them spiritual support.
In walked the minister, Mykola Yakovlev, a slight man with a greying painted beard. So far 78 refugees out of 200 Christians have escaped from Tajikistan. They are unable to leave all at once because they have homes they hope to sell. In general, the refugees were in good condition. One woman has given birth in the new homeland saying that they now have the first Ukrainian among them.
Another woman is to give birth any day. They had traveled for six days in an unventilated train through the heat of the desert to the cold of Moscow before turning south to Kherson which lies on the Dnieper River close to the Black Sea.
As they left Tajikistan certain men had boarded the train with the objective of robbing them as soon as they crossed the border into Russia. In one carriage women (not from our group) were raped. Carriage doors had to be tied with rope to keep out undesirables and robbers were bribed to leave them alone. Because it was obvious to some on the trains that these people were permanently leaving, the Tajiks had to hide their money, one used the heel of her shoes because each family was allowed to carry only a 1000 dollars per person across the border out of Tajikistan. One customs officer demanded money and the whole family knelt and prayed asking God for deliverance--the officer withdrew.
The church building or the House of Prayer is on Katovski Street, village of Kammashani adjacent to Kherson. This church was founded in Kammashani in 1976 with two families and an elderly pastor. Michael Yakovlev has been their most recent pastor for five years and new church building was opened on 16th August 1995 when they had 120 local members. Mykola Yakovlev said he prayed for new members to be added, but not this many! 200 people from Tajikistan are moving here and augmenting the existing congregation of 120. The 78 Tajiks have been arriving since May 1997, some as recently as the last few days, and more are coming.
There is a civil war in Tajikistan between two Islamic factions: those who live in the country and those who live in the capital of Dushanbe. In effect, it is the city versus the rest of country. The Russians support the government of Tajikistan which only controls the capital city of Dushanbe at present. Afghanistan which lies on the southern border is supporting the country Moslems through the activity of Taliband, Islamic seminary students who are massed at the border and also infiltrating the adjacent Central Asian republics, but especially Tajikistan to kill at night. They aim to purge the country with holy war or Jihad. One Baptist family which included a one year old baby was wiped out. Franz Klaussen is the pastor of the Tajiks due to arrive soon. He is having difficulty selling his home. His grandfather was imprisoned for 25 years for his beliefs. Michael Yakovlev knew David Klaussen brother of Franz. It appears that there have been pockets of Christian Sabbatarians in Central Asia since at least the time of the Czars.
In Ukraine there are several Sabbatarian congregations. The attitude towards the annual holy days varies. Some members have observed the annual holy days for 30 years. For some it is optional. In the Kherson/Kammeshani congregation most have united in observing the annual holy days since 1994. The Tajiks have not observed the annual holy days and this will be discussed later between them. In 1993 Victor Kubik had delivered a Ukrainian and Russian translations of a booklet on the subject of the annual holy days to Khust and Rokossova which found its way to central Ukraine and influenced the recent change to observe the annual Sabbaths. A church in the republic of Georgia in the Caucuses has observed the annual holy days for many years.
We crossed the road to visit the new church building. Newly-arrived refugees live in the basement and around the town in different homes. New homes are bought in the price range from $1000 to about $7000. Mykola Yakovlev and his son-in-law Michael Nadtochayil have put in tireless hours helping spot new cottages and then painting, installing new floors and helping the recently resettled people get on their feet. Five have been purchased, three more are lined up.
As many had only what they carried, beds and furniture had to be found. The refugees are living with other families throughout the village, but quick progress is being made to place one and two families in the newly acquired cottages.
The Tajiks have been helped with aid of flour, oil, pastas, rice, medicines and clothing from Compassion Humanitarian Relief largely contributed by the United Church of God brethren all over the world facilitated by Victor Kubik in Indianapolis and his sister Lydia Bauer in Minneapolis. Victor was happy to see the familiar packaging for flour, spaghetti and cooking oil. As they were about to run out of potatoes , a lorry load of potatoes was delivered from Volin in northwestern Ukraine.
After supper of mante, a Kazakh specialty resembling meat-filled dumplings and cherries we attended a church service in the House of Prayer. It was a warm windless evening. Services are held every evening of the week including Sabbath starting at 8.0 pm with a three hour Sabbath services on Saturday at 9.0 am. The church is bright and cheerful inside. Men sit on the left women on the right and children in front. The concentration was intense, the singing magnificent and fervent prayers were spoken aloud. An address was given by each minister present. I spoke first about what true religion is, then Victor Kubik about Christian responsibility to help care for the needy based on Matthew 25 and finally Victor Pavliy about two congregations combining into one and working together harmoniously.
Agul Nasurdinova, one of the Tajik refugees, was a singer in the National Opera company in Dushanbe. She sang special music and a Transcarpathian song, "A New Command I Give to You." The congregation was slow to disperse, still talking after 10.0 pm.
We went back to Michael and Elana's Nadtochayil's home to prepare to leave at midnight for Moldova also known as Bessarabia. We talked and looked over newly translated articles by Roger Foster, Cecil Maranville, David Treybig and others into Russian from the Good News which thrilled them. We also listened to a translated cassette tape of a Bill Bradford sermon which they found helpful and wanted more of the tapes that Nadya Bodansky and Darlene Reddaway have made. They found the tapes to be fresh and helpful.
We talked more awaiting our chauffeur. Mykola Yakovlev spoke about how since there so many children arriving and with their own children they had to maintain discipline. In services some children who have to be disciplined must stand through the service. This is effective although the pastor have more difficulty dealing with the with mother than with the child. Also, Mykola would reminisced how during the Khruschev period Sabbatarians would have their names broadcast over the radio and published in the paper with instructions not to employ them. A problem for the future is that there is almost 100% unemployment in the Kherson district.
