I, Victoriіa Pіdgіrna, was born on June 6, 1983 in Kherson. I was born into a family without a father. My mother raised me herself. My grandparents died when I was not even a year old. From the age of four on, I went to gymnastic classes. I was seven years old when my mother believed in God and we began to go to church. I still remember my Sunday school lessons; I would like to go back to that time.

In my childhood, I played musical instruments, the violin and piano, and attended music school. I finished it but as we did not have any musical instrument at home, I did not continue my studies at the musical college. Over the years, I learned a lot about God and his Word, but my life outwardly, was different in reality. When I became a teenager, I got very interested in punk and informal movements. Because of this, I began to distance myself from the church. At eighteen, I found myself a biker husband and moved to Kiev with him. At the age of nineteen, I became a mother: our daughter was born. I had to take care of the child, but my husband continued to lead a riotous lifestyle, no one in the family earned a living. I took my daughter and left for Kherson. My husband came to Kherson for me, opened a furniture store so that I could return to him. Unfortunately, his business didn’t last long since he didn’t want to work more than two hours a day. We broke up.

After a while, I met another man who seemed reliable to me. Our daughter was born. Later it turned out that he had a quick-tempered and violent character, and it only softened when he drank. We often quarreled, and I went to live with my mother, and then returned to him. Then I met another man. I became pregnant and broke up with the father of my second daughter. I was left alone with three children. Leaving the children with my mother, I went to work in Dubai, Egypt. I sold soft drinks, worked in a toy store, and later as a waitress in a biker cafe.

Then something happened to my health. My head ached constantly. I had to leave my job and return to Ukraine. A few years earlier, I had had epileptic seizures, but the doctors did not know why they occurred. It turned out to be a meningioma. I had a tumor that even led to a deformation of the skull in the temporal lobe. The doctors did not give me more than 2-3 months to live. It was necessary to collect 200,000 hryvnia (8 thousand dollars) for the surgery. I understood that I needed to turn to God for help, and if I died, I would be with Him. Together with my children and my mother, we began to go to church. And we found the One, the Word of God touched me. I repented and asked God for forgiveness for everything. Moreover, God did a miracle: through many people and even from other countries, people responded to the need and the amount collected was the required amount for the surgery. In 2018, I underwent an operation – the tumor was removed.

After the surgery, I felt like I’d forgotten how to speak Russian, and could only speak English. Some of my memories were erased, and I got fatigued quickly. It was difficult for me to recall and remember names. It took me six months to memorize the names of my own children. I had to relearn to speak Russian, learning simple words.

At the church I attend, I met Alys and learned about the ministry to orphans with disabilities. Alys offered me a job that would be within my strength: helping as the homekeeper in cleaning, washing, ironing, and help to the cook in the kitchen. I am grateful to God for the opportunity to serve Him through this and for everything that He does in my life.