Sid: I have a Russian Jewish woman that is so red-hot for the Messiah, her name is Svetlana. You met her husband Gennady yesterday and this is a wonderful Messianic Jewish couple red-hot for the Messiah. As I said to Gennady yesterday Svetlana who would have thought that God was going to open up a supernatural door where you and your husband could speak on secular Russian radio in the land of Israel without compromising and holding back on the gospel, and large numbers of Russian Jews in Israel that have similar backgrounds to what you and Gennady had before you came to know the Messiah are going to be listening. Then you offer my book in Russian of the 10 Jewish testimonies; this is a book that God told me in a dream to write. He said “More Jewish people would come to know him through this book than anything I have ever done.” And history shows that that was from God. And it’s 10 Jewish people; a Jewish concert pianist, actually a Russian Jewish concert pianist, a mega-millionaire; a PhD, a holocaust survivor; Jews from every walk of life that came to the conclusion that Yeshua was the Messiah. We offer that we offer that free of charge and I might add we’re out of the books and we just ordered another 50,000 of them. And you told me something Svetlana you said “Sid your testimony book you had printed in Russian and that I should reprint that, why?”
Svetlana: Yes, why Sid because right now Jewish people are waiting to think in the supernatural. Because of the openness of everything especially in the previous Soviet Union. And the gospel is flowing free also is a lot of cults and occults flowing free. So many people are open to the supernatural realm and I know that personally many people who are involved in that trying to know their future. And trying to go to occultists and…
Sid: But let me interrupt you Svetlana for those who do not know my testimony I’ve been a Jewish believer in the Messiah for over 30 years. But the first 30 years of my life I was a secular Jew coming from an Orthodox Jewish background. I got involved in what back then was called the occult and today is called the New Age.
Svetlana: Yes.
Sid: So what Svetlana is saying is my testimony would so relate to Russian Jews today. And we are believing God; I mean we had a scrape to do these last 50,000 of the Russian versions of “They Thought for Themselves.” But I want to do 100,000 of the book “There Must be Something More.” That’s my full testimony in Russian, we already have it laid out and done and it’s just a matter of printing a 100,000 and I need to do another 75,000 of “They Thought for Themselves.” And you know Svetlana I just believe that this is time for the Russian Jews to come in large numbers to the Messiah.
Svetlana: Yes Sid, yes and you know I personally believe that they’re very open. I believe that the Russian Jews is one of the most open Jewish people which is open right now to the gospel.
Sid: Now tell me a bit about yourself; tell me where you were raised and what your understanding of God and Judaism and heaven and hell was.
Svetlana: Okay I grew up in communist Russian and of course I had no religious background whatsoever. I was totally atheist, total. But you know in my heart, in my deep deep heart it was a fear of death. I couldn’t understand why I was afraid of dying. And I had a Grandma whom I loved very much and she loved me very much too. And I asked him when I was 3 years old I said “Grandma, will I ever die?” And she said “No my dear, you will never die.”
Sid: Hm.
Svetlana: Can you imagine and he just couldn’t understand how right he was at that time. I constantly just imagined myself dying and then what nothingness, nothing but blackness. I couldn’t imagine stop existing. And that fear was paralyzing me, but of course we never heard about God or the Bible. Anything we heard about our religion it was very negative. They had books on religion that was very negative and scary so the propaganda was very strong against any religion. And of course against Jewish people, Jewish people was the persecuted minority.
Sid: Now where did you meet Gennady?
Svetlana: (Laughing) We lived in Russia, we fell in love as children and we left for Canada. My dream always was to leave Russian and live in a free country, it was my dream. And of course when I met Gennady we get married and shortly after we came to Canada.
Sid: Okay, now the story continues with Gennady if you’ll put him on the phone.
Svetlana: Yes, just a minute.
