Meet Andrey Zaremba

Andrey Zaremba was born in Ukraine in the city of Lviv. 
Andrey’s Grandmother was a polish Jew, his mother became a believer in Jesus during the revival in the Soviet Union in the early 1980’s his father was an Alcoholic who later also became a believer. Andrey’s parents were on fire for God, his father became a preacher, and they started an underground home church which later grew into a regular church and is still there today. 

In 1990, when Andrey was 10 years old, his entire family immigrated to the United States. Unlike the Soviet Union, there was complete freedom in the United States. Andrey’s parents, frightened that the world would steal their children, tried to isolate them from “The World”. Church was forced and everything besides church was a sin. At an early age Andrey began to think that religion is a trap, and in every possible way tried to break free. 
This led to depression and drug use at an early age. Over the years, Andrey tried to quit drugs, he went to psychologists, psychiatrists, tried experimental drugs, went through many rehabilitation centers, but nothing seemed to work. In complete despair, Andrey lost hope and faith in God, started to think that there is no meaning in life, the only thing that made him happy was drugs. 

In his early 30s Andrey overdosed on heroin. He was in the car when this happened, and it took some time for someone to call an ambulance. When they brought him to the hospital he wasn’t breathing on his own and was breathing with the help of a breathing machine. According to the doctors, there was no chance that he would survive since his heart worked only with the help of machines. The Doctors told his parents if by some miracle he does start breathing on his own and wakes up from his coma, he will be a vegetable for the rest of his life because when they found him his brain was depleted of oxygen.

 
But God had other plans, Andrey came out of the coma four days later and was completely fine, no brain damage and no problems with his heart. After running more tests, the Doctors sent him home. A few days later Andrey’s parents found him passed out with a needle in his arm. 
When things seemed completely hopeless with no way out, Andrey’s mother met a lady from Kazakhstan who knew about the ministry work of living Israel in Israel. It seemed by chance at the time, but now we know it was a divine appointment. They convinced Andrey that if he goes to a rehabilitation program in The Holy Land (Israel) maybe God will do a miracle there.
So, Andrey flew to Israel for rehabilitation. It was different this time. All the people he met in rehab were mostly new believers who heard the gospel in rehab for the very first time. The Gospel was simple, everyone believed with a childlike faith. Someone asked him do you want me to pray for you and God will take away your withdrawal symptoms. Yeah, right Andrey wanted to reply but instead said yes please pray for me. After that for the very first time in his life Andrey didn’t go through heroin withdrawals. After that he met with pastor Michael Sadowski who told him: forget everything you know and start your relationship with Jesus from scratch.

While going through the rehab program Andrey’s depression went away. He started a new relationship with God. His relationship with his family was restored and his parents started to see a glimpse of hope. Andrey finished his rehab program in Israel. He also went to the bible school of discipleship in Israel and finished his practicum in Switzerland. All these programs were all part of the living Israel ministry. During this time, he was pastor Michael’s interpreter and developed a strong relationship with him.

While interpreting and teaching at the Bible school in Israel Andrey met Elizabeth who at the time was a student at the bible school. After a year of friendship mostly long distance, Andrey and Elizabeth got engaged and a short time later got married in Israel. 
Pastor Michael realized the need to start a nonprofit in the United States to find ministry partners, donors, sponsors, and friends to fund all the projects and ministries in Israel.  Andrey was ordained as an associate pastor and became the director and president of this new organization called New Living Israel.

Today Andrey and Elizabeth live in Fort Worth Texas. They travel the country speaking on the importance of Israel and the Jewish people. Making friends and ministry partners for the work of Living Israel.

Our founder Vladimir Kriouchkov felt a call of God to start a church in Brooklyn New York where there are more than 1 million Russian speaking Jews. He moved to Brooklyn with his wife and daughter to make this dream a reality. 5 years ago, he went to be with The Lord. 
Today pastor Michael’s and Andrey’s vision is to fulfill this dream by going to Brooklyn and starting a Russian/English speaking church there working with the Russian speaking Jews. Using the same plan and tactics that are working in Israel.

Today we are looking for friends and partners so we can find funds and put together a team to go to New York and make this dream a reality and introduce the Jewish people of New York to their savior Yeshua.

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Praise Chapel is partnering with Living Israel for this vision! You can give to help support this new work in New York and also the Living Israel work in Israel. Next month we will introduce you to Michael Sadovsky working in Haifa Israel.