Hopeless father pushed the baby
carriage day and night!
— Encounter with Street Patrol changed everything!

BY MARINA DOLBINA
Moscow street patrol leader

A cold winter evening at the railway station in Moscow. Again we see that young man with a baby carriage.

We invite him to the patrol car for soup. “What is your name? Why are you so often here at the station?”

Sasha tells his story. Three months ago he and the baby, 1½ year old Cristina, had to give up their rented apartment. His wife had left them to go with someone else. Sasha, taking care of the bay all the day, could not work and he ran out of money.

The two slept on a bench at the railway station - if you could call it sleeping, Sasha had to keep his eye on the child continuously. Cristina cried of hunger, sometimes the father just had to stick the pacifier in her mouth.

The things got worse when the guards forbid them to stay overnight at the station. Sasha had to stay out and keep walking and pushing the baby carriage. The baby was ill, the father confused, there seemed to be no hope.

This is where our paths crossed.
”Why don’t you come to see our shelter home? We can help you and Cristina!”

The warmth, lights and the colorful, cosy atmosphere of the home were at a sharp contrast with the gloomy and cold railway station. Cristina smiled and immediately made friends with our staff. A lovely child!

Our evening devotional was just about to begin. Sasha listened to the songs and the Word and suddenly began to weep. “I want to submit my life to the Lord. Can you pray for me?”

In the morning of that day Sasha couldn’t have imagined that by the end of the day his whole life would turn to a new direction!

Cristina is now in the shelter home. Bathed and dressed in her new clothes she looks pretty as a doll! Sasha has just found a job and is looking for an apartment. Every Sunday he comes to the shelter home and joins us to go to the church. Holding his baby girl on his arms, he listens to Words of Life.

“For the Son of Man has come to seek
and to save that which was lost”, Luk 19:10.