News & Stories

No More Goodbyes for Sveta

April 1, 2009

By Diane Rorabaugh, serving in Russia

I’d like to tell you about Sveta. I’ve been putting off writing about her, since I’m afraid that before long she’ll be saying goodbye.

Sveta has cancer. She suffers constant pain and is pretty much bedridden. Moreover, she lives with eight family members in a tiny house that is not insulated from the bitter Russian winter. The house has no indoor plumbing, and the family shares a community outhouse with neighbors. Water is retrieved from a pump on the street.

A Dose of Hope

Despite her dire circumstances, Sveta had a miraculous encounter recently that has given her some reason to hope. 

When I visited my friend Natasha in January, we went to see Sveta. (Natasha and her husband lead our compassion ministry here to families and children in need.) We wanted to ask this mother of young children, who looks like she could be their grandmother, how we could help her.

Sveta had other plans for our visit.

A Painful Goodbye

All Sveta wanted to do was tell me about her recent experience when she was declared clinically dead during surgery. She recalled “going up through clouds and into the presence of Someone.”

She had never believed in God, but she knew immediately that Someone could be no one other than God. She said there was light “shining from His eyes.” When He took her by the hand, she felt peace.

At some point during her experience, she realized she would have to say goodbye and return to the world, to her family. She also remembered asking God’s forgiveness for her wish before surgery: she had been in so much pain that she had just wanted to die.

Hunger to Know More

Since then, Sveta has told her story to everyone who will listen. More than anything, she says, she wants to learn more about this God she met and to get to know Him.

After our visit, Natasha and I talked. We realized that God had spoken the same thing to both of our hearts: we were to show Sveta God’s love the best way we could, by caring for some of her needs.
So, the next day we went to the market and bought some blankets, warm socks, and a new robe. We walked a few blocks from the market to her house, carrying our treasures through a small footpath in the snow. We felt like Grandfather Frost, Russia’s Santa Claus, and his granddaughter, the Snow Maiden.

We surprised Sveta with the presents. She cried and kissed us. We put the new robe and pair of socks on her and covered her with one of the blankets. Whenever we were within her reach, she kissed our hands and the tops of our heads.

It was so humbling to receive such thanks for such a small effort on our part.

Taking Hope

Sveta can’t leave her house to attend church and find out more about God. So Natasha continues to visit her, answers her questions as best she can, and gives her books to read about the Someone she met.

I plan to visit Sveta this month. I’ll probably take her more gifts—items to make her life more bearable—to show her God’s love in a tangible way.

What I’d really like to take her is more hope in the God whom she got a glimpse of during her near-death experience. Hope in the Someone Who took her hand and gave her a peace that she’d never before known.

A New Body

I want her to know a hope that tells her that, even though her life on earth has been one of suffering and much disappointment, she will be healed one day. She will have a new, perfect body without pain. She will have a life she never dreamed was possible.

When she leaves again, it will be hard for her friends and family to say goodbye. Yet Sveta will get to see face-to-face the God who took her by the hand and said, “Let’s get to know each other.” She’ll know then that she’ll never again have to say goodbye.

Learn More

Watch a video of Diane describing other families’ lives changed through compassion ministries our Alliance workers in Russia support.

Check out additional Alliance outreach efforts in Russia.

What You Can Do

Pray for Sveta and her family to find complete hope in Jesus.

Donate to Alliance Great Commission Ministries. In doing so, you help to sustain dedicated field workers like those who minister among the Isaan people.