I was born at August 7, 1959, in a common family. The place where we lived had some dump walls, so as I was a little child, I had pneumonia pretty often. I remember once I was very close to death because of that disease. But my grandmother was a Christian, and she have been praying for me many a times, and God let me live. My grandmother loved me so much. As I got six years old, she started taking me to the Christian meetings in a Pentecostal Oneness church. I loved attending those meetings.
I started my school at seven years old. By the time of completing my first grade in school, I learned to read. My grandmother was an illiterate kind of a person, but she knew how to read. At evening time, after completing my daily tasks, I would sit down and read something out of the Bible at her request. One evening, as I was reading a chapter from a Gospel book, she looked at me closely. And there were tears that came out at her eyes. I asked her what was the reason of her crying, but she replied, “Please, go on reading.” I went on reading. She was crying. I stopped my reading again and asked her what was the reason of her disappointment. She said to me, “I saw a Light flashing two times over your head. I suppose, there will come a day the Lord will use you in some way.” I forgot about that vision for many years.
As time went on, I became a teen-ager and continued attending church. There were divisions among Pentecostal Oneness fellowship. God was using some men, and He had no use for the other men. And carnally-minded people start a fight against spiritually-minded ones; they always do.
When I was 16 years old, I met a minister of God who lived in Mosty, Grodno region, Belarus’. I attended services where he was teaching the Word to the flock that was committed to him by God. He was acquainted with many brothers from Poland and other countries. Every once in a while, believers would bring to him the Message books of Brother Branham translated to Polish language. This Brother was Polish himself, and he was very fluent in that language. He would read those books, and then he would share things that he had read in those books among his congregation.
1979 till 1981 were the years of my military service in the Soviet Army. As I got into a railroad division, there were given out some forms for us to fill, and we were just novice soldiers. The last two questions were the following, “What is your opinion about religion? What is your example in your life?” I remember I have written that I had a positive opinion about religion and Apostle Paul was my example. Of course, after writing that, I had a conversation with the principal. He told me to keep that in secret. But Someone has given some courage to me at that moment, and my reply was of the following kind, “It is all right if you put me before the line of soldiers and announce that I am a believer.” My principal did not do that. During all my military service, he never told a rebuking word to me, though I had some failings. The hand of God was shown in all these things.
As I finished my military service and got back home, I went to my church right away. What a sweet thing it was to meet these dear believers again.
At July 1981, a group of us, believers from Leningrad City (Sanct Peterburg) went to Mosty, Belarus’, to attend some special meetings on the anniversary of their church. There have happened some things that stuck in my heart and made an impact in my life. While preaching, the Polish Pastor started speaking something of the following kind, “You know that there was a big moving of the Holy Ghost in our country at 1941-1942. And there was a prophecy uttered by the Holy Ghost, ‘I am going to send a servant of Mine from across the sea, and he is going to do a work.” I had met another Brother in 1973 at a Baptist Convention at Moscow City. And he told me a lot about the man of God (William Branham) and what the Lord had performed through him. And my heart rejoiced. And a dream of 1943 came to my remembrance. Here is this dream: I was standing in the yard beside my house, and here a man comes to me to greet me. He gives his hand to me and calls his name, and his name was William, and I told him my own name – Paul. I looked over his shoulder, and there were five girls standing in white robes behind him. That man got his hand up, and he was shaking my hand with his other hand. And he said several times, “Paul, Paul, Paul,” looking up to the skies.’” That story stuck in my heart for a long time, and I saw at that moment that God would send His servant from across the ocean, and he would perform a work for people here at Soviet Union.
As time went on, there came some of the Messages that have been translated from Polish language to Russian. I do not know whether that was the Polish Brother or someone else doing the translation of those Messages. The Polish Brother would give those translations to some brothers, and their feedback was completely different, so there was no distribution work of the Message books. Some believers have been trying to copy these Messages by hand to their copybooks. They could see there was the Scriptural Light in these texts. It just had to take some time before this work could start. I have a Message text “The Discernment Of The Spirit” with the Polish pastor having signed it.
The Pastor baptized me in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ at the same year, 1981. I loved him as my father in faith and a good teacher.
