Welcome again to my link-based site.  My name is Vladimir Malave.  While I come from a very extensive religious background, it was based on heterodox doctrines.  As a male Hispanic, I was baptized Roman Catholic as a child, and years later, was an altar boy at an Episcopalian Church.  Many years later between the ages of 16-18, I was disappointed with many events that were occurring at the time within the Roman Catholic Church.  Actually, it was more of an accumulation of many events over a period of years that led to my total abandonment of my Catholicism.  Not feeling satisfied with life outside the Church, I sought refuge within a community Protestant church.  That was short lived after about a year of much articulation and intellectual vainglory that did not satisfy my hunger for knowledge and truth.  I later joined a charismatic Pentecostal church.  Although I remained there for about three years and was even offered a scholarship to enter the Ministry and held my own Bible Study groups at different locations, it all came to an abrupt end when a topic on the Birth-Giver given by my superiors were more than agonizing and disturbing.  After visiting the Methodist church, Baptist church, Anglican church and last but not least “Born Again Christian Church,” for months at a time, I was finally fed up with Western Christianity.  I wanted a Church that taught exactly what the Bible proclaimed without exceptions.  A Church that could answer all the basic and not so basic questions about what is found already in scripture.  A Church that could explain in detail what scripture is trying to reveal with true spiritual knowledge not based on personal interpretation.  A Church with a historical link to the Early Christians and Apostles.  In essence, I was looking for the Church that the Bible speaks of when it says “…and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against her.”  (Matt: 16:18).  After about a year or so, I must have been now about 23-25, I began to look into other forms of non-Christian religions for answers.  I studied within the private chambers of my home the Koran.  Not finding comfort their of any sort except for maybe anger and hatred, I turned for a while to Eastern Zen-Buddhism.  Again, feeling desperate but knowing in my heart that God does exist, I continued what seemed then to be a sad and hopeless search for “Truth.”  Last but not least, I picked up a book I found in a friend’s attic on magic and sorcery.  The book was pretty outdated and the pages looked like torn parchment.  After a couple of days of reading this book, I noticed that something within me was starting to change.  Before I could figure out what was going on, I experienced what today might be called a “vision”.  I will not get into detail about the nature of the vision, but I will say that the message was very clear.  I understood by the vision that I was headed in the wrong direction and that I had not searched enough.  Needless to say, a few days later I accidentally bumped into 3 members of the Orthodox Church at one of the academic schools I was attending.   Or was it really just accidental? As curiosity had it, I approached them only after remembering the vision just days before and after placing aside my skeptical and negative thinking about western Christianity.  That encounter was the beginning of my conversion to Orthodoxy.  Of course, I had to study and learn much about Orthodoxy for about three years before making the final decision.  Having been deceived by other false doctrines in the past afforded me the opportunity and time to carefully and diligently dissect as it were the teachings of the Orthodox Church before converting.  I am proud to say that it has been about 13 years now since I converted in 1993.  I have been given Vladimir as my baptismal name, which is only a different translation of my original name Waldemar. I am also a lay member of The Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia (ROCOR) Church in Norwich, CT.  Since then, I have had many wonderful spiritual experiences that have without a doubt convinced me of the living and acting Grace of the Holy Spirit that only became accessible within the bosom of the Holy Eastern Orthodox Church.  I have met many priests, Hiermonks, SchemaMonks, and even had a chance to spend several months with a Hesychast Monk.  Had the blessing of staying at the Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville NY for a couple of weeks back in 1998.   The list goes on and on.  But for the sake of those who are now searching for “Truth” like I once did is this site being dedicated.  “Seek, and you shall find.”

In Christ Our Redeemer

Vladimir Malave