POLTAVA OBLAST

VICTOR (VASILY) VACERUK

Born December 7, 1967 in Ravine Oblast,located in the far Northwest section of Ukraine. He is married to Ivanna and they have two beautiful children, Pavel and Victoria. Vasily was educated in nuclear science and worked with dosimeters measuring radiation in the atomic plant in Zaparozhia.  Then in 1986 he moved to work at the Chernobyl nuclear disaster site. There he was exposed to tremendous amounts of radiation. The scope of the disaster and the human suffering caused him to rethink his vocation.

About 3 months after the nuclear power plant at Chernobyl exploded Vasily became critically ill and quickly was completely paralyzed. The doctors told him that he could not possibly survive.
He said that he became very bitter toward God, the government, and life in general. How could this happen was his question.

A Christian was visiting the hospital and stopped by to see him and have prayer. Vasily said I did not want to pray, I wanted to scream! But afterward I thought about my options. Either there was a God (or I was pretty sure there was) or there was not. If there was a God then I knew He was my only hope, perhaps not for healing but at least to escape the eternal fires of hell. I began to bargain with this imaginary figure and nothing changed. Finally I came to a point that I told God that I was surely in His hands and asked Jesus Christ to take what was left of my life if He wanted it. HE DID!   

Within a week he was able to feed himself and to move in bed. Within 2 months he was walking and regaining his motor skills. He was reading his bible and praying constantly and began to witness in the hospital. Six months later he move to the town of Energodar and started preaching to gospel.

In the spring of 2005 he began to pray for a guitar so he would be able to work more effectively with the youth. I happened to share on the radio one morning that he was praying for one. Later that week a dear couple brought a new guitar into our office. You should have seen the tears of joy in Vasily’s eyes when we gave it to him in August. He said it was not just getting the guitar, but knowing God heard his prayer and moved in the hearts of people he had never seen to answer his prayer. He said I always pray for them every time I play it.

It is men like Vasily, full of the Spirit, willing to go where God wants him, and willing to work tirelessly, whom God will use to reach a nation. We are very thankful that God chose to put him of The Gospel Vision Foundation team.

Note:

In January 2006 I was in Kiev and Vasily came to me and told me that he felt God was leading him to a new area. When he told me it was Poltava I could have cried. The Gospel Vision Foundation’s work is exploding in that Oblast and workers are badly needed! God approved by causing his house to sell the next day at top dollar.   
            Darrell T. Smith