Rivne, Ukraine
The Right Way Points Addicts to Jesus
When visiting a home in Ukraine, it is customary for the hosts to offer their guests an alcoholic beverage. In fact, it is rude or strange not to offer a drink to your guests. It is a custom that is rooted in Ukrainian culture, yet it is a culture that has made alcohol readily available to everyone. Nearly every grocery store and roadside stand has alcohol for sale, and the price is affordable for nearly everyone as well. To buy a .75 liter (750 ml instead?) bottle of wine is only $1.34. A .5 liter bottle of beer is a mere $.50, and a Big Mac at McDonalds is $.75!
Since alcohol is so easy to find and inexpensive, it is not surprising that alcoholism is a problem in Ukraine. But due to the customary use of alcohol, the problems are often ignored in their society. Even the government has fallen behind in its regulation of alcohol use. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are no mandatory driver education or treatment programs for habitual drunk driving offenders who live in Ukraine. The WHO also reports that the information and education available on alcohol from mass media programs, school-based programs, work-based programs and local community programs is “poorly developed.”
Dr. Oleg Kolbach and Pastor Vitaly Korsunsky started an addictions treatment program in 2004 in the town of Rivne, which is nearly 200 miles west of the capital city of Kiev. Dr. Kolbach is a psychiatrist and a narcologist. Pastor Korsunsky has studied at the Evangelical Reformed Seminary. They have modeled their ministry, which is called, “The Right Way” after John 4:6, “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”
The ministry began as a dream for Rev. Korsunsky and his friend, Dr. Kolbach. “We had nothing at that time except our plans and dreams,” Dr. Kolbach says. “But we were sure of one thing: if God likes it, He will bless us and we shall do it!”
When Dr. Kolbach told his colleagues of his decision to help drug addicts and alcoholics, they did not understand his desire to help the lowly in their society. “But I was sure of a special plan for me,” says Dr. Kolbach. “It’s difficult to explain the reason of such confidence. But all my life I knew that nothing happens without God’s will in my life. That is why I decided to do this.”
When Dr. Kolbach was two years old, his mother died. He admits that his childhood was not very happy. “I felt the lack of love and understanding very early,” he says. “In that time, I started to realize how it’s important and necessary to have real care, warm relationships and love from surrounding people.”
In early adulthood, Dr. Kolbach realized that many people also lived without the love and care he longed for. “There were street children, homeless people, people with mental problems, beggars, and of course, addicted people and their families,” he remembers. “This category of people is the most non-protected and scornful in our society. These people and their families lost any hope for a normal and happy life.”
During medical school, God continued shaping Dr. Kolbach’s heart to love the scorned people in Ukrainian society. “I felt that God gave me a good and real possibility to help these people change something in their life,” he says. “I started to pray and ask Him how and what kind of way I can help and serve such people.” After waiting and remaining open to God’s leading, he finally had his answer. “He gave me an answer and showed me the real “Right Way.” It was the Way, which I do now and try to realize through my service for addicted people.”
Dr. Kolbach met Pastor Korsunsky in 2003. “It was a real miracle from above,” Pastor Korsunsky says. He says they met by chance, although both of them now realize it was God leading them together. They soon became friends, and since both had recently completed school, they talked about the future. “We realized that we have the same life philosophy and life values: a strong desire to serve God and people too. So we started to think how we could do it,” Pastor Korsunsky remembers. “The answer came very quickly. We noticed that many of our friends, close people, and simply the people that surrounded us suffer because of different types of addiction – alcohol, drugs, gambling and others. So from that time, our purpose was clear – to try to help people in the Way, which God will bless.”
After recognizing their dream, they also realized they had nothing and did not know where to begin. “But from the beginning, we were convinced absolutely that if this was really God’s will, it could be we’d find the real ‘Right Way.’ Now we see that it’s really so!”
It has now been four years since they started “The Right Way” and a year since they partnered with the Luke Society. The ministry is already well-established and has branched into several divisions of work.
Two of the staff, Irina Mukomolets and Anatoly Lozinsky, work primarily in preventive work among children and young adults. They take their educational program into schools, universities, orphanages and boarding schools. Irina and Anatoly speak with the children about healthy lifestyles and how to avoid use of alcohol, drugs and tobacco. They also speak to the older students about the dangers of HIV/AIDS.
Because they are able to establish an atmosphere of trust and openness, this preventive program has opened doors to talk about Jesus. “It is sometimes difficult and impossible to preach God’s Word in the school,” Irina says. “But we have a possibility to use the Bible among the words we say. Often the children tell us not only of their own problems, but also problems with their friends, parents and family. We pray together and show the solution and tell them about Christ.”
