God's gangster

‘Grab your weapons, whatever you can find. We’re going to teach them a lesson they’ll never forget!’

Word soon got out and before long 40 gang members had got together, armed with knives, rocks and chains. Soon they would have their revenge on another gang.

They all climbed aboard a bus to go into enemy territory. No one, least of all the bus driver, dared to challenge them. Their adrenaline was pumping, and as soon as one of their number spotted the enemy gang, they piled out of the bus and went on a mad rampage — beating the other gang members to a pulp, and extending their violence to anyone else who happened to get in the way.

Sasha Ivanov was right in the thick of it, where he belonged. Although young, he was stocky and very powerfully built, and an experienced street fighter. Enraged by the beating he had received earlier by this other gang for trespassing on their territory, he was now out of control. Eventually the police showed up and Sasha, together with the other gang members, found himself cooling off in a police cell. Only by his father paying a large bribe did he manage to escape a long prison sentence.

Chaos and corruption

This all happened in the early 1990s, a time of great confusion in Russia. The Soviet Union, the great power which had exercised complete control over every individual’s life, no longer existed. But Russia, as a separate entity from the Soviet Union, had not yet found her identity and there was no stability in either the political life of the country or people’s everyday existence. Everything was turned on its head. There was great hardship. Many had lost their life savings, there were long queues for food and nobody knew what lay ahead.

Gangs, like the one Sasha was in, took full advantage of the chaos to set up protection rackets and made good money by threatening local businesses.

After his compulsory military service, Sasha got married and decided to turn his life around, deciding to work as a policeman, in the hope that this would keep him out of trouble. The problem was, he soon became a corrupt policeman, making more money in one day in bribes than his parents made in a month.

Doing drugs

And, of course, with this extra money, came extra temptations. Now Sasha could easily afford the drugs which were becoming increasingly common and easy to get hold of in Russia.

For the next four years Sasha fought a losing battle with them. He would be hooked for six months, then with his wife’s help and with great will power he would come off for three or four months. Then he would become addicted again and things would get worse than before. Eventually he lost his job and after a while his wife gave up all hope of him ever beating his addiction. She divorced Sasha and left with their daughter.

In order to get money to feed his growing habit, Sasha resorted to the ways he knew from his teenage years. He would go out ‘hunting’ — roaming the streets looking for a victim, usually a well-dressed man on his own. He would trick his victim into going with him to a deserted part of town either by pretending to be a school friend, or with the offer of free vodka, or some other ploy, and would then beat up his victim and steal their coat, wallet and phone.

God stepped in

Then God intervened. Sasha became very ill with pneumonia. His body already weakened by his persistent drug taking, he didn’t stand much chance of surviving. He couldn’t lie down because when lying horizontal the fluid in his lungs would start to drown him. He couldn’t eat and in the course of two weeks lost 20 kilograms.

Ticking off sins

While lying in hospital and thinking that he would soon die, Sasha arranged for an Orthodox priest to visit him. Prior to the priest’s visit, Sasha was given a book which lists all the sins which are possible to commit, and told to tick the ones he had done so that his confession would be complete. When the priest arrived he found that Sasha had only omitted ticking a few of the sins in the book. Sasha asked for God’s forgiveness and after his confession he was left with a sense that something had changed inside him. As God continued to intervene in his life, amazingly, he began to recover.

Unfortunately, Sasha was given no further support by the church and two years later he had plummeted to the same place he was when he had become ill. At this point, an old friend came into Sasha’s life — a friend from school who had had an even worse reputation as a man of violence than Sasha. This friend, however, had dramatically changed and had come to find Sasha at a place where they were buying and preparing drugs. He told Sasha that he could leave with him right now and go to a prayer meeting at a nearby Baptist church. In his heart of hearts, Sasha knew that this might be his last chance and agreed to give it a try, entering the church’s rehab centre that night.

Unexpected tears

After a few days in the Christian centre, Sasha read the account in the Bible of the boy who was demon possessed and whom the disciples couldn’t heal.

As he read on, Sasha saw how Jesus had the power to heal the boy and that Jesus was in fact all powerful, with the ability and desire to change people’s lives. As he started to share these thoughts with the others in the centre, he began to cry for the first time since his childhood. He was so embarrassed by these unexpected tears that he rushed into another room and locked himself in, praying to the God whom he had just discovered, asking forgiveness and committing his life to his service. He then went back into the meeting and told the others that he had given his life to God.

New heart

God began to change Sasha from the inside, transforming his heart and his whole thought life. And gradually those internal, invisible changes worked their way to the outside, until Sasha stopped doing things he earlier couldn’t imagine not doing, and started doing things which he would never have dreamt of. After a couple of months in the rehab centre, Sasha was made the leader, and was responsible for the new young men joining the centre.

Joy in giving

After seeing several young men leave the centre because there simply wasn’t enough money to feed them, Sasha decided to help financially — he got a job washing the concrete stairwells in the nearby blocks of flats, clearing snow and picking up rubbish. A few months earlier Sasha could not have begun to imagine ever doing such dirty, poorly paid and menial work, but now he was performing these tasks joyfully and giving away what he was earning so that the rehab centre could continue to operate!

After finishing at the rehab centre, Sasha was invited to go and help at some children’s camps run by a local church. Many of the children attending the camps were not from Christian backgrounds, several were from orphanages, and although young they were already smoking, drinking and living a promiscuous lifestyle. Sasha had a fantastic time on the camp pouring God’s love into these young and damaged lives. During his time working there he understood that he wanted to be a children’s worker, and a dream rose in his heart that one day he might even be able to organise and direct such a camp.

Training

Sasha realised that he needed more training so that he could grow in his faith and work in the church more effectively, and so he applied for a place at the OM Russia Discipleship Centre. He also began to observe the director of Sunday school, a young lady called Marina, and was amazed at her large and soft heart for the children around her, always ready to serve them.

Sasha was a very lively student at the Operation Mobilisation (OM) Russia Discipleship Centre and was cracking jokes with the other students and teachers right from the first day. He also proved to be a very gifted student, able to take on board information quickly, work well with others in a team, and had a gift for organisation as well as a heart for serving others. He was soon preaching at his church as he learnt how to interpret the Bible properly, and steadily got more involved in the Sunday school work. After graduating Sasha was asked by his church to take over the leading of Sunday school from Marina, who had been doing it for several years and needed a break from the responsibility. He also made a proposal of marriage to Marina, who accepted, and soon after graduation they were married.

Today Sasha is working with OM and is one of the tutors in the OM Russia Discipleship Centre, mentoring other young men and helping them find and develop their gifts so that they can serve God and others better. Looking back, Sasha comments on how in his former life, although he strove for it, he ended up with no friends, no respect and no trust from anyone. Now, as his life is dedicated to serving God he has many friends, the respect of his church and the trust of dozens of parents who gladly place their children into his care every Sunday and for weeks on end in the summer. Sasha’s life has truly been revolutionised by God’s grace and his gift of forgiveness and love.

Colin & Bron Cleaver

Colin and Bron Cleaver are leaders of OM Russia and the founders of OM’s Discipleship Centre in Novosibirsk, Siberia. The story above is included in a booklet they’ve written called The Siberian Six, which can be ordered from their website, www.ru.om.org

If you would like to find out about supporting Sasha and Marina, contact colin.cleaver@ru.om.org

From street gang member to Christian role model