Testimony by Tanya Yezgor, Missionary

Hello, my name is Tanya Yezgor and recently I returned from a 3 months mission trip in India. It was the most memorable and blessed trip of my life. I saw God from the very beginning until the end. Our mission trip didn’t start in India; it began on our way to New York. I remember as I sat on the airplane next to me sat a Jewish gay couple: educated, wealthy and well dressed who just adopted twin newly born baby boys from Portland and were flying back to Jerusalem. My heart ached as I sat next to them thinking “God, how can I possibly testify to them? Is this a test? I am not even on a mission field and I’m in situation where I don’t know what to say.” As we casually chatted, I told them a little bit about me and how God changed my life and leading me to a different country to serve. I didn’t know what else to tell them so I just prayed for them inside my heart.

As we were going our separate ways, I could see them occasionally glancing back at us and I know that even though I didn’t do much, but the love of Christ inside of me made them think about their lives. We had a great opportunity to testify in New York City to people at the airport, on the subways or walking down the street. As we simply sang Christian songs people were drawn to us, asking questions about who we are and what we do. This gave a perfect opportunity to testify about our Jesus, it was amazing to watch people leave with smiles on their faces or maybe a serious thought about their life after our brother preached on a subway.

When we arrived to the orphanage in India, we were greeted by a rowdy group of 39 children who just attacked us with hugs, clinging to our arms and legs. These precious little souls became our everyday companions who we taught, took care of, tutored, disciplined, loved, cried and prayed for. What stood out to me was, how real God was to us and how He answered our prayers. There were moments when I didn’t know how to reach one child or how to discipline another but when I came to God on my knees He always gave me wisdom. Simple example: 10 year old boy Peter never learned his bible verses that he needed to learn for a bible class and no matter how I told him, asked him or encouraged, he wouldn’t listen. So one day at Bible class I told the whole class that we will pray for Peter so God will give his desire and memory to learn his verses. As days were passing by I forgot that we prayed this prayer, until Peter kept asking me “Auntie, help me learn my verse or Auntie, teach me bible verse” I remembered our prayer. Until the day that I was leaving, he was still asking me to help him learn his verses, Praise God! Another time as I was really sick, with nausea and high fever I was sitting outside and our leader, Victor called all the kids to pray for me. As they all circled and cried out to God, my fever was gone and I felt better right away. Another time I woke up feeling sick with a fever so I said to my sisters “Can you please pray for me, I don’t want to lie all day. I have so many things I need to do today and I have faith that God can heal me”. We prayed and I started making breakfast, in the middle of it I remembered that I had fever but now everything is gone. Praise God that He answers our prayers instantly. God also healed a woman, Priscilla that cooks for the kids in the orphanage. She had a huge boil (an open wound couple inches wide) and we didn’t know how to treat it other than clean it and praying with little girls for her. We watched it get smaller and heal completely within a little more than a week, praise God! Another healing I witnessed is very vivid in my memory. One night I and another sister woke up from a loud cry downstairs. As we run to see what happened, we find one of our girls on the floor who couldn’t breathe and was gasping for air and the other girls sitting on their beds terrified. We didn’t know what to do but we knew the best Doctor, our Heavenly Father. We fell on our knees together with all the girls and cried out to God for mercy and healing for this little girl. Within 5-10 minutes she started breathing more normal and fell asleep on my lap. The next morning she ran up to me and said “Auntie, Jesus healed me!” Praise God that we can always go to our God no matter when, how, and where He answers especially the prayers of the little children. These are just a few testimonies out of so many that we got to see.

Another big miracle we saw India was a spiritual revival in the orphanage and the local church. When we arrived, orphanage and the church were in a difficult situation and not a lot of people were attending the services. As we started praying and fasting for cleansing of ourselves as missionaries and leaders, then the cleansing of our kids and orphanage and then the church. Only then the revival happened. On a Sunday night after a whole night chain-prayer that we did with our missionary team, was a start of awakening where almost all church including kids came up front crying and repenting. This was a start of people getting reborn and getting on fire for God. My heart rejoices as I hear news of the children being reborn and baptized in the Holy Spirit with a gift of tongues. It seems just yesterday we were teaching them in a Bible class what Holy Spirit is and why we need it and today they are blessed with it. Nothing makes me happier then to hear of the fruits of all the hard work and God’s answer to so many prayers. I am humbled by His mercy and will forever be grateful for such an amazing opportunity to serve and share the love of Jesus Christ.