Ivan Voronaev: Back in the USSR
This book is a Journey!
A journey that has stretched over three continents and a century of time. And a journey that may not be yet over…
This book is Ivan Voronaev’s journey in search of Truth, Spirit and Power. A search for a new name, a new life and a new reality. A journey that redefined his life and the lives of thousands around him. A journey of life that sentenced him to death! And essentially, a journey that became his life as a martyr and reaching into The Life Himself.
This book is my own journey of searching, uncovering, and at times even leaving alone sensitive documents from church denominations, secret government organizations and long-kept personal archives. A journey to discover that instead of being celebrated has mostly met with a push to be silenced and in the case of governments even sealed as top secret.
And finally, this book is our journey as Pentecostals. For a life of self-sacrifice defines us all as a movement. Or at least it should, as it did once upon a time at the start of Modern Day Pentecost. And a journey we all still need to take…
Over the years the research on the life and ministry of Ivan Voronaev faced strong opposition from both Balkan chauvinism and Slavic imperialism. It was constantly challenged for being both misunderstanding and misunderstood. But as a 5th generation Bulgarian Pentecostal, who grew under Communism with family roots traced to the original Pentecostal revival that shook the country in 1920, I do understand. A great-great-granduncle and great-great-grandaunt of mine were taken from the Thracian fields into slavery by the Turks. Two of my great-great-granduncles were hanged on the historic Oak of 100 Rebels, where 1876 uprising leaders were killed by the Ottomans. My great grandmother was heavily persecuted by Bulgarian Orthodoxy for accepting Pentecost in 1928, after my grandmother was miraculously healed on her deathbed of tuberculosis at age four. Both of my grandfathers were prosecuted by the secret Communist police, one for being a Pentecostal preacher and the other for having a successful businessman and landowner during the Communist nationalization of 1958. Neither of my parents was ever allowed to study pass high school or hold a job of any importance, because they came from families of believers and Protestants, treated as “enemy of the state.” My sister and I were saved as teenagers at the fall of the Berlin Wall, but not late enough not to be mocked for calling publicly professing the Lord. For this reason alone, I’ve strived to tell this story with distinct self-realization and personal passion – to understand and be understood.
