Alexandra Iskalina reports from Novosibirsk, Russia

I am so thankful for the ladies in the prison ministry team from the church—and for those who helped their ministry through SGA. If that is you, here is how you helped me find eternal freedom:

I was raised by my grandmother and great grandmother. My parents lived apart. When I was in the third grade, both of my grandmothers died within the same year. At first my father took me to live with him, but he had his own different family at the time.

So at age 16, I met a man and was living with him. Soon, narcotics became part of his life. Even the birth of his son did not stop him. When our baby was a year and a half old, I ran away to live with my mother.

I enrolled in school, worked, and met another man. I thought that here at last was the one I had been looking for! We got married and he adopted my son, then I got pregnant and gave birth to another child. We lived well for a time and all of my friends envied us. Eventually I enrolled in another school and opened a small business.

Then narcotics tore my life apart again. My husband began using. He challenged me to try them. I became addicted! My life went downhill completely.

For a while, I wound up in terrible shape at a tuberculosis hospital. My husband ended up in prison. We divorced and I ended up in prison for more than five years.

But years before, some friends began visiting me and telling me how they had been to Christian rehab and how faith in Jesus Christ was powerful! That is when the women from the local church [supported by SGA] began to talk to me in the church. I came to know Jesus in the prison and began reading the Bible. The first days after my release, I began attending the church. My life finally gained meaning and a goal. The Lord used prison to bring me to my true salvation in Him!