One more story

One of the young women in Dave Croft’s class had an interesting story. To protect her privacy we’ll call her Tanya. Tanya graduated from art school at the university but found it difficult to get a job with the current economic crisis. She did some investigation and found that painting icons was a good paying job, so she enrolled in icon painting school, taught by Orthodox priests. Before this school she considered herself an Orthodox Christian. But at the school she learned all the Orthodox rules and traditions, and knew she fell way short of their standards. She was also frustrated that the priests seemed to be following rules and traditions without understanding why. At the same time she started to dislike the bad behavior of other people around her who used vulgar language. She felt like she was “stuck in the middle”, in “no man’s land”, as we would say.

About this time Tanya started having conversations with Marina, member of the IP staff in Kharkov, whom she had known casually for a few years. But now their conversations became more personal and intense. Marina told Tanya about her relationship with God, how she talked with God at any time, and talked to him as a loving father. This was very interesting to Tanya. But the Orthodox priests had told her that she should recite the prayers they gave her, that she should not read the Bible, and that Protestants like Marina were cults. Now she was really stuck in the middle – between the sinful world around her, the rules and traditions of the Orthodox priests, and this loving father that Marina was telling her about. What should she do?

Through all of this she has kept talking with Marina, and today is very close to repenting and accepting Christ. Please pray for her to make that important decision.