MY UNDERGROUND CHURCH

I was about twelve as I recall. In public school we always had religion and it was mostly on Wednesday. Our class was split into according to each “church” and a pastor came to the school and taught us history and we were to memorize the Psalms, also something like a statement of faith, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Ten Commandments.

At least we were not absolute “pagans”. My grandma has a legacy since she taught me the basics of the Bible even though I never saw her read because of her failing sight.

Once I felt I am not good I was nasty to God with my words. My mom was dead, she passed away suddenly, while I was five (she was 29) and my grandma took over. My dad remarried when I was twelve, so we were people in the house. It was good because they did not confiscate our house since we were only three and house was over spaced. My dad was a master carpenter and my uncle was a mason, so they had built a spacey house.

After dad was remarried, I was happy that I had a new mom. But my happiness lasted about 2-3 months. She became sort of a dictator.

One day I went to the attic where there were big beams across the top that held the roof. It was my refuge place, little dusty, but…

I knelt on the beam even though it had sharp edges and I started to pray. All I knew to pray did not satisfy me so I started to talk to God. I told Him – I do not remember the exact words – but I said something like: “I am sorry I was nasty to You God what I should not.” I cried. I said I will give my heart to you. I spoke it out loud; I felt that God can hear me better. The attic was my prayer place. I remember that once, I had close eyes and in my spirit the Lord Jesus appeared to me. He was a beautiful man with long hair and a long robe. He was looking to me but did not say anything. Later I thought He did not speak since I did not ask for anything.

When I talked to Lord out loud my stepmother was saying “Oh, he is sighing again.”

After I asked the Lord to come into my heart, everything changed. I was filled with a joy I had never experienced before. I was filled with an unusual love and I wanted to hug the entire globe.

World War II was over which had lasted four years. Later the Communists took over. The unions were instrumental in this happening. From the beginning there were many promises, but we lost everything. Freedom was gone as well. Dictatorship was unbearable.

People in our small town were hungry for good news. I started to read the Bible twice a day and it was very hard. I did not have any instructor. I began reading through the Bible once a year. Since my knowledge increased people asked me to talk to them about God, His Word and I did. We had a small group which grew. The Communists became hard on religion and later they commanded that the pastors write sermons on paper and submit them to the Communist Party headquarters and they checked read them. They did not allow the pastors to deviate from it. They had secret informers. Each church had to be registered; otherwise a penalty would be tragic—prison. Once they went to prison, very few came out. And there was no crime committed.

In the city there was a Jewish Synagogue. It was ruined by catholic guard group of nasty people. Then I lost track of them, since Jewish people were gone and the Synagogue was damaged; only the cemetery was intact.

I was preaching from the heart, no paper, no guidelines. We preached love, faith, salvation and so on. We were not registered. Of course we did not think we were illegal, underground, but we were cautious.

We knew we are considered by regular Christians as fanatics, but we took it well. We were aware that Jesus suffered for us; it is okay with us whatever they would do to us.

We exercised love no matter what. We had forgiving hearts. Jesus said: Forgive them they do not know what they are doing. Some persecution came. My new mom tried to make me busy to cure me from my fanaticism but did not succeed. She gave me busywork and when I studied about anything even my school subjects she already had something prepared for me to do. I was striking back with kindness. I did everything what she asked me to do.

In our fellowship we also started to have a musical group, with string instruments, like mandolins and so on. I taught myself to play the violin and I had some idea how to lead a small band. I lectured people on how to read music notes. It was really great. We did not have records or any photos in the church. We were against pictures as the Bible said. We called the Bible the Word of God. Yes, of course people were writing the Bible under guidance of Holy Spirit. God supervised the writings. We treasured the Bible and worshiped God, not material things.

Later writer J.O Markus was my professor. He wrote a lot of biblical books which were my treasure. I did help him to transcribe his writings.

There was time we had conference from others towns friends. My professor was J.O. Markus and he was my favored speaker. We went to wood far away from civilization. There was hotel in the mountains. We stay there but when meeting was set in the woods, we could not wait to hear it. We decided to go to different directions and met in one place. It was dangerous if communistic government will discover it.

My life was a miracle. I would have never made it without God. I went from school to school to lose my record of being a “believer” still they knew who I was. The Lord led me in a really interesting way. Believe me I would not make it without God. His Spirit hovered over me all the time even when I was not the best son. I had to repent many times. But God was with me.

It became so bad in country it was hard to bear it. I had a friend, a brother, his name was also Vladimir. He was attending an engineering technical university school in the capital city of Bratislava. Bratislava was 6-8 hours away from my hometown by train. They had also prayer groups at homes. Three engineers lead it and were put into prison for three years for a nonregistered prayer group. One of them was my friend Vladimir. He loved me like my father. His encouragement was great. But all the letters he sent to me suddenly stopped. The Communists stop his schooling for good.

I could not study since my step-mom did not let me learn. She said I had to work. School was the only one we don’t needed was her philosophy. She believed that her family did not have the chance also, so I do not have it either. I changed schools, went to nursing school since my school almost expelled me. I moved to a different city and attended nursing school into the 3^rd year since I had enough credits. I was the second best student, and must caught during that year disciplines like anatomy, biology and so on.

On the picture there was youth of underground “church”. I am on the top in the middle.

No. 111811

© 2011 Vladimir Uhri