Sergei's
Conversion
By Peggy Proctor
Editor’s Note: By their
request, the missionarys' names have been withheld.
This bitterly frigid day would turn out
to be one of the best ever for Elder M and Elder S of the Russia Samara Mission. Without appointments
they set out into the streets looking for that one person prepared
to receive the gospel message. Leninski Park was deserted,
so the elders went on to a park at the end of Kupoba
Street. Skirting around a communist demonstration, they made
their way into the heart of this park, but it, too, was quiet.
The wind was now whistling, making it miserably cold,
but on they trudged. Finally finding a
man and his little son, they struck up a conversation. This man
said, in effect, "Don't call us, we'll call you," and
they continued on.
Presently, they saw a lone figure coming
toward them, the only other person in the park. As he approached,
they could see that he was rather shabbily dressed. Under the
arm of his ragged jacket, he was carrying a plastic bag with
a few shirts and a bottle. He appeared homeless and possibly drunk.
The Elders introduced themselves; the
man said that his name was Sergei. They could now see
that he wasn't drunk and put forth their hands to shake
his. His hands were very dirty, and he had a sore on top of
his right hand and wrist. The Elders said to themselves, "He
is also a son of our Heavenly Father and He loves Sergei as much
as He loves us." As they talked they posed the question,
"How do you feel about God?" Sergei asked them to sit down. Elder
M. thought he was being polite, but later found that he
was too exhausted to stand.
After sitting, the Elders repeated their question about God. Sergei's
response was startling. His
body strained as he fought back the tears. "I couldn't have
survived what I have just lived through if I didn't believe in God,”
he replied. Then he told his amazing story.
An Amazing Story
He was born in Saratov and lived there most of his life. He was now 42-years
old and a college graduate with degrees in economics and accounting.
In 1996, his mother died. As a consequence, he determined to sell
his apartment. Sergei was approached by two men who were
insistent that he give the apartment to them. Since the
apartment was then on the market, he refused them. This was
not what they wanted to hear. Ruthlessly,
the men administered nerve gas to Sergei, and when he
was unconscious he was abducted. When Sergei "came
to," he was in the back of a van and where he was held
prisoner during a two-day ordeal. Then he was taken to
Chechnya and sold as a slave. Chechnya is a country in the Caucasus
Mountains between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea just north of
Iran. It was formerly a Soviet block country, and a
Muslim one that had waged a holy war against the Russians
to the north.
Sergei described a scene similar to that of a prisoner of war.
"We only got to have food three times a week," he said. He
was tortured and endured the most inhuman treatment that doesn't
bare retelling. His captors broke Sergei's shoulder and
he bears a lump as a solemn reminder.
Those slaves who escaped and fled to
the Russian army for help were captured again by the army, bound and
sold back to their captors for $900.00.
The slavers gave their prisoners
cigarettes laced with drugs, which made them more potent and addictive.
Sergei didn't smoke. Others become enslaved in yet
additional ways through cigarettes, wine and vodka,
---those addictive substances that numb the senses. "I refrained,"
Sergei said, "And I was free. I was a free man even though
I was a slave." For many, getting a cigarette was more
desirable than food.
Sergei was put to work as a shepherd. The sheep grazed in the meadow and
ate all the grass there according to Sergei's design. He told his
captors that the grass had been grazed away and persuaded them
to let him take the sheep into the hills to find more grass.
Each day he would go a little deeper into the hills. Unseen, he
prepared a canopy of rocks in which to hide. He then took food
to his mountain retreat…a little bit at a time. A nearby river provided
water.
Then, one day, he didn't return from the mountains, but hid. He
stayed under the rock enclave for five days. Only by
night did he venture out for water. There, by day, he laid
in a fetal position, barely moving. His skin developed sores after
lying there during his lengthy confinement. Sergei
knew they were looking for him, for he could see the torches. At
the end of five days, he emerged from his hiding place by
night and, knowing the geography well, headed due north toward
Russia. He made it to the border where a wonderful family
gave him a meal and helped him on his way by train in
the direction of his beloved Saratov. The train took him within
a few days walk of Saratov. He arrived at Engels, across the
Volga River from Saratov on a cold windy day in October. A chilling
rain began falling. In the trash Sergei found extra clothes
and an empty soda bottle which he filled with water from a
well.
