The fact of God's help from Svetlana 31.07.2024

I thank the Most Holy Theotokos for Her intercession and great mercy! My husband has not drunk or smoked for a month! On January 3rd, he had a mild stroke—it was the mildest form, but it shook him to the core. Now, he can’t drink or smoke at all. Of course, I will never stop praying—I simply don’t know how to live otherwise. He drank every single day for 37 years of our marriage, and even before that. I have been praying the Akathist with Bolgar since November 2019. This summer, I almost thought about stopping. Things were going downhill at work, but how could I stop praying to the Theotokos? By November, it was time to renew the Akathist, but I couldn’t pay for it from where we live. So, I asked his sister in Russia to pay for it—for the first time ever. It was truly a matter of life and death! I had often thought, "I keep praying and praying, and nothing changes. What’s the goal? Just to have a wonderful, sober husband for myself? No—that’s not how it works. It’s so that he can be saved! Because drunkards do not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven." For the first two years, nothing changed. Everything was the same. He drank, hid bottles, then drank again. I knew I had to do something more. I felt an urge to do full prostrations. I took a blessing for it and started doing a lot of them during the Akathist. I understand now what "sweating blood" means. That’s when things finally started shifting! I once prayed 40 Akathists in 3 days—and it was intense. Then, I continued ordering Akathists for the third year, the fourth year. And now, in the fifth year, his name was once again listed for prayer. Two months after four years of praying the Akathist, on New Year’s Eve, someone called to remind me that January 1st is the feast of the Martyr Boniface. So I turned to prayer! I read the Akathist to Saint Boniface, and in my prayer book, I found prayers for deliverance from drunkenness to Saint Boniface the Merciful and Venerable Moses the Black. I played these prayers and Akathists on my phone and cried out to God and the Theotokos, begging for my husband’s enlightenment. That was January 1st, 2nd, and 3rd—three days of desperate prayer. And then—on January 3rd—he had a stroke. While he was in the hospital, I couldn’t bring myself to write this testimony earlier—I was anxious, unsure what would happen next. But at the same time—I felt joy! It’s impossible to put into words! Now, my husband looks great—he has even become more handsome. He is undergoing rehabilitation, and we’re working on improving his speech. So yes, he fell out of the jaws of the green serpent. He still has "wounds," but that’s okay. Glory to God for everything! What a blessing! I rejoice!