He crawled to the icon with prayer. The true story of a man who overcame drug addiction.

Alexander Ovchinnikov. Topic News. Our project's hero was a drug addict for many years. The thought that this was a dead end never left him, but his addiction proved stronger. One day, when he could no longer walk, he crawled to an icon in prayer. This became his first step toward a new life. Today, he heads a charity center that helps those who have given up hope and are unable to quit ALCOHOL and drugs. We tell his story.
A New Perception of Reality

. People undergoing rehabilitation at the Charity Center in the village of Gorodnaya in the Brest Region are not called patients, clients, or patients. To the staff, they are all students. Our interviewee today, Alexander Ovchinnikov, has been here since 2013, the day the center opened.

"Today, I am the DIRECTOR of a Christian rehabilitation center for alcohol and drug addicts, where I help people just like I once was," he briefly introduces himself.

Before us is a middle-aged man. If you meet him on the street, you wouldn't even think that he has years of drug addiction behind him. Perhaps his voice is hoarse. But Alexander doesn't smoke. He has gotten rid of all his bad habits.

"I'm a happy person," the interlocutor admits. "Everything else comes with it: a new perception of reality, freedom." People who usealcohol and drugs try to distortreality , but we return them to it through faith in God.

Currently, there are six students in the center. To get here, just call the contact numbers.
- There is no special advertising, mostly word of mouth works. When a person calls, we conduct an interview over the phone, invite them to come and see: do they need it or not? But in any case, we try to help all drug and alcohol addicts, - says Alexander Ovchinnikov. - Our mission is Christian, based on the values ​​​​embodied in the Bible. With their help, we help people.

The person makes the decision themselves

. - I am not a DOCTOR, and we do not provide medical services, - emphasizes Alexander Ovchinnikov. - We are a Christian rehabilitation center. In my opinion, alcohol and drug addiction are treated psychologically when the biblical principle penetrates the heart of a person and Christ "says" to him: "This is not an illness , it is a sin. Go and sin no more." Naturally, we "turn on" the student's willpower - without him, no one can help him. A person must decide for themselves whether they want to complete a program at a rehabilitation center where even smoking is prohibited. If they're ready, we're here to help.

The center offers Bible studies and occupational therapy. One of the main incentives is personal example, when someone who has previously undergone rehabilitation explains to today's student how to overcome various situations, drawing on their own failures and successes.
"Strength is in God," explains Alexander Ovchinnikov. "With faith, we can move forward. If faith weakens, the likelihood of changing life's circumstances increases exponentially, if not completely."

He acknowledges that not everyone can be helped. Some spend between a month and six months at the center and then decide they can handle the rest on their own and discontinue the program. But on average, 75% of students who complete the full rehabilitation program successfully integrate into society, start families, and lead normal lives.

Alexander shares an example of a story with a happy ending. Several years ago, a girl called him in tears: "My brother is lying in my house right now. He's 25 years old. He has terminal cirrhosis of the liver. He's dying." Alexander says he initially refused because the center doesn't take people when they're dying. But the girl insisted.

"I felt her pain and gathered about 10 students who were undergoing rehabilitation at the time. I asked them if they could take on the responsibility and help. Everyone agreed. People couldn't abandon someone like them. And the guy was brought to us. Four months later, the doctors changed the diagnosis and said he was practically completely healthy. Today, if you see this man, you won't believe he was with us. A healthy, smiling young man with his whole life ahead of him.

Bad company,bad influence

Our interviewee says that, like many addicts, he fell under bad influence as a child. He grew up in a good family; his parents held high positions and worked honestly, but it was the early 1990s. Crime was rampant.

"At around 10, I fell in with a bad crowd," he recalls. "Cigarettes followed, then alcohol, and at 13, I tried drugs. At first, it seemed like fun, but then it became addictive."
Alexander admits he never blamed his parents for oversight or for missing something. They always strove to give their son only the best. Perhaps they were too lenient in his teenage years.

"At my birthday party, when I turned 18, my father stood up and said, 'You're becoming an adult, and we see the path you've chosen. It's the wrong path, but we can't stop you from following it. From this day forward, you will be responsible for your own actions.'" His parents were right. By their example, by their entire lives, they showed me how to live. But I didn't listen to them back then," admits Alexander Ovchinnikov.

The criminal record began to pile up. Life on the outside was accompanied by alcohol and drugs. The young man lived in this environment from the age of 17 to 30. One day, in a temporary detention center, an experienced inmate told him, "You have the opportunity to quit crime and start living well. But there's one problem—you don't have the desire. Know one thing: once you have it, you won't have the opportunity." "

I thought of these words often, looking at the religious people I met in my life, talking about God's grace granting freedom, about rehabilitation centers. The thoughts were spinning in my HEAD," he recalls.

About a month before Alexander turned 31, he began to feel very ill: he was going through withdrawal, and neither alcohol nor drugs were helping. Then his gaze fell upon an Orthodox icon given to him by his grandmother. He crawled on his knees to the icon—he couldn't walk—and began to pray to God: "If you exist, give me a way out. I'm 30 years old, and I have nothing behind me."

"I wanted to leave the world for a monastery, but I didn't know where to look," Alexander says. "I turned to my brother's wife, who, unlike me, had the internet. She gave me a list of phone numbers, and I called the center located in the village of Boroviki in the Svetlogorsk district. I was invited for an interview. I arrived there in July 2012. I saw the daily life, saw some friends, and decided to stay.

Behind every man is a woman.

