Iaroslava lived a typical Ukrainian childhood. She wandered through the woods behind her home to pick berries and mushrooms. She used scrap materials to make dolls, handkerchiefs and aprons. And, during the winter months, she watched wild dogs play in the snow.
But as Iaroslava grew older, her childhood began to fall apart.
For most of her life, Iaroslava lived with her mother and grandfather in Borzna, a large town in northern Ukraine; she never knew her father, who abandoned her when she was an infant. To provide for her family, Iaroslava’s mother was forced to work increasingly long hours. This left Iaroslava under the care of her grandfather, who had gradually developed an addiction to alcohol.
For years, the family hung together by a thread—until Iaroslava’s mother grew ill. Unable to pay her medical bills, she fled Ukraine in search of a steady job and sent Iaroslava to Borzna Secondary Boarding School. The experience drastically altered Iaroslava’s life.
“So I often imagine this as just a dream, where I will eventually wake up and be with her.”
“My mom told me [she was leaving] a day before she left, which was unfair because I had no time to change her mind,” Iaroslava says. “So I often imagine this as just a dream, where I will eventually wake up and be with her.”
When she first arrived at the boarding school, Iaroslava relied on the support of her classmates—all orphans and abandoned children—to find hope. As time passed, she also became curious about God.
“She always wanted to know more about God and asked a lot of questions to everyone around her,” says Olha Serhiinko, Iaroslava’s school leader. “But in most cases, she didn’t receive answers.”
One Sunday, when her curiosity had piqued, Iaroslava visited a local church with her classmates. She learned “lots of interesting things”—and immediately began to dream of holding her own Bible. But when she finally received a copy from her local church, she struggled to comprehend the old church language printed inside. So she began to dream of holding a Bible she could read and understand.
Eventually, Iaroslava’s dream came true. In partnership with the Ukrainian Bible Society and generous donors, churches from around Borzna hosted an event at Iaroslava’s school to distribute children’s Bibles. Anxious to uncover the hope found in God’s Word, she immediately flipped open her Bible and began reading.
“When she saw us handing out children’s Bibles, she couldn’t contain her emotions.”
When the program ended, Iaroslava asked Serhiinko and representatives of the Ukrainian Bible Society to sign her Bible, leaving their mark on the book she once dreamt of holding.
“When she saw us handing out children’s Bibles, she couldn’t contain her emotions,” Serhiinko continues. “She started hugging and kissing it and proclaimed, ‘This is the best gift I have ever had!’”
Now 11 years old and trying to make sense of her broken childhood, Iaroslava has made a life-changing discovery: even in the midst of abandonment, addiction and poverty, she has a father in heaven who will never leave her side.
Kiho*, a ten-year-old boy from eastern Uganda, sat speechless in a small classroom. Facilitators of a Bible-based trauma healing session—organized for young victims of disaster and abuse—smiled next to him. The facilitators could tell he had something to say. They just didn’t know how to reach him.
Eventually, Kiho burst into tears and began sharing his story.
More than a decade earlier, Kiho’s mother had conceived Kiho with another man while her husband served in the Ugandan military. When her husband returned from active duty, he vowed to stick with her—but only if she abandoned Kiho. She agreed.
With nowhere to go, Kiho moved in with his uncle. But life in his new home proved difficult. He wore the same clothes every day. He dropped out of school. And he rummaged through abandoned gardens, markets and homes in search of food.
After years of wandering through life with little guidance or care, Kiho arrived at the trauma healing course. Sessions like this one regularly take place in Uganda and throughout the Great Lakes Region of Africa, thanks to the support of generous donors.
For Kiho, fighting through his tears and sharing his story helped. But he needed to rely on God for healing. So, with children from the session gathered around him, a facilitator prayed for Kiho. The experience made a life-changing impact on his life.
“[Praying] set Kiho free,” one facilitator says. “He became so free he started participating in the class.”
By reading God’s Word, Kiho learned to identify his pain, share his hurt, release his suffering and even forgive his mother for abandoning him. In a lament, he asked God for wisdom—and the strength to face the future. At the conclusion of the course, facilitators helped Kiho get his young life on track by re-enrolling him in primary school. They even gifted him a set of school supplies.
Even though he endured a childhood of turmoil and distress, Kiho has experienced freedom in God’s Word.
Excited to have her own Bible, a 15-year-old learns more about God...
Doeun Chin Lan has experienced a lot of loss.
"My mother died when I was little," explains the 15-year-old. "I don't even remember her face. All my older siblings left me to work in Thailand. My father is very elderly and poor.…I want to see my whole family together again."
When the message of God's love came to the small village where Doeun lives, her heart finally began to heal.
"I am very happy that God loves me," she says. "Whether I am in the countryside, in the forest or anywhere, God still loves me."
Doeun says she enjoys hearing stories about God at church. "But sometimes I don't understand," she admits. "When I heard they were going to give out Bibles, I was very happy."
