The conversion to the Lord
“My grandfather became the Christian in my family first. The Gospel reached all members of my family but me, because I was living far away from family and rarely communicated with them. Thus, I was the last man in my family to believe. My mom repented a year later. Being brief, there is nothing special about my testimony. I had a wild life, but after hearing the Gospel, I started to think about it and to read the Word. It has opened my eyes, so I saw that I am a terrible sinner before the Holy God and dead spiritually. Jesus is my only hope for salvation and the Lord of my life. This happened at my house, while I was sitting on the bed and reading.
My wife repented similar way, through her grandmother just a little earlier. When I came to the church, she was already there for a while. We met in our church. It was late in the summer, and she left for Kiev to study in college. I left to study in Ivano-Frankovsk. This was the last year of my studies. So we were in different cities, but I began to pray that the Lord gifted us with each other.
I really wanted to study in the Christian institution. I started praying about it too. After graduation, friend and brother and I got a possibility to study in Kiev, in the Biblical Institute. So my future wife and I ended up in the same city, and got married in 2 years.”
Decision to serve God and the calling
“Back then, we both wanted to go to people who live far away, far from the Gospel, and have never heard about it.
All volunteers from Biblical Institute could go on the practice for 3 months of summer. Even before we were married, my director suggested we go on the three month wedding honeymoon in Siberia, Bratsk. We gladly agreed. We did not care where to go. However, in the last days before the trip, we were told that the others will go to Bratsk, and we will go to Kazan (Tatarstan).
Thus, our first trip had the eastern character. We got to the Muslim nation. At that time, we had a very surface understanding of Islam. But in the marvelous way, the Lord has given us peoples’ disposition and success. We got to love those people, and they accepted us. We committed ourselves even more to work, knowing that we won’t be able to sit still. That trip to Tatarstan was the beginning of our ministry and direction in life for us.
The following year, we were again invited to Kazan. During second trip, we more closely befriended Zaccheus, and I got to go to Central Asia. Over that time, we have seen how the Lord brought us to the Eastern nations, has given us a love for them, we found a lot of friends. These are people who have a different book. They do not have the truth of Scripture, such as the majority of the Slavs do. So we want to bring them the true Word of salvation in Christ.
We went to minister on south of Ukraine mostly due to the Zacchaeus encouragement. We got to love each other; he was like a father to me. Now we work as a team.”
Vision and purpose
“I want to see how the Lord will raise up the church here out of Tatar people, who will be able to multiply and teach others. In the future, the south of Ukraine will send missionaries throughout the East … We also believe that God can do a lot more than we think and we ask Him. He will do it with or without us … Of course, we want be a part of it. ”
Sincerely, the S. family
