Dying Mother Lives 27 Years After Daughter’s Baptism
Lyubov Babkina says the miracle was her call to serve Jesus.
Lyubov Babkina decided to get baptized to satisfy the dying wish of her devout Seventh-day Adventist mother.
But what happened next surprised her — and her mother — and led her to devote the rest of her life to serving God through church ministry.
“To love God is to serve Him,” Lyubov, 66, said in an interview in her hometown of Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia. “I will continue to serve Him in church. That’s for sure!”
Lyubov, a kind-faced woman with coiffed blond hair, said she never had an issue with Adventist Church doctrine. She tried to live the word of God since childhood. But something, she said, kept her from being baptized.
Then her 69-year-old mother, Anna, fell ill. The doctor said it was cancer and too late to operate. The mother, who had spent her life serving the church, was sent home to die.
“I took care of her, and we prayed together all the time,” said Lyubov, who was 36 at the time.
The mother constantly reassured her, saying: “Don’t worry. Don’t cry. Everything is according to God’s will. What is happening will prove to be a blessing to you and me.”
“That always calmed me down,” Lyubov said.
As her mother grew weaker, Lyubov sensed that she was close to death. So, she asked her one day whether she had any last wishes.
“Mama looked at me with a sad expression and said: ‘Daughter, I am grateful to you and God. Only I cannot die peacefully while I know that no one is around to continue my work for God.’” Lyubov said.
Those words bothered Lyubov. She resolved to get baptized and to serve God like her mother.
Going to the church, she told the Adventist pastor about her dying mother and her desire to be baptized.
“I know you well,” the pastor said. “I know that you know the truth. This Wednesday we will have a church board meeting with baptismal candidates. Come and I will recommend you for baptism.”
Lyubov wrote an official request for baptism and asked the pastor to give her the document so she could show it to her mother.
“When I gave her the paper, she was so happy,” Lyubov said. “Tears trickled down her cheeks, and she hugged me.”
The next morning, Lyubov went to the kitchen and was stunned to find her mother cooking borscht on the stove.
“I almost fell over,” she said.
She asked her mother, “How can you be cooking?”
The mother replied: “I’m making you something to eat. You’ll eat in a moment. Don’t worry, everything will be alright.”
After that, the mother lived another 27 years. She died in February 2016 at the age of 96 — not of cancer, but of old age.
Lyubov said her mother’s miraculous healing was a call from God for her to dedicate her life to Him. She said it reminded her about the truth of Jesus’ words in John 15:16: “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit” (NKJV).
“I understood through this experience that God brings people to Himself,” Lyubov said. “People don’t go to Him on their own.”
Lyubov has held a variety of roles in the Adventist Church in southern Russia, including deaconess and Sabbath school teacher at her local church, cook for the local church union and, for the past 12 years, women’s and children’s ministries director for the local conference.
She said she and her mother never wondered what had happened to the cancer.
“We never went back to the hospital,” Lyubov said. “But my life changed completely after that experience. I began to actively serve God — and I still do.”
Part of the Thirteen Sabbath Offering in fourth quarter 2017 will go for a community center of influence in Lyubov Babkina’s home city of Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia. + Миссионерские вести 1 кв. 2024.pdf