UKRAINE — When Alexander Sultan first encountered the Bible, he found it impossible to understand. It made a lasting impression on him, though, one that would take him on a journey of faith and bring him to his current job, that of fundraiser at the Southern Region office of the Ukrainian Bible Society.

Mr Sultan grew up in Odessa. As a child, he would often play with friends near his grandmother’s house. One day when he was about 10 years old, he was having lunch with his grandmother, when he spotted a bright green book on a shelf. Out of curiosity he took it down and began to read. It was the New Testament.

Big letters

“The book looked very attractive,” he recalls. “But I couldn’t understand the words inside it at all. I knew it was the New Testament, as it said so in big letters on the front, but I really couldn’t understand how anybody could find anything to read in it.”

This encounter with the Bible planted a seed in Mr Sultan’s mind, though, and during his teenage years he would often think about what he had tried to read.

Bothering me

“These thoughts were still bothering me when I started studying agricultural management at university. At first I led a typical student life, but then I met Anna, who would later become my wife. She was already a Christian: she had come to faith when she was about 19 as a result of a tent-based mission which was operating in the region (see story about Alexander Babiychuk). I saw that there was something different about her. She took me to her church and there I encountered once again the book that had been bothering me for so many years. When the preacher began reading from it, the words really entered into my heart. After that, I started reading the Bible properly.”

Photo: Alexander Sultan, fundraiser for the Southern Region branch of the Ukrainian Bible Society [photo: UBS/Dag Semo WR404/6 UKR06-DJ245]

On leaving university, the couple married and Mr Sultan got a job with an agricultural company. This was a difficult time: the agricultural sector, so important to the country under Communist rule, was now in a bad state and his wages were very low. Before long, with a baby on the way, the couple decided to move to Kherson, 200kms away, where the cost of living was lower. It was here that he encountered the Bible Society for the first time.

Shoe shop

“I needed work, so I got a job in a shoe shop. What I really wanted, though, was a job that would allow me to combine my ministry and my work. We settled into the local Pentecostal church and got to know people. This was how I first met Alexander Babiychuk, Director of the Southern Region branch of the Bible Society. I helped as a volunteer with tasks like loading and unloading boxes from the warehouse. No paid work was available initially, but I kept asking! I continued to work voluntarily and became familiar with the Bible Society’s tasks and aims. Finally, in 2003, I was offered a job.”

Bible Day

Mr Sultan’s work as fundraiser involves many different tasks. A particularly important one is making the preparations for the annual Bible Day celebrations. He manages a database of around 2,000 names to which publicity material is sent in advance and letters of thanks are sent for donations received. Being in contact with people by letter and directly is the most rewarding aspect of his work, he says.

“It’s great to be able to communicate with people in this way. It’s especially good when these communications result in donations!”

In the course of his work, Mr Sultan often comes across people who, although they have very little money themselves, are very keen to support Bible work.

“One lady sent a donation of 3 hryvnhyas (US$0.60). We sent her letters of thanks the following Christmas and Easter. She phoned and said that we were spending more on her than the value of her gift. So next time she sent 10 hryvnhyas (US$2)!

“The Bible Day celebrations in 2004 raised money for Braille Scriptures for children. When they heard about this appeal, two sisters living in a village outside Kherson went round collecting money from door-to-door. Everybody gave something, even non-churchgoers!”

Focal point

Now, at 26, Mr Sultan has two children and the Bible has become a focal point of his family life.

“My daughter, who is four years old, is starting to take an interest in the Children’s Bible. As for me, the Bible is the foundation of my life. My wife and I pray and read the Bible when the children are in bed. I also read the Bible and meditate on it every morning. Sometimes I just open it at random and read whatever I find there, and sometimes I use a concordance. I also have Bible texts on my computer at work.

Jesus heals

“I like the story in the New Testament in which Jesus heals a mad man, sending the evil spirits into a herd of pigs. The people are afraid and send Jesus away. It’s like that today: God performs miracles in people’s lives, but sometimes they still reject him. Still he comes to us, wherever we are and however we live our lives.