The Pentecostal Church’s history spans 20 centuries. It began from the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came down upon the Apostles and the disciples of Jesus (Acts 2). Later the Holy Spirit came upon the Gentiles for the first time in the house of Cornelius (Acts 10). From the first century until today, as the Gospel began to spread throughout the world, the Holy Spirit kept adding to the church those who were saved. The 20th century was exceptional. Despite the struggle with atheistic teaching, the Word of God came out victorious and the church of Jesus Christ still remains as the pillar and foundation of the truth. When preachers of the Gospel, Gustav Smith and Ivan Voronaev, arrived in Ukraine (the West and South-East) in the beginning of the 1920’s, the Holy Spirit did a great work through them establishing new churches and baptising Christians in the Holy Spirit. It was a time when communists came to Ukraine with the purpose of building a new world without God. Repression began against the most active preachers and their families. Many of them were sent to prison and deported to camps. Even small gathering of Christians became illegal with a threat of prosecution. The Bible became prohibited. It doesn’t mean that the church stopped its’ existence, it continued to live by the power of Christ who said – ‘I live and you will live also’. There is no jail for the Word of God!
During the Second World War many Christians were tested on their faithfulness to Jesus Christ. But still the church was active. Christians had meetings in their houses in small groups, often at night. In the beginning of 1950’s there were only a handful of Pentecostal Christians. Some of them were Baptists who were baptised with the Holy Spirit. The church was illegal for many years. In Kiev, the Pastor of the Pentecostal Church, Vladimir Boyko separated a whole group of Christians with those he disagreed with concerning practising of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. For years this group had its own meetings and grew in number. No one then could think that this group will grow into a big church, which is now located in Kiev, 44 Karjerna Street. Even though the Christians were oppressed from outside, and disagreements inside, the Lord strengthened His people and helped them get through.
Vladimir Ozeruga moved to Kiev in 1958 by which time there were two associations of local churches in the region. That same year Vladimir Boyko left for Kazakhstan, knowing that the government was preparing for his arrest, and Mikhail Ivanov replaced him becoming Bishop of his church association.
We should briefly mention Vladimir Ozeruga’s biography as he was one of the representatives of Christians during the post war period in Ukraine.
Vladimir Ozeruga was born in January 1926 in Politsy village in the Rovno region. His father, Ivan Kirilovich Ozeruga, was one of the first founders Of Pentecostal movement in Western part of Ukraine. Dearly loving Jesus himself he imparted his love to his children. In 1939 the Soviet Government come to this part of Ukraine and introduced their law. Persecutions and oppressions followed, many Christians were arrested and put in jail, including Ozeruga’s family.
In 1943 at age of 17 Vladimir Ozeruga was called for national service in the Soviet Army. He refused to swear allegiance to the Soviet Army and to use weapons so he was sentenced to death by shooting by a military tribunal. Later the sentence was changed to 25 years imprisonment and then reduced to 10 years. Eventually he was released early (in 1949) due to the pressure from the West on the Soviet Union regarding the liberty of faith. For several years Vladimir Ozeruga stayed in the Gorkov region and in the beginning of 50’s he returned to his home where he witnessed a dismal picture. Many churches were destroyed, meetings were dismissed and the youth were going back to the world. Vladimir Ozeruga was asked by church leaders to head the youth work which he did. All the work was done underground.
The KGB found out about the youth work but at first they didn’t know the leader’s name. It didn’t take long for them to find out and they issued the warrant for Vladimir’s arrest. He made a decision to escape to Siberia where it would be easier to hide from the KGB. With God’s direct help he got a passport and he hastily left his home.
On his way to Siberia Vladimir temporarily stopped in Kiev where he married Evdokiya Vasilevna. Soon, without any money or other means, they set out for the long journey. In 1952 they stopped in Cheremhove town in the Irkutsk’s region. During the next six and a half years he continues his ministry together with his Christian ex-jail mate Nikolay Gustchin. During this period they opened six churches in Archangelsk, Cheremhove, Sludianka, Zima and Chetinsk’s region.