I remember visiting him at his home at 1987, and we talked about God’s work. He said, “Do you see the stack of these Messages laying at my table? All these are waiting for translation”. I asked him, “What is the name of that man that preached these sermons?” He replied, “William Branham, the man of God. But I am too old now, and I do not have the strength anymore to do that”.
This same Polish pastor was the one who performed the wedding service for me and my wife Galina at 1988. We were the last couple that he joined in matrimony. If I am not mistaken, he was 78 years old at that time.
But there were coming some big changes in political life of Soviet Union. God have prepared everything for bringing His Bride out of every nation that there was in Soviet Union.
At 1989, there were some meetings arranged in Mosty (Belarus’), and some Polish brothers were invited to attend those meetings too. They brought with them Brother from North America. He was one of the speakers at those meetings. This Brother never mentioned a word openly about Brother Branham, but his sermon was different from what we have been used to hear at the meetings.
Later on, at 1990-1991, there were few brothers visiting Mosty, and I attended few meetings where another Brother was preaching. I remember how he preached about the children of God that were once in the thoughts of God, and they came down here at the earth. And they are those who will hear the Voice of God, The Message that was brought through His servant, Brother Branham. They are going to be that glorious Bride. There were prayers offered at the end of the service, and many of believers have raised their hands to God as an expression of their gratitude to Him for His Fatherly Love.
God was dressing my heart as a good soil so that the Word, once being dropped into it, would work in my life.
At May 1991, me and my wife have visited a conference in Czech Republic. There a Brother from Switzerland preached on the subject of the spirit, the soul and the body. All these things that I have heard did a good work at my inward man, and there came a decision in my heart: I am going to keep and cherish this Message in my heart forever, and I am going to be true to Him as long as I live.
As I came back from that conference, I went to a service in my congregation, and brothers were complaining at me going to that conference. I was preaching there starting from May till September 1991, but then our pastor quit letting me go to the pulpit, being he had found something strange in what I was preaching. Still, I was attending those meetings, and I worshipped the Lord there. But I had a burden in my heart, and I was asking God to bring me out of that condition. At the end of January 1992, at one meeting our pastor have made some statements. He said that this man William Branham was sent to the American nation only. Also, he said that “whoever stopped taking communion with us, you might quit attending our services as well.” About a year before that, I stopped taking communion in that congregation because of certain discrepancies. As he had said that, there was a voice that kind of sounded in my heart, “It is your time to leave.” I left that congregation and never came back anymore. After leaving that congregation, I continued to have services at Sundays at my own home, preaching to my wife and grandmother. That's how we lived till October 1992.
One night at October 1992, I got a telephone call. I answered, and there was someone from Finland at the other end of the line. A Russian-speaking Brother started talking with me. He was in Finland for a short visit by an invitation of the VGR Office manager there. That Brother said, “We know you love the Message, and the VGR office manager wants to visit Sanct Peterburg and talk to you.” I replied, “He is welcome to come to me.”
We finally met at November of the same year and talked about the work of the distribution of the Message in Russia and other nations of ex-USSR. I consented to be a helping hand in that work.
At the beginning of January 1993 the VGR representative and three other Brothers came to Sanct Peterburg in a van and brought 50 boxes full of the Message books of Brother Branham. By that time, we had a little church of 12 people. They were glad to take on themselves that task of packing those little books into envelopes. The total number of parcels they packed was 7,500. Since that time, there was started the work of providing the Truth of the Spoken Word to the hungry hearts.
After mailing out “The Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages” book, there was a number of invitations came to my address. They wanted me to help in baptizing people in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. I had some summer trips for baptizing people, at both near and far off places. I had my travels as far as to Habarovsk, Chita, Krasnoyarsk, Divnogorsk, Kemerovo, Anzhero-Sudzhensk, Novokuznetsk, Irkutsk, Cheremkhovo, Orsk, Chelyabinsk, Ulyanovsk, Kazan, helping people to do the truth of the Bible.
Whenever there comes a new shipment of Messages from “The Voice Of God Recordings,” we do our best to mail them out as quick as possible to all the folk we have in our address list. My wife was and still is a great helping hand in that work. She has processed tens of thousands of parcels, literally.
Today we are continuing our work for the Russian-speaking Bride of Jesus Christ, mailing out books and little booklets, mp3 CD’s, Bibles and Gospel books, so that people would know their Creator and Saviour better and consecrate their life to Him.