Sid: Now Gennady and Svetlana have a congregation in Montreal, Canada right now. Gennady are you there? Hi Gennady, I want to find out you and your wife meet fall in love and you want to be a big musician, a rock star, you came to Canada. What did you first think when you came? How different was it from the former Soviet Union?
Gennady: Well first of all I was looking for a great freedom in Russia I didn’t have that. When I was going to the west I knew that we had come into the land of freedom. When we came there was much freedom, a lot of freedom. I mean everything was available, you could go and buy any instrument you want, you rent an apartment with stove and fridge and telephone right away. In Russia in our days you have to wait 20 years in line to get a telephone to get connected.
Sid: Hmm.
Gennady: It was quite free. So my first car was bought in Canada and so it was the land of milk and honey in those days for me.
Sid: But you met a very interesting couple that invited you to a prayer meeting over their house. Why did you go?
Gennady: Well I was invited… I just want to go back just a few seconds. I thought that my life would be completely satisfied in Canada and I would kind of find myself here and I would be totally happy. But when I met with the reality face to face I couldn’t find the job that I was looking for as a musician and everything else. My language was very low so I had to take any position that was available and I took just a minimum job to meet the needs of my family. A few years later we met a couple through other people and God sent these people from Northern Manitoba it’s another providence in Canada to this city specifically. They had a radio program in Ukrainian, and then when we met them they were an elderly couple and I was not looking for friends who will be older than me twice or more. I’m just sorry to say that but that was my mentality and I was about 24, 25, 26 years of age and in any case when they invited us to hear them once when it was sort of like a house meeting it was a Jewish home and these people they knew the Lord these Jewish couple. And when we came to listen to this man what had attracted me that he was speaking on miracles that he experienced in his life. Somebody was healed from a severe disease and that caught my attention. Also when he was speaking I felt in that little living room it was different atmosphere it was peace, it was joy unspeakable. I couldn’t understand; I never felt that in my life. Whatever I was looking for I never felt that in my life such peace and joy and happiness. I thought to myself and to my wife “Something happens here, let’s meet with this man again and see what he has to say.”
Sid: Now if there were not miracles, and I know that it’s difficult to answer this, but if there were not miracles would you have been attracted to keep going back?
Gennady: No I was not interested in God because I didn’t believe that God existed.
Sid: So you see Mishpochah it’s the miracles. God knew what he was saying when He said “The Jew requires a sign.” So you actually started reading the Bible and asking God if He was real?
Gennady: Not right away when we met with this people we began to meet with them on a regular basis at their home they were very hospitable and they begin to tell us then. They begin to tell us about Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; I was amazed this people they were Ukrainian and to my knowledge when I was living in Russia the Ukrainian people they were very anti-Semitic. So I thought to myself “How did this man being Ukrainian living in Canada knows about my Jewishness more than I do.” And he would point to me from the Bible left and right about my roots about Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, about my history. My interest was very very caught to this. And then they begin to witness to us for about 8 months, we developed very good friendship between each other. My wife and myself and these people. At the end of this 8 month journey as God knew one day I was in my room it was in the living room…
Sid: I’m sorry we’re out of time here but Mishpochah can see how God created Gennady and Svetlana to do Russian evangelistic radio on secular radio stations. Right now we’re in Israel and the Russian Jews are exactly where Gennady and Svetlana used to be so they’re telling the basic stories but they’re not compromising on the gospel. And now were in Germany on a Russian Jewish secular; it’s not Jewish but it’s a Russian secular station and there are over 100,000 Russian Jews that have recently immigrated to Germany. And we have opportunities to take his Russian show throughout the entire former Soviet Union. I’d like to put it throughout the United States. Only money is stopping us from developing this. And we must publish more books because we offer the book “They Thought for Themselves” the 10 Jewish testimonies that God Himself told me to write this book. And we need the money to do my testimony book in Russia. And I believe that God’s going to provide this, it’s God’s time. But I’m concerned about America Jews, I’m concerned about the Jewish person that God Himself has had cross your path.
