Russian “Criminals” Confess Their Past and Look to the Future

Two self-confessed Russian “criminals” share their life-changing testimony in a new 49-minute film “The Heart and Soul of Russia” recently released by Harvest Fields Commissioning International.

Vitalic started his criminal career as a teenager fuelled by alcohol. His tastes and unsavoury career deepened and soon drugs were a part of his life along with new found friends that urged him on. The young man’s final descent was into forgery - a far cry from his earlier start with breaking and entering.

Sergei ran afoul, not of the law at first, but of some Russian gangsters. Drugs and alcohol abuse also helped to lead the youth on a path to destruction. After being beaten up and left for dead a mysterious stranger carried him to his parents’ apartment, thus saving his life in the sub-freezing temperatures.

The paths of Vitalic and Sergei crossed when the counterfeiter was in a notorious St. Petersburg, Russia prison. It was here that Sergei and friends shared their faith with him there. Today Vitalic serves as an Assistant Pastor of Pastor Sergei Timokhin’s church - Christian City Church - St. Petersburg.

Sergei, after his conversion, or new birth as he describes it, wrote a Christian musical with a friend (pre-perestroika). “The Trumpet Call” ended up on the BBC and Voice of America radio networks. For this Sergei was imprisoned for two years in a KGB prison which only ended through the intervention of Margaret Thatcher and Mikhail Gorbachev.

These dramatic stories are featured in a newly released documentary “The Heart and Soul of Russia”. The 49 minutes film has been produced by Harvest Fields Commissioning International and OLI Productions.

Harvest Fields Commissioning International is a U.K. Registered Charity with the purpose of assisting in raising up and encouraging leaders in 37 countries and on all 5 continents for work in churches, charities and other humanitarian assistance groups. Its websites are at: http://www.agapelive.net and http://www.hfci.net.

For further information or high-res photos please contact the
Press Department at
info@agapelive.net info@hfci.net