Source: God Reports, July 30, 2019
“Viktor” once smuggled illegal drugs from Tajikistan to the state where he lives in Central Asia.
“He seemed to have natural abilities to covertly network across communities,” according to a report by Open Doors. He was so good he was offered the opportunity to smuggle drugs across the Afghanistan border, which would expand his illicit operation into three countries.
But in 1996, Viktor was caught with nine pounds of heroin and sent to jail. Once incarcerated, he became depressed and suicidal. “I felt empty inside and did not want to live anymore.”
One day Viktor’s cellmate received a package from his mother that contained the Gospel of John. The cellmate offered to let Viktor read it. Viktor didn’t want any part of the book at first. But after 10 nights of poor sleep, he picked up the book and began to peruse it. It didn’t make any sense to him. “‘The Word was first and the Word was God’ made no sense to me… What did it mean? I put it away and stopped reading.”
But then something unusual happened. He had more sleepless nights. Thoroughly exhausted and despairing, he picked up the Bible once more and this time, he couldn’t stop reading.
“I read about eternal life,” Viktor told Open Doors. “Reading about eternal life caught my attention. Thinking about it, I really desired eternal life even more than I desired to be released from jail.”
The more he read the Bible the more he felt God’s presence. He didn’t know how to pray, but he called out to Jesus.
Today, he is the pastor of an underground church in Central Asia. He secretly stores Bibles and other Christian media useful for evangelism in his barn. Viktor marvels at the way God turned his life around. “Please do pray that my testimony and my life can bring many people to Christ, and pray also for my relatives,” he said.