«Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world» – Matthew 28:19-20.
More than 10 years ago, when I graduated from the institute, God sent me an excellent job in Kyiv, a good church, various ministries. At first glance, everything was going great, but there was no peace in my heart. Rereading the New Testament for the umpteenth time, I saw that God has much more for us than the cozy life of the «Sunday Christians» in the capital. I prayed about it, opened my heart to the Lord and waited for answers…
One Sunday, a sister who was working on a mission in Africa came to the meeting. She told us about how many places there are on Earth where people have not yet heard about God’s love, where there is simply no one to show the light and love of Christ. And my heart caught fire.
I applied to the missionary school, although the enrollment was already ending, there were three people in the last place. But is there anything impossible for God! They accepted me, thank God.
As soon as I found out that I was accepted into the school, without a twinge of conscience, I immediately quit my job. Colleagues twisted a finger at the temple, because I am “missing this opportunity for the sake of some school.”
Studying at the missionary school in Ternopil became one of the best memories of my life! There was a lot of communication, prayers, glorification, my heart expanded, cleansed, transformed, God did a tremendous job with me during this year.
Once, in a conversation after school, I mentioned that I would like to go on a mission where no one goes. And the teacher, hearing this, said with a smile: «So you need to go to Afghanistan!» After that, I lost my temper again.
After reading everything I could find on the Internet about Afghanistan and about the whole of Central Asia, I realized that this is exactly the place where I should bring light. After all, most of the countries there are radically Muslim, and missionaries are sent there extremely rarely. I began to pray for this region and just trusted the Lord, not even guessing how He would arrange everything this time.
And by the end of the training, it turned out that there was a whole group of graduates who wanted to go on a mission to Tajikistan. Of course, I joined this group. And I spent the whole of 2012 in Tajikistan, serving in a rehab center for drug addicts, living with them around the clock, 6 days a week.
During this year, God has changed a lot in me, but my not the best qualities have also appeared. Unwilling to accept, I caused a lot of inconvenience to my leaders, and in the end, with resentment in my heart, I left for another country. For a while I attended church there, tried to hold on to the Lord, but still gradually went out into the world. For several years I led an ordinary secular life, worked, sometimes traveled.
In 2019, I began to realize that I did not want to live without God, but I could no longer “stand on my feet” on my own. I prayed briefly in humility: «God, if You want, lift me up…»
A little time passed, and God sent a person into my life, through whom he reminded me of my first love, when I was burning for Him and eager to carry His word to the ends of the earth. This was my future wife.
When she found out that I have Central Asia in my heart, she opened the map to look, because before she had not even had to think about these countries. When she saw the map, she silently closed it and didn’t even want to talk about it for a while. She then shared her dream that the Lord gave her in early 2014, when she was not yet a believer.
In a dream, she saw a place where she, her husband and son, would arrive by car, and God gave her the knowledge of the location of this place on the map, but without names. In 2014, when hostilities began in the Donbass, she searched for this place for several months within the nearest countries in order to go there from the war, but she never found it. She was sure that she missed the opportunity to go where God showed her, so she simply forgot about this dream.
In 2019, already a newborn baby in Christ, when she saw a map of Central Asia, she recognized on the map the place that she dreamed of. And although she was not immediately able to accept this calling, our God is almighty, He knows how to convince with love.
In 2021, we got married, having previously discussed many issues, including the issue of calling: as soon as God calls, we will go, no matter what.
And in the fall of 2022, when we left the war zone in the Donbass and had to decide where to move on, we realized that despite the war in our native country, God is already leading us to Central Asia…
«And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come» (Matthew, 24:14)