From drug addict to full time Christian worker

Jenya Turkin grew up on the streets of Novosibirsk – the unofficial capital of Siberia with a population of 1.5 million people. After perestroika, drugs began

to flood into Siberia from Kazakhstan to the south, and Jenya along with thousands like him didn’t really stand much of a chance. Naturally, drug addiction led to crime to fund his habit. One day the police caught up with

Jenya and he was thrown into prison where he was forced to live in the most awful conditions. Twenty men lived in a room with 8 beds, so each of them had

8 hours a day with a bed, and the rest of the time was spent sitting against the wall, moulding figures out of stale bread. Nobody really cares greatly about the fate of criminal drug addicts.

It was at this time that Jenya began to pray to God for help. After his release he tried to begin his life again, but soon got caught up in his old ways. Arrested again, and while in jail, he learnt that his wife had died of a drug overdose.

After his release, Jenya found himself once again addicted to drugs, but made his way to a drug-rehab centre run by a church. In this centre he understood the Gospel for the first time, and gave his life to Jesus. Right from the start of his new life, he had the desire to share the Good News which he had found with others. He read the book “The challenge of Missions” which had been translated into Russian by OM, and felt God’s call on his life to become a full-time Christian worker.

I first met Jenya in 2006 after he had been baptised and had been attending church for a year. I preached in his church about discipleship and about a new opportunity OM Russia was offering to disciple and train young Christians in Novosibirsk and to equip them as Christian workers. Jenya immediately approached me after the service, and after receiving his pastor’s recommendation, signed up for the course in the OM Discipleship Centre.

OM’s Discipleship Centre course (www.discipleshipcentre.org) runs for 6

very intensive months each year. In addition to giving young Christians a good knowledge of the Bible and the tools to teach, preach and share the Gospel,

the Discipleship Centre also creates an environment in which God very actively shapes and moulds rough characters. Jenya was a highly motivated student and applied himself well, getting top marks and passing on the knowledge he was receiving to others through a one-on-one discipleship scheme. Jenya graduated from the Discipleship Centre with more than just a diploma – after completing the course he married another student, a lovely girl called Nina!

Jenya graduated from the Discipleship Centre with more than just a diploma – after completing the course he married another student, a lovely girl called Nina!

Jenya’s church sent him and Nina out as Christian workers to a town of 50,000, eight hours from Novosibirsk, where there was no evangelical church. They

have been developing a new fellowship there for the past two years, and the congregation now has 12 members. They also recently received a ‘church status’ from the Russian Union of Baptists. Although the work is not easy and finances are always tight, Jenya and Nina have a vision to continue working as full-time Christian workers and plan to move to one of the many other unreached Siberian towns to start another fellowship one day.