History of the Foundation of the Kovel Church Founded in 1924

God’s beloved ones!
I, a minister of the Kovel Church Vasyl Makarus,
greet you with the words of our Lord Jesus Christ:

“Peace be to you!”

The beginning of the foundation of our church was in 1924, the same year my grandfather Nikifor Makarus began to believe in God. At that time he was 24 years old. While reading the Gospel without anybody preaching, my grandfather found out that not only Christian history was revealed through reading the Gospel, but also the Apostolic Way. He believed in the Gospel and started to go this Way, trying hard to fulfill commandments of the Gospel. He was very well-educated, knowing several foreign languages. People respected him. Many people joined him. A special Spiritual growth of those people began in 1927. Then and later on, God enriched many people with Gifts of the Holy Spirit. God has granted Gifts before and continues to grant Gifts today. For various reasons many people dispersed during the war. A younger generation of people, with new views, began to influence the church negatively in the post-war period. The older generation did not support them, and did not desire to diverge from the foundation of faith and Christian beliefs. God’s prophet, Emelian Budnik, defended the Christian values especially strongly, but they did not become like-minded. Therefore, Emelian, together with those who deeply loved the Gifts of the Holy Spirit like he did, remained faithful to the original calling and God’s choosing. These very people made up the basis of the Kovel Сhurch, although the name “Kovel Church” emerged later. At the beginning of the seventies, God made Emelian Budnik the deacon of our church, and made Stepan Logvinsky the pastor. Through the laying on of the hands of the elders, he was ordained as a priest during the war.

It is not possible to single out certain historic periods of our church, but there has been a constant tendency towards spiritual perfection and approaching God. God has granted us the faith and accompanies this faith and our belief with many signs and miracles, as it is written in the 3^rd chapter of the Book of the Acts of the Apostles*: “…the faith which is by Him has given him this complete healing in the presence of you all.” It is said in the Epistle to the Hebrews 11:1: “Faith is being sure of what you hope for and certain of what you do not see.” In other words: Faith is confidence in the existence of God and confidence in the fact that He can do anything for you who seek Him. But in the 2^nd chapter of the Epistle of James it is underscored that “faith without deeds is dead”. That’s why living faith is faith with deeds. But notice that this notion of faith does not mean a religion or confession. Faith originally lives in the heart and guides the life of a believing man. Summing up the results of his life, the Apostle Paul said about himself: “…I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; from now on there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness …” (2Timothy 4:7-8). The Apostle Paul had left the Pharisaic religion into which he had been born, but received and kept the true faith, which God Himself had granted him, and therefore he received the crown of righteousness. We also profess this Faith – the Faith in the One God the Father and the Son of God Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Many members of the Kovel Church also have received God’s concrete testimonies about their place in God’s Eternity. There are many testimonies I could tell you of, but I will mention only a few of them.

One example is the story of Emelian Budnik, the man I have already mentioned. Emelian fell ill. On Saturday November 25, 1978, three prophets from our church came to visit him. During a prayer, God spoke through Maria Gochachko in an unknown language, and there was God’s interpretation of tongues (languages) through Anna Mazhula; this means,  through the Gift of interpretation of tongues which she had been granted by God, God explained the meaning of each word said in that prophecy. This is how God spoke to Emelian. God said the following words about the last day of his life: “My son, the place for you is prepared, and the day is set – December 11.”

His disease grew progressively worse and then, as it was said by God, the date for Emelian’s passing into God’s Eternity came – it was Monday, December 11. Emelian gave his blessing for the Kovel Church, blessed his believing relatives and then offered to pray. During the prayer he prophesied: “There is Power, Glory and Christ in Kovel”. After the prayer he passed into God’s Eternity according to the Word of God.

One can conclude that if the Prophetic Word about Emelian’s passing into God’s Eternity was fulfilled in two weeks, then he was truly a son of God and the place for him was prepared by God in Paradise in Heaven’s Glory, indeed – this way God had rewarded Emelian’s faith.

On January 1, 1996, during the service of the Kovel Church, a prayer was requested for Eva Sudak who had fallen ill that day. During that prayer God gave the following vision: God’s Angel appeared, with a book in His hands. He leafed through all the pages from the beginning to the end of the book. All the pages of this book were entirely covered with writings about the good deeds of sister Eva. Only the inside cover and the last three pages were blank. The Angel said: “There is nothing written on these three pages, and there is no need for it.” God’s Angel explained the vision this way: “It means that Eva has done many good deeds. Every day of her life has been filled with good deeds. Three days are left for her to live on the earth, but on these days she will not be able to do good deeds. There is no need for it, as she has already done enough good deeds for Eternity.” One must consider this in view of the fact that she had a minimal pension and was not able to help anyone with money. Three days later, on January 4, 1996, Eva passed into the Eternal Glory of Heaven according to the Word of God’s Angel. I could tell many similar stories which have happened in our church.

Many things could be said about Maria Gochachko’s believing life and end, but I will quote only the words carved on her gravestone:

MARIA GOCHACHKO – GOD’S PROPHETESS

Everything that God had spoken through her during the course of 40 years had been fulfilled and is being fulfilled precisely. Her name “Kovel Maria” is known on all the continents of the Earth. God performed a lot of miracles through her. The Spiritual Songs in other tongues (languages) were sung in the Great Power of God, so that hundreds of people were filled with the Grace of God together with her, and they sang harmoniously with the feelings of Paradise, although they had not heard those Songs before. The singing was so beautiful that those who heard it only once, remembered it for decades. There are many witnesses who have been healed by God through Maria’s prayers, healed of cancer and other incurable diseases; demons trembling asked where to go and after the command with authority went out of the possessed people. She knew people’s thoughts and could tell the sequence of a person’s thoughts. She testified about her great love for God for 45 years. Twenty-eight years before the day of her departure she had announced it and had also specified what weather would be on that day. At the last service before her departure from the Ukraine glorified by God to the Eternal Glory of Heaven, Maria appealed to God’s people with a farewell speech. There was such a blessed Spiritual ministry at that time and such Spiritual songs that one felt the special presence of God Himself Who witnessed about the great love in her heart. On March 20, 2003, at the time of the funeral, within 15 minutes, all natural phenomena bade farewell to her: the sun, the moon, a quiet wind, a storm, a clear sky, black clouds, white clouds, rain, snow, hail, a bright flash of lightning and a powerful thunder, then at three o’clock p.m. when the coffin was being closed, on the whole territory from Kovel to Lutsk and Ratno, it became as dark as night. After the burial of her body, it became calm at once and the sun was shining again.

GLORY TO THE GREAT LIVING GOD!!! Amen!

The teaching of Jesus Christ and Christ’s Apostles is the unshakable basis of the Kovel Church. The Spiritual values which Emelian Budnik, Stepan Logvinsky and the following generation of our church ministers have defended and kept, remain the basis not merely of our belief, teaching and persuasion, but are also the basis of the Christian life of the Kovel Church. God builds up His Deed and performs manifold healings and miracles. The testimonies that are presented on our web-site is component part of the Kovel Church history too.

God bless you! Amen!