THE MIRACLE OF GENERATIONAL BLESSING

THE MIRACLE OF GENERATIONAL BLESSING


By Melinda Fish <>{

Last night our congregation celebrated the 60th wedding anniversary of Vasillina and Peter Olienyuk. They are the grandparents of the Doroshes who came to America and to our congregation in 1989 from Ukraine. Their daughter, Maria, is the “mother of all the living”-- or at least the eleven Dorosh kids, and Vitali is their dad. There should be a movie about their move to America and what has happened since. Among the eleven children there are two moms, another who is on the verge of giving birth, two engineers, a real estate entrepreneur, a businessman, a college administrator working on her master’s in English, a high school history teacher and a media specialist with the Pittsburgh Steelers. All a¬¬¬¬re Christians who have active relationships with God and who love Jesus Christ. All but two, who live out of state, are in our congregation.

I marveled at how we all came to be in the same room and at the millions of choices individuals have made over centuries culminating in our being together in that one room. Some of those choices were made out of simple duty or because every other option was cut off, but God, whose power is beyond limit worked through them all.

Vitali and Maria and their family were the first of the clan to arrive here. In March of 1989, the Lord spoke a word of prophecy to our congregation one Sunday morning: “This will be the year of the opening of the door of the prison door to them that are bound behind the iron curtain…If you will yoke your arm with my arm, you will see a miracle happen.”

A few weeks later we read in a Charisma Magazine that you could sponsor a Christian family from the Soviet Union looking for a home in America. The agency doubted that a congregation as small as ours could even handle such a project. We were disallowed at first; but finally, when they couldn’t find enough volunteers, they let us try. We decided to “go for broke” and asked for a big family. The Lord had spoken to our congregation earlier in the 80’s: “I am going to send you the people nobody else wants.” We had interpreted that as being the indigent from our own city, but we didn’t know what God was about to do.

We made preparations and found willing help from the people of Pittsburgh, many of whom are the children of eastern European immigrants themselves. We found a vacant “crack” house on the edge of our community and remodeled it. The landlord sold it for a very low price, and we filled it with carpet, appliances and furniture. The last Saturday in September 1989, the Doroshes arrived. They had been staying in a dormitory in Philadelphia because their family was so large that no one wanted them. For me, it was love at first sight. They were beautiful, Vitali and Maria with their eleven blonde “stair steps.” The family had lived in a small apartment with a tiny box refrigerator back home in Ukraine. When Maria saw the house, the furniture and all the appliances, she hugged me and exclaimed in broken English through tears, “My sister, my friend!”

In all my 61 years, I have never seen the clear fulfillment of true prophecy as I have in this. Nor have I seen a greater avalanche of answered prayers. The Lord covered the tiniest detail with miraculous power. That November, about six weeks after their arrival, the Berlin wall fell, and Peter Jennings headlined the ABC news broadcast that night with, “Tonight, the prison doors of the iron curtain have opened!” It was the same word the Lord had spoken to us that Sunday in March!

A few years later, the Olienyuks arrived, too, to walk in freedom with their children and grandchildren. I am in awe of their sacrifice, leaving loved ones behind, embarking at an old age to embrace a new country. They still don’t speak English, but they come to church every week and sit patiently in the congregation smiling, enjoying the privilege of churchgoing, even if they can’t understand anything that’s going on! In fact, they go to two churches also attending a Ukrainian Baptist Church, too,--every week. They lived through the tyranny of Communism which forbade them from even going to church at all except in secret so they are taking advantage of the chance to go even though Vasillina is 79 and Peter is 85.

Today the eleven Dorosh kids, their grandchildren, are all adults. Eight of them have families of their own who are all Christians. When I looked at the Olienyuks, their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren last night, I realized how powerful the simple choice of receiving Jesus Christ is in opening not only your life, but also the lives of those who come after you to the power of generational blessing. So many Christians believe in mysterious powers of generational curses; but I don’t believe that Christians inherit curses. Jesus never taught that. The cross of Jesus annihilated that satanic power. When someone is born again, like a newborn baby, he has no past. As a Christian he has the free will to follow Jesus or to use that free will to live selfishly. It’s the day of the New Covenant now; you are free to choose. (Ezekiel 18) If you deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Jesus, that path is difficult, but the destination is blessing. It’s the high road.

The Olienyuks, long before I was born, chose Jesus Christ and in so doing, they chose blessing. They have been faithful to each other for 60 years. Last night, that roomful of people, representing hundreds more rooms full of people yet to come, was a tangible foretaste of the truth that following Jesus Christ is loaded with generational blessing both now and in eternity. Generational blessing can start with you and your choice to follow Jesus, too, beginning with receiving Him as your Lord and Saviour and then developing your relationship with Him.

The greatest people in the world are the folks who walk out their relationship with Jesus simply, obeying what they believe He tells them to do. The real heroes are the ones who love God and their neighbors without anyone watching. They live this way because they know that God is watching. They demonstrate real faith in the power of the leaven of the Kingdom of Heaven to influence generations by “living sensibly, righteously and godly in this present age.”

I wonder how many blessings have come into my life because my ancestors chose Jesus Christ and Kingdom values. It must have eclipsed all their sin, because I have a heritage of generations who followed Jesus Christ. They did not give me wealth. Instead, they gave me the opportunity of knowing Jesus Christ. How many of my descendants will have those blessings, too? The Olienyuks are not leaving behind a legacy of wealth or fame. Instead, they have left one far better, the blessing of living a life with Jesus, the only blessing that is eternal.