Sergei Glushonkov — alumni of the seminary and the pastor of a church

I was born on April 23, 1970 in a Kamchatka Peninsula fishery commune [4,200 miles East of Moscow, RU] to a family of communists. The peninsula bordered with America and Japan. The USSR authorities convinced the locals that we were about to be invaded by these “imperialistic predators.” Religion was viewed as a capitalist propaganda ideological tool. And so, there were zero churches and no Bible available anywhere at the Kamchatka Peninsula. My Mom worked at a privileged Communist Party bookstore, though. She had access to books unavailable to the general public, like The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis and The Illustrations for the Bible by Gustave Doré. That’s where my search for the meaning of life and eternal truth began.

In 1988 I was drafted into the Army. A fellow soldier in the trenches shared the Gospel with me based on Jesus Christ Superstar rock opera with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice. In 1993 I was invited to an evangelical outreach meeting. The Lord spoke to me through the sermon. I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior, became a true believer in my heart, and was baptized. Immediately, I became a missionary — preached the Gospel in Vladivostok, Nizhny Novgorod, Khabarovsk, and Ulan Bator in 1993–2010.

In 1995 I got married to Marina, my fellow co-worker in the Gospel. In 2002 we adopted Eva, our daughter, at birth. In 2010 I became the pastor of a 1,500 members church in Moscow. I felt I was lacking knowledge and skills for ministry, though. And so, I enrolled to the Moscow Seminary. I really do truly need training. And so, help me God with the stamina and you with a scholarship! Then, upon the graduation, I will move to Yekaterinburg to preach the Gospel in Siberia.