Word about the Brooklyn Messianic Center's addiction counseling program can spread pretty quickly. Take the case of Vladimir and Eugene.* Both men came from the Former Soviet Union when they were about thirteen—a difficult time to make a transition—and both of them are now around thirty. Vladimir and Eugene had both become drug addicts, walking the tragic road toward destruction.

Eugene, however, had a genuine spiritual hunger buried inside of him. When Viktoria, our staff member, invited him to the addiction counseling program at Chosen People Ministries' Brooklyn Messianic Center, he came. He also began attending staff member Klaudia Zhelezny’s Bible study group, and after some weeks of wrestling with the truth of the Bible, he received the Lord.

Eugene then invited his former drug buddy, Vladimir, to the Center. Recently out of prison, where he too had grown spiritually curious, Vladimir came to the Hanukkah celebration at the Center late last year. Klaudia met him there and invited him to her group, and he started coming regularly. As Klaudia relates, "He hung on every word of the Bible like a hungry person. I worked with him very attentively to explain the truth. Vladimir had a very logical approach, and when he became convinced, he made his decision to follow the Lord. Before, he was in bondage to drugs and in spiritual bondage, but now he is being transformed!"

Vladimir and Eugene were baptized together this spring at Simcha, Chosen People Ministries’ Messianic conference, to much rejoicing.

* Name has been changed