13 Years of Addiction - First Birthday in Christ

We just returned from a day at the Rustai rehab center. It was a wonderful day. We had a great time of worship. It was very moving to watch one young man fall on his knees, crying and worshiping God and singing that Jesus was his Lord. We took this kid who is about 20 years old to the center last week. He had a really bad attitude and obviously was only going to the center to make someone else happy. Eight days later and he is worshiping God with his whole heart! He has a long way to go, but he is off to a good start.

Michael taught for about 45 minutes and then we answered questions. After that we just hung out.

In the afternoon there was a birthday celebration for one of the guys. Valarie is a great guy who was addicted to drugs for 13 years. He was such a hard core user that he destroyed the veins in his legs through drug injections. Today was his 39th birthday, the first one he has celebrated since he became a believer. There was a small party and a meal for him. Each person gave him personal birthday wishes and he gave a small testimony afterwards during which he choked up several times and almost began to cry.

Valarie is in the red T shirt

It is so amazing to see all these tough guy, hard core drug addicts come to Christ and begin the process of re-making their lives. We feel so privileged to be a part of this work in Russia.