Christina: "It was a horrible life, and a pain to live as a reject." Top image: Christina with her children and bags of food on their kitchen table. The church's social work has helped her and her children come to faith in God.
I was born and raised in this city. Me and my four siblings had a very difficult childhood in poverty and with a mother who was an alcoholic. My father left us when I was a baby and my stepfather was very violent before he left us. The following year, my oldest brother and youngest sister were placed in an orphanage.
Image right: The children and Christina are seen here together in the hallway of their home.
Street kid and rejected
I first met Marina in 1994, when I was only 13 years old. Before that, my mother had kicked me out of the house and I was living on the streets, sleeping in basements, in stairways, and in heating shafts. It was a terrible life and a pain to live as an outcast.
Marina provided food
Marina met me on the street and often gave me something to eat, and she also helped me in other ways. Marina was my first meeting with a Christian, so to speak, and she also invited me to the church soup kitchen.
The man died
When I was 18 years old, I had my daughter Elena, who is now 13 years old. My first husband was Aleksey. He died when Elena was just 2 years old, while I was pregnant with Veronika.
The accident
Later I met my current husband, Victor, and together we had our son Daniel, who is now 3 years old. Unfortunately, Victor was involved in a serious traffic accident this summer. He was very badly injured and still has physical problems. This has made it difficult for him to work, and he hasn't received any benefits either, so it's been a very difficult time.
A cold apartment
We currently live in a very small apartment in a socially deprived neighborhood. The apartment is poor and cold because we haven't been able to afford to renovate it, and haven't had the money to pay for district heating because we had a very low income (he worked as a plumber and I had a part-time cleaning job). When he got sick, things went completely wrong.
"The white bags" help in a difficult time
Last winter we also had a very difficult time and the church helped our family with the "white bags" that they hand out to families with children who are having a very hard time. Yes, sometimes they are red and sometimes white, but people call them "white bags"! When my husband became ill, we were again offered these large carrier bags with food, groceries etc. and it has helped us through this very difficult time. Had it not been for this help, I don't know how we would have made it through. So thank you so much to those who help, and to the church and to God. What a blessing!
Christina came to faith - the love of Christians overwhelmed her
I have been a Christian for a few years now, but my husband has not yet come to faith in Jesus. I came to faith in Jesus when I was going through a very difficult time. It was right after my first husband died in 2003. The reason I came to faith was the deeds that I saw Marina and other Christians in the church doing. I, who had never experienced any great love from anyone else in my life, encountered this overwhelming love through their lives and actions. It spoke to me and God touched me. At the same time, they told me about Jesus, and all this made me become a Christian 11 years ago.
Image right: The four lovely children of the Ushakova family. The children now come to the church regularly for the children's and teenage meetings. They are very happy about that.
I love going to church now, praying, singing praises and hearing God's word, and I've also been on an Alpha course.
Criticized for his new faith
My husband was not very excited that I had become a Christian, but over time God has also worked in him so that he no longer scolds me and gets angry. My neighbors have also become more positive towards me, but in the first years they were very critical and said I was in a cult, but they don't say that anymore.
Christina has learned to forgive
I have learned a lot in the years I have known God. One of the most important things is that I have learned to forgive, yes, that God has helped me forgive people, because there were many who had hurt me, and my parents let me down. But God healed my heart so that I am now a happy woman.
Blessings
Even though our family often struggles, we also experience God's faithfulness and blessing, for example through the "white bags". When my husband was injured in the car accident, the doctors said he would be permanently disabled. He recovered much faster than anyone had dared to hope for. It is also a great joy for me that my children like to come to church. That is also a great blessing. They love singing songs and hearing Bible stories. Elena and Veronika have started reading the Bible themselves now.
May the Lord bless you all. With love, the Ushakova family
You can give bags of hope now to the poor in Kazakhstan:
To provide you with the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. If you consent to these technologies, we may process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this website. If you do not give your consent or withdraw your consent, it may have a negative impact on certain functions and features.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user or for the sole purpose of transmitting a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access used solely for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance by your ISP, or additional records from a third party, information stored or accessed for this purpose alone cannot normally be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is necessary to create user profiles for the purpose of sending advertisements or to track the user within a website or across multiple websites for similar marketing purposes.
