Rita Kuzmenskine is married and blessed with three children but her life was not easy. Her husband was an alcoholic for 18 years. They struggled to live with his addiction and she tried to seek help but she couldn’t find anything in her village in Lithuania.

Then one day, Rita learned about a church that was helping families impacted by addiction. Rita visited the church and met Pastor Vladimir and Vanda Ivanov, who were part of the church planter training program provided by Multiplication Network Ministries (MNM). Rita invited her husband to go to this church and he agreed. There, after hearing the prayer of Pastor Vladimir, Rita’s husband experienced God’s presence and received freedom from his addiction.

After God brought Rita’s family out of the darkness that addiction brings, she and her husband have started a Bible study group that meets in their house. This group has continued to grow and developed a community of believers.

Rita has witnessed how powerful prayer and a family of other believers can be in her own life. Not long ago, Rita was diagnosed with Stage III thyroid cancer. The cancer had spread to affect her joints and even metastasized in her brain. Rita received medical treatment through surgery and radiation. She was also covered in prayer by Pastor Vladimir and the rest of her church and family. God heard those prayers and worked a miracle in her life. In her follow-up scan, they found that all the cancer had gone!

Rita gives praise to Jesus for how He has brought her from a time of hopelessness to now being able to share the Good News of the gospel with her community.