Obituary of Nicholas Dubovy

On Monday, November 3, 2008, Rev. Nicholas Dubovy, pastor and friend went into the presence of the Lord and Savior he worshiped. He almost made it to 101. Born in Borodychy, Grodno Belarus, youngest of 5 siblings. At birth, Belarus was occupied by Poland. As a little boy of 7 he and his village of evacuated and sent to Russia during WWI; When they came back of refuge camp a year later there were dynamite mines in their fields still standing. He even brought one into the house because it was frozen in ice and put it on the stove to thaw out. He thought it was some kind of meat. His older brother discovered it just in time and was able to save the whole family in near disaster by throwing it out the door and see it explode. God took care of him and his family in many such situations and at an early age of 12 he called out to God in an open field and promised to serve him the rest of his life because of the joy and closeness he felt with Him. Rev. Dubovy became youth pastor at age 15 and a visiting missionary to other villages at age 19. He also was sent to Poland as a missionary. He helped lead his whole family to Christ and kept doing that till he was 95. He went to a Bible Seminary in Germany that was paid completely for six years by John Rockefeller from New York. He was a missionary to the Slavic camps in Germany during WWII; after the war he moved to Winnipeg Canada and became an associate minister in a Ukrainian church. He moved to Cleveland Ohio in 1953 and became pastor of a Polish church as well as a full time employee for Ford Motor Co as their inspector of parts. He moved to Florida in 1978 at age 70 and became pastor of a Russian-Ukrainian Ev. Baptist Church and at the same time started sending Bibles and tracts to the Soviet Union with his wife Lydia. By age 87 he sent over 45,000 Bibles and tracts that even reached Siberia and China. His sweetheart of 64 years died in 2003 and he h as lived with Peter and Lydia Gaponiuk in Lutz since then. Nicholas Dubovy will be greatly missed by his nieces and nephews and great nieces and nephews and great-great-great nieces and nephews as well as all his parishioners and friends and neighbors at Town Shores/Buckingham and in Lutz. Funeral services will be held at the David C. Gross Funeral Home Chapel on Saturday, November 8, 2008 at 10am. Viewing for family and friends will be from 9am until service time. Interment will follow in Royal Palm Cemetery South. A memorial service will be held at Idlewild Baptist Church in Lutz on Monday November 10th at 2pm in the church parlor. David C. Gross Funeral Home is serving the family. Service Information