How kindness, conversation and cups of tea led a bewildered teenage boy to become one of Kazakhstan’s most influential young Christian leaders. He believes that Alpha is a powerful tool for sharing the Gospel, particularly among young people.
“When I was four my father left us – me, my mum, and my brother, who is 16 years older than me,” says Maxim* as he reflects on the moment his family’s life began to unravel.
“In Kazakhstan we have a huge problem with drugs – being close to Afghanistan it’s kind of a hub for heroine. Unfortunately, my brother started to use drugs and became addicted, and it all went crazy in our family.”
Desperate for some stability and hope, Maxim’s mother started seeking God.
Sent me to a Madrassah
“Of course there were mosques around us because this is a mostly Muslim country, so my mum started going to mosque,” explains Maxim. “When I was 11, she sent me to a Madrassah, and I was there for three years. I started learning Arabic, I read the Qur’an and learned to pray five times a day.”
I started to visit him every Sunday and would go to church with him, but I would also go to mosque every Friday.
During that time, while Maxim was learning about and practising Islam, something happened to completely change his brother’s life.
“He was in a rehabilitation centre and Jesus found him,” Maxim smiles. “So my brother became a Christian but I was a Muslim.
A lot of confusion in my head
“I started to visit him every Sunday and would go to church with him, but I would also go to mosque every Friday. I had a lot of confusion in my head. I started bringing lots of questions to the imam at the mosque. I’d ask him about Jesus – is he a prophet or is he the son of God? Who is he? He had no answers.
“So I started to bring those same questions to the pastor at the church. With a lot of love and attention, he explained everything to me. There he was, taking time to drink tea and talk with a boy of 14. I felt so much love from him.
“Because of that love, I decided to follow Jesus, and everything in my life changed. I had felt so much anger and unforgiveness towards my father but when a friend of his gave me his phone number, I called him. I eventually visited him in Germany, where he had moved. I shared my faith with him and he accepted Jesus in his heart.”
Maxim met his wife at church when he was just 17, and they married two years later. Today, they have four children. At 36, Maxim has become one of the most influential young Christian leaders in Kazakhstan, planting churches there and in neighbouring countries and inspiring young people to share their Christian faith, too.
He believes that Alpha is a powerful tool for sharing the Gospel and is eagerly anticipating the launch of the Russian Alpha Youth Series in Central Asia in 2025, during the annual Sozo youth conference in August, which he helps to organise.
“We feel that this is God moving,” he smiles. “In the 1990s there was a big Christian revival – stadiums and everything – and now it’s happening again.”
*Name changed to protect identity..
