Polina Vdovichenko
Name, date and place of birth:
#411 Vdovichenko, Polina. July 18, 1949. Trubichino Village.
Tell about your childhood, school, family, etc.
My childhood was very hard. My mother had very poor sight so I had to do all house work myself. There were 4 kids in our family: 2 boys and 2 girls. I finished middle school and then my uncle invited me to go to study to Riga (Latvia).
Where did you work? Was your work good? Were you happy with your job?
I finished an industrial college there and had to find a job to help my family financially. I was working at the weaving manufacture. My produce was double – for that achievement I received special honors. Riga is a beautiful city but I did not stay there long. I met my future husband who was from Kyiv and in 1969 moved to Kyiv.
Tell about your present life.
I started training to become a tram conductor. When my daughter was born I had to quit studying. Later I started working at the mechanic department at the factory as a book-keeper. There I worked for a long time and masters different occupations. Then I gave birth to my son. I had to work a lot to provide for me and my children since my husband left us. In 2005 I retired – it was the year the factory shut down. Now I live alone. Help provided by St. Paul Church is very important to me.
Have you accepted Christ? How long have you been following the Lord?
I believe in the Lord God. When I was little our parents taught us Lord Prayer. We were taken to church on Christmas. Since my childhood I believe that God is with me. His name is also Almighty God, Eternal Father.
Description
I was blessed to visit Polina Vdovichenko.
In 2015 she was taking a bus when one lady from our church invited her to a Saturday Bible study. She says,”See, I did not remember the exact address (back then the church was meeting in the White House) and I could not find the place. So I went home. The following Sunday morning something made me come back. And there I saw a lady walking to the church service who told her how to get to St.Pauls church.”
Polina is 72. She was born in a town located in the South-West Russia. Her single mother who was blind was raising four kids. The family was extremely poor. Polina says, “My greatest desire then was to have a good meal”. When the girl was a teenager, her uncle who lived in Latvia (one of the Baltic countries) took the girl into his family. It gave her a chance to start working. Later she meet her husband and they had two kids: Polina’s son is 45 now and the daughter is 50.
Polina’s husband was a seaman. So in 1969 the family moved to Kyiv where Polina started walking as a book-keeper at the largest factory. When the lady was in her 50s her husband left her to live with another woman.
Polina’s son used to be a terrible drug-addict. According to her, “he was hopeless”. Polina says, she never stopped praying for him. So a couple of year ago, the man wanted to go to a Christian rehab center where later he acceptd Christ and quit using drugs. Polina says, “Now when my son visits me he always says a long pray before we have a meal and it warms my heart”.
Last week Polina’s grandaughter (her daughter’s daughter) gave birth to a child. So now Polina is a great grandaughter. I could not skip such an opportunity to congratulate Polina on behalf of our MMK. So I packed a bag with things for a baby including a BEAUTIFUL baby blanket and brought it to Polina. She was touched and very thankful.
As I learnt Polina often catches cold and at times she faints. Will you be so kind as to pray for this lady, please?