'Miracle of God' brings message of Russian pastor to United States

When Peter Rumachik stood before the parishioners of Faith Baptist Church Saturday evening, he said it was a miracle of God.

The 73-year-old Russian pastor had spent more than 18 years in a Soviet Gulag for practicing his faith.

Now on a 10-week trip to the United States, Rumachik stopped in Yuma to speak Saturday evening and Sunday morning about his experiences.

"For approximately 70 years, Soviet leadership tried to purge understanding and belief in God from our society," Rumachik said in Russian, translated to English by Rick Barry, a Baptist missionary from Indiana.

"In the eyes of our government, it was a great evil for a young person to have faith and to follow Him," Rumachik said. "The government expended great energy to deliver the message that there is no God. For children they created anti-God clubs and organizations."

Christian children who did not participate in the atheist organizations were punished and humiliated by their teachers, teased for being old-fashioned, Rumachik said.

Growing up with a mother who was a "genuine, sincere Christian," Rumachik was very interested in the Bible and read the New Testament a number of times before he reached age 13, he said.

"Even in childhood, the teachings of Jesus Christ pleased me very much," Rumachik said. Because of the way young Christians were treated, Rumachik made a decision when he was 16 that he would follow Jesus, but he would wait until he was 50 or 60.

"God had a way of changing my mind," Rumachik said. "At 18 I accepted Jesus Christ as my savior."

Rumachik began studying the Bible independently and memorized entire passages.

"That was extremely helpful to me," he said. "Never did I have a Bible with me in a prison cell."

In 1953, Rumachik married a woman named Luba, and when they were settled, decided to establish a church with the help of neighbors who shared their faith. Within three years, 150 people were attending the underground church, including many children.

The Soviet government believed if young people were not allowed in church, the church would die when the older parishioners died. Officials began hearing of the underground services and ordered them stopped, Rumachik said.

"The government used the media to slander us, and turn the public against us," Rumachik said. "They encouraged the belief that Baptists were involved with sacrificing children."

In a highly publicized trial in which 5,000 people turned up, he and the others were sentenced to five years in a prison camp in Siberia for starting a church and inciting young people to have faith in God, Rumachik said.

In prison, Rumachik spread the word of God to other convicts, though not all wanted to listen, he said.

Rumachik was released early as an act of amnesty, he said, and returned home to find the church had grown. He was arrested four more times, and altogether spent more than 18 years in prison camps.

Rumachik was released for the final time in February 1987, during Perestroika. Today, he is a pastor in the Moscow suburb of Dyedovsk.

Russian Baptist pastor Peter Rumachik (right) talks to the Faith Baptist Church congregation Sunday morning about when he was in prison a total of 18 years in Russia for preaching in his home country. Baptist missionary Rick Barry (left) interpreted for Rumachik. Sun photo by Jacob Lopez.