12/17/2022
On October 22, 2022, our lives, Pastor Phil and Pastor Jan, experienced a dramatic change. As many of you know, Pastor Jan and I have been to Russia many times. When we first went to Russia in 1993, while we were pastoring in Sedro-Woolly, Washington, we met a young musician who was a student at the music conservatory in Saratov, Russia. Her name was Lena, she was a 20-year-old Ukrainian girl and a new Adventist. She helped our evangelistic team so much by playing her violin for special music at our meetings. Through the years I connected with her on return trips to Russia and eventually met her husband and children. She married an Seventh-day Adventist pastor. In 2019, her husband, Pastor Andrew Kovalev invited me to come hold a revival series in his church, the Moscow International Adventist Church. On September 30, of this year, he contacted me and told me the Russian government was after him and his 24-year-old son Daniel to mobilize into the Russian army to fight against Ukraine. Their son escaped to Kazakhstan on September 29. Andrew decided to flee Russia on October 2, and go to Istanbul, Turkey. They asked my help in getting them get to America. I told them I would and then wondered what I had committed to. The entire family met in Istanbul, Turkey on October 7, and that began an amazing story of God’s intervention and leading. On October 21, we got the family legally across our southern border into the United States after a heroic three-week journey. They are now living with Jan and I in Simi Valley until they can gain full asylum. That could take up to a year. With the banking system locked up, the family lost all their assets and are starting over again. Russian friends in the US who immigrated here years ago assisted them financially to purchase airline tickets etc. They incurred a huge debt of around $35k to get here including legal services at the border. We have been working on helping them liquidate this debt. Elena is an amazing concert violinist, and their daughter Hannah is a concert pianist. This Saturday, December 17, at 4:00 PM our church is hosting a Christmas Vespers concert featuring the Kovalev family as our primary musicians. We’d love to have you watch the concert which will be live streamed and hear their amazing story. You can view the live stream of our concert on the internet by going to our Simi Valley Seventh-day Adventist Church YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/.