Victor and I are unable to send our email out tonight through either the Odessa or Budapest CompuServe nodes. Perhaps it's water in the lines. Prior to our coming there have been heavy rains and large hail that killed over a dozen people in nearby Rumania.
At 12.30 am Victor Pavliy, Yakovlev, Victor and I are driven through the night to the Moldavian border arriving at 5.20 after nearly an hour of unnecessary and detailed examination of passports and documents the officials sullenly sent us through. An armed soldier opens the frontier gates.
Dawn broke as we drove along an endless flat straight road lined by an avenue of walnut trees for mile after mile eventually reaching Tarispol, capital of the Autonomous Trans-Dniester Moldavian Republic recognisable, as with so many cities, by the huge unfinished concrete flats. We drove along wide straight roads to a bridge across the Dniester River, and passed a former Russian fort, the scene of a brutal battle between Moldavians and Russians in a 1992 civil war. Buildings are pocked with bullet holes and mounds cover the bodies of thousands bulldozed in the worst atrocities since World War II. We zigzagged through a Russian army road block.
So humanity goes on.
Thursday 26th June 1997 -- Day 9
In Khust, Transcarpathia
At 4.0 pm Victor Pavliy took us to where the Khust church meets and where Mission Nazareth is officed. The roads are worse than last year. We drove across the large square which is like a huge parade ground dominated by the usual concrete Soviet mouments, a Stalin-Gothic government building designed with the same imagination as a shoe box, surrounded by a few depressing almost empty shops. At one corner is the old cinema shaded by an oasis of lime trees. The first floor has been well converted into a simple church, it is clean, fresh and cared for Khust. They went off and One boy, Sasha, spoke fluent English which he learned since first grade at school. He had never been out of Ukraine and was only 15 years old. We in the West believe that education requires modern buildings and equipment. Here they have teachers.
Victor Pavliy took us into the large cinema auditorium; it was packed with every type of aid, including food and and medicines, all sent by Compassion Humanitarian Relief and the United Church of God.
While at Mission Nazareth, Victor and I were added to its board. I will be a consultant regarding medical questions, Victor will advise on humanitarian aid distribution.
At 8:30 pm we set off for the village of Rokosova, six miles away in the Carpathian foothills to visit the home of Ivan and Anna Pavliy. He is the uncle of Victor Pavliy. Ivan is a builder employing 18 men whom he pays well for which reason he was once fined. Michael Palchey founded the Ukrainian Sabbatarian church in Rokosova in 1946, but recently other denominations have arisen in the village.
[note: Michael Palchey, for many years the leader of the Ukrainian Sabbatarians in Transcarpathia, died Sunday morning August 3 at 1:00 am. in Raleigh, North Carolina. Mr. Palchey would have been 87 years old on November 10th. He emigrated to the United States in 1990 as a religious refugee with several of his daughters and their families.]
Ivan and senior members have done much study and research into the annual holy days following the visit of Victor in 1993. Ivan is responsible for producing booklets on this subject. Here is a man who has been subject to severe persecution for his beliefs yet his face lights up with enthusiasm and he speaks with profound biblical knowledge.
The church has a good relationship with other denominations in the village, but he says he would not break the law of God to do so. When there is a biblical disagreement, he does not speak evil of others, but invites them to study the word of God with him. As another Sabbatarian said, "If I am wrong, I will change, but if you are wrong, I trust you will change." Sabbatarians have recently stopped having television in their homes. There are good programs on television but they have become the Trojan horse for the entry of evil.
Ivan dictated a message that he would like read in all Sabbatarian churches. Men and women who have the spiritual strength to survive the KGB, hardship and for some Siberia, without wavering are worth listening to.
"Brethren, our churches are happy about all churches who stand strong. We admire churches who have not stepped away from the Truth. I and my brothers salute you and pray that you continue to stand strong. We are glad that you have not followed the majority. We accept Jesus Christ in our heart with what He has in His heart and we want to fulfil His will. How can we accept Jesus Christ without accepting what is in His heart?"
Ivan Pavliy, on behalf of the Rokosova church
Ivan spoke about the deeds of the law which many denominations believe include the Ten Commandments, but he pointed out that there are no deeds in the Ten Commandments and the fourth commands that no work be performed on the Sabbath. He also believes that the Holy Spirit is the power of God, and not a face. Ivan and his wife were baptised in the River Tissa nearby at midnight in 1969 and 1970 respectively in secret to avoid the police.
They were the only church in the area that was suppressed and declared illegal. It was not allowed to teach children how to play musical instruments without permission in case they were used in church services.
In 1984 Ivan found his son wearing the Lenin badge and red neckscarf which were obligatory to wear in school. He forbade his son to wear these symbols because they went against the second commadment. So the pin of the badge was deliberately broken and the badge put in his son's pocket. The teacher gave his son new Lenin badges, but somehow all the pins broke! Ivan was interviewed by the teacher and he explained his reasons; he would not bow down, serve or salute Lenin and the red neckscarf represented the blood of men killing men. Ivan then had to appear before a council of town citizens and teaches and he was denounced. They wrote down all Ivan said, he signed it as correct and they told him they would take the document to the KGB. "Don't bother," he replied, "I'll take it myself." We talked into the night and left at 2.0 am.
But for Perestroika, such a breed of men and women would have disappeared in the night, but a people who are afraid to die do not live. The foundation of their faith is not the theological fashion of the moment, but the rock of Truth which cannot be shaken.
Maurice Frohn