“For nothing is impossible with God!” (Luke 1:37)

Dear Grandchildren,

On my arrival in Kobryn, I found out that the person whom I was replacing was a young married woman who had just found out that she was pregnant, and that of course, made her not eligible for the choir. They even made a rule that only single girls should be included in it, but for men it didn’t matter. All five men in the choir were married.

The choir was made up of eleven members. I sang first soprano. After I came to Kobryn, the choir was complete. We were all going to live together at the headquarters. From morning until night, we learned the songs that we were going to sing on our tour. In addition to singing, we had other jobs to do. We did our own cooking, cleaning, and chopping of wood, etc.

I liked what they asked me to do. Since I had quite a bit of experience in reading music, which they taught us in the orphanage, I was asked to copy music on several other music sheets from the originals. We had no machine to copy them, so every day I did the copying. They also assigned me from time to time to write some letters and give answers to letters that came to the office. Dr. Jaroshevich liked the way that I wrote letters.

Once, as he read what I wrote as an answer to a letter, he said, “You are a very intelligent girl. I would like to see you go to college when you go to America.” By then I didn’t doubt that the Lord could do it, because He answered one of my greatest prayers already. I thought, “It wouldn’t be hard for the Lord to do that,” and that made me pray more to Him about the things which I knew were impossible for me, but not impossible for Him to do.

One day we all had a meeting to decide what our choir should be called. The title had to include the nationality of the members (Russian, Ukranian and Polish) and to represent our missionary cause. We talked and talked for a very long time, and believe it or not, I said, “How about ‘Polish Slavonic Missionary Choir’?” Dr. Jaroshevich replied, “That’s it!” and that became the name of our choir.

After the choir was organized, Dr. Jaroshevich had lots of work to do in preparation for our departure to the U.S.A. First he had to get passports for all the members who were leaving Poland. Poland never let their subjects leave the country without a hassle, so can you imagine how difficult it would be to get passports for someone who didn’t even have a birth certificate? Several of the members could not prove that they were the persons that they claimed to be. To be a Polish citizen, you had to prove that you lived in Poland for ten years, and if you could do that then you automatically became a Polish citizen. Since by 1936 I had lived in Poland for about thirteen years already, there was no problem about my citizenship.

How Dr. Jaroshevich got all the passports for everyone, I will never understand, but he managed it. After he finished that job, he had to go to America and start raising funds for our trip, which was not easy. He left in September, thinking that the money would soon be available and that, in no time, we would be on our way. But we waited and waited and waited, and the money wasn’t coming. Several of the choir members began doubting that we would ever leave Poland. They were even ready to go home.

But in December 1936 (seventy-four years ago this month!), the money finally came. I knew then that in a few days we would be on our way to the U.S.A!

—Grandma Nadzia

Questions

1. Nadzia had to wait a long time for her prayers to be answered. Does God always answer your prayers right away?

2. Do you try to do a good job on your chores, even when no one is watching? Should you?

3. What kinds of things are impossible for you to do, but easy for God?