Let me tell you a little bit about myself.

Some time ago trouble came to my family. My younger son Dima started using drugs, and the older one Sasha followed his example a little later. It was scary! I began to seek ways to solve the problem. It was at that time (back in 1997) that I met the director of the “New Life” rehabilitation centre in St Petersburg, Sergei Mativosyan. He invited me to visit the centre. As I saw the wonderful ministry there I felt that God was prompting me to start such a ministry in my home town of Samara.

I am the Executive Director of the charitable organization called “Salvation” which has a rehabilitation centre in the countryside near Samara. Our organization provides free rehabilitation for people suffering from drug, alcohol and other chemical addictions. We work with marginalized groups in society, including homeless adults and children, youth with problems. We also help convicts coming out of prison with adapting back into society.

Our centre is in way a ‘school of life’, which aims to help one become a physically healthy, emotionally stable, spiritually growing and socially adapted person. We seek to assist young people in finding solutions to their problems and learning how to deal with them, getting rid of self-destructive habits and addictions. We believe that the way out of any addiction can be found only with God’s help. I live at the centre together with the addicts. God uses them as instruments so that I can come closer to Him.

The rehab centre is a non-profit organization. It is a hard work but it is blessed by God and brings real fruit. See for yourself – during the 10 years of our work nearly 3000 people turned to our centre for help, 311 people have completed our rehabilitation program (one year long) and 273 of them still lead a drug-free life. Our graduates started 89 families with children in perfect health. We receive about 20 phone calls a day from all over Russia with requests to be admitted to the rehabilitation program – so rampant is the problem of drug addiction in our days.

We are doing our best to support ourselves. Our guys plant vegetables, grow livestock as well as doing repairs and construction work. We intend to supply our needs ourselves however we are not able to provide for all of them so far. That’s why some things are covered by donations from individuals and organizations.

The rehabilitation program is built on the biblical principles of life, psychological processing (we use ‘Life at Crossroads’, ‘Genesis Process’ and other programs), and work therapy. Thus we are aiming for restoration of the whole person: spirit, soul and body. During the 12 months of rehabilitation our guys learn about nine different professions/trades.

Our organization also collaborates with the international ISAAC network. This partnership has been instrumental for us because it helped in acquiring the skills necessary for working with people with addictions. I’m thankful to the Lord for bringing into my life a wonderful woman, Jill Kingston, who invited me back in 1999 to attend the ISAAC International Congress in England. That is where I became a member of this organization. ISAAC regularly facilitates conferences for the workers of rehabilitation centres. Such events are really critical for the participants - the issues discussed there are those which many of them deal with on a daily basis. They also provide an opportunity for meeting other people and seeing that you are not alone working in this field, receiving practical training, and just changing the daily routine and resting a bit from ministry. It’s great that ISAAC also coordinates high quality seminars on HIV and AIDS related issues jointly with Mildmay International and ACET. Many residents at rehab centres are HIV-positive and due to ignorance about HIV and AIDS staff can even do a lot of harm to them. 70% of our people at the centre are HIV-positive. I’m deeply grateful to ISAAC and to Treflyn Lloyd-Roberts especially for giving me an opportunity to visit Malaysia back in 2006. That trip made a great impact on me – to observe a Christian ministry so well-organized in a Muslim country. The part about helping people with HIV and AIDS impressed me the most. There is the experience to learn from!

I also wanted to give special thanks to ISAAC for facilitating the Genesis training seminar in Moscow this year! I have been praying to God for several years to find ways to prevent relapse back into addictions, and I received a comprehensive answer to my prayers through this training.

I would love to continue partnering with the wonderful organization ISAAC. I am happy to share about our ministry and the part ISAAC played in it over a period of 10 years. ISAAC greatly contributed to the fact that so many people have been able to find freedom from so many addictions. Our ministry is growing, thanks to the knowledge and experience that ISAAC provided for us.

I’m sincerely thankful for your valuable work!

May there be room for all in your life -

For work and love, and friends,

For interesting meetings and events,

And for making your dreams come true!

I want to thank you now

For always being willing to help,

And listen, and more important to understand,

And for many other things!

May the Lord bless you in this profoundly important ministry!

ISAAC greatly contributed to the fact that so many people have been able to find freedom from so many addictions. Our ministry is growing, thanks to the knowledge and experience that ISAAC provided for us.

Ljubov Voronina