Customer Reviews

Children of the Storm: The Autobiography of Natasha Vins

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This is one of the best-written and most gripping Christian autobiographies I've read in years. I started it in the afternoon, managed to put supper on the table for my family and get the kids in bed, and finished the whole thing. My father is a Baptist pastor and we regularly prayed for our fellow believers in the persecuted church, so it was especially moving for me to get a clear picture of what life was like for the Vins family as they tried to minister in the Soviet Union during the years of Communist oppression. I would recommend this book for junior high students on up. It would be an excellent book for families to read aloud and discuss together, or for Sunday School teachers to share a chapter or so with their classes during a reading time each week (they'd keep coming back for sure). The book really makes you evaluate the depth or your own Christian commitment in the light of what Natasha and her family endured.

This is an autobiography of a mid-twentieth century Russian girl, Natasha, and her family from Kiev. It is an adult book that children with 5th grade reading level can also enjoy. Children of the Storm recounts her father's imprisonment, her schooling and questioning of Christianity, and all that happened to them in the years of Soviet crackdown of Biblical Christians. Fast-moving, very interesting, well-written. I highly recommend it.

I opened the book for the first time Sunday afternoon in the car, and finished it on Monday night. Natasha tells of her girlhood, and the persecution her family endured for Christ. I really appreciated her telling of how she came to the Lord; until she graduated from high school she was a "Christian" because her parents were, and wondered how important it was. Then she understood the gospel and her parents faith became her own, and she lived for Jesus. She has an engaging manner of writing, perhaps because she writes as one real person would speak to another, not with studied eloquence.

I was encouraged by the testimony of the trials and severe hardships her family went through. It made me reflect on how easy I have it here, and what I am willing to sacrifice for my Lord. I would encourage Christians, young or old, to read "Children of the Storm."

Children of the Storm is a touching story. When you read it, your appreciation for God will grow and the problems you have will seem smaller. We are blessed beyond measure to live in the United States of America.

"Children of the Storm: the autobiography of Natasha Vins" is a very interesting first hand account of the persecution of Christians in the Ukraine and Russia during the cold war. Very sobering, this may cause you to give thanks for things that are often taken for granted.

This is the autobiography of Natasha Vins who grew up in a Christian family in the communist Soviet Union. Her grandfather had been shot in a Siberian prison for preaching the gospel when her father was still a boy. Her father was also persecuted and imprisoned for his Christian faith. Natasha herself was persecuted in school because she came from a Christian family. As she nears the end of high school, she faces a crisis of decision. Is what the Christian faith has to offer worth more than all the doors that Soviet government will close to her? Is it worth the persecution and suffering? Will she make her parents' faith her own?

This was an interesting first-person account of life as part of the persecuted church. The author gives a wonderful feel for what life was like in the USSR in the latter half of the 20th century. I was encouraged by the faith of her parents and reminded again of how most Christians in other parts of the world have truly had to count the cost of their faith. I do wish that the story had not ended as it did. After the family moves to the United States, the author briefly summarizes all that transpired from thereon. I would have preferred to hear more about their adjustment to this country, more about their work to help those back in the USSR, etc.

Overall, this is a good Christian autobiography. I would not consider it a "must-read" in the category of God's Smuggler, Evidence Not Seen: A Woman's Miraculous Faith in the Jungles of World War II, or The Hiding Place. But it is still a good book on the Soviet Union and the persecuted church. I will read it some day to my children as part of their homeschooling curriculum.