Finding Christ in the Caucasus

By Andrew McChesney, Adventist Mission

Seventeen-year-old Stepan Avakov volunteered to help interpret when a group of Americans organized a Quiet Hour health expo in the southern Russian city of Volgodonsk.

Image © Pacific Press

When the expo ended, organizer Vincent Page invited Stepan to follow the expo to the North Caucasus region. It was summer, and Stepan was free. He asked his mother for advice.

“Why don’t you go?” she said. “You can practice your English”.

Local pastor Veniamin Tarasyuk also gave his blessing but added, “Remember, if you want to be baptized, come back and I will baptize you.”

Stepan was stunned. Are you crazy? he thought. I’m not going to be baptized.

But for the next two months, he lived a Seventh-day Adventist life as he visited various towns. The Adventist organizers woke up early, read their Bibles, prayed, and then had morning devotions together. To Stepan, it was a new world.

One day, Vincent invited Stepan to go to Lithuania next. Stepan, however, had left his passport at home. Vincent gave him a $100 bill.

“Go home, get your passport, and come back here in one day,” he said.

The next morning, the teen jumped out of the hotel bed promptly at 5 a.m., earlier than ever before. He didn’t know how to find a way out of town. As he left the hotel, he prayed, “God, if You exist, lead me to the bus station.”

Stepan began walking and, to his surprise, found the bus station. A bus was waiting with open doors. Inside, passengers were complaining, “Driver, why are we waiting? Let’s go!” As Stepan sat down, the doors closed, and the bus left.

Similar miracles occurred throughout the day. When Stepan returned to the hotel with his passport that night, he knelt beside his bed. “God, now I know that You exist”, he said. “You have shown that You love me and are drawing me to You. From this moment, You are my Lord, and I want You to live in me.”

In the morning, Stepan showed his passport to Vincent. “Here is my passport,” he said. “But something more important happened. Last night, I became a Christian.” Vincent and the other workers spontaneously clapped with joy.

Stepan was baptized by Pastor Veniamin three weeks later, on Sept. 10, 1993.

Six years later, Pastor Veniamin became Stepan’s father-in-law.

Stepan, now 42, works as a professional interpreter for the United Nations and other agencies. He also is the founder and director of an organization that helps Russian orphans.

His conversion story, he said, can be found in Romans 5:1, which reads, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (NKJV).

“This verse interprets my conversion story,” said Stepan, pictured.

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission. Find more mission stories at adventistmission[dot]org

All Rights Reserved. No part of the Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide may be edited, altered, modified, adapted, translated, reproduced, or published by any person or entity without prior written authorization from the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

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Further Thought: From Pride to Humility

“The once proud monarch had become a humble child of God; the tyrannical, overbearing ruler, a wise and compassionate king. He who had defied and blasphemed the God of heaven, now acknowledged the power of the Most High and earnestly sought to promote the fear of Jehovah and the happiness of his subjects. Under the rebuke of Him who is King of kings and Lord of lords,

Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com

Nebuchadnezzar had learned at last the lesson which all rulers need to learn — that true greatness consists in true goodness. He acknowledged Jehovah as the living God, saying, ‘I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and His ways judgment: and those that walk in pride He is able to abase’.

“God’s purpose that the greatest kingdom in the world should show forth His praise was now fulfilled. This public proclamation, in which Nebuchadnezzar acknowledged the mercy and goodness and authority of God, was the last act of his life recorded in sacred history”. — Ellen G. White, Prophets and Kings, p. 521.

Discussion Questions:

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