Artyom Prayed Twenty Years for His Mother's Baptism

Many people don't begin to reflect on spiritual matters until they approach the end of their lives, and sadly many run out of time. Here is the story of a baptism from Minsk, Belarus, and the many years of prayer which led up to this joyous event.

Artyom was baptized twenty years ago when he was 17. During all that time he prayed regularly to God about baptizing his mother, Alevtina Stepanovna. In the course of her long life (71 years), she endured many hardships because of poor health. Last summer she underwent surgery to insert a pacemaker in her heart. Her legs began to swell and three times after that surgery she was hospitalized. Sadly she improved only temporarily. Her heart was becoming too weak to sustain her. Ten days after the last time she returned home from a stay in the hospital, Alevtina Stepanovna discovered she could no longer walk. She became weaker with each passing day and began showing signs of liver failure.

Artyom invited the women's minister of his church to come and visit his mother at home, to talk with her directly about her spiritual salvation. Their meeting was quick, as Alevtina Stepanovna was already so weak that it was exhausting for her to engage with visitors. In the short time they had, though, Artyom's wife, Anna, was able to encourage Alevtina Stepanovna to listen to some brief passages from the Bible as she read, and to answer some questions about what she understood.

For all of her life, Alevtina Stepanovna considered herself a practicing Russian Orthodox christian. She read the Bible often and prayed to God. On Tuesday evening, Anna and Alevtina began to study the Bible together. On Wednesday, Alevtina confessed her sins and in the evening was baptized in the bathtub of her home.

I have never before in my life seen a person make such a radical decision and get baptized so quickly! God is truly Almighty! Two days after her baptism, Alevtina Stepanovna passed away.

Psalm 116:15 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.

Republished from www.icocnews.ru