In 1958 and now with three children the decision was made to go back to Ukraine. As a place of residence they chose Kiev’s suburb. Vladimir Ozeruga began to go to church under leadership of M.I. Ivanov. After a few conversations with Ivanov, Vladimir Ozeruga and his wife joined another Christian group which had over 30 members. Among the preachers were Mozgovoys (Andrei, Boris, and Victor), Peter and Pavel Kirpach, Pavel Pavlenko, Sergey Medvedev. They all were united by the love of Christ and desire for fellowship with all the saints.
The Lord richly blessed and protected the church in all the difficulties.
Despite the oppression from the government the believers provided their houses for meetings which took place behind closed doors and windows - in summer meeting were held in forests. This continued for over ten years. God protected His church from the KGB and the Police and the church grew in number. They already had their leadership Pastor V. Ozeruga, Deacons P. Pavlenko and his father in law O. Boyko.
In 1968 other brethren joined the church – Ivan Makovik (who by origin was from a small village located near Baranovichy in Belarus) moved to Kiev aged 22 and for a long time attended Ivanov’s church before joinging Ozeruga’s group.
Persecutions for preaching the Gospel still continued; believers were fined up to half their month’s wages. In the middle of the 60’s, when Khrushchev’s power was coming to its end, the oppression came on V. Ozeruga from the side of the plant management where he worked, soon he was fired. It was a difficult time for the Pastor and his family but God did not forsake them.
The authorities, realising that they could not stop Ozeruga’s ministry, decided to take his children from him on the grounds that they were not capable of bringing them up properly. Only due to their prayers and the prayers of the church this scheme failed.
With time the attitude towards Christians slowly changed in their favour and attempts were made to register the church with the government, which would give them legality. However, they were denied. One of the authorities sneered at them and said hair will grow on his palm sooner then the church will get registration! But the church continued to pray asking God for help.
In the beginning of 70’s Nazarchuk Nikolay, a native from the same place as Ozeruga, moved to Kiev. He had been an active minister in Western Ukraine. He was prominent for his good knowledge of the Word of God, gift of teaching, and being a good organizer. For many years he was a leader in the same church as Ozeruga’s father. Straight away he got involved in church activities and made his contribution to its structure.
In 1969 the Soviet government decides to give registration to some churches with wording ‘autonomous’. Having had bad experiences in the past, brothers took this with great caution. Many refused to leave the underground due to the lack of trust in the Soviet government. V. Ozeruga was one of the first who saw God’s mercy in this. New time brought new opportunities and it would be wrong to miss this moment of God’s grace. The decision was made to meet the Baptist Union leaders. In 1974 Peter Shatrov, representative from the Baptists who was in charge of the Pentecostal movement in the USSR, arrived to Kiev. In this meeting Shatrov confirmed the government’s decision to give the registration. After the meeting, all the church leaders were summoned by the commissioner of religious affairs in Kiev, V. Rudenko. He proposed to apply officially for the church registration to the government body. The application was put in and as the result the church was officially registered in 1974.
One of the conditions to register the church was to provide 20 names with addresses of the church members who were residing in Kiev. It was not an easy decision for Christians to give their name because as a result they could loose their jobs and mar children’s reputation. Nevertheless they found 20 volunteers and these are some of their names (officially called ‘founders’):
1. Anna Gliev
2. Maria Gnip
3. Nadezhda Gnip
4. Galina Grushko
5. Anna Krivoshey
6. Alexandra Litus
7. Galina Makovik
8. Ivan Makovik
9. Vladimir Malikov
10. Proskovia Malikov
11. Andrei Mozgovoy
12. Boris Mozgovoy
13. Victor Mozgovoy
14. Nikolay Nazarchuk
15. Evdokiya Ozeruga
16. Matreona Shishkorenko

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