When I was in Russia in 2003, Dr. Randy Mullins (a local pharmacist), the medical team, and I were traveling out to do a clinic in one of the rural Baptist churches.  We had gotten up early, and were traveling in a small van with a Russian driver and an interpreter.  Dr. Mullins and I were laughing, remembering experiences from our childhood (we are about the same age), and we were just having a joyful time.  We started trying to remember some of the popular songs from the late 1950’s and early 60’s, and we were even trying to sing the tunes pretty badly.

        The Russian driver, a man named Valodian, asked the driver, "Do Americans drink vodka so early in the morning?"  Later I spent some time with Valodian, and learned that in the Soviet era, he had directed a woodworking plant with over one thousand employees.  Valodian had been an important man; now he was a bus driver, and he missed the old days when he had felt important.  We talked about the stress of management, and became friends during the course of the day.  He asked about our happiness, and wondered if I drank vodka.  When I explained that our happiness was not created by drinking, but by "the water of life," he wanted to know more.  I shared with him the fact that through Jesus Christ, we find our lives growing toward real peace and joy, and that we had no desire to cloud that experience with a drug.

        When we finished the medical work, we returned to the church in Bryansk, and invited Valodian to come into the church with us.  At first he declined, saying, "I am just a common man."  We told him that we were all common men, and that Jesus Christ loved ordinary people.  To make a long story short, when we returned to Tennessee after the trip, I received an email from the church telling me that Valodian had become a believer and had accepted Christ.  He said that the thing that got him interested was the fact that the missionaries seemed so happy.  He was amazed that people could be happy without alcohol, and he wanted to know how to have that happiness.