It is my second time in Medjugorje. 

Many years ago, I heard a lot of good stories that the lives of people change here. 

A lot of Ukrainians come here. I think one year, just before COVID, in one time there were like 80 busses from Ukraine, so about 5000 people at the same time. A lot of people come. So I heard a lot of testimonies.

My first visit, I was skeptical. Maybe it’s not skepticism but that I needed proof that something exists, something is real, so maybe I was like Thomas who wanted to stick his fingers in the side of Jesus.

I was here for five days. During four of those days, it was complete very deep peace in my heart. No sinful thoughts, temptations. So for me, as a practicing Catholic, part of a charismatic community, it was a good sign that the Holy Spirit acts deeply and according to the Bible, you know, the fruits of the Holy Spirit, love, peace, joy, etc.

This was the first experience so I said, “Oh, something special should be here.” 

It adds up. We have free will, right? And we choose to look for God. And when we do that, God responds, as He promised in His word. So, for sure, Medjugorje is one of the places and communities where you look for God. This is amazing that you can have adoration every day and the Mass every day. If you open your heart to Jesus, your faith deepens and your life changes.

But I started saying about free will, why? Because Judas had good company around, the apostles and Jesus Himself, and still he let the evil one lead him, and we know the result.

We need to want dearly to get to know God and then things change in any place, in a small church where nobody knows the name of this village but where Jesus is present in Eucharist there. If people live somewhere far in the mountains, for sure He is there with them because they don’t have any other options. 

Wherever you are, whether in Ukraine or here, if you try to follow God, you have peace. 

We live in the western part of Ukraine. It’s the same distance to the front line from my city as to Berlin.

Around 4:20 in the morning, me and my wife woke up suddenly. I think it was God who woke us up. We had a huge window, and what we saw from the window just a few minutes after that, how the huge rocket flies, how it was shot. This rocket exploded like half a mile from our window.

There was another building the same height in front of us so we saw that the fire from the explosion was two times higher than that 11 story building. The fire was so tall, and the smoke was four or five times higher.

A huge explosion, half a mile, so very close, and I had deep peace in my heart. This is not human. It’s just from God. From my experience, whether you are in a war zone or here, you can have this deep peace and trust in God that He is with you. He loves you deeply, dearly. 

God is good. God is great. Everybody cannot imagine how great He is. I think that’s why when we’re in heaven we will see Him all the time and not be bored because of how great He is, how deep His love is.

One day in Medjugorje, I was very sick. I was sick the whole day. It was very bad. I came in the evening to the Mass, and I couldn’t even stand there. I was sitting outside. I heard that it was Communion time, and I took the Communion, and I was healthy straight away, 100% health.

It was proof to me that Jesus is real in the Eucharist, this is His body and His blood. He’s there. He is present. I think this is one of the greatest gifts, apart from God’s love, to us that we can take Him every day.

My son spent a third of his life here in Medjugorje, and this is great. With my wife, we’ve experienced how God healed our hearts, how God united us more as a husband and wife. For our child, I’m sure he also was taking grace in. We will see during his life. 

There is a God’s promise. If you try to search for God as much as you can, then you will find Him. I would encourage everybody to ditch or throw out social media or some other dependencies, addictions we have, and just look to God.

It’s the greatest joy to know God, greater than a lot of other things, greater anything else. Keep searching.