Get to know Valentina P.
Valentina P. first came to St. Paul's Church in 2016 and became a Stephen minister before she became a church member. Lena remembers the first Evangelism Explosion group noticing Valentina, in many ways, would stand out in the group. She was intelligent, yet modest, with good manners, a sense of humor, and she wanted to learn about faith as much as she could. Lena can hardly remember Valentina missing a Bible lesson—she is always there carefully listening.
Valentina was born in Kyiv in 1946 to a Polish father and a Russian mother. As Lena was visiting Valentina a few weeks ago, she told Lena endless stories about her parents, particularly about the deep love and commitment in their marriage. The apartment she lives in was received by their family in 1964 when that three-story house was built in the old part of the city. Before WWII the family settled in a huge commune apartment downtown of Kyiv (not far from the White House). The two rooms of Valentina's apartment now are modestly furnished yet there is much taste. The apartment is on the first floor. Back in Soviet times, Valentina built a narrow but long balcony attached to the apartment. Over 10 years ago, on this very balcony, she hosted a street female dog who gave birth to puppies. Soon Valentina found homes for all of them, including the mother dog. Though the mother dog was soon returned to her, Valentina would not give up and found another family for the dog. When the dog walked back to her apartment, Valentina made a decision to keep her—the old slow friend is still her only company.
Valentina's parents were well-educated. Back in the early 1960s, she was encouraged to receive a good education and she did. For 20 years, Valentina had worked as an economist at the ministry. And then she said, “I did something extraordinary for a Soviet person. I learned to do haircuts for poodles. And I was making good money.” Poodles were very rare and thus extremely popular back in 1970 and later in 1980 in the Soviet Union. And since Valentina knew some Polish, she subscribed to some Polish magazines which had good lessons on doing haircuts for poodles.
Valentina regrets that she could not have children. She had a boyfriend in her 30s, she had spent 3 years with him, but she finally returned to her parent’s home.
Her successful hobby with poodles made her female neighbors envy her. Eventually, she was accused of an immoral lifestyle. One should understand: in the Soviet era it was very suspicious if your neighbor made much more money than you did without official employment—and that was exactly Valentina's situation back in the 1980s. She said, “It was really bad, I have just buried both of my parents and accusations were so unfair that one night I simply knelt and started talking to God. At the end of my first prayer, I physically sensed that a heavy burden was taken off my shoulders and unreal peace filled my heart. That's how my Christian walk started. And it was only years later when I came to St. Paul's I started studying the Bible and got saved.”
Five years ago, Valentina married a widower—a wonderful man who died last spring of a heart attack. With great warmth, she speaks about her husband whom she brought to Christ shortly after they got married. According to her, “After his death, I feel so lonely and it is the church with its lessons, services, and care for me helps me to keep going.”
