October, 2003

“What is man, that you have made him great, and that your attention is fixed on him, and that your hand is on him every morning, and that you are testing him every minute?”

What is man? Does he have right to reproach God or blame Him? Or challenge Him? Who said God owes us anything? He has always enough wisdom to even use our mistakes to teach us something, to reveal Himself.

Tolik Korzhov came to “International Partnerships” in 1998 and began ministry in Kherson. Now he and his wife went to Odessa to start our groups there and plant the church when it is God’s will. Listen to his story.

I was born in 1969 and grew up in a family that believed deeply in atheism, Communism and patriotism. During the early part of my life I followed the same beliefs. Since my childhood my parents taught me to love the country, Communist party and Lenin. The meaning of life was to leave some memory in people’s hearts.

When I grew up I understood that being in the party gives some advantages and will probably be the way of making career. There was no Communist party any more and I became a member of National Party of Ukraine. In 1995 I was elected to be the Head of regional organization NPU and in 1997 I became a chief of electoral headquarters. At that very time my wife started to attend Bible study groups that two young men from International Partnerships led. I didn’t understand her desire to go there and believed it was a waste of time. Once when Angela was reading the Bible at home I said: “There’s no God. Why are you doing that? If you’re there, God, answer me” and spit up. I waited a bit and then said: “You see, there’s no God or He would have answered something”. That was the beginning.

In 1997 I was diagnosed with cancer and doctor said it was very serious and people die in two months with this kind of cancer. That was the answer! I didn’t die but after some treatment came home and was in a deep depression. I began to ask questions about life: what is the meaning of my life, what is the point of life if we all soon die? I found answers to those questions through the study of the Bible – the Book that I had considered a book of fairy tales and legends. Soon I discovered that I was wrong and that the Bible was the Book of Truth. As I realized my own sinfulness and how much I needed Christ, I gave my heart and life to Him. It was when my wife with Andrei and Slavic from IP were getting ready for the Bible study looking for some verses in the Bible. I helped them in that. Angela asked brothers about receiving Christ and they told us. Then they asked if we wanted to give our lives to Jesus at that very time and we prayed sinner’s prayer together.

God spared me from cancer and a few months later I told God, “I want to commit my life to you for you are the One who gave it to me. I want to serve you!” The very next day International Partnerships staff asked me if I would lead a Bible discussion group as a volunteer. This was an answer to prayer and God was leading me into ministry. One year later in August of 1998 I joined IP as a staff member.