Aspiring Basketball Player Travels From Azerbaijan to the Cross

“He’s Armenian,” one student said, pointing to Stepan. “We will kill him!” snarled another.

By Andrew McChesney

Stepan Avakov, born and raised in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, had his life planned out at the age of 13.

He loved basketball and claimed the title of best player in his age group in Azerbaijan.

“You have nothing to worry about,” his coach said. “You will become a professional basketball player.”

One day, a group of students burst into the school classroom during the lesson.

“He’s Armenian,” one said, pointing to Stepan.

“We will kill him!” snarled another.

The students dragged Stepan to a square in front of the school, where an angry crowd of fellow ethnic Azeris waited. As Stepan braced himself for the worst, his captors inexplicably relaxed their grip. An Azeri classmate appeared beside Stepan and pulled him to safety.

Once away from the crowd, the two boys ran to Stepan’s house, where the young rescuer left Stepan with his mother. Stepan never saw the boy again.

Mother refused to allow Stepan to return to school and, a month later, in late 1989, the family fled to Russia to save their lives.

Surprise Guest Teacher

Stepan struggled to adjust to his new life in Volgodonsk, a city of about 175,000 people in southern Russia. He tried to play basketball, but something was broken inside him. He couldn’t understand why lifelong friends had turned against him because of his ethnicity. His heart searched for answers.

One day at school, the history teacher announced that she had invited a guest to speak about biblical history. The guest teacher stood up and spoke about the prophecy of the image in Daniel 2. Stepan listened with deep interest. He had never thought about God, and for the first time in his life he considered the existence of a God who rules over the Earth. He wondered whether God knew his future.

After the class, Stepan approached the guest teacher.

“Can I talk with you?” he asked. “I have many questions.”

“I don’t think I can answer your questions,” the woman replied. “But my husband, who is a pastor, will be at the school in two weeks, and he can answer your questions.”

Two weeks later, pastor Veniamin Tarasyuk taught a history lesson about the future. He proposed four questions that every person should answer: Who am I? Where do I come from? Why am I here? What will happen after me?

The questions shocked Stepan. He had never considered them.

“If a person can answer these four questions, he will have all the answers for life,” the pastor said. “God can answer these questions.”

Stepan spent three hours quizzing the pastor after the class. He went home determined to find God and answers to the four questions.

The search lasted for three years.

Meeting Pastor Again

Then in 1992, a large interdenominational evangelistic rally called Mission Volga took place in Volgodonsk. Stepan enjoyed practicing his English with the foreign organizers, especially two men from Switzerland. The men urged him to give his life to Christ, but he wasn’t interested.

At the final meeting in a big stadium, Stepan saw Pastor Veniamin. He was thrilled to see the pastor, but he didn’t accept an invitation to visit his church.

A short time later, Stepan found a newspaper with a list of all the churches in his city. Looking at it, he felt an irresistible urge to go to church. But which one? He studied the list and recognized the names of two pastors: Pastor Veniamin at the Adventist church and the pastor of a Sunday church. He looked at his schedule and saw that he had basketball practice on Saturday and nothing planned for Sunday. He decided to go to the Adventist church before basketball practice so he could keep Sunday as a day off for himself.

Pastor Veniamin greeted Stepan happily at the door, and the teen listened to the Sabbath School class and sermon. He understood nothing. As he was leaving, the pastor said, “Let me introduce you to our youth.”

The pastor had assembled all the church’s young people on the front pews.

“This is Stepan,” he told them. “Stepan, meet everyone here. If you want to be friends, come back, please.”

The words touched Stepan. They sounded fresh and met a longing in his heart. But he didn’t plan to return.

The next weekend, however, he thought, “Maybe I should go to church again.” He went to church every Sabbath for the next six months.

Traveling With Adventists

Then a health expo organized by Quiet Hour, a supporting Adventist ministry, came to town. Stepan volunteered to help interpret, and he worked with the organizers for a month. When the expo ended, two organizers, brothers Vincent and Kevin Page, invited Stepan to follow the expo to the North Caucasus region. It was summer, and Stepan was free. He asked his mother for advice.

“Why don’t you go?” she said. “You can practice your English.”

Pastor Veniamin also gave his blessing but added, “Remember, if you want to be baptized, come back and I will baptize you.”

Stepan was stunned. “Are you crazy?” he thought. “I’m not going to be baptized.”

But for the next two months, he lived an Adventist life as he visited various towns in the North Caucasus. The Adventist organizers woke up early in the morning, read their Bibles, prayed, and then had morning devotions together. To Stepan, it was an absolutely new world.

One day, Vincent Page asked Stepan whether he would like to go to Lithuania next.

“Do you like me as a translator?” Stepan said.

“Yes,” Vincent replied. “We want you to go with us.”

Stepan agreed to go but said he had left his passport at home. Vincent gave him a $100 bill.

“Go home, get your passport, and come back here in one day,” he said.

The trip led Stepan to Jesus.

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Stepan Avakov explaining why Romans 5:1 is the verse of his life. (Andrew McChesney / Adventist Mission)

An Unforgettable Trip

The next morning, the 17-year-old boy jumped out of the hotel bed promptly at 5 a.m., earlier than he had ever managed to wake up. He wasn’t familiar with the area, and he didn’t know how to find a way out of town. As he left the hotel, he prayed, “God, if You exist, lead me to the bus station.”

Stepan began walking and, to his surprise, found the bus station. A bus was waiting with open doors. Inside, passengers were complaining, “Driver, why are we waiting? Let’s go!”

As soon as Stepan sat down, the doors closed, and the bus left.

Similar miracles occurred throughout the day. When Stepan returned to the hotel with his passport that night, he knelt beside his bed.

“God, now I really know that You exist,” he said. “You have shown that You love me and are drawing me to You. From this moment, You are my Lord, and I want You to live in me and guide my life.”

In the morning, Stepan showed his passport to Vincent at breakfast.

“Here is my passport,” he said. “But something more important happened. Last night, I became a Christian.”

Joy Over Breakfast

Vincent and the other Quiet Hour workers spontaneously clapped with joy.

“Listen, today is Thursday, but we will have a baptism on Sabbath,” Vincent said. “Why don’t we baptize you?”

At that moment, Stepan remembered Pastor Veniamin and his request to return home for baptism.

“I promised Pastor Veniamin that I would be baptized by him,” Stepan said.

Vincent understood. He presented Stepan with a Bible and several books by Adventist Church cofounder Ellen G. White.

A week later, Stepan and Quiet Hour group parted ways. Vincent and the others decided not to take him to Lithuania after all, but Stepan didn’t care. He had found the most important thing in his life. He was baptized by Pastor Veniamin three weeks later, on Sept. 10, 1993.

Six years later, Pastor Veniamin and his wife, Yelena, became Stepan’s in-laws. He married their daughter.

Stepan, now 42, works as a professional interpreter for the United Nations and other agencies. He also is the founder and director of an organization that helps Russian orphans.

His whole conversion story, he said, can be found in Romans 5:1, which reads, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (NKJV).

“I lost peace when I had to flee Baku,” Stepan said. “I was looking for peace all my life until my baptism. This verse interprets my conversion story.”