“But suddenly, a miracle!” What a blessing and encouragement it is to our hearts when God surprises us with the unexpected! We can easily grow discouraged as we watch people who we have been ministering to continually refuse the Gospel, or refuse the invitations we have given them to learn more about Christ. Our hearts can even begin to believe that this soul will never come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior. But then, God! Out of the blue, He will prompt a heart to open up and draw near.

Through SGA-supported outreaches such as Compassion Ministry, many faithful servants continue to provide food and other items to those in need. However, they don’t do this without sharing the Good News of Christ. Their work is important, but as you will see in the story below, it is God who saves! Please continue to pray for all SGA-supported ministries, and that His truth will continue to go forward, and that through Him, many lives will be eternally saved.

“My friends! I want to introduce you to a repentant soul. His name is Sergei, 67 years old, a pensioner. I met him about two years ago, because a sister from our church lives in the same village opposite Sergei. He lives alone in a small house. And although he has had four wives in his life, each of them died in their own time for various reasons. Sergei has never had any children of his own, but from his deceased wives, he has an adopted son and an adopted daughter, who are now grown up and live separately with their families. Sergei lives more than modestly but keeps a horse.

“I had many conversations with him about God, sometimes handing him food packages, but he was always wary and distrustful. And then one day, about two months ago, I once again invited Sergei to the service, being sure that he would refuse, as before. But suddenly, a miracle: Sergei asked me to wait five minutes while he changed his clothes and came with us to the service. The next time, he again agreed to go. At the third service, Sergei repented! To date, he has not missed a single meeting! When his adopted daughter and son learned about this, they stopped communicating with him altogether and have not visited him for three months. They believe that he has betrayed his father’s Orthodox faith, although Sergei said that he had never been to any church in his entire life, and our church was the first one he visited. 

Sergei is full of desire to make a covenant with the Lord through water baptism this coming summer. The church rejoices and prays for him, and I ask you to remember Sergei in your prayers, that the Lord will strengthen his faith.

—Pastor Viktor