Vodka for Easter

By Andrew Mcchesney, Adventist Mission

Sergei Sokol, chief engineer at a beverage company in northern Kazakhstan, was pleased when a coworker declared during lunch break that people should celebrate Easter with a shot of vodka, painted eggs, and kulich, a traditional Easter bread in the Orthodox Christian faith. Many people in Kazakhstan celebrate Easter with vodka, painted eggs, and kulich.

Image © Pacific Press

“What does the Bible say about Easter?” Sergei asked.

The coworker didn’t know what to say. He had never read the Bible.

Sokol ran to his office and returned with a Bible. With the assistance of a concordance, he and several coworkers unsuccessfully searched for a mention of Easter as a holiday celebrating Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. But they did find numerous references to the Jewish Passover, which in their native Russian language has the same name as Easter: paskha. The only food that the Bible mentioned as being eaten at paskha was roasted lamb or goat with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

“Where is the vodka, painted eggs and kulich?’ a coworker exclaimed.

Sergei smiled. He liked those conversations. They led to Jesus.

Coworkers didn’t speak so openly about the Bible when Sergei first joined the company. He was open about being a Seventh-day Adventist, but his coworkers thought his faith was odd. “That guy is a sectarian,” they whispered.

Sergei did not mind the disdainful remarks and prayed for wisdom to share his hope in Jesus’ soon coming. He wondered how he could share literature. Then he remembered that every coworker had a birthday. He began to congratulate coworkers on their birthdays and to present them with gifts of Ellen White’s books The Great Controversy and Steps to Christ. Coworkers read the books and began asking questions at lunchtime.

When the local Adventist church opened an “urban center of influence” offering free massage therapy on its premises, Sergei invited coworkers to sign up. Three women came, and he gave them a tour of the sanctuary, small hall, and children’s room before the message session. The coworkers praised Adventists after receiving 10 days of massage therapy. “We thought you belonged to a sect,” one told Sergei during lunch break. “But it turns out that this is a church, and a good church.”

Sergei said he doesn’t feel like a missionary for sharing Jesus. “I don’t think that I’m doing anything special,” he said. “This is just what I do.”

Part of a 2017 Thirteenth Sabbath Offering helped open of the first Seventh-day Adventist preschool in Sergei Sokol’s hometown, Pavlodar, Kazakhstan.

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission.
Find more mission stories at adventistmission[dot]org

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