Infinitely More

by Krutov, Alex; Davis, Jackie

  Chapter 20

  In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

  —Acts 20:35

  The next three months in America were a whirlwind of different cities, airports, host families, new friends, and reacquainting myself with old friends. I was on an airplane every week. I met people in their homes and in their churches. The fellowship was sweet, the warm welcomes were encouraging, and the sense of belonging and purpose were exhilarating.

  I didn’t know it at the time, but I was stepping into my calling and feeling a peace I had never experienced. More than just sharing my passion for the new ministry and seeking support, I was opening up and sharing my own life story with total strangers and feeling empowered and blessed in the process.

  The support I received was not always monetary. Through connections I made on the trip I met a man named Adam at a large Russian Evangelical church in Atlanta. He said, “I don’t have any money to give you, but I can design and maintain a website for the ministry.” He created a wonderful site for us, free of charge, a real blessing. Still more people offered to pray for us on a regular basis. I felt those prayers as I travelled around the country.

  Initially, I assumed that “the bigger the better,” when it came to speaking to churches. I figured the more people I could see and speak to at one time, the better the chances of gaining supporters. Yet, the Lord showed me early on in that trip that the possibility of personal connections and commitments was much stronger in smaller groups. When I spoke at large churches my allocated time and my ability to connect with individuals were very limited. The most I could hope for in those situations was a “love offering.” While I was appreciative of every dollar given, the Lord taught me that what I was really to be seeking in America were partners, people who would support us with both their prayers and their financial generosity. In fact, many of the original donors from that trip in 2001 continue to support our ministry today.

  One large congregation I spoke to was a Russian Slavic church in Atlanta, with about twenty-five hundred members. Though by that time I had learned that bigger was not always better, I still welcomed the opportunity to connect with my fellow countrymen in America. Of course I knew that most Russians don’t want to hear your troubles and that, in general, they are a very unsympathetic group. In fact, that’s ultimately the reason why I was traveling the States fundraising, rather than Russia. So, I approached the opportunity with very low expectations. You could say that I had more curiosity than conviction about this particular engagement.

  I was amazed by the responsiveness of the people.

  Many approached me after the service who were caring, supportive, and generous. It was as though the Lord was showing me that being in the United States had softened these Russians’ hearts. They were able to see beyond their own pain and their pasts. They had been absorbed into the society of very charitable Americans and that exposure had literally changed their Russian culture to one of generosity. I was astounded when the gathering produced a love offering for the ministry of over $5,000.

  Their open hearts were a testimony to me of the power of God to change lives. The whole trip was an affirmation to me that what Melinda Cathey and I were doing was truly God’s ministry and that God would provide.

  Back in Russia, Melinda was continuing to move forward on faith. She knew we needed to find a pastor to help with the spiritual direction of the ministry, and that we would need to find workers. Here, Melinda’s husband Mark proved to be a real blessing to us. The ministry he worked for, Church Resource Ministries, specializes in training and developing Christian leaders. One of the men Mark was mentoring was a Russian pastor named Pavel, a graduate of St. Petersburg Christian University. In exchange for Mark’s continued mentoring, Pavel agreed to serve as the pastor for our work, free of charge.

  Pavel had a lot of connections with the Christian university and he suggested Melinda meet with Ira, Luba, and Katya, all graduates of the school.

  Luba admits that at the time she had no desire or calling to work with “the least of these.” With her multiple degrees (in Theology, Management, and Counseling), she was looking to start a career, not for opportunities to volunteer. Yet, when Luba met Melinda she was very moved by her story. She was touched by Melinda’s passion and vision and stepped out on faith to accept what was then the unpaid position as director of the ministry.

  Katya, likewise, felt led to donate her time as our Christian counselor, and Ira, as our first mentor for the emancipated orphans in the program.

  So, as I was journeying through the heartland of the United States and the Lord was touching the hearts of many Americans, back in St. Petersburg the vision was taking root, and God was bringing together the hearts and hands that would translate our vision into reality.

  If it was up to me, I would have stayed longer in the U.S. But my visa was set to expire on September 15. As with every other opportunity that had brought me to the States, the days for this trip were numbered. I was set to fly from Atlanta to Chicago, from where I would fly on to Russia.

  My flight to Chicago was scheduled for Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001.

  It gave me a sense of solidarity with my dear American friends to be in my adopted country, in an airport of all places, about to board a flight, on the morning of that fateful day.

  Of course all air traffic was halted when the terrorist attacks happened that morning. Not knowing how long the airports would remain closed, I immediately called the immigration services to ask what I should do; my visa would run out in only four days. They had no answer for me, nor any interest in my affection for America or my American friends, and simply stated, “You are required by law to leave the country.”

