The battle within can be one of the greatest fights we will ever encounter. However, the victory is beyond comparisone! The battle of addiction is one that torments the soul. One may have a desire to do right, yet the sinfulness of the flesh takes control time and time again. It’s only when one gives the battle to the Lord that victory comes.

All praise and glory to God, who brings people out of the pit of destruction and into a future filled with hope. Read Vitaly’s story of victory that was recently shared by SGA-supported Pastor Alexander . . .

In our church there is a special joy – two brothers received water baptism, one of them was Vitaly. His mother goes to our church. She comes from a family of believers, but they themselves came to church at a more mature age. Vitaly led a bad lifestyle, was imprisoned a couple of times. He lived with a common law wife; a son was born. She came to the Lord, but he did not. Everything got worse and worse.

When he was in prison for the last time, he read the Gospel there, and the Word touched him. After being released from prison, he repented. For about a year, he kept from drinking and there was a conversation about baptism, but then he drank and returned to his usual life. After a while, he started attending church again. He came, but could not sit for a long time at the sermon. He said that his conscience tormented him when he heard the sermons. I believe that the Holy Spirit rebuked him, but he did not want to admit it and therefore went to another city to a church where he was not known.

Then he drank again and his relatives, out of hopelessness, cast him off, but this did not help either. The turning point in his life was the understanding that his family no longer wanted to see him, and his son asked him to leave. It was then that he realized that he could not cope without the Lord. He returned to our church, came to prayer meetings, and there revealed himself to us and to the Lord. He repented and was baptized.

In the Lord he gained comfort and strength to be freed from the sin that tormented him. Now his wife has accepted him, they got married, and are raising their son Bogdan. Vitaly is now my helper in serving the Lord. I had often asked for help from the brothers in our city, and the Lord blessed me.