Eugene Kruzhkov

Karaganda, Kazakhstan

My name is Evgeniy Kruzhkov. I’m 33. I’m married and have three children. My wife’s name is Saule. My eldest daughter is twelve – her name is Adel. My son’s name is Slava – he is six. And my youngest daughter is four – her name is Vera.

I am a pastor of the Christian Presbyterian Church “Joy”, which is located in Karaganda – a city in the central part of Kazakhstan.

I was born in Karaganda, in Kazakh Soviet So-cialist Republic, in Soviet Union. My father was an electrician. My mother was an engineer.
Although in state schools I was taught the the-ory of evolution and that the main idea of society was atheistic communism when I was a few months old I was baptized in The Russian Orthodox Church in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

However, my parents and all my relatives were unbelievers and they raised me as an atheist my whole childhood. My parents didn’t teach me to pray, to read Bible or to visit a church.

Instead we were taught that God doesn’t exist. When Yuri Gagarin flew into space on April 12 1961, he said: “I don’t see God anywhere.” Later, on April 12 I was initiated into “young pioneers.” From the first days all pioneers learnt that the communism is the only true ideology, that religion is evil, and that all people must accept the communistic regime. We were taught in state school that we must believe and serve ideas of Lenin and that people come from mon-keys.

So all my childhood I grew up as an unbeliever.

I was a good student in school, and I graduated from a technical university, where I received a high quality secular education.

I always laughed at those who went to church. A few times I met believers, and they preached to me about Christ, but I didn’t listen to them. I thought that my life was only in my hands, and I didn’t want to God interfere with my life. I just wanted to live as I pleased.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union I contin-ued to believe that the theory of evolution was true. Even before I came to Christ in the year 2000 I truly believed in evolution and materialism.

When I met my wife she suggested to go to the church where she went. For a long time I didn’t want to go but I finally decided to go once because I was very curious where my wife went each Sunday. In August of the year 2000 I went to church for the first time. This was a Presbyterian Church, which was started by a missionary from Korea. I stayed from the beginning to the end of the Sunday service and lis-tened to the sermon but decided that I would not go to this church anymore.

But the next Saturday my wife invited me to go to a rehearsal of the church choir and the worship band. I liked music and so I agreed to go to the re-hearsal. There were many young people there and they welcomed me very warmly and were very re-spectful to me. Their behavior really surprised me and I liked it. So the next Sunday I visited the wor-ship service again. Then they invited me to join the church’s music group. I agreed and I played the key-board synthesizer in the band.

The more time I spent with those Christians, and lis-tening to the Sunday sermons, the more I learned about God. My wife prayed for me a lot, of course. Through fellowship with others believers I under-stood who Christ was and what He did for me and how I could have salvation from my sins and from God’s wrath.

Also the family of the church pastor paid a lot of attention to me and my wife, and I liked visiting with them. In a few months I turned to Christ and truly repented of my sins. After this I became serious about God, about ministry in the church, and my prayer life. I was in the ministry of music and I sang in the church choir.

In next spring the pastor invited me to go to a group Bible study. It was very nice time gaining knowledge of the doctrines of God’s Word. Every week when I visited the lessons, I read and studied the Bible myself. Also weekly I went to a service of home church. Also I spent very much time in personal communication with others Christians and I read Christian literature very much.

Week by week I felt my faith became stronger and grow up. In April before the church I confirmed my infant baptism and became a member of Joy Presbyterian Church.

My first ministry in the church was musical ministry. Then I served as a leader of the youth group. Then I became a deacon of the church. Five years later, I realized that God called me to serve Him full-time. I quit my job as a military teacher and I became a preacher at Joy Presbyterian Church.

Since October 2008 I have been a senior pastor of the church. In March 2011 I graduated from the Biblical Theological Seminary of Saint-Petersburg and received a degree of the Masters of Biblical Studies. Cur-rently I am a dean of students in this seminary.

Since October 2008 I have been a senior pastor of the church. In March 2011 I graduated from the Biblical Theological Seminary of Saint-Petersburg and received a degree of the Masters of Biblical Studies. Currently I am a dean of students in this seminary.

The seminary has been of primary importance in my life and has formed me as a believer, a minister of the church and a leader of the family. I acquired a solid Biblical foundation on the issues of the Reformed faith, the Biblical theology, liturgy, paedo-baptism and paedo-communion, the history of the Church, how to establish Bib-lical relations with your wife, how to raise your children and lead your church, etc. Personal fellowship with teachers of the seminary and other students helped me to develop my Christian character and those qualities which are necessary for the minister of the church.
In June this year I was ordained for pastoral ministry in the Joy Church.

At the present moment there are eighty members in our church. Men total about fifteen percent and the rest are mostly elderly women. We have about twenty children. The church owns a property in the center of the city – a separate building. Apart from the Sunday worship service there are other ministries in the church, like children ministry, teenagers’ ministry and women ministry.

It has been my sincere desire to join the CREC for the last two year. I’m very inspired by the way CREC’s ministers devote their lives and families to Christ and lead their churches.