Saved by Christ

When my father was a young man, he accepted Christ as his personal Savior, was baptized, and became a preacher in that same small village church, where the peasant had cared for him and instructed him in God's Word. From the beginning, my father showed a strong desire to preach and proclaim the gospel to all the world, as it is written in Acts 1:8: "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." In that period of his youth, he burned with desire to serve God and preach the Gospel. He had a strong desire to tell others about salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God.

The young man was very grateful to the peasant and his wife for taking him into their home and teaching him how to live. First and foremost, he greatly valued how they had helped him understand the Bible and his responsibility before God to spread the good news throughout the world.

But the time came to part with this wonderful family and go out into independent life. He thanked these good people for taking him in and raising him in God's Word, said goodbye to them, and set out on foot to preach the Gospel in another village. He went from village to village, preaching to people about salvation. Sometimes he would spend two or three days in some village.

Once the young man spent more than a week in one place, preaching the Gospel. After the last meeting had ended and he was preparing to go to the next village, the deacons of that church approached him. They suggested that he go to other settlements in Siberia—places where the communists had not yet reached. It would be much safer to preach there, in those remote places. He accepted their advice and began to travel through the distant southern Siberian villages, preaching the Bible to the people.