Clockwise: 1. Tamara leads an NCM Kids Club in Chkalov, Russia. 2 and 3. When Tamara was a child, her father, Hacheres, found healing from addiction. “God saved my family and restored it,” she says. 4. Tamara’s younger sister, 11, has grown up in a Christian home thanks to the grace her family experienced.
We want to hear more stories of love in action. If you know a person, group, or church living compassion as a lifestyle, email info@ncm.org. Include “magazine” in the subject line. we trusted them,” Tamara says, “but we also understood that there was nothing that could help us—nothing but God!”
“This is the greatest miracle in my life. God saved my family and restored it.” With every visit and continued prayer, the family began to notice the father’s health improving. When he began to move around slowly, the family visited the place where the Christians had invited them, a local Nazarene
church called “Grace.” “When we got there, something changed inside each of us,” Tamara says. Her father entered a rehabilitation program, Tamara began to attend Sunday School and the Kids Club, and her grandmother became a regular at the church services. “My dad was changing in front of my eyes,” Tamara says. A FAMILY RESTORED It was difficult for Tamara’s family to begin to trust her father again, but as they watched God’s grace produce changes in him, their hearts began to change, too. Tamara gave her life to Christ when she was 16, and she was baptized at 18—along
with her mother. “This is the greatest miracle in my life,” Tamara says. “God saved my family and restored it. I see the love between my parents. Sometimes, there are quarrels and misunderstandings in our family, but we are united and love each other, and we are insanely grateful to God that He is leading us.” Today, Tamara sings in the worship band each Sunday at Grace Church of the Nazarene in Chaltyr, and every Thursday, she welcomes the children of the Chkalov Kids Club with open arms. Her prayer is that that they will experience the same grace that transformed her own life. “Every time I kneel to pray,” she says, “I remember everything that God did.” Winter 2014 | 33