By Iraida Mikhailova, St. Luke’s Church

 

“Our congregation has a very good friend, Andrei Polyakov, the husband of our church member Natalia Polyakova. By profession, he is an electrician, welder and otherwise creative person. He uses his talents to help a lot with things to do in the church, especially in electrical engineering. At our church center in Poyavilovo, it was he who did all the electrical wiring indoors and outdoors to connect to the utility pole.

 

“Of course, he did all that in consultation with Pastor Valeri, thinking through all the details together. Pastor Valeri suggested making a big metal candle stand in the shape of the globe and Andrei offered adding the Luther Rose as a confessional decoration inside the stand.

 

“Everyone liked the candle stand very much and, inspired by it, they suggested decorating the church fence, too, with the Lutheran Church emblem. That’s the simple story of how we got the Luther Rose on our fence. All things come from God: He moves, He guides and leads and opens up talents.

 

“Andrei makes those things manually, using simple implements of his own making to bend metal rods. His wife Natasha helps and inspires him in all things.”