  In a real answer to prayer, the airports resumed flights on September 14. I was able to catch a flight to Russia just before midnight—literally minutes before my legal status in America would have expired.

  The flight back to Russia was an emotional time for me. Being in the States on 9/11 in many ways made me feel even more tied to America. I was as shocked and pained by the events of that day as Americans were. I was also sad to be leaving America again. On the flight home I reflected on the places I had been and the people I had met. I didn’t know if I would ever see any of them again.

  I also had no way of knowing if my trip had been successful in meeting the objectives of raising money to start our ministry. I felt that I had successfully delivered the message and I knew that people were touched. But I also knew there were many worthy ministries out there. “Project Life II,” as we were calling our venture, was just one more, and a small, unknown, untested one at that.

  As I was praying about all of this and reflecting on it, unbeknownst to me, the money was beginning to come in. It seems that, while Melinda, Luba, and Katya were transplanting the vision into reality back home, and I was sowing seeds in America, the Lord was watering. I had no idea how much money in total I had raised, nor did I have any idea whether the ministry would really come together or not.

  When I landed in St. Pete, I found the ministry already in operation. On September 3 the doors had been officially opened to the four girls. Fully staffed with volunteers, it was a real step of faith for all, with no income or money in the bank.

  That was not the only surprise I received when I got back. Soon, we heard from the Voice of the Children ministry, the organization under which, through their Project Life outreach, we were raising funds. “You need to find someone else to handle your donations,” they said. “We just can’t handle it.” It seems that the pledges from the American trip were flowing in, and had overwhelmed their ability to process them. All told, the trip had generated $126,000 in donations.

  God was doing something miraculous indeed.

  Chapter 21

  Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully
to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

  —1 Corinthians 15:58

  While I may have been back “home” in Russia, I was still without a home, so my first order of business was to find a place to stay. Once again, the Lord provided.

  Christian and Sarah were the American missionaries whom I met back in 1999 and helped to adopt their sons, Dennis and Dima. Since that time, they were back and forth between the States and Russia with their ministry work and they maintained an apartment in Russia. As it turned out, as I was returning to St. Petersburg, they were leaving to go back to America. I moved into their apartment and split the rent with them, a situation which helped both of us.

  The next twelve months were all about the development of the ministry. It was the closest thing to a full-time job I had ever had. Though no longer in America, I spent a good deal of my time staying in touch with all of our donors and updating them on the progress of the ministry.

  Our next priority was to replace Voice of the Children as our non-profit administrator. We landed on the organization Mark Cathey worked for, Church Resource Ministries (CRM). Saying goodbye to VOTC was difficult, especially for Melinda. She could see their heart for children and she was blessed by their ministry, thoroughly enjoying our brief partnership. VOTC worked with younger children and it was Melinda’s hope to offer “both sides of the coin,” with our focus on the older, emancipated orphans. But not only could that small ministry not handle our administrative needs, the differences in focus of the two ministries became more and more apparent.

  Finally, it was a Russian lawyer who told Melinda, “You can’t do what you want to do with VOTC. There are different laws with younger kids and different rules for their short-term, crisis intervention. You need to focus on your program and your identity and the laws that you need to follow.”

  Much of the year was focused on training Luba to be the director: how to work with the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Social Welfare, the orphanage directors, and how to select orphans for our program. Out of the thousands of orphans who graduate out of the system every year, only about ten percent have any motivation or desire to become productive citizens. Therefore, we needed to be selective in who we took into our fledgling program.

  We realized that we needed to be recognized by the city authorities and get licensed if we were to work with orphanages and get the kids right when they graduated. I set up a meeting with a woman named Dina at the Committee of Education. I knew her from back in my Orphanage 51 days when I used to run papers to her from our orphanage’s director.

  Six years after I last saw her, I walked into Dina’s office with Luba. I was now twenty-four years old and Dina did not recognize me at first. I was a little disappointed at that, but then, as she began to remember me, she was pleased to see that I was doing so well.

  When we shared our vision of our ministry with her, she pointed to a file cabinet overflowing with folders and said, “I’ve got plenty of those programs. I don’t need one more!”

  Yet I knew there was no other private, non-government organization working with orphan graduates. Because it was such a novel concept it was hard for her to grasp the vision. By the end of our conversation she said she wanted to come to see what we were actually doing before she would give her recommendation to the Ministry of Justice, where we would ultimately have to go to get approved and licensed.

