Faces of Elderly Ministry: Maria

Maria was born in a small village in a family of an Eastern Orthodox priest. As a young girl she sang in the the church choir.   After completing basic school at age fifteen she went to work at Candy Factory.  While working there she sang in a “people’s choir” and was finishing high school taking the evening classes.  Eventually she began to travel the Social Block countries with her choir and was encouraged to join the Communist Party in spite of coming from the family of a priest which in most cases land one in Siberia for a decade.  Eventually Maria was awarded a medal for Hard Work by the Soviet party. She was offered high positions of management, but in order to be close to her children she refused the offers and was forced to work as a custodian in a local building service.  

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Even there she proved herself a hard worker and was sent to school to learn how to fix elevators.  She became an electric mechanic.  Soon her husband died and due to stress she had a major stroke that left her speech impaired.  For months she was in a hospital.  ​

She tried to come back to Orthodox church, but soon became disillusioned and just stayed homebound.  In 2008 though KBC deacon and elderly outreach she heard the Gospel and began to come to church.  Her speak has been slowly returning to her and even though she cannot sing like she used to, Maria is a follower of Jesus who is a faithful prayer-warrior and serve as encouragement to the entire church.

Note:  For the last three years KBC has been serving seventy to ninety elderly on regular basis.  Our team is dedicated to sharing the good news of the Gospel as well as provide for physically, emotional and spiritual needs of widows, veteran and just elderly in need.  Socialist system of the USSR promised them "bright future" but when the system failed elderly were left to fend for themselves. With meager means for survival many are destitute and fall prey of hunger, hopelessness or at times evil men looking to take away the little they have left.   Over the following several months we would like to introduce some of them to you and share their stories.  We pray that you would be encouraged to see the Lord's hands and feet at work and even might join in.