From Siberia to Kolomna and then — to China
From Siberia to Kolomna and then — to China. The story of a person passed through a hard childhood and who became God’s servant. Now he is a student at the Moscow Seminary.
My name is Vladimir Alert. I was born on March 15, 1984 in Kizel, Siberia. We were a happy family — my father, mother, and three brothers. But then … misfortunes never come single … My brother was murdered — found hanged in a barn. My mother was killed — ran over by a truck. My father just could not cope — gave me up. The foster family I was placed to drank like a fish and beat me to a pulp — I fled. I became a vagabond — strayed purposelessly during the day, begged for food, and slept restlessly during the night (in the basement of abandoned buildings clinging to the central heat water pipe for it was brutally cold … after all, it was Siberia, and so -30F was the norm).
Some total strangers from a construction site took pity on me and invited me to join the crew. Soon I found out that they were converting an old fire station into a protestant church! They shared the Gospel with me. I accepted the Lord on October 9, 1999 and was baptized on January 23, 2000. The missionary crew “adopted” me into the church’s family. I met the most beautiful girl at the church. We got married in 2006 and had four kids together — Alice 11, Katya 9, Andrew 7, and Anton 3.
I felt called to building churches. To this end I went to an industrial college and graduated with a degree in construction. But then I realized that church was not just a building but primarily people. And so, I realized I also needed a degree in divinity. And here I am — the pastor of a church in Kolomna I built myself and a student at the Moscow Seminary.
The Lord gave me a vision for the future, too: When I was sixteen, my youth pastor took me for a walk through a graveyard. And he told me that astonishing wealth and daring dreams were buried there. “Don’t follow that route,” said the pastor. And it was there, at the cemetery, that the Lord spoke to me in an audible voice saying three times, “China, China, China.” I was cut to the heart. My soul was filled with God’s compassion to the Chinese. And ever since that time I know that I will build churches in China — both buildings and people!