His Beloved Saratov
The next day he found himself crossing
the bridge over the Volga River, finally arriving at Saratov. The
wind was blowing fiercely that day, north to south, and it was going
right through him as he made his way across the bridge. Walking
and thinking, he began to lose hope. He had no one. He had no
food, nor money and no identification. He had no place to sleep
and no way out of his dilemma now that he had escaped.
As he was crossing that bridge, he said a prayer. He said it with
the same faith that got him through his captivity. He simply said,
"God, I'm helpless. I know that you are there and that you
can help me. Please send someone."
Arriving at the Saratov side of the bridge, he turned south along the bank.
He crossed the square by the cruise boats docks, went down the sloping
sidewalk and came to a little park beside the Volga. The park had
many paths on several levels going in all directions. For some reason
Sergei began walking along the highest of three sidewalks.
Leaves had fallen from the trees and the entire slope of that last
hill was covered with dark red leaves.
The hill was otherwise deserted; not one person to disturb the splendid
fall display where it lay. Walking, he soon saw two
nicely dressed men, bundled up for the cold, coming in his
direction. "They look sharp." he thought to
himself, "They must work in a computer firm or some such business."
Then he saw a blue book in one of their hands and he knew
that they weren't computer programmers, but missionaries.
At this point the missionaries began conversing with him.
Completely exhausted, he asked them to sit down, and they
began talking. After he told them of his ordeal, Sergei explained
that he had no place to stay. He had no means to obtain
a picture for a passport or to get identification and
credentials back so that he could obtain employment. He had a son
who was, by this time, seventeen years old, and Sergei had no idea
where to find him.
A Prayer Answered
The missionaries offered to let Sergei live in their
old apartment. It was to be vacant through the end of
the year. Once they arrived at the apartment, Sergei took a
warm shower, while the missionaries went for food. Sergei
couldn't remember the last time he had taken a shower or used a
toilet. He was so excited to have some sugar; he had forgotten the
taste of it after being captive in Chechnya for nineteen
months.
The elders taught him the first discussion.
He told them that he had never been baptized and that
he wanted to be baptized. "God has sent you to me," he
said. "I could have gone any direction when I got off that
bridge. Anywhere! But God made me go the way I did so I could
meet with you. God listened to my prayer, and sent me you two."
The next day was Sunday and the
Elders took Sergei to church, but first they threw away his old
clothes and gave him a suit, socks, shoes and a tie that had been
left in the apartment by other missionaries. Clean, shaven,
combed and dressed in the suit of clothing, he was a new man!
He loved being at church. He especially loved seeing that there are still
good people in the world and that the branch was like
one big family. He was grateful to be a part of it. Sergei was soon
baptized. He was helped
to get pictures for a passport and was trying to get his
diploma restored and find a job. He visited his old apartment
building and his old friends and neighbors. They couldn't believe
that it was really him! They thought he was dead! He hadn't yet
been able to find his son, but was searching.
During the missionaries' last discussion before his baptism, Sergei
opened the meeting with another heartfelt prayer. The elders
said that they could not begin to describe the words he used
in that sincere and faithful prayer to his Heavenly Father, but they
said, "He thanked God that he could meet with us. He thanked
God for our help in getting him back on his feet and also for helping
him regain hope. He expressed his great joy in finding the
Church of Jesus Christ. He even thanked God for that nearly two-year
ordeal he had undergone, which made him humble enough to see that
these two missionaries were speaking the truth."
We don’t know the ending to this wonderful story. Sergei disappeared after
that. Did his early captors find him and sell him into slavery once
more? How and where did he get lost? These elders returned home
from their missions and have had no further contact with Sergei.
There are twenty-seven million people in various parts of the globe,
right now, who are slaves. They are captured and sold over
and over again. Young women are often sold to brothels, and men
to other hard labor. These captors are kept in compliance by rape
and violence. There are debt slaves; whole families are kept as
debt slaves and are never able to work themselves out of debt because
of illegal and dishonest book keeping. Small children are kept in
tiny, dim and stuffy rooms with little to eat and forced to work.
Children are sold by their parents for a small sum to “employers”
for the purpose of “learning a trade.” They work long hours at hard
labor with very little food. [National Geographic, September 2003,
21st Century Slaves]
What can be done for people like Sergei?
Prayer is their only hope. I pray for those captive peoples,
many of whom have never known God, to feel and reach toward the
outstretched hand of a loving Father in Heaven who is waiting to
help and wanting to encircle them in his loving arms.
“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”
[2 Corinthians 3: 17] It is my prayer, as I hope it will be yours,
that we can be changed beings; that we can realize more fully our
responsibility to help set the captives free.
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