Zhenya Paliy

When I was 17 I went on a 5 week mission trip to Ukraine with Rachel Suko from our church. (She is now married and a full time missionary in Ukraine.) While we were there we visited many fellow believers many of whom had been persecuted during the Soviet Union. One sweet man we met was Zhenya Paliy. He has 3 daughters, one is about my age. We ate dinner with them a few times during our trip. I remember that he seemed very quiet and gentle and he loved the Lord dearly. He preached a sermon once while we were there. About a year or more ago he started to have some severe health problems and just this morning he went to be with the Lord. Here is what my pastor said in an e-mail he sent out:

"Today we received news that Zhenya Paliy passed into the presence of the Lord earlier today. He was about the age of 50. Zhenya was a work of grace in middle-life.
We first met Zhenya and Olga about 10 years ago when they visited services we were involved in at our sisiter church in Makarovo, Ukraine. Zhenya had been a local communist party secretary, worked with the police and was an agricultural engineer. After the fall of the USSR life became much more difficult. When we visited he came to the church to hear what the Americans had to say. Believers began to witness to him. Soon his wife Olga became a believer.
The Lord used respiratory problems to bring Zhenya to trust Christ a year or so later when he became very sick. Just then John Taylor, a local ABWE missionary, visited just in time to offer needed transportation to a hospital which saved Zhenya's life. He saw this as God's hand so he believed and was baptized. We heard his testimony at a wonderful dinner in his home when we visited later.
Whithin three years he was preaching actively in the church and took the office of the church evangelist. When we visited the nex time he was preaching in various villages around Makarovo area where other churches had started.
His funeral will be on Friday."