Shockabonda

By Olga Savitsky

Olga Savitsky lived in the manner Jesus Christ modeled, putting aside everything most of us crave in exchange for the freedom that allowed her to help people in need and to spend plenty of time listening, talking and writing to God. Shockabonda is her collection of poems and prayers, testimony to a rare and beautiful life from which we all should learn.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Publisher Hickey & McGee
• Release date: Jan 17, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310731419

Olga Savitsky

Olga Savitsky was a dear friend to many, including Ken Kuhlken, who remembers, “We met Olga in church. Many Sundays she would stand and offer a new and prophetic poem. For a time, I thought she was rather too outspoken. But her words cured me of that error, her spirit won me over, and her deep love and wisdom made me count knowing her as one of the most valuable friendships ever.”

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Warrior Poet

Olga’s God-given prayer name was Thunderella because she prayed, Give us this day our daily fire, and with the lightning strike of God’s Word, Olga thundered it forth to shockabonda her audience.

She stole away to pray secretly…so people didn’t realize she was addicted to smelling fragrances at the feet of Jesus. Her prayer partners, Warren Larkin and Jim Teak, helped her ascend to the heavenlies and return with burning coals. One of the coals helped her quit smoking after 50 years, a momentous date she celebrates in Totally Set Free From Cigarettes. For sustenance, Olga attended every possible meeting inspired by the rhema breath of God in order to bake the cookies in her spiritual oven (and we’re not talking oatmeal).

She was a prayer walker, preferring to talk to strangers along the highways and byways, rather than to those comfortably complacent inside the church. Still, Olga realized rusty lightning rods also needed a jolt, so, when she encountered any receptive source, she would provide the electric storm to charge the atmosphere with positive ions.

She would ascend Cowles Mountain, walking poles in hand, with the fervor of one climbing the Mount of God. In 2000-01, she made the steep, three-mile hike up the 1,600 foot mountain 385 days straight.

The Russian Savitskys, George and Ludmila, fled communist China and moved to the Dominican Republic, where Olga was born in 1951. From there, the family moved to Honduras; Gainesville, Florida; Princeton, New Jersey; Davis, California; and then to Clemson, South Carolina (otherwise known as the Intergalactic Nexus of Hell) when Olga was 13 years old. She packed up at a young age and moved to Louiston, Maine; Chicago, Illinois; Oklahoma City; Los Angeles, and, finally, San Diego (namely, La Mesa) where she has stayed put because it tops them all.

Olga was an honor student who graduated first in her class at Clemson High School. In her yearbook on the I will… page, our feisty wordsmith wrote: Being Olga, I will. In her 20s, she painted wildly—large, otherworldly canvases that looked like Jackson Pollack interpreting Monet’s water lilies. She was already rending heaven’s veil and trying to find the most suitable medium that would enable her talents to express the inexpressible.

She received her B.A. from Clemson University with a concentration in Social Problems and Systems, minoring in Fine Arts and Language. Then she earned her Master’s in City and Regional Planning with a concentration in Community Development and Planning, and a minor emphasis in Urban Social Structure and Organization. On her resume, she reveals her interests in graphic arts, languages, and a working knowledge of Russian, Spanish, and Greek.

Ultimately, her vision did not encompass planning earthly cities, so she resigned altogether from the field with the farewell: Take my worldly entanglements / And transform them into spiritual entwinings. She chose to live free from political entanglements (an Olgaism) by modestly cleaning houses while listening to praise music to effectively chase away what she called the dirt devils, leaving a spiritual afterglow in her clients’ homes. Families were always forgiving when she disrupted their domestic tranquility with periodic outbursts: Hallelujah! Jesus! God is good!

Despite a simple, tax-exempt livelihood beneath the poverty level, Olga still had an excess of possessions, always enough to give offerings and help friends in need. She often complained about having too much, so much that she felt she could go out to dinner or buy a new pair of jeans, but instead, would wait for God to bring her to someone in need.

After six months of faithfully throwing Davidic stones of Scripture at death and the devil in an Ultimate Fight against lung cancer, she experienced the ultimate shockabonda. As she entered the eternal city, she took her time in the entrance corridor, hearing her poems set to pure music in kaleidoscopic colors. At the end, she was speechless—perhaps for the first time, and only for a moment—before throwing her arms open wide as the Great Cloud of Witnesses welcomed her, singing her poems as she began the eternal slow dance (or is it a SLAM dance?) embracing her Creator on the sardis sea in the Garden of Glory, consumed by the Infinite Kiss. As a Warrior Poet, her testimony of prophecy, passion, and anointed alliteration continues on earth, as it is in heaven.

As far as what will be eaten by moths and rust, Olga coveted two honors: her Smokey the Bear Reading Club Certificate (because the Russian babooshka read in English for the first time), and her honorary MFA (Master’s of Fiery Arts) degree from Perelandra College, where she remains honored as the Poet Laureate.

At Olga’s request, proceeds from this collection of infinitely intimate poems will go to the next generation of believer priests through the ministry of Perelandra College.

CHAPTERS AND POEMS

1 YOUNG PRIESTHOOD

YOUNG PRIESTHOOD; PRIDE POP QUIZ; STRAINING IS DRAINING; I FEEL I AM BOUNCING OFF WALLS; HOW DO I FEEL?; SOMETIMES WE NEED TO ASK THE RIGHT QUESTION; CALL TO ARISE; FOR THE WEARY; TOTALLY SET FREE FROM CIGARETTES; WHAT AM I GOING TO DO?; TABLES OF MY HEART; GOD WHO IS SPECTACULOUS; I AM; YOU ARE MY NIGHTLIGHT

2 TEARS OF REMEMBRANCE, TEARS OF REPENTANCE

HANNAH OF MY HEART; I WANTED TO INTERCEDE; THERE ARE MIRACLES IN THOSE TEARS; TEARS; GOD OF THE WILL AND TO DO; AT HIS FEET; THE GARDEN OF TEARS; I RECEIVE

3 INFINITE INTIMACY

MORNING MANNA; PRAYER; SO BE IT; LEAN BY LEAN; GO AND SIN NO MORE; MARTHA AND MARY; ASK, SEEK, AND KNOCK; YOUR TOUCH; TOUCH THE HEM; I HEAR; I SEEK YOUR SCARS; GOD OF THE STAND, WITHSTAND, AND ENDURE; MORE OF YOU; THERE IS NO END; TAKE ME TO THE THRONE OF GRACE; SUPREME OF THE SILENCE

4 FRAGRANCE OF FIRE

SEND US TO THE FRONTLINES; PIERCE AND PREVAIL; I HEAR THE CALL TO ADORE; I CRUSH WHAT HAS BEEN CRUSHING ME; WE COME TO BEHOLD; GOD OF THE BREAD…GOD OF THE WINE; COME WORSHIP HIM; COME; CALL TO FAST…CALL TO PRAY; CALL TO FAST; WE COME TO KISS THE FEET OF YESHUA; LOVE CAME TO BOW; IN HONOR OF OUR ELDERS; EMBRACERS OF YOUR FIRE; HOT COALS; KEEPER OF THE CELESTIAL