Growing up in a evangelical christian family gave me the opportunity to know about lot of christian martyrs, missionaries. Knowing one such character left a lasting impression in my life and probably drew me even more closer to God. The idea of not just living a christian but the desire and hunger to pray & help others in reaching to the dying souls grew in me after knowing about Vanya.
My Sunday school days & Junior Church days in FGPC Kattathurai were those which shaped my thinking and love for Christ. Every week there was a new biblical character or martyrs life was taught. These characters left a deep impression in my soul and inspired and put in me the passion for Christ.
The life of Vanya ripped my heart and inspired to renew my faith in Jesus.Vanya's life is a must read for all Christians.He died as a martyr for Christ.He faced extreme persecution for his faith and belief. His life proves about God's faithfulness to His own in spite of suffering, persecution and death.
The son of peasant farmers born in Moldova, Vanya entered the army at eighteen to perform two years of required military training and service. Because he spoke openly of God, which was forbidden in the atheistic regime, Vanya was persecuted by his military supervisors.
His letters home and the tape recordings that he made on his last leave home, documented the cruelties used against him. At times he was starved. He was awakened and interrogated night after night, and often struck. For two weeks in the dead of winter, he was compelled to stand outside in his thin Summer uniform. He claimed that God miraculously warmed him.
Miracles confirmed his testimony. Once he was run over by a truck. He was told his life could only be saved by the amputation of an arm and part of a collapsed lung. Delirious with fever he prayed earnestly aloud. The next morning, he was completely healed.
On another occasion, he was challenged by his barracks to prove that God exists. The test was that God obtain leave for a certain sergeant. Leaves were hard to get. After asking God if he should accept the challenge, Vanya agreed. All night, he sat up with the sergeant explaining the things that he would need to know when he became a Christian. The next day, an authority from another town called and ordered the leave. The sergeant became a Christian and so did other men.
Vanya was an army chauffer. When every effort failed to break him of his faith, he was ordered to chauffer some KGB men. He did not return. A coffin arrived at his parents' home, welded shut. Vanya's mother insisted it be opened. A brother, who belonged to the Communist party resisted, but the rest of the family prevailed. Vanya was barely recognizable. Witnesses, Christian and non-Christian alike, signed a statement which declared that his chest had been burned. His face and body were lumped and bruised. Heel marks marred his body. His heart was punctured in six places.
His family did not know about all the things which happened to Vanya, but his letters and the testimonies of the other witnesses completed the puzzle and made the story of Vanya known.Colonel Malsin, his commander, said, “Moiseyev died with difficulty. He fought with death, but he died as a Christian.”
Under Communist pressure, the non-Christians withdrew their testimony. The Soviet's claimed that the six heart punctures were from attempts to restart the heart with adrenaline after a drowning accident and that the other marks were from an autopsy. They claimed the Baptists made up the torture story to discredit the regime. However, in light of thousands of other incidents of mistreatment of Christians in the Soviet union, and given Vanya's letters and recordings, the Baptist story is the more believable of the two. To cap matters off, Vanya's unit was broken up because so many men in it had become Christians.
Dramatization by Dean Kershner of "Vanya4
Testimony of Vanya's life, written after his death by Myrna Grant, you can get a copy here.
Source:20th Century Martyrs
http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1901-2000/moiseyev-martyred-by-soviets-11630831.html
My Sunday school days & Junior Church days in FGPC Kattathurai were those which shaped my thinking and love for Christ. Every week there was a new biblical character or martyrs life was taught. These characters left a deep impression in my soul and inspired and put in me the passion for Christ.
The life of Vanya ripped my heart and inspired to renew my faith in Jesus.Vanya's life is a must read for all Christians.He died as a martyr for Christ.He faced extreme persecution for his faith and belief. His life proves about God's faithfulness to His own in spite of suffering, persecution and death.
The son of peasant farmers born in Moldova, Vanya entered the army at eighteen to perform two years of required military training and service. Because he spoke openly of God, which was forbidden in the atheistic regime, Vanya was persecuted by his military supervisors.
His letters home and the tape recordings that he made on his last leave home, documented the cruelties used against him. At times he was starved. He was awakened and interrogated night after night, and often struck. For two weeks in the dead of winter, he was compelled to stand outside in his thin Summer uniform. He claimed that God miraculously warmed him.
Miracles confirmed his testimony. Once he was run over by a truck. He was told his life could only be saved by the amputation of an arm and part of a collapsed lung. Delirious with fever he prayed earnestly aloud. The next morning, he was completely healed.
On another occasion, he was challenged by his barracks to prove that God exists. The test was that God obtain leave for a certain sergeant. Leaves were hard to get. After asking God if he should accept the challenge, Vanya agreed. All night, he sat up with the sergeant explaining the things that he would need to know when he became a Christian. The next day, an authority from another town called and ordered the leave. The sergeant became a Christian and so did other men.
Vanya was an army chauffer. When every effort failed to break him of his faith, he was ordered to chauffer some KGB men. He did not return. A coffin arrived at his parents' home, welded shut. Vanya's mother insisted it be opened. A brother, who belonged to the Communist party resisted, but the rest of the family prevailed. Vanya was barely recognizable. Witnesses, Christian and non-Christian alike, signed a statement which declared that his chest had been burned. His face and body were lumped and bruised. Heel marks marred his body. His heart was punctured in six places.
His family did not know about all the things which happened to Vanya, but his letters and the testimonies of the other witnesses completed the puzzle and made the story of Vanya known.Colonel Malsin, his commander, said, “Moiseyev died with difficulty. He fought with death, but he died as a Christian.”
Under Communist pressure, the non-Christians withdrew their testimony. The Soviet's claimed that the six heart punctures were from attempts to restart the heart with adrenaline after a drowning accident and that the other marks were from an autopsy. They claimed the Baptists made up the torture story to discredit the regime. However, in light of thousands of other incidents of mistreatment of Christians in the Soviet union, and given Vanya's letters and recordings, the Baptist story is the more believable of the two. To cap matters off, Vanya's unit was broken up because so many men in it had become Christians.
Dramatization by Dean Kershner of "Vanya4
Testimony of Vanya's life, written after his death by Myrna Grant, you can get a copy here.
Source:20th Century Martyrs
http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1901-2000/moiseyev-martyred-by-soviets-11630831.html