During the final stage of his rehabilitation, Alexander Ovchinnikov met his future wife. The center was preparing to celebrate the opening of a branch of the "Return" mission in the village of Gorodnaya—construction workers and clergy were invited. They needed to prepare food for 150 people. Alexander, who was working in the kitchen at the time, was sent three girls from Baranovichi to help. One of them took charge of the cooking:

"When I was showing Irina the dishes in the kitchen, one of the staff said to her, 'Look at these guys we have. This is Sasha, he's finishing his rehabilitation program soon.' It was love at first sight. After she left, I got her phone number from a friend and called her.

Alexander recalls courting his future wife for a whole year. He prayed and fasted. During one phone conversation, she said bluntly, 'If you're counting on anything, don't even count on it. We can only be friends.' But then fate intervened. They enrolled in a Christian school together and began dating. By this time, our interlocutor was involved in ceramics and gave his future wife various pottery pieces. And when she returned home, she would show the gifts to her older sister: 'Look at this guy. He keeps giving me all the pots.' " "
That's how the first year passed, and by the second, Irina and I were praying together for her parents to bless us," Alexander recalls. "They needed time to accept our relationship. Some older guy with a past moved from Bobruisk to the village, where he's doing who knows what at a rehabilitation center. No home, no apartment, no future prospects. We waited a year until Irina's parents were convinced we were serious. After that, they gave us their blessing, and we still have a very good relationship with them.

" "My family gave me the feeling of being needed, and also a sense of security," he admits. "A person should have a place where they can come with any problem and where they'll be understood, comforted, supported, and not let their spirits drop. For me, that place is family."

Alexander says he tells his children about his youth if they ask, but without details. And he doesn't answer some questions at all:

"There are people who hide their past from their children, and when the younger generation accidentally learns about it, it leads to negative consequences." I don't hide the fact that I've had problems with drugs and alcohol in my life, but it's important to me that my children see the real me, that they understand that with God's help, I can now be a good citizen of Belarus. I encourage my children to do the same.

Alexander tells a true story about two priests, one of whom came to visit the other. The host had more than 10 children. He had managed to marry many of them. And this large family had no problems; all the children supported their father in his ministry, they had good jobs and prosperous families. The visiting priest asked the host, "How did you achieve this?" He took him to a gazebo with four depressions in the ground and said that these were where his family's well-being lay. "What are these?" the guest asked. And the host replied, "These are the marks of my knees and my wife's. We constantly pray for our children."

The desire to do good

Alexander's wife, Irina, explains why she kept her future husband at arm's length for a year:

"He wasn't my type. So I didn't respond to his attentions. Yes, I helped prepare the holiday table , did my work, and left... But during our time with Alexander, I realized he had a great desire to be useful to people, to do good. Later, during one of our phone conversations, I felt that no one but me could help him realize his good qualities. As a believer, I said to myself, 'God, if you've chosen me to help Alexander, I'm ready.'" She admits that her future husband's past didn't faze her. But when she was getting married, her mother asked her to tell her a little about her chosen one:
"She found out Sasha was finishing a rehabilitation program and immediately burst into tears: 'No, my dear! I didn't raise you for this.'" Friends were very surprised and asked if I knew what I was doing. But when I made the final decision to get married and move to the countryside, away from the big city, I didn't regret it for a minute. I understood: wherever my husband ends up, wherever he helps people and does good, I need to be there.

This September, the couple celebrated their tenth wedding anniversary.
"Over the years, Sasha has learned to do a lot he couldn't do before, even drive," says Irina. "When we visited his parents a year after the wedding and he was driving, my husband's mother hugged me and said, 'Irina, what have you done to my son? He was never like this.'"

Japanese Technique with a Belarusian Interpretation

The course at the center, led by Alexander Ovchinnikov, lasts a year. Upon completion, you receive a special diploma for completing the rehabilitation program and a book with recommendations on how to live in society.

"When I was in the final stages of rehabilitation, I came to the village of Gorodnaya," says Alexander. "This place has been famous for its potters since the 15th century. And I needed something to do. The center's management suggested I try making pots. His first attempts resulted in him getting covered in clay. The thought occurred to him, "Why did I get involved in all this?"

But there were no other entertainment options in the village. A year later, Alexander was enrolled in the 4th International Pottery Plein Air. Masters from various countries, some world-class, gathered there.

"During the event, I made the final decision to pursue pottery," he says. "They gave me a diploma, even though I was embarrassed to accept it. Then I realized I'd received it in advance and would definitely earn it.
And so it turned out. By 2018, this activity had transformed from a hobby into a full-fledged source of income for the whole family. In 2018, the Ovchinnikovs even attended the International Pottery Plein Air, held in Skopin, RUSSIA, where Alexander took second place among 230 participants.

Pottery is still used as occupational therapy at the center. And our interviewee is eager to show off his creations: vases, cezvesCoffee , pancake pans, vases, and, of course, pots. Alexander also displays his signature ceramics with wood elements. It's a Japanese technique, but with a Belarusian twist. It's made using peat bog driftwood, Mir clay, and... MILK .

"It's called milk kilning," where the finished piece is dipped in milk and then fired at 300-350 degrees Celsius. Afterward, the piece acquires a characteristic dark hue and becomes impermeable to moisture. All the pottery we make is functional.

As a result of Alexander's passion, his entire family is now involved in pottery, which is only natural. The most important thing in life is personal example."

Alexey GORBUNOV,
photo by Kirill PASMURTSEV,
7 Dney newspaper.