  Dina did come to Project Life II, numerous times. She was pleasantly surprised and very positive. Her only concern was that we were so small and could only handle a few orphans. She was concerned that we would only chase “the best of the best” and wondered, “What about all the rest?”

  As we began the process of filing for licensing we moved out of the Project Life building that we had rented from VOTC and found our own apartment. Thus, there was no longer any connection with VOTC or Project Life. If we were going to go through the difficult process of getting licensed we needed to come up with our own name, as “Project Life II” no longer made sense. We now had a new apartment (a miracle in itself) and now, as the next step in our growth as a ministry, we needed a new name.

  Melinda and I started writing down potential names. We narrowed it down to twenty different ones. Melinda liked the name The Harbor. St. Petersburg is a harbor city, and she liked the image of a harbor—a safe place, a place of refuge. My English dictionary told me that “harbor” can mean several things: a place on the coast where vessels may find shelter and protection from rough waters; a place of refuge; or, as a verb, to give a home or shelter to. All of those perfectly matched what we were trying to do.

  But the word and the image were American. Melinda needed to make sure the word would work in Russian. We showed the entire list of possible names, in her language, to Luba. Without knowing our preference, she immediately landed on pristan (“harbor” in Russian) and said, “This is it!” Luba explained that pristan was both a beautiful and a very evocative word. We knew we had found our mark.

  Luba went to the Department of Justice and began the onerous process of filing The Harbor with the government. It took months, but in 2003 we became “official.” After years of heartache and prayers, envisioning and pleading, over the plight of the orphans, the Lord affirmed our efforts to do something.

  For Melinda it was born out of her gift of mercy and her heart of love and compassion, as well as a strong admonition from the Lord. She likened it to childbirth—a painful process, a lot of work and anguish along the way in parenting, but a joy that surpasses it all. For Luba it was passion fulfilled. With her qualifications, she could work any number of other jobs with fewer hours, better pay, and less heartache. But she was called to The Harbor by her passion for this life-changing work. For me it was all of that: love and compassion and passion; a calling from the Lord to do something. More than that, though, it was a purpose. The work of The Harbor brought purpose to my life.

  Chapter 22

  But I trust in you, O Lord;

  I say, “You are my God.”

  —Psalm 31:14

  The Lord was busy molding and shaping me. Sometimes that process was downright painful. I remember going to Melinda one time expressing my concern that some of my American friends were not responding to my letters. I felt that they had cut me off. I was feeling rejected and didn’t understand why. Melinda suggested that I speak to her husband Mark. Apparently, Mark had been waiting for just the right to time to approach me, and I had just handed him the opportunity.

  He directed me to sit down and instructed me to listen, not talk, and to not be defensive. He proceeded to describe my snobby, arrogant, know-it-all attitude that may have worked for me in my survival mode growing up, but did nothing to serve me in my efforts now for the Lord’s work.

  It was very hurtful to hear, but I also realized that it was difficult for Mark to tell me these things I needed to hear. I had to receive it and process it quietly. This was one of my first, but certainly not my last, lessons in humility.

  As 2001 had turned into 2002, Mark and Melinda had begun to be concerned about their own children. They were getting older now, and there were no good missionary school options for high school. The Catheys had been in Russia for ten years at that point and were beginning to feel it might be time to leave Russia and head back to the States. They began to pray about it and pursue career options if they did leave the mission field.

  Around this same time one of our donors agreed, at Melinda’s suggestion, to allow his gift to be used to pay for an American college education for me. I could hardly believe my ears. Was my dream going to come true?

  I think I looked at every college in America, or at least it felt that way. After I had gone to the websites for about a hundred different schools, Melinda suggested that I narrow it down to the Columbus, Ohio, area. Her brother Chuck was active in a large church there and she thought that would help me find a good housing situation. Franklin University, in Columbus, soon became my best option. It off
ered the same tuition regardless of your home residence, so there were no out-of-state (or in my case, out-of-country) fees; the school thus attracted a large number of foreign students. They also offered both a two-year associate’s degree and a four-year bachelor’s degree. I was thrilled when Franklin accepted me as a student in the associate’s degree program, to begin in January 2003.

  Mark was able to find a different position within CRM back in the States, so in June 2002 the Catheys packed their household and headed to Minneapolis. Our work, at this point in time, was not even a year old. Losing Melinda’s guiding hand in St. Petersburg would be tough on everyone. With my plans to leave by the end of that year, both co-founders would be gone. Even though Melinda would continue to be involved long-distance, the staff began to freak out a bit. They all knew the Lord had blessed the ministry, but they seemed to be shaken by the loss of the co-founders. “Where do we go from here?” they wanted to know. None of us were sure, we just knew that all of this was from the Lord.