The Testimony of Ivan and Galina Sas

I promised to be a believer,

and God through the prayers of the Kovel Church healed my mentally ill wife Galina!
 

I lived like everybody else before I started believing in God: I had a family, children and continuous troubles. Sometimes I remembered God, but didn’t think of being a believer. I hoped for a happy life in this world and didn’t worry about my future life.

In 1971, all my worldly hopes and dreams were shattered in a moment, for suddenly my wife Galina fell ill. This is how it happened: I came back home and found Galina lying down and not being able to say anything, only to utter some sounds, as if she was talking deliriously. Something strange had happened to her: she cried, darted away to go somewhere, refused to eat. It was a disaster! Where do I look for salvation? I went to medicasters, to wizards who whisper: wherever people told me to go, I went there. And they in their turn promised that there would be help for Galina. They gave me something to act as medicine: some gave bread, some gave water, some gave herbs, but there was no relief. Her health and mental state deteriorated – the ‘enemy’ didn’t release her. People were coming to look at her as if it was a kind of spectacle … I did not see any other way out – I decided to appeal to believers. Knowing that in the neighboring village of Zapillia hereditary believers live, so I went to their home. All my way while I was walking, I was weeping and kept repeating all the time: “Lord, I will be a believer – help, heal …”. I came to the Makarus family and, in tears, started telling them about my great grief. The mistress of the house, Antonina Makarus, invited me to enter the room where there was a service going on. Maria Gochachko was also among them. They soothed me and told me: “God is mighty and can heal Galina.” When I came home, I learned that Galina’s relatives meanwhile had sent her to the lunatic asylum – in the town of Olyka. After arriving there, I asked a doctor whether they were able to cure her. In response, I heard “Oh, man, look at these people, they have been here for 15 years. You can resign yourself to not having a wife and your children being orphans.” It was painful and frightful to imagine that my wife, the mother of two small children, would always be like this (the elder son was 2½ years old and the younger was 7 months). I was in great dismay and despair, and did not see a way out of this situation.

From the huge frightful castle, which now is the lunatic asylum, up to the route from Rivne to Lutsk, I went on foot. Walking along the earl’s stone road, I was weeping. When I returned home, I met Anastasia Budnik. She told me firmly to believe in God’s healing and also told me that the Kovel Church would pray for Galina in absentia and that God would heal her there in the asylum. I revived in heart again, although I didn’t know yet that God spoke to the people of this church. I didn’t know that they were aware through the Word that God had said that it would happen. I only noticed the confidence they showed in their words. So, hope emerged within me. Later I learned that they had known my destiny and that they had known when Galina would be cleansed and become normal. Anna Mazhula brought a sheet of paper to me where God’s Words, which were said about me too, were written. After having read what was written, I appealed to God in hope and firmly promised to serve Him. Then the miracle happened: during the  prayer of the Kovel Church, God said through Maria Gochachko that He had already cleansed Galina – there, in the lunatic asylum! And soon I received a telegram from the asylum “Come to take your wife back home.” I went there, and when the doctor saw me he told me: “Your wife is well.” And he asked: “Does she have believing relatives?” I answered: “No, but believing people had been praying for her.” He confirmed that from such a state of health one could be released only through prayers of believers. Galina looked calm and spoke reasonably as if she had never been sick. Rejoicing, we went home! 

It was pleasant to realize that my new acquaintances – my true friends since that time – had been bringing hearty prayers to God with fasting for Galina’s healing. This fact proved that God had heard their prayers. Galina also has believed.

In the name of Jesus Christ, glory to God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit for everything! Amen!

                                                        Galina Sas supplements the testimony about herself

I cannot remember anything about my disease. Then, it was as if I had awakened from a long, deep sleep into which I never fell again. After God healed me, I have not fallen ill anymore and haven’t appealed to doctors. Up to this day, I have never had a headache, thanks to the Lord. I worked for a long time: my record of service is 33 years. I brought up my children. Now I live on a pension. I am happy that God had mercy on me and called me on His Way. I am grateful to the Lord that He has shown great mercy to me. The doctors would not have been able to help me if the believers of the Kovel Church hadn’t prayed for me. I am grateful to God and God’s people from Kovel. I am happy that God called me to His Church in order to save my soul in this way.

Glory to the Living God for everything! Amen!

Ivan and Galina Sas

Doshno, Ratno district, Ukraine

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