One’s journey to Christ can sometimes be a long and difficult road. Although the path continues on, there are curves and turns that might reroute our destination. Some of these curves or turns may even bring difficult circumstances, such as bumps in the road, flat tires, or major detours. However, even with as difficult as these times may be, God is still at work.

As we try understanding the map before us, it is God who leads and guides us back to His path. We don’t have His road map. His is full of rest stops and fueling stations that help us continue on. We just need to follow His guiding hand.

In the story below you will read of Pavel, who was led down many stray paths. But God, in His saving grace, faithfully lead Pavel back to the main road and eventually to the glorious destination of salvation. And, after salvation, as we continue on our journey, it is now much easier to set our eyes on the horizon, on Christ (Hebrews 12:1-2), no matter what may distract us along the way. Please pray for Pavel as he continues to grow in Christ and be excited about the journey ahead.

Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete (John 16:24).

My name is Pavel, I am 30 years old. I want to share about my plight and my salvation. My family was three brothers and our mother, who raised us the best she could as we had no father. I was very bitter at my father for abandoning us when we were little, as I never knew him. 

I was stealing since I was six. The first time, I stole a toy in a kindergarten. No one even noticed it then, but my mom saw it and beat me up, having returned the toy to the kindergarten. I stole money from my grandmother’s pension. That’s when I got a taste of money. I started sneaking out of the house, and stealing everything, even metal scrap. I became involved with the older guys: as I was little, they would tell me to go to people’s apartments through vent windows, that’s how I started robbing houses, apartments, summer cottages, and was stealing money from my peers at school. At the age of 12, I was sent to a specialized school in Omsk, where I was finally made into a monster. I was baptized there too . . . and I received a small book of Psalms. I read a little, and at first, I started thinking that I was doing something wrong, living a wrong life. But in a year, after I was released, everything went back to “normalcy.” I was robbing stores, smoked cannabis, and was put in jail, as at that time I had turned 14. I remembered about God and started praying for the first time, saying, “God, please let me free, I will not steal again, I will live an upright life and I will listen to my mother.” I will never forget that prayer, as I did not keep that promise and I still bitterly regret it. 

A few months later, I was released and given a three-year suspended sentence. But I began to steal even worse, and was again imprisoned for five years, being taken this time to juvenile detention. And there I encountered with God’s Word again. The Baptist ministers were visiting our facility and had given me a small copy of the New Testament. And I reflected on my life again. I realized that I was living in wrong ways and regretted my crimes. But at that time, I had not yet fully believed in God, I knew that there was God somewhere, but I did not take it seriously, regarding it as some kind of a fairy tale of a ‘genie’ who could make my wishes true. 

When I turned 18, I was taken to an encampment for adults. I don’t remember who gave me a Bible, and I read for the first time that Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross, and I cried. I felt sorry for Jesus, I could not understand why He was mocked so cruelly and for what deeds, but there was no one to explain it to me. And I kept praying, asking the Lord for forgiveness, saying that I would not be stealing, would not drink alcohol. 

At the age of 19, I was released from prison on completion of my term. I started a new life, met a nice girl, moved to Novosibirsk and got a job in a restaurant, as I received training as a cook in the prison. I moved in with the girl, and everything seemed to be fine, and things were getting better. But it lasted exactly 10 months, as my girlfriend started to drink, disappearing from home for nights. It was the first time in my life that I raised my hand against a woman; I hit her twice in the face. Eventually, I returned to my hometown. There I met up with old friends, resorted to using cannabis, smoking, and drinking.

I was put into prison again, given six years of general security detention.But even in prison I continued committing crimes, smoking cannabis, even having robbed a cafe in the prison. I was put in a disciplinary cell, where I found myself too many times, and towards the end of my term, while in the disciplinary cell, I got a Bible in my hands and started to read it. Again, I felt remorse of my sins, prayed to the Lord, cried, asked forgiveness of my sins and repented.

When I was released from prison, things seemed improving at first. I got a job, but after a while I started drinking again, stealing in small ways. After a while I got a call from the hospital to have my blood tested. The tests showed that I was positive on HIV and hepatitis-C. And I thought, “That’s it, I’m dead,” and  gave up on my life, was using cannabis, drinking hard, and dragged my wife into it. I told her to leave me, before it was too late, but she said that she loved me and would stay with me to the end. She had not contracted hepatitis or HIV from me, and she still has neither. We both ended up going to prison: I was given four years and three months, and my wife was given four years.

While in prison, I felt repentant for my sins, my crimes, and iniquities, thinking that I would never get out of prison, and would be carried feet-first out of it. I felt so terrible that I wanted to scream with all my might. And I started seeking God. One day a man named Andrei came up to me and asked, “Do you know that one person died for you?” I was frightened. “What person? Who?” And he answered, “Jesus Christ died for your sins.”

That’s how I met Andrei, who helped me learn the Word of God and brought me to the church, or rather to a group where other brothers, fellow believers met, visited by ministers. There we prayed for each other, read the Bible, and supported each other. It was there that I truly repented for the first time in my life and realized that it was not the end, that there was still life ahead, and not just earthly life, but life eternal, and that Jesus Christ died for our sins so that we would not perish. And I loved the Lord with all my heart, and now I cannot imagine my life without God, as I am reassured that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor beginnings, nor powers, nor present, nor future, nor height, nor depth, nor any other power are able to separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. I know the Lord loves me, protects me, helps me, and hears my prayers!