- from Vladimir, Orphans Reborn
Recently, my wife and I went to a church in our city, and afterwards met with Igor, who lived in an orphanage many years ago. We keep in touch with Igor, who we used to know as an 8-year-old boy. Igor said, “Thank you very much for visiting us in the orphanage back then and telling us about God. That was when I heard that God loves me and gave His Son, Jesus, for me. It was so important for me to hear that someone loved me a lot. My childhood went by very quickly and when I graduated from the orphanage, the freedom made my head spin. I was able to do whatever I wanted and there was no one to stop me. When I got my ‘orphan's money’ from the government, I found that I had many ‘friends’ — friends that later ruined me. I was left alone without any money, without any place to live. And at that time, I remembered you, Vladimir, how you told me about God and taught us the Bible. I remembered that God loved me just as I was.

“Soon I started searching for believers and one day I came to this church, where I met Gena. In the past, he was addicted to alcohol, just as I was at the time. But God saved him and set him free. He was another person God sent into my life. Gena helped me find a rehab center where I might reconcile with God and there I repented wholeheartedly. My life started to improve little by little, but my ‘old friends’ showed up again and I had a relapse. It was so bad that I found myself at the very bottom of the pit. Once again, I was without any money and without a place to stay. I went from stairwell to stairwell, spending the night. In order to escape reality, I started drinking heavily. I again recalled your lessons, how God loved me just as I was, and that I can go to Him in prayer any time and anywhere. And there I was, sitting on the steps in a stairwell talking to God - ‘Can you save me? Even now, in this situation? What can You do?’

“With such words I stood up and found, in the inner pocket of my jacket, a bottle of vodka which then fell out and smashed. "Oh, is this Your way?" was my sigh and I reached to another pocket to get some cigarettes. ‘And what about cigarettes? What can You do about them? Will you break them?’, I asked. And as I pulled three cigarettes out of my pocket, I saw that two of them were broken. I took the one cigarette that wasn’t broken and went downstairs. And as I was leaving the building, I ran into a man at the door who asked, "Igor? Is that you?" It was Gena. He took me home and helped me. The next day I went back to the rehab center. It’s been over a year now and God has kept me safe from my ‘past life’. Praise God that He loves me, forgave and saved me and made me His child forever!!”