The Short Life of Viktor Matthey

Perched on a rise overlooking Route 202 in Raritan Township, the Flemington Assembly of God is a church in the Pentecostal tradition, which stresses the need for a direct experience of the Holy Spirit. The church believes that glossolalia - speaking in tongues - physical healings, prophesying and even fainting spells are expressions of that ecstatic faith.

Shortly after they arrived in America, the three Russian boys began going to church with their new parents and brothers. The Rev. K.M. Szierer said the Mattheys were at services every Sunday and came to Family Night every Wednesday. Family life is important to the church, which teaches that disciplining children when they're young is preferable to dealing with more serious problems when they're older.

Sunday services begin at 10 a.m. with an elaborate music presentation that includes words to hymns projected on a giant screen. Electric and acoustic guitars, an electronic keyboard and drums accompany the singing, a popular style of worship known as contemporary Christian.

Some members of the congregation wave large, colorful banners, others sway gently from side to side as the music fills the sanctuary. Others jump up and down to the music. Szierer joins in the music, sometimes speaking in tongues, and then, as things quiet down, offers prayers for those who have come up to the front of the church. He lays hands on those who are ill or injured, and a few collapse as they are prayed over.

On Sunday, Oct. 29, 2000, Pastor Szierer was finishing up after church, talking to the last few members of his congregation and getting ready to leave for his own Sunday dinner, when word reached him that Viktor Matthey had been taken to the hospital. The news hit hard. Szierer had been watching the Russian children adjust to their new lives and was especially fond of Viktor.

Just two weeks earlier, at a Tuesday night prayer meeting, according to Szierer, Viktor told the church that he had accepted Christ into his life.

"Out of all of them, all three of them, if I had to make a choice - which is a terrible thing to say - my heart was for Viktor," he said. "I loved this little guy."

Szierer went directly to the emergency room at Hunterdon Medical Center.

"I came into that room and I see Brenda there just broken, crying away," he said. "Bob is trying to stabilize her, hold her."

He went to the gurney where Viktor lay motionless, nurses and doctors working to revive him. Szierer said that while he was with the boy, Viktor never regained consciousness.

"I just put my hand on his head and just began to pray for him," Szierer said. "I was just holding his left hand, just praying for him. What happened is, one time, his fingers curled around my finger. Right there I said, 'Oh!' I was just talking to him, 'Viktor, can you hear me, it's Pastor, we're praying for you, we want life to come back to you.'"

Asked if he ever questioned the Mattheys about what had happened to Viktor, Szierer said:

"Yeah, I did ask, I said, 'What's going on, what's happening?' And they said, 'We don't know, he's just gone cold.' I remember there was some breathing difficulties and that his body was getting cold. They were trying to .?.?. Bob was here (at the church), Brenda was at home at the time, trying to warm him up with blankets and the like. I remember her saying she had him in the rocking chair, just rocking him, holding him, just trying to get him warm."

Two days later, Tuesday, Oct. 31, Viktor's heart again stopped beating. He was pronounced dead at 1:24 p.m.