100-Proof Anti-Alcohol Campaign
Just as England is a nation of tea-drinkers, Russia is a nation steeped not in tea, but in vodka. In fact, vodka is a diminutive form of the word voda, the Russian word for water.
As part of Russian President Dmitry’s Medvedev anti-alcohol campaign, the Kremlin nearly doubled the cost of a bottle of vodka January 1, hoping that the higher costs of drinking would lower its consumption.
This might prove to be an exercise in futility as Russian leaders from Peter the Great to Mikhail Gorbachev discovered.
Today, Russia’s per capita alcohol consumption is twice as high as the U.S. And, tragically, this high alcohol consumption has taken its toll. A medical journal reported that half of all deaths of Russians ages 15-34 are caused by alcohol-related diseases.
Russian Ministries’ young Next Generation Christian leaders have seen first-hand the toll alcoholism takes on families and individuals: unemployment, homelessness, abandonment and even abuse. They have cared for children whose alcoholic parents have lost their rights, and embraced teenagers bent on destroying their lives through excessive drinking.
For these compassionate young leaders the best, and only, anti-alcohol campaign is to share the hope of Jesus and His promise of new life in Him.
“Pavel was an alcoholic, continually falling and spiraling downward,” describes one of Russian Ministries’ young Next Generation leaders. “He couldn’t support his family, because he spent all of his money on alcohol.”
For the past few years, these young Christians helped out Pavel and his family with groceries and other essentials, and also counseled them on various issues.
“Recently, we began to see changes. Pavel started asking about church,” said this national worker. “He was open and sincere, and admitted his mistakes.” Pavel repented and became a new creation in Christ.
Pavel doesn’t take his new life in Jesus for granted. “I understand what the Bible says. I understand what God wants to say to me. My soul has never felt so light before,” says Pavel.
As these Next Generation Christians point out, it is God who works in people’s hearts, changing them and bringing them new life.
2010—a new year for new life across the former Soviet Union.