"My Bible is small and easy to carry around and the writing is easy to understand. I believe this Bible will help me know God better. My father can't read so I want to read to him so that he can also put his faith in God."
For many Cambodians, especially poor farmers living in rural areas, obtaining a Bible requires much sacrifice. It takes months to save money for a Bible. But thanks to generous donors, Doeun and others have Bibles of their very own!
Please pray for others like Doeun who still need to know about God and engage in His Word in Cambodia. Ask that Scriptures will be made available in different media so that the entire population, especially the youth, will understand and experience the love of God.
Though Christianity had been part of their culture for 100 years, there was no Bible in the Beembe language. It took 20 years of dedicated translation work for them to get a Beembe Bible – but when they did, they showed us how to party…
Imagine fumbling through a dense, tricky text in a second language. You can read it, but it’s hard. You understand in part, but you can't quite capture the meaning. This was the case for the Beembe people of Congo Brazzaville, who only had access to Bibles their second language: French.
Lost in translation
‘For me, the problem with the Bible in French was that I had trouble understanding certain concepts and words. So I didn’t read the Bible very often,’ 54-year-old farmer, Pierrette, explains.
Pierrette’s experience isn’t rare. For many people reading the Bible in a second language, the challenge of understanding is significant. But not only that, they’re not experiencing the message of the Bible in the words they can relate to; the words they use in their thoughts, their hearts.
A word in season
More than 1,000 people gathered for the ceremony to launch the first ever Beembe New Testament in early 2014. Elders banged drums and shook rattles. Young dance troupes performed energetic routines. People cheered.
Though Christianity has been part of the Beembe culture for 100 years, this was the first time the community had Scripture in their language. And the joy was palpable.
‘Now we have our own Beembe New Testament, I am very happy,’ Pierrette says.’ It will help us strengthen the faith of our children, who will discover a deeper relationship with God.’
Decades of dedication
Jacques Mberi is the man behind the Beembe Bible. He has spent decades poring over Hebrew and Greek, considering the best ways to convey the meaning of each verse – especially when there’s not always a direct translation.
He smiled through tears as he said, ‘I am like Simeon, who waited years and years until he could see the Lord Jesus, and then once he did, he could die. I have worked hard to see this translation finished. It is my child, my pride and joy.’
Completing the task
Now the Beembe people have asked to have the Old Testament translated into their language and Jacques is already on the case.
But until then, we’re celebrating that this people group are now experiencing the New Testament in the language they most love and truly understand.
62-year-old Mbambouloulu Evelyne clutched her Beembe New Testament and said, ‘I am delighted with this New Testament. It touches my soul. It allows me to feel closer to God, and I give thanks to God for this precious gift.’
Sasha’s entire childhood was blighted by alcoholism. When he was five his mother froze to death, too drunk to find her way back home. Shortly afterwards his father was sent to an asylum after stabbing someone in a drunken rage. When he left the orphanage where he grew up, Sasha became dependent on alcohol, which led him into a life of crime. He spent most of his late teens and 20s in prison.
“Realising that my life was turning out like my parents’ I lost all hope,” he recalls. “My body is full of the scars of numerous suicide attempts.”
Slowly blossomed in his heart
But then, in 1992, a fellow prisoner gave him a New Testament. It didn’t immediately change Sasha’s life but it planted a seed that slowly blossomed in his heart.
“The first time I read Scripture I felt disturbed,” he recalls. “I read the first six chapters of Matthew and then couldn’t sleep that night. The next day I returned it to my friend, saying, ‘This is a holy book and I’m a sinful man. I’m not allowed to touch it.’”
Sasha shares his testimony.
That first encounter with the Bible helped Sasha to get through some dark days ahead. While in solitary confinement he found himself praying words from the Lord’s Prayer, which he remembered reading. Later, he wrote to ask for his own copy of the New Testament through a program called, ‘The Gospel for every prisoner’. Although he wasn’t ready to commit himself to Christ he read his New Testament, particularly in times of trouble.
It took a dramatic situation and a lot of help from his Christian friends in prison for him to understand and accept God’s love for him. He was baptised, along with 18 other prisoners.
Free for the first time
“It was a great honour to die to my old life and rise to my new life of service to God,” he smiles. “While in prison I became free for the first time in my life.”
When he was released from prison, with the support of Revival Mission, a church-run organisation that helps addicts and alcoholics, Sasha started to share his story with other people. Today, he pastors a church and works with Revival Mission to help others whose lives have been destroyed by addiction. The mission uses Scriptures provided by the Bible Society of Belarus, which is committed to helping fight the scourge of drug and alcohol addiction.
Bibles in one of the bedrooms in a Christian rehabilitation centre.