Anatoly and Irina have discovered the most difficult place to teach is in the boarding schools for homeless children. “We work with these children on the preventative points, but sometimes it’s too late to tell about it because very often these children are addicted from ten years old – smoking, drugs and alcohol,” Irina says. She remembers one occasion when a four year-old girl asked her for a glass of wine because she said “she couldn’t live without it.”
But it has been an eye-opening experience to work among the educated children as well. Anatoly and Irina have been shocked at the knowledge the children have about drugs and how to prepare them and use them. “Sometimes we are amazed at how many evil things we have in this world now,” Irina says. “And all this information presses on the children’s thinking – information from mass media, from TV, from the street. It’s pressing on the minds and destroying it! Sometimes we tell the students about how it’s dangerous and the children react with laughter.”
Irina realizes that children don’t understand the danger because they don’t see the side-effects now. “It’s a fact when we tell them the maximum they will live if they use drugs is 30-35 years. But if the young people are 14 or 15, it sounds like they will live to be an old man,” she explains. “They are sure they will never become addicted people.”
Another aspect of “The Right Way” ministry is counseling. Dr. Oleg Kolbach is the staff psychiatrist, and Gennadiy Krahmaluk is on staff as the psychologist. Counseling is available at the clinic six days a week for those addicted to alcohol, drugs and tobacco as well as for their families. They also offer marriage counseling. When Anatoli and Irina visit schools and universities for preventive work, they hand out information on the counseling services. Students are encouraged to give the form to their parents or come into the clinic themselves.
Gennadiy considers it a priority to share his faith with the patients at “The Right Way.” But he is careful to remain professional. “The counseling process is a very closed process. It’s an experience that is heart to heart,” he says. “It’s possible to share my faith. At an official level, I cannot speak about my faith, only in the heart to heart.”
For five evenings each week, the clinic hosts support groups like Alcoholics Anonymous. When the program began four years ago, two people regularly attended. Now they typically have more than 15 participants.
Olga is a recovering alcoholic that is now employed by the ministry to oversee the anonymous groups. “Only those that have survived alcoholism can understand these people,” she says. “I am sharing my past and experiences, and that is powerful.” After going through the 12-step Alcoholics Anonymous program, Olga accepted Jesus as her personal Savior. “He works through me, and he can do his positive work around me,” she says. “He helps me reach out to other alcoholics and understand them.”
Olga was referred to Gennadiy at “The Right Way” by her physician. She had tried several pills and prescriptions to end her addiction, but she continued to return to alcohol. Her physician finally recommended her to Gennadiy as a last resort. Gennadiy introduced Olga to the 12-step program. “When I started to realize that I didn’t have a solution, I recognized that I was helpless. It was the first step,” she remembers. “And for the second step, I needed to understand that there exists something more than me. It’s not a human power. It’s a higher power. And I gave my life to that power, the power of God. And I now live not with using my head, but with my heart.”
One final aspect to the ministry in Rivne is their charity work. Viktor Zaichuk is the staff pastor and also the pastor of a local Reformed church. “One time a month we try to help these families with food or clothes, but mainly we try to attract these people to church,” explains Pastor Korsunsky. “Nobody wants to work with these people.”
It is obvious to those who visit the homeless and addicted with Pastor Viktor that he loves these people. He visits them where they live and organizes Bible lessons and prayer meetings. “This ministry is not an easy one,” Viktor says. “This group of people is the most scornful and problematic part of our society. Most of them have different dangerous diseases, very often HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, dermatological and others. But I’m sure the Lord called me to this service, so I feel a responsibility for these people and try to help them as I can.”
In order to further the impact of their ministry, Dr. Kolbach and Pastor Korsunsky are building an addictions treatment facility (just over) five miles outside of Rivne. The building is located on a scenic and peaceful piece of property that overlooks gently rolling hills. The center will be a three story structure where 15-20 patients will be able to live until their addictions are treated. When the two men talk about the new facility, they acknowledge that it is a dream coming true. “If man tries and God blesses it, it will happen,” Dr. Kolbach remembers thinking. “We dreamed about it, and now we are building it.”
In addition to helping people overcome their addictions, Dr. Kolbach and Pastor Korsunsky are hoping to eventually provide job training for their patients as well. They are working with the local government to cooperate in this training. There is rich farmland surrounding the clinic, and one option is that the patients will work the land and pay for their treatment from the profits earned by raising these crops. Whatever God has in store for this treatment center and its future patients, Dr. Kolbach and Pastor Korsunsky are ready to follow His leading.
Laura Eisenga