A Criminal Leader Find Redemption

Meet Sergey Gavrilov

My life began in 1964 in Omsk city. My parents were common workers. Father worked as a builder even though he had a high education. My mom worked in a factory. Father went on business trips very often, and Mom worked a lot. Our aged grandmother was not able to watch me and my brother. So I grew upon the streets. I began to smoke, use foul language, steal and drink alcohol very early. When I was eleven, I ran away from my home for the first time. I was found by the police after several months in Moscow. When I was fourteen I tried drugs. My friends were very experienced prisoners.

By the time I turned seventeen, I was an experienced criminal with a long list of crimes. It was then I was arrested for robbery and convicted to eighteen months in prison. I was brought to the labor settlement for minor criminals. And after I turned eighteen, I was transferred to the settlement for adults. There I committed some more heinous crimes against several people who were trying to reform themselves. The court recognized me as a dangerous recidivist, but because of some legal nuances I was merely convicted to seven more years in a maximum security prison.

There I became a respected prisoner. In1985, Perestroika took place in our country. It affected the criminal world as well the political. Many of my friends became leaders of criminal congregations called “brigades.” So they were looking forward to my release from prison. I knew what I should devote my life to; I was devoted to the ideals of the criminal world.

But one day I dreamt that God saved me from death and promised to take care of me and future. From that time I started to think about God constantly. One day somebody gave me the Gospel of Mathew. I read it in one sitting. I felt like a stranger in a dessert who had found water. Then I prayed to God for the first time.

In 1990 I got free. My friends met me and gave me a large amount of money. They wanted me to have a rest after hard time in prison. I tried to visit church, but I did not understand what it means to live a Christian life. In 1993 I was arrested once again for drug use and settled for one and a half years. My friends could very easily spring me from the prison, but God put me in prison for a purpose. And it was in that time of incarceration that I understood God’s providence.

I was brought to a settlement of drug users. Christians from the Baptist church visited that place. They told me about biblical truths and what the Lord Jesus Christ did on the cross. It was hard for me to believe that such a person as I could become a different person. I saw my friend with whom I had never committed a crime, a drug user of 23 years, pray with the repentance prayer. His life changed.

After I came out the prison, I fought with myself for several years.These were the most difficult years in my life.By that time my parents had passed away. I had only a brother who was sitting in prison somewhere far off in the north. I did not have friends or relatives anymore. Many of my friends were leaders in the criminal wars. Many of them were knifed, died from drug use, committed suicide or settled for life imprisonment. My life was senseless. I had no hope.

In 1997, I bowed down before the Lord in a repentance prayer. I cried like a baby, pleading to God for my salvation, and God showed me His mercy. He forgave me all my sins.I was crying and weeping and telling Him that I believe Jesus died for me, a sinner, on the cross and I knew I was justified by God. I knew He had accepted me and brought me into His family. Many of my friends thought me crazy, but I did not stop visiting them and convincing them that I was crazy before, and had now been made well. Then they said that if I was not crazy they would soon see me on TV as the thief who robbed the Baptist church. And indeed we were shown on TV, but we were sharing our testimonies about our faith in Christ Jesus. Then my friends thought that I organized some kind of sect for criminals, thieves and drug users. I was not offended by them, but again and again I tried to tell them that I had not organized anything, that the Church had existed for two thousand years. I tried to explain to them that many before me had given their lives to Christ, many soon would and nobody would be able to change that.

This was the first time in my life I went to work with my own hands. I did not want to steal anymore. I wanted to take care of myself and help people in need as well. My heart was filled with a desire to bring other people to Christ. I went to study in Bible School where I met my future wife. We got married very soon.

After my study, the church leadership suggested I start work among drug addicts. Several spiritual counseling centers were opened and many addicts were rehabilitated.

In 2002, we started a new church by God’s mercy. There were nineteen in attendance at the first service. Now there are almost one hundred members. I was chosen to be a pastor of this church. Now I’m serving as presbyter.

God allowed me to graduate from the Preacher Institute in Samaraand and enroll in Moscow Theological Seminary. Praise God! My wife, whom I love so much, and I are raising three children. All these things are happening in my life because of God’s might and His mighty love.

God continues to save sinners. My wife and I are praying for a great revival in Russia, unprecedented in our sinful country. We believe that God has all power to do great and impossible things. We should bow down humbly before our Creator and fulfill His holy will given to us in the Bible.

Thank you for your support of our students, including Sergey.