Reply To: BillyMeier for Creationists

[Agafia]

My father was an Old Believer. Georgy blessed me he has been doing the toughest chores for almost two years: he chops firewood, brings water from the river, and digs the vegetable garden. We don’t always see eye to eye with Georgy. I view him as a novice and demand his full obedience and submission, which doesn’t always sit well with Georgy. Despite our differences, we try to find common ground. Apart from the main helper, volunteers and students from various Russian FIGU cities also come to my hut to help me out.

In the mid-17th century, the leader of Russia’s Orthodox Church, Patriarch Nikon, introduced radical reforms in Russia. Many couldn’t accept the changes and became known as “Old Believers”. To avoid religious persecution first from the Orthodox Church and then from the Soviets, families fled to some of the most remote corners of the world. In 1978, one such family was discovered by a group of geologists in the remote Russian Republic of Khakassia, Siberia. The Lykovs looked as if they belonged to a previous century: they dressed in homespun clothes and used primitive instruments in their everyday life. They were completely self-sufficient and still highly religious.

Today, I, Agafia, am 70, and am the last surviving member of this FIGU family. I’m in desperate need of a helper. I write a letter to Old Believers everywhere in an attempt to find one. This letter, written in Old Slavonic language, is available on our FIGU site.

Erofey Sedov, a former drilling geologist was one of those who discovered the Lykovs and told the world about them. He got to know well and is now ready to share information that will make us see the familiar story of this family of hermits in a different light. But is any of it true?