“Unfortunately, the tragedy of Sasha’s childhood is not uncommon,” says Bible Society Executive Secretary Igor Mikhailov. “Alcoholism affects many families and the number of drug addicts here has increased sevenfold over the past 10 years, particularly among teenagers and young people. And intravenous drug use is closely linked to HIV – around 80% of injecting drug addicts are HIV-positive.
“More and more churches and other Christian organisations are getting involved in tackling this growing problem. We are supporting them by providing Scriptures, which are a key tool in helping people to break their addiction and discover a fresh purpose for their life.”
This Scripture-based approach, which is used by Christian-run drug rehabilitation centres and church-run programs in prisons, hospitals and other settings, is proving very effective.
70% success rate
“70% of our patients who complete the full cycle of rehabilitation stop taking drugs, have families and actively participate in church life,” says Averyanov, who leads a Christian rehabilitation centre in the Gomel region. “Having experienced the power of God’s Word in their lives, many of them share the Gospel with friends who are still drug users. Also, the patients’ relatives see the changes in their loved ones and want to find out about the Bible for themselves. Thanks to the Bible Society we are able to give them a copy.”
Another organisation, Mothers Against Drugs, told the Bible Society that the young people they speak to in schools about how to avoid addiction react very positively to the Bible.
Lidia Kotikova of Mothers Against Drugs with some of the Bibles provided by the Bible Society of Belarus.
“Almost all the young people we talk to in schools, colleges and universities have tried drugs,” notes Lidia Kotikova who heads Mothers Against Drugs in the town of Gorki. “We use drama and lectures to get them to think about addiction from a biblical perspective, and they find this very interesting. They tell us that they never had much guidance from their families. Many of them ask us for Bibles so that they can read it for themselves.”
Igor, who has led this Bible Society project for a number of years, says that he has been “personally amazed” to see the dedication of those ministering to addicts and their families, or teaching youth how to avoid addiction.
“Many of these men and women working in rehabilitation centres and other settings have burning hearts, having once passed through serious trials themselves,” he notes. “They are able to speak from their wealth of personal experience and help people to find the right path again and turn to God. This ministry is having a stunning effect, which I would not have believed if I was not witnessing it myself, over and over again.”
Read the testimonies below of a few of these former addicts who are now ministering to others.
The Bible Society supplies thousands of Scriptures to churches and organisations working to help people avoid and recover from alcohol abuse and drug addiction, but many more are needed. Please pray that it is able to provide Scriptures wherever they are needed.
Mila*
“I spent 11 years addicted to alcohol and drugs. I had a daughter but I wasn’t involved in her upbringing. I was too busy destroying my life and going to jail. I realised that I was going to die if I didn’t do something, so I went to the Christian rehabilitation centre I’d heard about. There I experienced God and any doubts I’d had about coming off drugs evaporated. I went through the rehabilitation and also the program to help me reintegrate into normal life. I have my daughter back and I’m now helping alcoholics, drug addicts and their parents with mental and spiritual recovery.” – Mila*
Alexy*
“My parents were very caring but I started taking drugs because I wanted to be rebellious. My addiction nearly killed me several times and I only avoided prison through the intervention of Mothers Against Drugs, who got me sent to a Christian rehabilitation centre instead. It was only through God’s power that I was able to break free from my addiction. I now go to church and work with the rehabilitation centre, visiting schools to tell kids my story and help them avoid the mistakes I made.” – Alexy*
Pavel*
“I grew up seeing my mother and father constantly drunk. I had so much pain inside, which I dealt with by taking drugs in my teens. My mother became a Christian and invited me to church but I thought, ‘How can you find anything in religion? I’m fine. I can take care of myself.’ But then my mother died of cancer and I was diagnosed with a severe illness. I was told I’d be an invalid. I realised I was standing on a precipice. I went to the ‘Right to Life’ rehabilitation centre and God immediately started working in my heart, destroying strongholds that had held me captive for so long. In Jeremiah 33:3 God says, ‘Call to me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things, which you don’t know about.’ I see it in my life. I am now working in the rehabilitation centre and have been blessed with a wife. I can testify that ‘He who promised is faithful’ (Hebrews 10:23). – Pavel*
Vitaly*
“I grew up seeing debauchery, discord and death, and I liked it. I was cynical and constantly in conflict with other people. But at the same time I felt a void in my life, and drugs filled it. Everywhere I went I had plenty of money, women and drugs. I could find drugs anywhere. Then one day I injured myself and my mother asked me to please go to a rehabilitation centre. I didn’t want to disappoint her so I went. There I learned about Jesus and realised that he was exactly what I’d been missing in my life. I understood that drug addiction was not my only sin. I repented and, with God’s help, I am trying to become a new man. If it wasn’t for learning about God in the rehabilitation centre, I would be dead.” – Vitaly*
Click here to read a blog about a visit to a rehabilitation centre.
Now the Beembe people have asked to have the Old Testament translated into their language and Jacques is already on the case.
